Fox News has claimed to be "fair and balanced", but most people know they are little more than a public relations organ for the Republican Party. They have never been either "fair" or "balanced", and this last weekend they again proved that.
It turns out they do not represent all Republicans, but only those Republicans that hold corporatist views. They showed this when they shut Ron Paul out of the GOP Debate in New Hampshire.
Most of the time when a candidate is not included in a debate, it is because the candidate doesn't have enough money or support to compete with the rest of the field. But that was not true of Ron Paul. He was polling equal to Guiliani and better than Thompson, both of whom are included in the debates. Paul also raised over $20 million in the last quarter -- easily enough to keep him competitive.
No, Paul was not excluded because he's not competitive. He was excluded because he doesn't go along with the Republican establishment corporatist viewpoint, and his own views are starting to get some attention. That scares the hell out of the establishment Republicans. Huckabee scares them in the same way, but after his win in Iowa there was no way they could exclude him.
By excluding him, Fox News and the Republican establishment were hoping to convince voters that Paul is a fringe candidate and not worthy of consideration. I doubt if the move will have the desired result. Paul's supporters are a pretty loyal group, and the exclusion may actually get him some backlash votes from people who think the exclusion was unfair.
In fact, the backlash may have already begun. The state Republican Party withdrew it's support of the debate. Their withdrawal statement said, "The first-in-the-nation New Hampshire primary serves a national purpose by giving all candidates an equal opportunity on a level playing field. Only in New Hampshire do lesser known, lesser funded underdogs have a fighting chance to establish themselves as national figures. Consistent with that tradition, we believe all recognized major candidates should have an equal opportunity to participate in pre-primary debates and forums. The New Hampshire Republican Party believes Congressmen Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter should be included in the Fox forum on Sunday evening....it is with regret, the New Hampshire Republican Party hereby withdraws as a partner in this forum."
Once again, Fox News shows how unfair and unbalanced it really is.
Speaking of Corporatists Versus Populists, have you seen this?!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.crooksandliars.com/2008/01/06/fox-news-sunday-brit-hume-says-republicans-arent-populists/
On one hand, it's heartening to see that more and more people are seeing the bigger picture- that it REALLY is big business that is killing blue collar and middle class Americans' livelihoods.
On the other, it chills my blood to see Fox news and Brit Hume repeating over and over that most Americans are against themselves in favor of corporations.
Ron Paul won the debate on Fox News Channel on January 10th. He always wins the debates so say those who reply to the surveys. He is not my canidate, but fair is fair, and this is one fair man. The truth is the truth, and it's time somebody tell it. You will not get the truth on FOX News. Ron represents the thoughts of the majority of America. The truth usually hurts. Try to find the result of the poll.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame to see how these corporations are strong arming the public. They believe that these efforts will sway the American mind when in reality they only make it evident that organizations such as Fox and Msnbc are purely biased in their motives and unfair. Because of this stance, I purposely refrain from watching their channels for information and purposely choose channels that are more fair to the American public. Is this my fault? Or have these companies done this to theirselves? It's amazing once you actually read what Ron Paul's position is and what the other debators are accusing him of (not factual, and may I add that I am not 100% supporting Paul, but with all this bs, I am researching on my own and starting to see that he has not swayed on his opinions). Either way, America is not ignorant and it's obvious to me that these corporations such as Fox believe that I will base my opinions based off their manipulations. Unfortunately for them I am an educated person that researches prior to formulating ideas. Just like what we learned in schools and our universities. I hope the rest of America researches off the truth and not political spin from their prospective camps. We will only change if we really research on our own and formulate our own opinions, and not based off rediculous, unbalanced and unfair programming that Fox provides.
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