Ron Paul Media Coverage

The mainstream media has largely ignored Texas Congressman Ron Paul, a Republican GOP candidate, during the 2012 campaign for presidency. Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) gathered data concerning media coverage of the 2012 presidential candidates. Posted on October 17, the data found Ron Paul ranked last concerning coverage of Republican candidates from May to October. He appeared “as a primary newsmaker in only two percent of all election stories.” Ron Paul has won 19 out of 51 straw polls. PEJ still found Ron Paul as last concerning media coverage. He was also behind Jon Huntsman, who rarely does better than three percent in the Republican straw polls. On August 13, 2011, a headline for MPRnews said
In November, after Ron Paul established himself as a top-tier candidate and had been consistently polling well in Iowa and New Hampshire, CBS allotted Ron Paul 89 seconds of speaking time during its debate. The debate focused on foreign policy and national security. His campaign issued a statement saying Ron Paul was treated unfairly. Not only is Ron Paul a veteran, but he also serves on the House Foreign Relations Committee. His campaign stated, “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.” CBS is not the only network that has skewed coverage of each candidate. Ron Paul consistently receives less time than the “establishment favorites” in almost every
It says, “Journalists should be honest, fair and courageous in gathering, reporting and interpreting information.” Media coverage of the 2012 Republican race to the White House does not represent fair and honest reporting. Journalists are clearly not fair in their coverage of Ron Paul. Many analysts and political show hosts are sometimes not even honest. It also says that journalists should “expose unethical practices of journalists and the news media.” Some journalists and bloggers are attempting to expose the truth about the media’s biased and unbalanced coverage of Ron Paul and other GOP candidates, but still—an overwhelming amount of journalists continue to ignore Ron Paul. It is not the media’s job to sway Americans to vote a certain way. The SPJ Code of Ethics also states that journalists should “support the open exchange of views, even views they find repugnant.” In a presidential campaign, candidates will express many different beliefs and views. The media should not discount or ignore certain views based on their popularity. The media’s job is to represent each side, as well as each candidate who represents those views. The public’s job is to decide when those views correlate with its own. The media should report the truth and represent each candidate fairly and