I believe the "media" must define their job description. Are they a news reporting organization, or a news making organization? 

If they are news reporting then the assumption is they would not be "directing news worthy activities" but merely reporting the facts of a news worthy activity.  When any media outlet decides they are the judge of a "viable" candidate, such as the denial of Governor Gary Johnson (in a GOP debate at St. Anselm College Monday), at that point they are usurping the voter's right to choose a candidate.

Any news agency that has the audacity to deem themselves qualified to judge a candidate's worthiness to be presented to the America voter is completely unacceptable.

Our federal election laws have requirements that a candidate must meet and if a candidate has fulfilled the legal and Constitutional requirements the candidate should be given the opportunity to take part in the debate system.  I can think of extreme cases I would approve of denying a candidate a platform for example if the candidate was a Nazi or a supporter of some other organization of equal evil.  

These would be hopefully very rare instances and this certainly is not an issue in this case. I have not as of yet selected a candidate to endorse and neither has most of America and this is exactly why we have debates, primaries and elections. These debates, primaries and elections provide an opportunity for the candidates to provide the information needed for voter's to form an educated opinion. 

I suppose we could simplify things and just let the media select our next candidate and that would make things so much easier without the input of that "pesky" American voter.  Many of those "pesky" American voters have fought and bled to defend their right to have free and open elections, not to mention to defend the First Amendment, you remember the amendment the press always uses to fight for their rights and is often quoted as "Freedom of the Press."

The First Amendment is not just for the medias rights but rather for the rights of all Americans.  I don't recall seeing a news agency branch of the U.S. military and as a former Marine with a son in the Marine Corps fighting in Afghanistan today, I say shame on any news agency putting itself in a position to decide which candidate is worthy for America to hear. Just on the face of this issue it seems un-American.

Jerry DeLemus is the chairman of the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC and organizer of the Rochester 912 Project.