For Immediate Release, June 22, 2000
Contact: Rachel Coen, (212) 633-6700 x318
Media Advisory:
NADER LEFT OUT OF NEWS WEBSITES
According to recent political polls, the Green Party's Ralph Nader is now the leading third party candidate for president. But you wouldn't know it from looking at the websites of most mainstream news outlets.
In a Gallup poll released June 9, for example, Ralph Nader ranked third among possible presidential candidates, with 6 percent, vs. 2 percent for Buchanan; Nader edged ahead of Buchanan 4 percent to 2 percent in a May 31 Zogby Reuters poll, and led 5 percent to 4 percent in an April 29 Hart/Teeter survey. Buchanan has been included in most lists of candidates available on most major news websites. Information about Nader, however, has been strangely absent.
On the joint New York Times/ABC News site "Political Points," the candidates listed under "Elections" are George W. Bush, Al Gore, Patrick Buchanan and Alan Keyes (who is still contesting the Republican nomination despite Bush having an insurmountable majority of committed delegates). Though the Green Party is listed under "Parties and Persuasions," Nader is absent from the list of possible candidates.
CBSNews.com's "Campaign 2000" site lists only Gore, Bush and Buchanan as candidates in its "Correspondent's Handbook," which is meant to be a "political consumer's guide" for journalists covering the elections. Though Nader is listed in the site's "Candidate Schedules" section, he is excluded from the more substantive "Where They Stand" and "Follow the Dollar" pages, while Buchanan is included.
CNN.com's "White House hopefuls," like MSNBC.com's "Decision 2000" candidate profiles, features Buchanan, Bush, Gore and Keyes-- but not Nader. Time.com only offers profiles of Bush and Gore.
Two news sites that do include Nader in their lists of candidates are WashingtonPost.com and FoxNews.com. (The Fox site also mentions Libertarian candidate Harry Browne.)