Victory -- ABC News Drops Andrew Breitbart

ABC News just announced that they've rescinded their invitation for Andrew Breitbart to be part of their election night coverage. The network had already said Breitbart won't be appearing on the air; now they've told him he's not welcome to appear online either.
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ABC News just announced that they've rescinded their invitation for Andrew Breitbart to be any part of their election night coverage. This comes directly after ColorOfChange.org and CREDO Action members signed more than 125,000 petitions and made more than 2000 calls to leadership ABC and their parent company Disney (in just over 2 days).

ABC had already said Breitbart won't be appearing on the air -- now they've told him he's not welcome to appear online either.

This is a huge victory against Breitbart's brand of race-baiting propaganda and lies, and it couldn't have happened without the quick and powerful outcry from thousands of us all across the country.

Here's the press release that ColorOfChange.org and CREDO Action just sent out:

ColorOfChange.org and CREDO Action Declare Victory -- Applaud ABC News' Decision to Drop Andrew Breitbart from Election Night Coverage

SAN FRANCISCO – The following is a statement from James Rucker, executive director of ColorOfChange.org, regarding ABC News' decision to drop Andrew Breitbart from his role in tonight's Election Night coverage.

ColorOfChange.org, together with CREDO Action, led the charge to pressure ABC News to rescind their offer to Breitbart, circulating a petition letter that secured more than 125,000signatures and resulted in over 2,000 phone calls to The Walt Disney Company and the Disney-ABC Television Group, which owns ABC News, over the last two days. ColorOfChange.org presented the signatures and thousands of member comments yesterday, as it began facilitating phone calls to key executives at ABC and Disney.

"We applaud ABC News' decision to rescind their offer to have Andrew Breitbart take part in tonight's Election Night programming. Breitbart, whose entire career is built upon 'reporting' lies and falsehoods disguised as news, should never be given such a prestigious public platform that presents him as a legitimate journalist. By rescinding their offer to Breitbart, ABC News has taken a giant step in helping to wash our collective hands of the fear mongering and race-baiting that have no place in our political discourse."

ColorOfChange.org noted the support on the part several other organizations, and specifically the invaluable assistance provided by the NAACP.

# # #

Dear Mr. Breitbart,

We have spent the past several days trying to make clear to you your limited role as a participant in our digital town hall to be streamed on ABCNews.com and Facebook. The post on your blog last Friday created a widespread impression that you would be analyzing the election on ABC News. We made it as clear as possible as quickly as possible that you had been invited along with numerous others to participate in our digital town hall. Instead of clarifying your role, you posted a blog on Sunday evening in which you continued to claim a bigger role in our coverage. As we are still unable to agree on your role, we feel it best for you not to participate.

Sincerely,

Andrew Morse

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