Media Top-Dogs Kick Underdog Ron Paul

Republican and Democratic media whores briefly came clean about ignoring presidential hopeful Ron Paul. Then they promptly returned to ignoring him.

No sooner had Fox News’ Megyn Kelly and CNN’s Piers Morgan interviewed Dr. Paul about his untouchable status among their colleagues, than John King of the eponymous CNN show could be heard recounting the winners of the Republican 2011 Iowa Straw Poll, to the exclusion of the man who secured second place: Congressman Ron Paul.

Michele Bachmann won 4,823 votes; Texas Rep. Ron Paul 4,671. With 152 votes separating the two frontrunners, one might even say that, in Ames, Iowa, Paul jostled with Mrs. Bachmann for first place.

A slick Drew Griffin, also at CNN, cracked up as he instructed a cub reporter on the ground: “If you get a sound bite from Palin bring that back to us. You can hold the Ron Paul stuff.”

Following the Republican Poll, Politico.com ran an article about Paul, the caption to which read: “Ron Paul remains media poison.” The article featured an image of Ron Paul flanked by signs touting the stuff the press finds so poisonous: “Liberty and Freedom.”

As is often the case, satirist Jon Stewart stepped in to correct—and to make fun of—the farrago of misinformation spread by mainstream media. “Why are you treating Paul like he was the thirteenth floor in a hotel?” Stewart asked party operatives. Here Comedy Central cut to MSNBC’s Chuck Todd. On Meet the Press, Todd breezily announced his Republican top-tier contenders: Rick Perry, Mitt Romney and Michele Bachmann.

A dude on Face the Nation did the same. The Perry, Romney, Bachmann trio was touted again by Brett Baer and Chris Wallace, both of Fox News.”Aren’t you forgetting an ideologically consistent congressman who came within 200 votes of winning the straw poll,” interjected a sarcastic Stewart. Another clip of Chris Wallace came up on Stewart’s screen.

For a moment, it looked as if Wallace was going to redeem himself: “We didn’t mention and we should,” he noodled. But no, it was “Rick Santorum” that the reporter went on to will from the political grave. Santorum “didn’t get half of what Ron Paul got,” the comedian apprised the nation. “He lost to the guy who lost so bad that he dropped out of the race.” (Tim Pawlenty) “Let’s not count out Jon Huntsman” said another no-name pack animal on CNN.

Huntsman got 69 votes. If all of Jon Huntsman’s supporters met at the Iowa Ames Quiznos, the fire marshal would say, ‘That’s fine; no problem.’ Huntsman was the only Mormon running in the straw poll, and he came in second among Mormons.

So Stewart spoofed the media. “This pretending Ron Paul doesn’t exist has been going on for weeks,” he said. [Make that decades.] Ron Paul “is Tea-Party Patient Zero. He’s the real deal.”Comedy Central followed with an effective demonstration of the disconnect between the arch-plotters on the panel of journalists, and the audience in Stephens Auditorium, in Ames, where a debate between the Republican rivals preceded the poll.

The people roared with approval when Ron Paul condemned America’s futile misadventures abroad. The journalists responded with a smirk and an eye roll. (And somewhere, someplace, a coquettish Ann Coulter lent a helping hand by simpering sexually over her candidate, Gov. Chris Christie.)

Yes, freedom frightens the establishment. Paul is airbrushed out of the political picture because, as he explained, his candidacy threatens the “status quo” with respect to welfare, warfare and monetary policies. Paul’s ideas are predicated on a return to reality. Paul the politician has been attempting to smash the parallel universe through which the congressional-media complex filters reality for the fools who keep falling for them. This implies reversing 100 years of fairy tales; deflating an empire built on funny money and military predation back to a republic based on private property and production.

As usual, Ron Paul has been too magnanimous about America’s media.

No matter their brand of political prostitution (Republican or Democrat), media talking heads are props to the politicos; they mirror the political class, reflecting and reinforcing the opinions—and the reality—among the elites they serve. More often than not, the chattering classes are as privileged and protected as their masters. These “Demopublican Monopolists” sense that as long as they sustain their respective constituencies, they will retain their perches and their sizable salaries.

But things are a changing. The country is changing. These B-rate minds are paddling as hard as they can to save sinecure. Even if it means not facing reality. When Standard & Poor’s downgraded America from its status as best AAA borrower, Louis Story of the New York Times was as anxious as GOP devotee Ann Coulter. Both suggested the State take action against the rating agency.

S&P signaled that as the US government loses prestige and power around the world, so too will its many tiers of top-dogs be downgraded. The statist men and women of the media are up the creek without a paddle.

More than anything they fear losing their status. Ron Paul makes these vainglorious individuals face reality when all they want is to save face.