
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, October 8, 1993                   TAG: 9310080076
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: DWAYNE YANCEY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

CANDIDATE PROTESTS EXCLUSION FROM DEBATE

Thursday's night televised debate was missing one candidate for governor - independent Nancy Spannaus, a follower of jailed political extremist Lyndon LaRouche.

But while Spannaus wasn't in the studio, she was outside - calling news conferences outside television stations in Roanoke and Richmond to protest her exclusion and denounce what she called "the corruption of the press."

Because the debate originated with an NBC station in Richmond, Spannaus singled out the NBC affiliate in Roanoke, WSLS-TV (Channel 10) - even though in Western Virginia the debate was aired on the ABC affiliate, WSLS-TV (Channel 13).

Spannaus, who previously was on the ballot against U.S. Sen. John Warner in 1990, accused both the news media and the Republican and Democratic campaigns of conspiring to impose a news blackout on her candidacy.

"I am calling upon whatever honest journalists exist in the commonwealth of Virginia to boycott this fraudulent debate," Spannaus said. "It is time for the media to end their role as the thought police of America. The Board of Elections certifies candidates, not the media."

Keywords:
FATALITY

by CNB