September 4, 2014

We need your help! It’s something you can do right now, just sitting at your computer.

Please take a moment to send a quick email to Tom Hauser and others at KSTP, expressing your disappointment that some folks (including our Libertarian candidates) were omitted from their recent poll, and ask them to include ALL candidates on the ballot in their future polls.

We’d previously encouraged people to contact Mr Hauser after his last poll, and he ignored us … so now it’s time to take the gloves off. Please send your message to him and to BOTH News Directors, and also CC 2 anchors and 3 reporters in your email, which you may pick at random. See below for their emails. Honey attracts more flies than vinegar, so please be courteous, as most of these folks may not know that Mr Hauser has been excluding us, so they’re not necessarily our adversaries. Some may recall their journalistic ideals and remember that their mission is to promote the news, not to restrict it. These folks all chat with each other in the lunchroom and may help put pressure on Mr Hauser internally.

KSTP is a commercial station, so they have an incentive to cater to their customers. If they don’t hear from our supporters, then they will conclude that few people care about Libertarians and their exclusion will certainly continue. Even if you’ve contacted KSTP previously, please send them another brief email reminding them that this matters to you.

A personal message always works best, using your own words. But here are a few arguments you may draw upon to make your case.

A few points you may choose to mention:

  • Whether a candidate won the endorsement of their party, or petitioned by obtaining thousands of signatures, EVERY candidate worked hard to get onto the ballot.
  • ALL candidates who are legitimate choices to voters in November deserve to be included in every KSTP poll. NO ballot candidate should be lumped into some anonymous category of “Other”.
  • It’s not the media’s role to promote their favorite candidates by omitting any others. Journalists who hold true to their ideal of educating the public should report all the choices available, not try to restrict them.
  • Libertarian candidates support freedom on BOTH personal and economic issues, a perspective not being promoted by any other party. The public deserves to hear this view represented in politics.

Thanks for taking a moment to do this! Let’s make it easier for KSTP to include our Libertarian candidates than to deal with the slew of emails from our supporters every time they release a poll.

Here are the contacts at KSTP:


News Directors
Tom Hauser, Chief Political Reporter … thauser@kstp.com
Lindsay Radford, News Director … lradford@kstp.com
Anne Wittenborg, Assistant News Director … awittenborg@hbi.com

Anchors
Bill Lunn, Anchor … blunn@kstp.com
Leah McLean, Anchor … lmclean@kstp.com
Tom Durian, Anchor … tdurian@kstp.com
Jessica Miles, Anchor … jmiles@kstp.com
Chris Egert, Anchor … cegert@kstp.com
Megan Newquist, Anchor … mnewquist@kstp.com
Ellen McNamara, Anchor … emcnamara@kstp.com

Reporters
Joe Augustine, Reporter … jaugustine@kstp.com
Brandi Powell, Reporter … bpowell@kstp.com
Ellen Galles, Reporter … egalles@kstp.com
Kate Renner, Reporter … krenner@kstp.com
Josh Rosenthal, Reporter … jrosenthal@kstp.com
Katherine Johnson, Reporter … kjohnson@kstp.com
Tim Sherno, Reporter … tsherno@kstp.com
Jay Kolls, Reporter … jkolls@kstp.com
Josie Smith, Reporter … jsmith@kstp.com
Beth McDonough, Reporter/Producer … bmcdonough@kstp.com
Steve Tellier, Reporter … stellier@kstp.com
Joe Mazan, Reporter … jmazan@kstp.com

Concerned about the expansion of government control and the erosion of individual liberty? Please consider joining and becoming active with the Libertarian Party of Minnesota. Libertarians support liberty on all issues, all the time. Libertarianism is a philosophical and political movement to promote personal freedom, strong civil liberties, a genuinely free marketplace, and peace.

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