For Immediate Release
Contact:
Peter LaVenia
518-495-8001
Chair2@gpny.org
Howie Hawkins
315-425-1019
Chair@gpny.org
The Green Party of New York State would like to express its deep disappointment in the exclusion of Congressional candidate Ian Murphy from the upcoming May 12 debate in the 26th Congressional District. The decision to exclude Mr. Murphy denies voters in the district the chance to hear a legitimate candidate with a unique platform, and is an act of censorship on the part of a private station which profits from use of the public airwaves. Voters have a first amendment right to hear all ballot-status candidates, and WGRZ is a private station on public airwaves which believes it has a right to exclude candidates from a debate.
WGRZ has admitted it is blatantly excluding a ballot-status candidate from a debate because of a personal disagreement between a station employee, Scott Levin, and Mr. Murphy. The unlikeliness of this happening to Ms. Corwin or Hochul, as Democrats and Republicans, makes it all the more obvious that this is occurring because of Mr. Murphy’s status as a Green Party candidate. Indeed, Jack Davis, an independent candidate, has also called for Mr. Murphy to be invited to the debate. We urge WGRZ to reinstate Ian Murphy into the May 12 debate as both the right and democratic thing to do.
