Press Release June 20, 2024
Jill Stein for President 2024
Contact: Jason Call, Campaign Manager, 425-691-6631 (m), [email protected]
On Wednesday June 19th the Stein campaign filed a complaint with the Federal Election Commission charging CNN with an illegal corporate contribution to the Biden and Trump campaigns in its planned upcoming debate. Stein also charges CNN and the two campaigns with illegal coordinated communication in the planning of the debate. Stein seeks an injunction against holding the debate without her. The Stein campaign’s complaint follows a similar complaint by the Kennedy campaign.
As the presumptive nominee of the Green Party, Dr. Stein is already set to be on enough state ballots to win over 270 electoral votes and the presidency, and her campaign expects to be on every state ballot by November. “The media’s job is to impartially inform the voters about all the choices on their ballot, but what CNN is doing is a coordinated communication and prohibited corporate contribution to benefit two candidates to the exclusion of all others,” said Dr. Stein. As the complaint points out, “the debate is far from independent, having been actively negotiated by the Biden Committee, the Trump Committee, and representatives of the Democratic and Republican parties for the purpose of ensuring that all independent and third-party candidates are excluded and denied an opportunity for consideration by the voting public.”
An example of this collusion is CNN’s use of a 15% polling requirement for participation, using polls that intentionally marginalize candidates other than Biden and Trump by framing the election as an exclusive two-candidate affair. “The poll cited by CNN as its standard mentions Trump 169 times and Biden 146 times, but mentions Jill Stein, Kennedy, and Cornel West just once, suppressing support for candidates outside the two-party system by design,” said Dr. Stein.
Dr. Stein continued, “CNN and other major media outlets overwhelmingly frame the election as a two-candidate affair, marginalizing other candidates on the ballot, and then use biased polls to justify their own exclusion of these candidates from both coverage and debates. CNN’s sham debate makes a mockery of the media’s responsibility to inform the public, and is particularly outrageous when 63% of US voters believe that the Democratic and Republican parties do such a poor job representing the people that a new major party is needed (Gallup, September 2023).”
“[T]he public will be shown a carefully manicured, manufactured presentation of candidates from the two-party system which itself is actively engaged in removing independent and third-party candidates from state ballots,” states the complaint. “The only means of preventing further violation on June 27, 2024, is to require CNN to include Candidate Stein in the Debate, bar the imposition of subjective criteria such as polling results and establish new rules for the Debate independent of any candidate, committee, political party, or representative interest of the foregoing.”
The full text of Stein's complaint can be seen at https://www.jillstein2024.com/fec_complaint
For requests to interview Dr. Stein, please contact Campaign Manager Jason Call at 425-691-6631 (m) or [email protected]
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