It has oft been a bone of contention by Ron Paul supporters nationwide that he has been either ignored or misrepresented by the mainstream media. Liberal comedian Jon Stewart devoted an entire montage to humorously and satirically underscoring the media’s deliberate — and at times blatant — efforts to ignore Paul’s top-tier status. Now a recent study by the highly respected Pew Research Center proves that Paul has indeed been blacked out by the mainstream media.

Journalism.org explains that the study “combines traditional media research methods with computer algorithms to track the level and tone of coverage of candidates for president.”

Pew compiled a list of 52 mainstream news sources, ranging from newspapers to television, and discovered that Paul has received significantly less media coverage than all of the other candidates — including Tim Pawlenty, who dropped out of the race as a result of his lack of adequate progress, and Jon Huntsman, who has one of the lowest approval ratings of all the GOP presidential contenders.

The Atlantic Wire reports:

Ron Paul loyalists have been vindicated. After months of observations that the mainstream media was ignoring the libertarian standard-bearer, a new study by the Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism shows just that: the Texas Congressman, who has consistently polled in the high single digits — Real Clear Politics’s aggregate poll currently has him at 8 percent — has received the least overall coverage of any candidate. From May 2 to October 9, Paul appeared as the “primary newsmaker" in only 2% of all election stories.

The Washington Post notes, “Paul’s support has been stable at 10 percent or 11 percent of Republican and GOP-leaning independents in the three most recent Washington Post-ABC News polls.” In polls where Paul is placed against Obama, both candidates are in a dead tie, with approximately 15 percent of Americans undecided. His supporters note that if Paul were afforded more opportunity in the mainstream media to voice his ideas, he could effectively increase his support in such a runoff. 

That same study found that Texas Governor Rick Perry garnered the greatest amount of coverage, particularly positive, from the mainstream media in the first few months of the race. However, since then, the former Godfather Pizza CEO Herman Cain has taken that mantle from Perry. Interestingly, however, the study found that the nature of Cain’s coverage became significantly more positive six weeks prior to his rise in the polls.

In addition to the Pew survey, the University of Minnesota undertook a scientific study that also indicates that Ron Paul has received significantly less speaking time than all of the other GOP presidential contenders during the debates thus far. The report put this into perspective by observing that former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney has received more than double the amount of time given to Ron Paul during the last three debates.

It is worth noting that the alternative media has to some extent compensated for the mainstream media's ignoring of Paul. According to the study:

Paul generated a good deal of attention on blogs, registering as the fifth most-discussed candidate with more than 89,000 opinions tracked about him.

Moreover, he and his candidacy fared better than any other candidate in the tone of that conversation. In all, 48 percent of the blogging conversations about Paul [were] positive compared with only 15 percent negative and 38 percent neutral. The next highest positive rating for any Republican was 34 percent, for Romney, and the next lowest negative rating was 24 percent, for Cain.

According to many analysts, mainstream media’s failure to report on Paul would appear to be a contrived effort, as Paul has given the media plenty of items on which to report. The Texas Congressman has been extremely successful in straw polls conducted over the last few months. He won the CPAC presidential straw poll this year (as he did last year), as well as the Republican Leadership Conference straw poll, the California Republican straw poll, and the Values Voter straw poll. In the Iowa straw poll, Paul came in a very close second, losing to Minnesota Rep. Michele Bachmann by just 152 votes. Likewise, he has raised $8.3 million in the third quarter, which is significantly more than what is typical of a second-tier candidate, and surpasses Herman Cain's $2.8 million, Michele Bachmann's $4.1 million, and Rick Santorum's less than $1 million. Paul’s fundraising numbers are even more significant when one considers that his campaign does not receive funds from lobbyists or corporate interests — just grassroots supporters.

While the studies confirm what has been pointed out all along by Ron Paul’s campaign, that there is a clear media bias against the libertarian from Texas, the results of the study should not come as a complete shock, even to non-supporters. In August, both CNN and Politico admitted that they are inclined to ignore Ron Paul, despite his success, because they claim he is “unelectable.” Likewise, Howard Kurtz of Newsweek and The Daily Beast bluntly pronounced, “We are in the business of kicking candidates out of the race.”  

Paul’s supporters have regularly confronted this failure in fair reporting. And now with proof of their claims that he has been ignored by the media, the Paul camp is hosting a “Black This Out” theme for Paul’s upcoming money bomb, set for tomorrow. Paul’s money bombs have become quite popular, bringing in significant funds from supporters. RunRonPaul.com writes of the upcoming event:

The “Black This Out” theme of the money bomb claims there is a mainstream media outlet blackout surrounding the Ron Paul campaign. Today, ironically, news reports are confirming that in fact Ron Paul is indeed ignored to a very large degree by the mainstream. The good news (and a testament to the power of his ideas) is that Ron Paul is polling in the double digits (around 14%) despite the fact that he has been the primary news maker in only 2% of all election stories.

The “Black This Out” money bomb hopes to draw attention to the media bias against Ron Paul by forcing the media to give Paul and the “Black This Out” money bomb theme coverage by raising a massive amount of money for his campaign in a single day.

Thus far more than 29,000 people have pledged to donate money to “Black This Out,” indicating that it could potentially break previous fundraising records.

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George Tolhurst said:

... No doubt about it that Ron Paul is leading in the straw polls and that he is probley the most electable candidate in this race. Let's get behind him everyone and help Ron Paul win this race and send him @ a message to Washington.

October 19, 2011

Terry McCall said:

Thanks Raven, Thanks for the fine article. This helps with those who whine that we are all conspiracy nuts. None Dare Call It such. I was just interviewed today by the WSJ and we discussed this and other issues. Hopefully we will see a positive articled from them about the good Dr and his supporters.

October 19, 2011

daniel said:

Ron Paul 2012! The media is blacking him out. It makes me want to do more to support him. The black out is backfiring in the mass medias face. He is leading in the real polls! Not the leading question "national polls"

October 24, 2011