Santorum, polling at less than 1.8%, asked five times as many questions, speaks almost four times as many words during “debate”

Steve Watson

Prisonplanet.com

November 14, 2011





Congressman Ron Paul’s campaign chairman has hit back hard at CBS news following the blatant exclusion of Paul from Saturday’s GOP debate in South Carolina.

The televised portion of the debate, which was solely focused on foreign policy, was an hour long. During that time, Ron Paul was afforded a total of just one and a half minutes of speaking time.

Ron Paul 2012 National Campaign Chairman Jesse Benton released the following statement concerning the debate:

Ron Paul consistently polls among the top three in the key early voting states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He is polling in double digits in most respected polls. Congressman Paul is ranked among the top three in fundraising results. Congressman Paul serves on the House Foreign Relations Committee. Congressman Paul is a veteran. And, Congressman Paul has contrasting views on foreign policy that many Americans find worthy of inquiry and discussion. CBS’s treatment of Congressman Paul is disgraceful, especially given that tonight’s debate centered on foreign policy and national security. Congressman Paul was only allocated 90 seconds of speaking in one televised hour. If we are to have an authentic national conversation on issues such as security and defense, we can and must do better to ensure that all voices are heard.

It was quickly revealed, via a leaked internal CBS email released by Michelle Bachmann, that CBS had a deliberate policy to give less questions and air time to candidates that in their view were not as viable as others.

Jesse Benton responded:

A d v e r t i s e m e n t



“CBS News, in their arrogance, may think they can choose the next president. Fortunately, the people of Iowa, New Hampshire, and across America get to vote and not the media elites.”

Benton’s statement came on the heels of an email from Campaign Manager John Tate, entitled “What a Joke,” in which he stated, “It literally made me sick watching the mainstream media once again silence the one sane voice in this election. The one dissenter to a decade of unchecked war. The one candidate who stands for true defense and actual constitutional government. Ron Paul was silenced, in perhaps the most important debate of the cycle.”

Paul’s official campaign blogger, Jack Hunter, also notes on the Ron Paul 2012 website, that given the debate concerned foreign policy, it would have been prudent on the part of CBS to afford more time to the one candidate who has raised more campaign contributions from active duty military personnel than the rest of the GOP field COMBINED.

Ron Paul was afforded just 1 question and 1 follow up. If CBS’ logic was that the lesser candidates, according to the polls, should be given less questions, then why was Paul asked the least questions when he has polled in the top three or four consistently?

Indeed, as analysis at Mediaite highlights, Rick Santorum, who has consistently polled less than 2% and placed next to bottom in virtually every poll there is, was asked FIVE questions and afforded as many follow ups, meaning only three other candidates spoke more words than he did during the debate.

The analysis reveals that Ron Paul managed to edge in just 258 words during the televised debate, “by comparison, just 223 more words than Scott Pelley’s admonishment of the crowd for their booing.” the article states.

“The correlation between polling numbers and words spoken ended up being a paltry 38%, proving that the moderators failed in giving the top candidates the most airtime.” it concludes.

The graphic below highlights the amount of words that were spoken by each candidate:

The establishment agenda to completely ignore Ron Paul is now reaching ridiculous levels. CBS made their snub of Paul so blatant that it couldn’t fail to go unnoticed by political pundits.

Describing the coverage as “appalling”, Brent Budowsky at The Hill slams CBS for “shamefully shafting” Paul.

Budowsky notes, “It is not the place of those who cover presidential candidates as journalists to censor those candidates they do not respect or like. It is their job to present voters and viewers with a full choice and diversity of opinion rather than tell viewers whom they are allowed to watch, and whom they are allowed to vote for.”

A scientific study undertaken by the University of Minnesota last month confirmed that Ron Paul had been given the least speaking time out of all the Republican candidates during the debates, even less than the likes of Huntsman and Santorum, who have routinely been beaten by Paul in national polls.

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Steve Watson is the London based writer and editor for Alex Jones’ Infowars.net, and Prisonplanet.com. He has a Masters Degree in International Relations from the School of Politics at The University of Nottingham in England.

This article was posted: Monday, November 14, 2011 at 11:17 am

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