Media Marginalization

The Republicans held another debate last night in Orlando, Florida.  Sponsored and monitored by Fox News and Google, we here in this office were actually impressed with the format, and with the live polls and questions that were offered online, even while the candidates debated.  Mitt Romney and Rick Perry, the two current "frontrunners", so-called by the Establishment media had a very nice mudslinging match, while the more marginal candidates struggled for air time.

However, the most astonishing thing happened after the debate was over.  Fox News held an online poll, asking viewers who, in their opinion, "won" the debate.  The poll remained online for a few minutes, and as it did so, the numbers racked up for, of all people, Ron Paul.  Yet, before too much longer, Fox News removed the poll from its site, and before the evening was over, issued a separate declaration entitiled, "Experts: Mitt Romney wins debate ... again".

This is not the first time Congressman Paul's presidential campaign has been marginalized.  In fact, if there was a record for a candidate being most marginalized by the media, Ron Paul would be in Guiness, hands down.  In every poll this office has witnessed, asking who won a debate in which Mr. Paul was an option, he has won, sometimes by double digits.  In the Iowa straw poll, he lost out to Michelle Bachmann by a mere percent or two, yet while Bachmann was interviewed on all the networks, nothing was mentioned of Ron Paul.  Nothing.  More attention was given to Rick Santorum for withdrawing from the race. Such neglect of a candidate has been so obvious, Jon Stewart, in a Daily Show spot, asked, "why is everyone still ignoring Ron Paul?"

There is no doubt in this author's mind why Paul receives such disaffection:  as a former Libertarian, and as currently a Republican who still holds to his libertarian principles, he's far removed from being part of the Establishment.  As one who holds unswervingly to the principles of less government, more personal responsibility; who has written a book calling for the end of the Federal Reserve System; who has called and voted repeatedly to end United States militarism abroad, he's not just an outsider, he's an outsider to even the regular "outsiders."

Say and think what you will about Ron Paul, but we write about him today to provide a verbal snapshot of twenty-first century America, where the Establishment, i.e., the ruling political class and the colluding media, squelches the authentic voices of those they claim to protect and defend.  This Establishment is concerned not with voters, and not with the welfare of the populace, but only with their own interests, their own political agenda, their own income.  This Establishment is the very reason why the country is in the shape that it's in.  This Establishment is the reason why everything becomes more expensive, while ever fewer people can afford any of it.  And this Establishment is the reason why those not of the Establishment must resort to instruments such as the increasingly-hated Tea Party just to be heard.