Keyes Barred From Debate

ATLANTA: Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes was taken into custody by Atlanta police and whisked away in a van Sunday after trying to enter a television studio for a debate with three of the other GOP contenders to which he had not been invited. Atlanta television station WSB-TV sponsored the debate among Pat Buchanan, Steve Forbes and Lamar Alexander. Bob Dole, the only other candidate invited to the debate, declined to participate. The Atlanta event marked the second time in a week that candidates Keyes, Bob Dornan and Richard Lugar were not asked to participate in a presidential debate. After being barred from a debate last week in South Carolina, Keyes said he was going on a hunger strike. WSB-TV released a statement maintaining that it invited what it saw as the four leading candidates to give voters "the most substantive debate." TIME's Jack White says the station's decision sets a dangerous precedent. "Where does the press get off deciding who is a minor candidate and who is a major candidate," White says. "They could have just as easily left Alexander out. It's totally arbitrary and foolish. This is why people distrust the media." Keyes told NBC that he is considering legal action against WSB-TV, and suggested in a CBS Radio interview that race played a factor in his treatment.