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Friends,

In this time of poisonous and divisive politics, we’ve got to support the few clear voices for compassion and justice. Please read and forward the compelling email below from Rainbow Coalition founder Mel King and Boston City Councilor Chuck Turner.  They explain why we must secure Jill Stein’s full participation in this year’s race for Governor.  

There are only four days left for us to ensure that Jill’s campaign gets state matching funds, and gets into all the televised debates.  Please respond with a donation right away by going to http://www.jillstein.org/contribute. Then please send this on to your friends who believe it’s time to chart a new course toward a healthy, just, secure Commonwealth. Thanks so much.

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Continue reading Ensuring our voices for justice for all residents of the Commonwealth are heard in this debate

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What are our positions on the 3 statewide ballot questions that will appear on the November 2 ballot?

At the last meeting of the GRP State Committee, it was decided that these were not “easy” questions, and that we did not have the time to properly research and debate these questions in time to make a contribution to the public debate. Given our limited resources, it would be best that the State Party not play a role this time.

The article below is is from Jason Pramas from the Open Media Group. I invite others to contribute their own ideas. Let Green Mass have an open discussion.

Mike Heichman

Continue reading What are our positions on the 3 statewide ballot questions?

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Let me start with the caveat that I think polling is a distraction from the important issues in any election, as is the obsession with the horse-race as the candidates surge and falter. In this election in particular, I think our very democracy is being called into question as media institutions using the public’s airwaves are deciding for their listeners, viewers, and readers just which candidates are worthy of hearing out. And they’re making some very anti-democratic decisions.

There’s also one polling institution, Rasmussen Reports, which has consistently approached this year’s gubernatorial race with an oddly biased lens. Since credible polling should be objective by definition, Rasmussen’s sweeping of Green-Rainbow Party candidate Jill Stein under the rug is, by all considerations, quite odd. If I was after an accurate read of how Massachusetts voters were likely to vote in November, I would, well, include all ballot-qualified candidates in my phone interviews. Why Scott Rasmussen would exclude and thereby undercut a capable, articulate, and thoughtful Green Party candidate is a question that can only be answered with speculation, or by Rasmussen himself. Some have called him a Republican pollster, but Nate Silver at FiveThirtyEight has ranked him quite favorably in his pollster-induced error ratings (he fares better than Suffolk University, for example), and he is not listed as a Republican pollster.

Continue reading Stein ties Cahill in latest biased Rasmussen poll
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Boston public radio station WBUR entered the debate this week over whether or not ballot-qualified candidate Dr. Jill Stein was worthy for inclusion in the gubernatorial debates.

In Controversy Grows Over Excluding ‘Outsider’ Candidates From Debates, WBUR features this nails-on-chalkboard quote from its own big-d Democratic political analyst, Dan Payne:

Because Jill Stein will get one quarter of the time and camera and she has not a million-to-one chance to become governor. For her to be given a seat at the table is unfair to the voters, who will then have to wade through the clutter of a fourth candidate in the race.

My question to WBUR: care to hire me as your Green-Rainbow Party political analyst? Who the hell appointed him as a guardian and protector of “the voters”?

Continue reading Ralph Nader says Stein “should be in the debates”
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The Boston Media Consortium seems to have a change of heart after people spoke out against their attempt to censor Jill in the debate:

Jill Stein to appear in TV debate after being shut out

By Hillary Chabot, Boston Herald

Monday, September 13, 2010

Green Rainbow gubernatorial candidate Jill Stein will participate in a high-profile TV debate after the Boston Media consortium – facing public outrage – reversed their decision to shut her out.

“I’m delighted, but I don’t for one minute think this is the last time I’ll face this,” said Stein, who was invited to the debate around 2:30 p.m. this afternoon. “We don’t want to rest on our laurels here, we need to make sure the debates are open to all the candidates.”

Continue reading Jill Stein to appear in TV debate after being shut out

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Below is the media consortium letter sent to the Stein campaign on August 10.  It says that they will admit Jill to their debates only if she meets three criteria.

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August 10, 2010

Daryl Sprague

info@jillstein.org

Jill Stein for Governor

           This is an invitation for Dr. Stein to participate in two Massachusetts gubernatorial debates sponsored by a consortium of news media outlets in Boston and shared with broadcast stations in other cities in the state. The sponsoring media outlets include The Boston Globe, WCVB-TV (Channel 5), WHDH-TV (Channel 7), WGBH-TV (Channel 2), New England Cable News (NECN), WBUR, WTTK-FM, WBZ-AM, and Gatehouse Media.

