Florida Republican Debate:
MSNBC Joins Media Censoring Ron Paul
Friday, January 25th, 2008
AP Photo
We couldn't have been more
thoroughly disgusted by tonight's Republican debate in Boca Raton,
Florida. MSNBC broadcast a live, 90-minute debate with Republican
candidates Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Ron Paul, and Mitt
Romney. And we put that in alphabetical
order, though you will probably never see it written that
way in the mainstream media.
Before we go over the details of who
said what, it is imperative we bring up the censorship factor.
MSNBC and NBC News' coverage tonight was absolutely not
equal. Romney, Giuliani, and McCain all got the most face
time. Huckabee got only six questions to answer, and was allowed
to ask one; Ron Paul, of the full 90-minute segment, only got to answer
five questions, and to ask one, and with
shorter allowed response time (other candidates went over their time
limits and directed questions to each other which MSNBC hosts then
allowed to be answered).
We should all know that FOX News does it...but
MSNBC? MSNBC, who brings us the Countdown with Keith Olbermann, Dateline,
and all of those shows we love? Sadly - this time - yes.
Paul got just 6 minutes and 31 seconds
of out of a 90-minute segment.
Sickeningly unfair.
Ron
Paul came in a close second place in the recent Republican Louisiana caucus, as we reported - which
was largely untouched by the mainstream media (CNN doesn't even
have Louisiana on their website at all in their election center).
And, as clearly as the Republican party refused to back Ron Paul when
FOX News excluded him from the New Hampshire debate, the Louisiana GOP
has not released the real numbers of delegate votes...which they had on
Tuesday.
It was 16 minutes into the debate before
Congressman Ron Paul was even addressed with a question.
In fact,
here are the final speaking times for what each candidate was given
tonight:
Romney: 21 minutes, 11 seconds
(12 answers and asked 1 question)
McCain: 16
minutes even (12 answers and asked 1
question)
Giuliani: 13 minutes and 50 seconds
(10 answers and asked 1 question)
Huckabee: 12
minutes and 11 seconds (8 answers and asked 1
question)
Paul: 6 minutes and 31 seconds (5
answers and asked 1 question)
Huckabee and Paul are both censored
not just by the mass media, but by their own
party. Could it have anything to do with them both
wanting to eliminate the IRS? Or them being the only two
candidates that are not supporting drastic
corporate tax cuts?
If You Want to Skip
to: On Taxes, On World Issues, On the War, Attacking Hillary, Global Warming, Religion, Immigration, On Bush, Conclusion, How To Make A
Difference Petition, Your Comments
ON
TAXES Back to Top
McCain, Giuliani, and Romney all said at tonight's
debate that they support corporations getting a break in their income
tax. That means companies like FOX, MSNBC, AT&T, Wal-Mart, and
all the huge corporations you can think of that are outsourcing jobs
overseas right now. Are those the places that need tax
cuts?
Huckabee is right about how we're "penalized for
productivity." While I personally don't view the Fair Tax plan as
the answer to this problem (the Fair Tax Plan would consist of
increasing sales tax to a flat amount, somewhere between 23-30% embedded
into products' prices), he agreed with Paul that the more money we
make, the more successful we are in this country, the more we are
charged in income tax. Neither Huckabee nor Paul believes in income
tax at all for individual citizens, viewing it as
unconstitutional.
There were
multiple instances throughout the debate where all of the individual
candidates got cheers, laughter, and made jokes. Yet the only two
times that MSNBC announcers scolded the audience, was after Ron Paul got
laughter or applause.
The first time it happened, MSNBC reminded the
audience no "outbursts...or applause." The second time Paul got
the studio audience cheering - when he said we never should have invaded
Iraq - the audience was reminded to hold back "pent up
energy."
Nothing was said when any of the other candidates told
jokes or inspired audience interaction.
ON WORLD
ISSUES Back to Top
Giuliani called Fidel Castro the "longest standing
dictator" in the world.
Huckabee and Paul were also the only two
candidates that were strong in their opposition of pouring more money
into China. Romney, in fact, directed a question at Giuliani, and
asked him how we can work with China without "creating a departure
of American jobs." UM, TOO LATE?
