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The Wisconsin Broadcasters Association wants to undermine democracy in Wisconsin

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Despite a very large gubernatorial candidate field seeking the Democratic nomination in Wisconsin (including ten candidates who were invited to speak at the Wisconsin Democratic convention a few days ago, eight of which received at least 8% of the vote in the non-binding convention straw poll), the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association (WBA), a trade group representing the right-wing corporate media in Wisconsin, only intends to invite a total of four candidates to a scheduled Democratic gubernatorial debate:
It's important to note that, unless Marquette University does another pre-election opinion poll before the scheduled July 27 debate, the Marquette poll that was released on March 5 would be the poll that determines who would be allowed to participate in the debate, which is expected to be televised on local television stations in at least part of Wisconsin. That poll had Tony Evers, Paul Soglin (who only received a single vote in the state Democratic convention straw poll), Matt Flynn, and Mike McCabe (who isn't a registered member of the Democratic Party of Wisconsin) being the four candidates that would be invited to the debate, provided they met the fundraising criteria set by the WBA. If the March 5 poll is the poll used to determine who gets invited to the WBA debate, the top two candidates in the state Democratic convention straw poll, Kelda Roys (who won the straw poll with a plurality of the vote that consisted of nearly twice as many votes as the second-place candidate in the straw poll) and Mahlon Mitchell, would not be allowed to participate in the debate. This has resulted in a ton of criticism towards the WBA, whose members (i.e., radio and television stations in Wisconsin) benefit heavily from campaign advertising from the Scott Walker Republican machine in Wisconsin.

Scot Ross, who unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination for Wisconsin Secretary of State in 2006 and is now the head of the progressive organization One Wisconsin Now, called for a boycott of the debate:

Several of the Democratic gubernatorial candidates were critical of the debate format to varying degrees, including Roys, Mitchell, McCabe, Flynn, Dana Wachs, and Kathleen Vinehout. I will spare y'all the tweets/statements from the candidates about the WBA's absurd standards for debate entry, because the man that runs the Marquette University poll, Charles Franklin, doesn't approve of the WBA using the Marquette poll to set debate criteria:

Personally, I view the WBA's decision to only invite four candidates out of a field with at least eight, if not even more, candidates who have a reasonable claim to have a path to the Democratic nomination for Governor of Wisconsin as an attempt to undermine democracy in Wisconsin by a right-wing group representing the corporate media that shills for fascist politicians like Donald Trump and Scott Walker on a daily basis because they financially benefit from Republican campaign advertising. That is flatly unacceptable; the corporate media shouldn't decide which candidates they get to hear about.
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