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View Full Version : Yet another example of a disrespectful attack on Ron Paul (CNN)




Bruce
12-15-2010, 09:50 PM
Please allow me to vent my frustration.

As many of you are well aware, various individuals over the last few years have tried their utmost to ridicule Ron Paul in various disingenuous ways.

For me the latest example of this kind of disgusting conduct was from CNN's Suzanne Malveaux (http://edition.cnn.com/CNN/anchors_reporters/malveaux.suzanne.html), primary substitute anchor for Wolf Blitzer, who on The Situation Room of the 14th conducted an interview with Ron Paul about his appointment as chairman for the Domestic Monetary Policy Subcommittee.

You can watch the entire interview here (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecDef_mewSA).

I'm extremely dissatisfied with the entire way the interview was conducted but I'm especially frustrated with the way Suzanne decided to confront Ron Paul using some particulary mean-spirited comments from Megan McArdle.

In the interview Suzanne, after interrupting Ron Paul, quoted Megan McArdle, a business and economics editor for The Atlantic, who she described as a "prominent libertarian blogger / economics editor at The Atlanic" as having said:

"Republicans stashed him in this job because they don't want him making more important decisions... He cares passionately about monetary policy, which most Republicans don't care about. But when you look at his speeches, he doesn't understand anything about monetary policy. He might actually understand it less than the average member of Congress. My personal opinion is that he wastes all of his time on the House Financial Services Committee ranting crazily."

After reading this disrespectful commentary to Paul she asked "Do you think Republican leadership is essentially trying to marginalize you in this role?" and after Ron Paul's response "Nah, I don't think so, they wouldn't have made me chairman. And I think somebody that spouts off like that, they should look at the evidence rather than just sorta name calling, I don't think that kind of an accusation makes very much sense" she asked "She's saying she doesn't believe you can get very much done, what do you think you can accomplish?".

The comments by Megan McArdle appeared in an article at Slate (http://www.slate.com/id/2277521) by David Weigel and it is worth mentioning that Mark Calabria, who was also quoted in Weigel's article and described as "director of financial regulation studies at the Cato Institute and a six-year veteran of the Senate Banking Committee", later responded with disappointment (http://www.cato-at-liberty.org/is-ron-paul-good-for-monetary-policy/) that Weigel didn't bother to mention some of his optimism about Paul in the story (also see this link (http://www.slate.com/blogs/blogs/weigel/archive/2010/12/13/who-s-afraid-of-ron-paul.aspx)).

So, here I am, both angry, sad and frustrated and left wondering what exactly motivated the folks from The Situation Room, who advertise themselves as the "Best Political Team on Television", to go with the negative and quite frankly distasteful remarks brought forward by Megan McArdle.

To that we can only guess.

Let's not forget that we've had much more fair interviews on the exact same issues by CNBC's "Closing Bell" host Maria Barteroma (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_CNYG9mqUyo) and RT's Dina Gusovsky (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36UGFOeJVww).

If you would like to, it seems one can send feedback to CNN using the following form (http://edition.cnn.com/feedback/forms/form5.html?65), though I am sure this feedback will simply be redirected to /dev/null (for the non-techies among us, read: thrown in the garbage bin). Against better judgment, I myself have used the form.

I've also left a comment at Megan McArdle's blog (http://www.theatlantic.com/personal/archive/2010/12/am-i-a-government-agent-set-up-to-attack-ron-paul/68061/#comment-112576614). Feel free to "Like" it.

Stay strong Dr. Paul!

malkusm
12-15-2010, 09:56 PM
Thanks for posting. FYI - I'm keeping track of media bias for the presidential cycle in various places on the forum. Here is a thread where you can post things that you feel are biased in the future: http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?269649-Start-documenting-media-bias-against-RP-in-this-thread-NOW

Additionally, I am blogging all of my updates to that thread. My blog can be found in my signature. An updated media bias page lives in the top bar of my blog, and whenever I post my first update there, you'll be able to click "Media Bias" on the right sidebar to get a stream of recent updates as well.

I feel your frustration ;)

Bruce
12-15-2010, 10:09 PM
Hi Matt, thanks for your response and also, thanks for that thread, which I did in fact notice earlier. This example definitely belongs on that list.

Watching Paul's interviews with CNBC's Maria Barteroma and RT's Dina Gusovsky reminds me of a remark back in 2007/2008 (by whom I have forgotten) that Ron Paul supporters had sent flowers to a reporter/host/anchor who had been fair to Ron Paul. While obviously bribery ;-) this might actually be a good way to stimulate common courtesy in interviews.

hazek
12-15-2010, 10:32 PM
You take the words out of my mouth OP.

JoshLowry
12-15-2010, 10:40 PM
Great post. Good to have you back! This is the kind of unique content that we will be promoting to the front page.

+1 Malk - again, I think there is ample room for a documentary that will summarize it.

Romulus
12-15-2010, 11:07 PM
Look at it this way, the more they attack him, the stronger he's going to get and appear. I think with the MSM lashes out, folks know right away he's a threat. Don't get too upset, he's not being ignored.

agitator
12-16-2010, 01:19 AM
http://firemeganmcardle.blogspot.com/2008/02/confirmation-of-my-thesis.html

Kotin
12-16-2010, 01:36 AM
What a fuckin' joke?? The idea that someone would even suggest that Ron Paul knows less about MP than the average member of congress makes my head explode.. Fuck that guy... Are you kidding me ?!?!

Dont know the words ..

dannno
12-16-2010, 02:11 AM
Best 16th post ever.

cswake
12-16-2010, 07:19 AM
I'm extremely dissatisfied with the entire way the interview was conducted but I'm especially frustrated with the way Suzanne decided to confront Ron Paul using some particulary mean-spirited comments from Megan McArdle. I'm sure you remember that the media did this continually in 2007-2008, and it would be naive to expect them not to do so in 2011-2012 - they will find a way to throw in kook, quixotic, crazy, flake, etc, amongst other things. The media is well aware of the response they get when they attack him:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QV_Q8WFB9Bw

They can't defend the issues.

speciallyblend
12-16-2010, 10:02 AM
cnn is useless dribble along with fox,not that msnbc is a worth a dam! When i saw that cnn interview. Cnn basically said stop watching our show we(cnn) are full of crap!!!

Romulus
12-16-2010, 12:29 PM
They can't defend the issues.

This. Expect more of these sort of ambush, attack interviews as things heat us. I say bring it own, it only exposes their ignorance and desperation.

Bruce
12-17-2010, 05:01 AM
Thank you everybody for your replies.

I just finished watching Ron Paul's appearance on C‑SPAN's Newsmakers (http://www.c-span.org/Events/Rep-Ron-Paul-R-TX/10737418313-1/) and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think Lew Rockwell said it all when he said: "The questions and discussion were substantive, and Ron was able to elaborate on his points without interruption. In other words, it wasn’t cable.".