And Giuliani's answer
consisted of calling the rise of China "good" and saying, "What can we
sell them?" to help them improve their economy. Then he went on to
discuss the "damage" former President Bill Clinton allegedly created
with his Peace Dividend.
I could not get through my Christmas
shopping list without accidentally including a couple of items made in
China, even though that was the only objective I had with gift buying
this year: to try and buy only products made in the
U.S.
That objective is now nearly impossible. We do not
need to be worrying about how to help China's government and businesses,
we need to be worried about the slave labor there and the innocent
civilians who are censored, brutalized, and executed.
ON THE WAR Back to Top
McCain
seems to mix up Iraq and Iran, as many people do, when it comes to
al-Qaeda. Al-Qaeda is in Iran, but McCain stated that if we
pull out of Iraq, "al-Qaeda will win."
Romney made a good point
when he mentioned that if we want people to sign up for our military, we
need to "improve the deal" and offer better incentives, like paid
education.
ATTACKING HILLARY Back to Top
Giuliani,
McCain, and Romney all jumped on the Attacking Hillary Clinton boat, and
mentioned what they believe to be mistakes of hers several times.
Huckabee and Paul maintained dignity and reserved their comments for
how to change things, instead of pointing fingers, which we
respect.
GLOBAL WARMING Back to Top
MSNBC made strict
mention of the fact that Rudy Giuliani does not support a cap on
emissions. Giuliani answered that he believes it should be a
world-addressed problem, not a U.S. problem. No one else seemed to
have a plan, although, not everyone was given a chance to
speak.
RELIGION Back to Top
MSNBC had to
drag in the religion issue, as always, with both Mike Huckabee and Mitt
Romney. MSNBC quoted a Wall Street Journal poll in which 44% of
Americans think "a Mormon would have a difficult time uniting the
country." That is the stupidest poll I have ever heard of. I
just think it's worth mentioning that the mass media
constantly feels the need to bring up
religion, race, and gender, and what the public thinks about it, in this
election. Can we focus on politics, please? Isn't that what
we're all here for?
IMMIGRATION Back to Top
Giuliani
mentioned the desire to have a "tamper-free ID card" for non-U.S.
citizens to be in the U.S. and identify themselves. He also was
ribbed by MSNBC announcers for running campaign ads in
Spanish.
ON BUSH Back to Top
The candidate who mentioned
President George W. Bush's name the most frequently was Huckabee.
He used words including "safe," "courageous," "resolve," and "a fine
job" to describe Bush and/or his administration. Which - sorry -
that makes us gag.
In conclusion: although Paul got the
last answer - which the audience applauded - his face was hardly shown,
and the "speaking times" speak for themselves (pun intended).
But
you know what? We have great hope for the American media.
Because right now, bloggers are more popular than ever, and Google - who
is still the #1 search engine in the world -
does not discriminate against any company that wants to put their
headlines up on Google News (including us).
So keep it here at
ConnieTalk, and we will tell you what's really going on. Tomorrow,
we will be posting a poll of which media outlet you
think is the least biased in the mainstream media as a
whole - and exposing the subliminal messages of the MSM's "front
pages."
Ask - no, DEMAND - that MSNBC provide equal coverage to all
of the candidates that are still in the race. Every one of them
deserves the respect and acknowledgment of having the same platform for
their message, regardless of what that message may be. THIS IS
AMERICA.
ConnieTalk's Petition to MSNBC for
Equal Coverage
E-mail Body to
copy/paste:
Address the e-mail
to:
letters@msnbc.com
business@msnbc.com
And
CC:
PresidentialSvcTeam@libertymutual.com (Liberty
Mutual sponsored the debate)
moneytalk@bestbuy.com (Best
Buy's Investor Relations Dept. - they were an advertiser for the
debate)
investor.relations@capitalone.com
(Capital One's Investor Relations Dept. - they were an advertiser for
the debate)
Then, copy and paste your sent e-mail
to:
Meet The Press with Tim Russert here.
Matthew T. Coyle, VP & Director of Investor
Relations for Liberty Mutual.
UPDATE: A gazillion thanks to
PrisonPlanet.com, who
quoted our article & petition and posted the video footage of the
Ron Paul speaking sections only, to make up for the bias!
UPDATE: 3/22/08 Rejoice: Our NBC Boycott Ends On Two Notes
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