FEC looking into Karger’s complaint against Fox

Gay presidential candidate Fred Karger says he received confirmation today from the Federal Election Commission that it is looking into a complaint he filed against Fox News owner Rupert Murdoch.

Karger charges that he was excluded from an Aug. 11 Republican presidential debate even though he met all of the requirements.

Murdoch must now respond to the charges.

Karger filed an 82-page complaint under the Federal Election Campaign Act of 1971. H claims he met Fox’s “pre-established objective criteria.”

Among the requirements was polling at an average of 1 percent in five national polls.

Karger claims he met that requirement when he received 2 percent in the Harris Interactive national survey released on Aug. 4. In that poll he tied with former Govs. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota and Jon Huntsman of Utah, both of whom were allowed in the debate.

Karger claims that after he met the requirement, Fox changed its criteria to exclude him.

“I qualified for last month’s Fox News Channel Debate fair-and-square, and was fully expecting to be on that stage in Ames,” Karger said. “For some reason, Fox News did not want me debating the other presidential candidates.”

He hopes the FEC acts quickly so that Fox will be forced to allow him to participate in the next Fox debate, scheduled for Sept. 22 in Orlando.

“The FEC has very specific rules dealing with these debates, and Fox certainly appears to have broken them,” Karger said.