Silencing Ron Paul's Supporters

Commentary USA ^ | Raymond kish

[The_Eaglet]

After the Republican debate on june 5th, CNN.com had a blog entitled "Who Won?". The overwhelming majority of comments left on that blog said that Congressman Ron Paul had won the debate.

Well it appears that CNN did not like all the comments that were left by the Ron Paul supporters because somewhere around 11:05 Central time they took down that blog and started redirecting to a blog of the same name that was posted on June 3rd for the Democrats debate. Here is the link for the Republican debate blog posting http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/05/who-won-the-debate/ and here is the link to the democratic debate blog http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/06/03/who-won-the-debate/.

Is CNN trying to silence Ron Paul supporters. You be the judge.

[West Coast Conservative]

Why would CNN silence Paul’s supporters?

[Hugin]

Is CNN trying to silence Ron Paul supporters.

Both of them?

[Allegra]

Ah, the daily deluge of the Ron Paul articles.

That guy gets more threads here on FR than actual viable candidates.

[The_Eaglet]

That’s a good question. I have not heard of any evidence of explanation from CNN.

[The_Eaglet]

FYI

[The_Eaglet]

That guy gets more threads here on FR than actual other viable candidates.

Fixed.

[The_Eaglet]

Here is CNN's answer:

The comments section is intended to be informal, of course, but the strain on resources that night prompted us to take down the “Who won the GOP debate” question (though that didn’t stop Paul supporters from commenting; they started adding comments to the “Who won the Democratic debate?” post). The intention was not to censor Ron Paul supporters — right now, you’ll find hundreds of Paul posts on the site.

[Allegra]

Yeah, that’ll be the “fixed” version along about the time they’re making snow forts for that big snowball fight in Hell.

[The_Eaglet]

I won’t be there.

[corlorde]

Ron Paul won the debate? Were people watching the same debate as me? He came off as whiny and almost hysterical at times. His plan was to leave Iraq right now and transfer war fighting money to social welfare programs, such as education and health care.

[George W. Bush]

Although I'm a Friend Of Ron, I do grasp why they did it.

CNN and others want some "healthy mix" of views about all the candidates and from all their supporters. But most Republicans (especially Republicans!) aren't going to leave many online comments (especially at CNN!) for any candidate.

Because RP has so many supporters who are internet-savvy (older libertarians who are disproportionately involved in IT) and so many under-thirty supporters and supporters who are Dims and Greens, it ends up that RP supporters really hit these blogs and no one else shows up. Then CNN thinks that it looks silly for their site to make it look like RP has, like, 90% support among all Republicans when even we have to acknowledge that he doesn't. Of course, we should still flak these blogs and polls to indicate our interest. But we shouldn't be completely surprised when they aren't cooperative.

I'm just sayin'.

[Allegra]

Ron Paul won the debate? Were people watching the same debate as me? He came off as whiny and almost hysterical at times. His plan was to leave Iraq right now and transfer war fighting money to social welfare programs, such as education and health care.

Hey, I never said he won that debate. LOL I think the Paulies are spamming the internet polls to unrealistically skew them in his favor and then getting all mad when they find out they're not fooling anybody.

I vehemently disagree with Ron Paul's foreign policy views. They're grounded in idealism, not reality.

[George W. Bush]

Ron Paul won the debate? Were people watching the same debate as me? He came off as whiny and almost hysterical at times. His plan was to leave Iraq right now and transfer war fighting money to social welfare programs, such as education and health care.

Not quite a fair summary but you miss the real point.

RP's supporters don't necessarily care that much about his position on the war in Iraq. He has a ton of supporters who are strong single-issue voters on a whole lot of other issues. People who like his top NRA/GOA rating for decades, people who helped defeat National ID and Know Your Customer, folks who resist regulation and taxation of the internet and sales tax for online services, the online gambling people, certain pro-life supporters, the U.N.-haters, etc.

By being an outspoken opponent on so many of these issues (Dr. No), RP has quite a diverse group of hardcore single-issue voters out there, some of whom don't have another candidate in either party that ever speaks to their issues.

And RP is so square, he's almost hip with the under-thirties folk. Hence, RP's popular and softball interviews on Bill Maher and Jon Stewart's Daily Show. These young people like his absolutism, they like how he constantly invokes the Constitution as a fundamental law that forbids what the government has done on Issue X (where X is their legislative monomania).

You all make a mistake to think that RP's supporters are only interested in his position on Iraq because you think that's the most important thing. But it's irrelevant to many of them, perhaps to most of them. And you don't take that into account when you scorn him and his popularity.

[George W. Bush]

You might read my previous...

[corlorde]

Well, I don’t agree with CNN’s position of taking comments down, but I disagree that Ron Paul won the debate. I’m sure Ron Paul supporters think he won the debate, though. Also, I don’t think he will ever be President of the United States.

[MNJohnnie]

No they merely recognize that having activist groups blast email their followers to swamp any Internet site with spam during, and after, a debates the whole purpose of having the forum up in the 1st place.

They wanted honest responses, not campaign generated propaganda. Once they saw they real voices were going to be drown out with the activist generated spam they gave up the whole thing as a wasted of effort.

[The_Eaglet]

His plan was to leave Iraq right now and transfer war fighting money to social welfare programs, such as education and health care.

Paul did not say anything about transferring "war fighting money" to social welfare programs, such as education and health care.

Paul is a champion of federal income tax relief so that the states and the people can properly exercise their reserve powers to fund these activities (see USC Amendment X).

[Allegra]

You might read my previous...

I did. Just before I responded to the poster who had addressed me.

We're in agreement on that.

[marsh_of_mists]

Once they saw they real voices were going to be drown out with the activist generated spam they gave up the whole thing as a wasted of effort

What real voices? That's the thing. We keep hearing about how Ron Paul spam is swamping everything, but I don't see hardly a single post supporting any other candidate on those comments boards. Where were the Rudy supporters? The Romney supporters? The people to say, "I'm waiting for Fred!" Are Ron Paul supporters the only ones with enough enthusiasm to bother to post anything anywhere? Are they the only ones who know how to use a computer?