Fox News Dirty Tricks Against Ron Paul No "Mistake"

by Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet
Feb. 17, 2011

Forgive me for being cynical, but Fox News’ claim that airing the wrong CPAC footage and then introducing an interview with Ron Paul on the false premise that he had been booed was merely a “mistake” rings somewhat hollow, especially given the fact that Fox, along with the rest of the establishment media networks, have for years consistently denigrated the Congressman’s presidential aspirations with a myriad of dirty tricks, lies and smear campaigns.

As we highlighted yesterday, in a shocking act of mass public deception, Fox News attempted to skew Ron Paul's 2011 CPAC straw poll win by representing it with footage from the previous year's CPAC event, at which Mitt Romney supporters had loudly booed the result and Paul supporters had been absent due to a Campaign for Liberty meeting running late

Fox News host Bill Hemmer framed his interview with Paul by immediately bringing up the boos, despite the fact that the real footage of this year’s CPAC poll result showed Paul’s victory being met with a loud chorus of cheers and applause.

In a statement provided to Mediaite, Fox’s Senior Vice President of News Michael Clemente attempted to defuse the growing controversy over the incident by claiming it was all a harmless broadcasting error.

"We made a mistake with some of the video we aired, and plan on issuing a correction on America's Newsroom tomorrow morning explaining exactly what happened," said Clemente.

Really? It is plausible that this was just another “mistake”? How about the myriad of other “mistakes” Fox News makes a habit of committing, mistakes that coincidentally all serve to disparage Congressman Paul’s message of liberty and freedom, along with his chances of becoming president?

“It's certainly plausible that Fox News merely made a mistake in pulling up the wrong video,” adds Mediaite, noting that the explanation is unlikely to “Satisfy Paul supporters who seem to believe the network tried to disguise how much support the congressman has amongst the GOP base.”

Was it another “mistake” to omit Paul’s name entirely from a Fox News survey last week that asked who would make the best president? Was it a “mistake” that relative nobodies like John Thune and Jon Huntsman were included in the Fox poll and yet Paul was blacklisted entirely despite his CPAC success two years running?

Was it another “mistake” on behalf of Fox News to exclude Paul from a January 6 2008 presidential forum event because they saw the prospect of anti-war opinions being voiced by the most conservative member of the House as a “threat”?

Was it a “mistake” for Fox News to claim that their own May 2007 presidential poll, which Ron Paul won, was unreliable, because online Paul supporters had skewed the result, despite the fact that the survey was conducted via cell phone text messaging and no online votes were taken?

Was it a mere “mistake” for Fox News host Sean Hannity to deride the Texas Congressman’s runaway success in the text messaging poll as nothing more than “Paulites” flood voting, when in reality only one vote per cell phone number was allowed? Hannity’s contention that Ron Paul supporters were “were simply dialing in over and over again” was nothing more than a brazen lie intended to dismiss the Congressman’s widespread popularity. No one at Fox News bothered to correct Hannity and no retraction was issued.

Was it another “mistake” when Fox News started editing Ron Paul’s name out of Associated Press stories they syndicated before the 2008 presidential campaign?

Was it a “mistake” for Fox News to denigrate the fact that Ron Paul received the most campaign donations from members of the U.S. military by attributing it to “libertarian mailing lists”?

Was it a “mistake” when Fox News attempted to smear Ron Paul for having the audacity to appear on the Alex Jones Show and the nerve to merely converse with people who commit the thought crime of not completely trusting the official government version of 9/11?

Was it a “mistake” when Fox News rigged the structure of their entire May 2007 presidential debate and used it as a vehicle for all the other candidates to viciously attack Ron Paul, while Fox’s pre-screened audience rapaciously applauded calls for torture and warmongering?

Was it a mistake when Fox News directors conspired to censor Ron Paul supporters from appearing in camera shots during the Mackinac Republican Conference on September 22, 2007, when they were caught on film stating, “I don’t want these Ron Paul people, but I need shots of audience”?

Was it a “mistake” for Fox News to ignore a story every other news outlet was obliged to report, the record-breaking $4.2 million in campaign donations that Ron Paul achieved in a single day, while instead choosing to obsess about a man in Texas who sat in a bath tub full of snakes?

Were all of the examples contained in the video below showing rampant Fox News and other networks’ bias against Ron Paul simply “mistakes” or something more?

Are all these examples merely “mistakes” or are they hard evidence of the fact that Fox News, in alliance with every other establishment media news network, has a deeply ingrained bias against Ron Paul’s message and is scared stiff of him ever building enough momentum to have a chance of becoming president?

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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a fill-in host for The Alex Jones Show. Watson has been interviewed by many publications and radio shows, including Vanity Fair and Coast to Coast AM, America’s most listened to late night talk show.