Is Ron Paul getting unfair media treatment?
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On "The Daily Show" Monday night, Jon Stewart assailed the media for essentially ignoring Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul despite his second-place finish (and near victory) in the Iowa straw poll.
"He's the one guy in the field - agree with him or don't agree with him - who doesn't go out of his way to regurgitate talking points or change what he believes to fit the audience in front of, and [the media is] treating him like if this was Celebrity Apprentice, he'd be this guy," Stewart said, as the camera cut to video to actor Gary Busey making strange noises. (See below.)
As anyone who reads the CBSNews.com comments section well knows, this is a view Paul's passionate supporters have been expressing for a long time. Yesterday, I wrote a post that began this way: In the wake of the Iowa straw poll, there are three frontrunners for the Republican presidential nomination: Former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, Texas governor Rick Perry and, to a lesser extent, Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann."
Paul is mentioned in the second-to-last paragraph, where I wrote that he "lost the straw poll by just 152 votes" and added, "Paul's support, though passionate, seems to have a ceiling in the low double digits."
In comments, Paul backers accused me of bias or worse.
"[Y]ou have revealed yourself as an anti-democratic news source for not even mentioning that Ron Paul was in 2nd place here," wrote prisms88. "He beat Perry and he beat Romney. How much were you paid to ignore that. It's not working. The more you ignore him and dish out biased and disgusting "news" the more America is noticing. RON PAUL 2012!"
"How come cbs news never actually reports the news? I never see Ron Paul mentioned, even though he is one of the most liked in the polls," said AllAmericanxcd. "That's why I almost never come here for my news, they don't report facts, they just have an agenda."
Added danielbeatya: "If money from your advertisers doesnt rule who you advertise then explain where your coverage of Ron Paul is? He was very close (under 200) votes of winning the straw poll. All this shows me and others is that if Ron Paul scares you that bad then - he must gonna be real good for America."
Critics of the media coverage of Paul have a point. Because many reporters see the Texas congressman as having little chance of winning the nomination, he is often left out of the discussion - even as an establishment figure like Jon Huntsman, who badly trails Paul in the polls, is included.
Here's how political reporters see it: Paul is the only prominent candidate articulating a strong libertarian position. Though he is fairly well known, his support appears to top out at less than 20 percent. Ultimately, Republicans will likely coalesce around one of the other candidates, whose largely-similar positions represent more mainstream Republicanism. Paul's relatively strong standing in early polls, this argument goes, will fade as the field narrows around one or two more mainstream candidates.
That's almost certainly true. But here's the problem: Most reporters also don't expect Bachmann to win the nomination, either. Bachmann cannot compete with Romney or Perry in terms of fundraising, and she is widely seen as too far to the right to get nominated by a party where most voters' primary concern is finding someone who can beat President Obama. Yet while Paul was shut out of the Sunday news shows after his near-straw poll victory, Bachmann was invited into almost all of them - and is now being treated by the media as one of the three frontrunners for the nomination.
Why? For starters, Bachmann has a better - though still slim - chance to take the nomination. But also, she's simply a better story - controversial, telegenic, and relatively new to the national scene. Paul, meanwhile, is on his third presidential run, and he's saying the same things he's been saying for decades - which is admirable, but not ideal in a media landscape where freshness is what gets attention.
Paul campaign manager Jesse Benton, who described the coverage in the wake of the straw poll as "very disappointing," told CBS News that the national media "have an obligation to present Dr. Paul fairly and robustly to the American people."
"I realize that he has been saying the same things to the inner circle of the journalist elite, that's not new, but it's very, very new to the American people," said Benton. While Paul has high name identification, he continued, "A lot of people still have not heard his message."
There's an irony here: Paul may not be offering up new ideas, but he is the only mainstream candidate articulating significantly different policy positions than his rivals. Paul's opposition to U.S. military intervention abroad has significant support within the GOP, and his live-and-let-live philosophy is the animating idea behind the Tea Party. Don't those ideas deserve to be part of the discussion? The media's focus on Bachmann and dismissal of Paul is a demoralizing illustration of the fact that members of the media - who, it should be noted, often make their coverage decisions based on audience demand - are often more interested in stylistic differences than substantive ones.
All this doesn't change the fact that Ron Paul is very unlikely to be the next president of the United States. Or that the straw poll itself is nearly meaningless - it's an Iowa Republican party fundraiser in which the candidates, Paul included, essentially buy their votes. But if reporters are going to focus so aggressively on Bachmann - and treat her straw poll win as meaningful - then Paul deserves, at the very least, not to be ignored.
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Clearly CBS has decided they do not.
so what about the GA straw poll...cane 26%...Paul 25.7%...Perry 20%...Bachmann 3.3%....
that's news: "RON PAUL ONLY CANDIDATE TO LEAD TWO STRAW POLLS IN A ROW AND IN STATISTICAL DEAD HEATS!!!!
WELL???????????? write it or get a real job...
My personal observation is that the media has begun to stop calling Ron Paul's ideas "crazy", because there is a better understanding of how widely popular they are with the people. However, the media are largely ignoring him now and, instead of bashing his views, just calling him "unelectable". I think the strategy is only effective in reducing the pace at which people come to understand what Ron Paul is really about.
The whole process is rather frustrating to me. I wish the media would just report the facts instead of picking and choosing who to cover and how to cover them. The way Ron Paul is being treated by the media seems very intentional to me and I completely disagree with the idea in this article that "there are more exciting candidates" as a reason for what is going on.
Think about it, Ron Paul has a highly motivated, active and passionate support base. They comment, they vote, they talk to people about their candidate, and most would do just about anything for the guy. My personal thoughts are that there is much to gain for any media outlet that starts giving Paul more attention and is the first to tap into that loyal support base. It is a massive opportunity to gain viewers!!! I mean, Sirius was willing to pay Howard Stern half a billion dollars back in 04' to tap into his support base of a couple million highly dedicated viewers and re-signed him in 2010! Ron Paul has a huge following as evidenced by the millions of dollars his campaign raises through small donations of $20 to $50 and I would bet money they are even more dedicated!
So, please try again. Why is Ron Paul not getting more coverage?
hey reporter where do you get your facts?
looks to me like RON PAUL has nearly 65% of the whole favor to me. this poll had over 40,000 votes and was pulled from fox news.
dont listen to this guy, Ron Paul WILL be our next president and we can finally get back on track :) tell your friends because these nazis wont
Wants banks to make their own currency....imagine, thousands of curriencies in circulation. Absurd.
And that's only the beginning of his weird ideas.....
His supporters know he garners about 6% on average and want to blame the amount of exposure he gets for his perrenial poor showings.
The farther you go out on a limb, the fewer will follow.....
Before the Federal Reserved existed, the nation did have a single currency. It was gold. Today, you'll still see we have multiple currencies in circulation. Each coin has a stamp from who minted it.
You don't know much about monetary history, and you know nothing Paul's positions.
If fighting ignorance is what it needs to get Paul elected, you can see the war will be lost. People are just too ignorant, and the media doesn't help educated people one bit.
Well, back to looking for Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq - that IS the purpose of the war in Iraq isn't it? Funny we're still fighting it, now that Iraq is disarmed..
Because the only way for the ignorant to fight his ideas (which they cannot on rational grounds) is to make up a complete parody of them to fight instead.