Ron Paul vs. The Media
The more mainstream media coverage of the Ron Paul campaign I watch, the more offended I am at their treatment of the man as a candidate. The consistent and frequently disturbingly obvious bias against him is offensive to my sensibilities. I do not consider myself to be a Ron Paul supporter (although I certainly agree with him on more issues than almost all of the other Republican presidential hopefuls), and I actually fundamentally disagree with Ron Paul on a number of issues, but the media’s bombastic anti-Paul rhetoric says more about lack of integrity in the media itself than it does about the man; MSNBC has been caught blatantly misquoting the man to make him appear to be a proponent of Jim Crow laws, and ABC anchors openly discuss the invalidity of any primary that Paul hypothetically wins. More or less every media outlet consistently says that Ron Paul has no chance of winning whatsoever, regardless of his standing in the polls. Even the debate questions sometimes seem designed to marginalize Paul’s legitimacy as a candidate, such as the questions that ask him if he would endorse the ultimate GOP nominee under the presumption that it will not be him. In one FOX-moderated debate, the moderator went so far as to give Paul a question on the fact that “some people say” that Paul is unelectable, and basically asked Paul to rebut the claim.
Don’t get me wrong, I am all for the media taking a strong critical look at every presidential candidate. I believe there are a plethora of reasonable avenues by which the media could criticize Paul, relating to his voting record and his frequently contrarian political stances, but the media seems to have forgotten that the high road even exists, let alone that they could take it. Paul is frequently subject to ad hominem attacks and absurdist misattributions of his positions. The media seems to have safely transitioned from ignoring his campaign to slandering it.
I find it frustrating that there are so many issues that give a reasonable basis for criticism of Paul, but the Media will only criticize him for the wrong reasons.
Ron Paul may be a fringe politician representing a wide array of very controversial ideas, a few of them legitimately terrible (like destroying the dept. of education… Really??), but, in my opinion, anybody who looks at a Republican field that includes Bachmann, Perry, and Gingrich and isolates Ron Paul as the unacceptable extremist is, in my opinion, a complete moron and should shut up for the rest of ever.
related: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn5A3VhQI4U&feature=related
