A federal district judge ruled that a Chicago TV station did not have to include the Illinois Green Party candidate in debates on a privately owned public broadcasting station during the 2010 elections.
The judge wrote, “The mere assertions that public broadcasting is heavily regulated and that defendant receives federal funding do not, by themselves, convert an individual broadcast action into that of the government. There are simply no facts alleged to suggest a sufficiently close nexus between the State of Illinois and the decision to exclude plaintiffs from the debates such that could support a conclusion that the decision was the result of coercive power or significant encouragement, either overt or covert, by the State.” -db
From the First Amendment Center, August 26, 2011, by Douglas E. Lee.