Ron Paul, despite his second-place showing in the Ames Straw Poll, is not receiving the same amount of news coverage as his GOP rivals, according to a study released Thursday by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism.



Looking at stories that have a primary focus on presidential candidates across prominent publications in Internet, print, broadcast and TV mediums, coverage of Paul has been surpassed by all potential 2012 pols other than Rick Santorum and Herman Cain (some longshot candidates, like Thaddeus McCotter, were not measured). The election newsmakers with more press than Paul include Sarah Palin (undecided on a 2012 run) and Donald Trump (not running...for now).



Paul’s campaign manager said the team was “disappointed” in the lack of media buzz generated by Paul’s Iowa performance. POLITICO’s Roger Simon called the Texas lawmaker “media poison.”



The Pew analysis rounded up hundreds of stories across 52 outlets and found President Barack Obama had 221 stories written about him from the beginning of the year through Aug. 14. Obama was followed by presumptive GOP frontrunner Mitt Romney (120), Newt Gingrich (112) and Michele Bachmann (108). Under Pew’s index, Paul had 27 stories written about him through Ames, less than Rick Perry’s 33 articles, even though the Texas governor announced his candidacy less than a week ago.



Pew also measured the TV buzz of GOP candidates in the two days after the straw poll, finding again that Paul’s buzz was not commensurate with his performance in Iowa. Looking at mentions in the Sunday news shows, morning and evening network news as well as cable news, Paul was mentioned in those broadcasts just 29 times. Compare that to the same analysis of the so-called top-tier GOP candidates: Rick Perry was mentioned 371 times, Bachmann 274 and Romney 183 times.

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