by WHAS11.com

WHAS11.com

Posted on October 12, 2014 at 8:51 PM

Updated today at 11:13 AM

FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) - A federal judge has denied Libertarian U.S. Senate candidate David Patterson's request to force a public broadcaster to include him in Monday night's debate between Republican Sen. Mitch McConnell and Democratic challenger Alison Lundergan Grimes.

U.S. District Judge Gregory F. Van Tatenhove ruled that Kentucky Educational Television did not exclude David Patterson from its Kentucky Tonight program solely because of his political views. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled public broadcasters can exclude candidates based on their level of support but not because of their political views.

"The First Amendment is not a rule of quantity at any cost," Van Tatenhove wrote. "Voters may actually benefit by a forum or debate that includes only those candidates that have a realistic chance of winning rather than many voices competing for very limited time. What KET cannot do is pick and choose candidates based on their viewpoints. KET has not done so here."

KET executive director Shae Hopkins said the station believes "all journalists have the right to decide for themselves who to interview and what issues to cover." But she added that KET will "forever be committed to presenting a diverse array of viewpoints, fairly and objectively."

Libertarian Party of Kentucky chairman Ken Moellman said he was not happy with the decision but said the state party does not have enough money to appeal the ruling. Patterson, in a news release, criticized KET for requiring candidates raise a minimum of $100,000 to appear in the debate.

"That means you must be rich or have rich friends to even stand a chance," Patterson said. "Kentuckians now have their hard-earned tax dollars being used to deprive them of knowing their options when they walk into the ballot box."

Read more from the original source:

Libertarian's debate request denied; McConnell, Grimes set for KET