           The first debate will be held at 7 p.m. on Tuesday, September 21. The second debate is scheduled for 7 p.m. on Tuesday, October 26. The venues and formats will be determined in short order.

           This invitation to participate is contingent on your candidate fulfilling all of the following criteria:

1.     The candidate must have an established campaign headquarters with at least three paid staffers and communicates, on a daily basis, with recognized non-partisan media outlets such as television stations and newspapers.

2.     The candidate must have raised at least $100,000 between January 1 and October 1 for the purpose of running for governor. .

3.     The candidate must receive 5 percent in a poll conducted by a media organization or academic institution that is recognized by the Boston Media Consortium.

           I’m sending this to you in your capacity as campaign manager. Could you acknowledge receipt, let me know who will be handling debate matters, and respond to the invitation as soon as possible? I’m reachable at the return email address, or at 617-929-3059.

           Thanks very much.

Brian McGrory

The Boston Globe

Below is the media consortium letter sent to the Stein campaign on August 10.  It says that they will admit Jill to their debates only if she meets three criteria.

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August 10, 2010

Daryl Sprague

info@jillstein.org

Jill Stein for Governor

Stein Campaign Response to Debate Exclusion

Submitted on Sun, 09/12/2010 – 6:45pm

Category:   Campaign News and Information

(In response to Media Consortium Letter.

August 20, 2010

POSITION OF THE STEIN CAMPAIGN ON DEBATE INCLUSION

This is the position of the Jill Stein campaign on debate inclusion:

All candidates that have qualified for the ballot under the election laws of the Commonwealth should be invited to participate in debates that use the public airways.  We also think that fair treatment of all candidates is to be expected from the media corporations that are taking advantage of the privileges our society accords to journalistic enterprises.  Those privileges are based on an assumption that journalists will contribute to the free and open dialogue that is essential to a healthy democracy.  Journalists should refuse to be parties to any attempt to restrict the flow of information that voters need and deserve.

Continue reading Media says that democracy is conditional in raising a lot of $

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Originally posted at Open Media Boston

by Jason Pramas (Staff), Sep-10-10

It’s not usually the practice of this publication to spend much time in our weekly editorials sniping at the flaws of other Boston news media. Perhaps if we start up a media review column at some point, we’ll do some more regular critiques of our big sibling local news outlets, but it hasn’t been a priority for us primarily because Open Media Boston was not founded to be a reactive publication. We like to offer constructive criticism on issues of the day, but in doing so we really like get at discussions of what a better Boston (and better world) might look like, and how regular people might work together to build that better future. Nevertheless, sometimes the mainstream media screws up in a way that’s impossible for us to ignore, and we’ll weigh in on it. This is one of those times. To wit, on Tuesday the first televised gubernatorial debate was held on WBZ Channel 4. To its sponsors’ credit, all 4 candidates – Gov. Deval Patrick (D), Charlie Baker (R), Tim Cahill (I), and Jill Stein (G-R) – participated. And all did a credible job. In my opinion, Patrick and Baker both did very well in the back-and-forth. Cahill and Stein were both more shaky in their delivery – with Stein perhaps more articulate and better prepared on issues. However, to read the debate coverage in the Boston Globe and Boston Herald the next day, you’d think that Cahill and Stein had barely said a word. Cahill got some extra coverage in the Globe later in the week, and has gotten more attention in other media all along. But Stein has been largely rendered mute.

Continue reading Editorial: Jill Stein Deserves More Visibility in Mass. Gubernatorial Debate Coverage
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Originally posted in South End News

by Shirley Kressel, contributing writer

Wednesday Sep 8, 2010

Democracy depends on a fully informed electorate. But our media have decided to be the gatekeepers of information and narrow our political options according to their expectations, as if voting were a horse-race and accurate prediction were the goal instead of expression of public will. This enclosure of the journalistic commons coincides with the increasingly concentrated ownership of the media outlets by powerful corporations with massive financial interests to promote to the government and the public.

No wonder we keep getting the same old, same old from our government; we keep whiplashing between the narrow Republicrat/Demican choices we’re offered, voting NO again and again and hoping this will send the message and get us what we want. It won’t.

Jill Stein, the Green-Rainbow candidate for governor, is the only alternative to the three “old boys” of the ‘same old’ network, incumbent Deval Patrick, Charles Baker, and Tim Cahill. But our media chieftains have decided that three old boys are enough choice for the people of Massachusetts.

Continue reading Media should not edit our democratic process