Mainstream Ohio Media Ignores Fitrakis Bid For Gov
Despite turning in more than twice the requirement to get on the Ohio ballot, Ohio candidate for governor, Bob Fitrakis, and his Green Part allies, were shunned by the media at the press conference announcing their accomplishment.

Mainstream Ohio Media Ignores Fitrakis Bid For Gov


By JoAnn Schell

/24-7PressRelease/ - COLUMBUS, OH, July 02, 2006 - According to sources close to the Fitrakis for Governor campaign, at an announced 12 PM press conference to reveal that an unprecedented 10,915 ballot signatures had been delivered to the Ohio Secretary of State's office to put Robert Fitrakis and other Green Party Candidates on the November ballot, no members of the media attended. Calls were not returned and excuses were made regarding needed coverage of the visit of President Bush to a 5 PM secret fundraising dinner for Senator Mike DeWine in near-by Powell, Ohio. This action, on the part of the newspapers, TV, and radio media seems to be common whenever third party candidates are involved.

Under Ohio law, 5,000 signatures are required for third party candidates to get on the ballot. The number of signatures delivered to Secretary of State Blackwell's office were more than double the number, a news worthy event.

"Our unprecedented grassroots effort sends a clear signal to both major parties that people are fed up with the bipartisan collusion of the two major parties and their kowtowing to corporate interests," Fitrakis is quoted as saying. "Both parties allow our jobs to be shipped to China and other repressive regimes that torture and deny human rights, while at the same time remaining silent on our own illegitimate Bush regime that practices torture, conducts warrantless searches, and continues to wage immoral and illegal war in Iraq."

Political analyst Hayes Boyd Thurman commented that "this inaction, on the part of the media, is certainly par for the course and if third party candidates expect anything else, then perhaps they are too naive to run."

"What do they expect?" Thurman queried. "There have been plenty of national level candidates who have been ignored and shunted aside. It's not that I have an agreement with such a policy - I don't. But if these candidates, and their managers, can't come up with more creative ways to not only deal with it but to overcome and be victorious in the face of it, then why should voters trust that they will be able to handle any other challenges any better? The American people want action, not rhetoric. Let's see if the Fitrakis campaign does something now to deserve the attention of these skeptical news editors."

The contact for the Fitrakis campaign is Ohio Green Party Media Relations Representative Russ Buckbee at 330-562-4637 or russbuckbee@adelphia.net .

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