RootsAction Feeling 'Left' Out of Democratic Debate

A progressive group is not feeling the love from the upcoming Democratic presidential debate.

Online activists RootsAction.org has launched a petition to get CNN to add a progressive questioner for the Oct. 13 debate.

The group points out that CNN included conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt in its coverage of the second Republican candidate debate and is looking for some progressive equal time.

“Hewitt certainly impacted the tenor of CNN’s Republican debate by declaring that Obama’s ‘knees buckled’ over Syria and that every Republican candidate was ‘more qualified than’ Hillary Clinton, and by pressing Jeb Bush from the right on gun control," argued RootsAction cofounder Jeff Cohen in announcing the petition. "Why isn’t an unabashed progressive being allowed to impact the tenor of the Democratic debate – perhaps a journalist from a respected outlet of the left?"

A CNN spokesperson was not available for comment at press time.

Currently the panelists lined up for the debate are CNN's Anderson Cooper, Don Lemon and CNN en Español’s Juan Carlos Lopez.

John Eggerton

Contributing editor John Eggerton has been an editor and/or writer on media regulation, legislation and policy for over four decades, including covering the FCC, FTC, Congress, the major media trade associations, and the federal courts. In addition to Multichannel News and Broadcasting + Cable, his work has appeared in Radio World, TV Technology, TV Fax, This Week in Consumer Electronics, Variety and the Encyclopedia Britannica.