Boo! Ron Paul scares Fox News

Perhaps the best evidence yet that Ron Paul has a serious chance to win, place or show in New Hampshire is this: Fox News has decided to exclude Congressman Paul from a GOP candidates forum to be telecast two days before the New Hampshire primary.

The New Hampshire Republican Party has asked Fox News to reconsider that decision, but so far, no word from the flag-waving network.

“Dr. Paul has consistently polled higher in New Hampshire than some of the other candidates who have been invited,” said Paul campaign chairman Kent Snyder.

Ron Paul has been climbing in the polls and his recent fund-raising has surpassed all other GOP candidates, but Fox News stands firmly in favor of keeping U.S. troops in Iraq as part of an endless war on terror and they'd rather talk to candidates who don't call that viewpoint into question.

This was plainly visible back in May, during a GOP presidential debate in South Carolina (described in the America Wants To Know post, "Ron Paul's good question"). Brit Hume and Wendell Goler, who were questioning the candidates, cut off the discussion of whether it was a good idea for the U.S. to be building fourteen permanent bases and a Vatican-sized embassy in Iraq.

Fox would probably defend its decision to exclude Rep. Paul and other candidates by arguing that time is short and voters deserve to hear from the candidates with a real chance of winning.

That would be disingenuous.

New Hampshire has more independent voters than either Republicans or Democrats, and independent voters may choose to vote in either primary. It is entirely possible that polling understates Ron Paul's support substantially by focusing too tightly on voters who are registered Republicans.

But there is a more important reason to include Ron Paul in the candidates forum. More than 3,900 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq, and 2007 was the worst year yet for U.S. casualties there. There is one GOP candidate who believes U.S. troops should be withdrawn promptly from that country, and the exclusion of that viewpoint from the forum amounts to an editorial statement that the idea is not to be taken seriously.

No news organization should be in the business of censoring the information voters receive about critically important issues, especially when the election is imminent and many voters are paying attention for the first time.

The Ron Paul campaign increasingly resembles an underground dissident movement in the Soviet Union -- people gathering in their living rooms, plotting to get their message out despite a state-controlled media that is staffed by government lackeys.

A week ago I would have thought that was a wild exaggeration. I would have defended Brit Hume's journalistic integrity and argued with anyone who said he was anything other than a serious professional deserving of the utmost respect.

Live and learn.


Copyright 2007

Editor's note: You might be interested in the 2005 America Wants To Know post, "Why the Iraq policy isn't working."

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