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2008 US Presidential candidate Ron Paul supporters raised an unprecedented $10 million plus during two single day fundraising efforts. Real supporters putting their money behind a candidate they truly believe can become the next President of the United States. Fox News doesn't see it that way. That organization has excluded the long time Texas Representative from participating in an upcoming televised New Hampshire debate. In response, supporters of Ron Paul have called for boycotting the cable news network and its sponsors. With nearly $20 million raised for the Paul campaign during the 4th quarter, there is speculation that a "boycott" move could seriously affect sponsors. Fox News May Want to Look to its Own Past Back in 1997, I was one of many who worked on a case involving Fox News Corp, which at that time was a small upcoming cable news organization going up against powerhouse CNN. Chicag0-based law firm, Kirkland & Ellis, represented Fox News at the time. CNN was owned by Time Warner. Time Warner dominated cable television in New York City and, while Fox news tickers flashed from its state-of-the-art studio in Midtown Manhattan's most prime real estate along Avenue of the Americas, few if anyone in the city could actually view Fox News. That's because Time Warner excluded them. When Time Warner bought out Ted Turner's Turner Broadcasting, a federal antitrust consent decree required Time Warner to carry a second all-news channel in addition to Time Warner's own CNN. Time Warner selected MSNBC as the secondary news network, instead of Fox News. Fox News claimed that this violated an agreement to carry Fox News, and Ailes used his connections to persuade Mayor Giuliani to carry Fox News and Bloomberg Television on two underutilized city-owned cable channels, which he did.
New York City also
threatened to revoke
Time Warner's cable
franchise for not
carrying FOX News. The end result was that a lot of people residing in New York City felt jilted by Time Warner's decision not to run Fox News. Once they were required to do so, many tuned in en masse and found themselves liking the product that Fox News had to offer. Ron Paul supporters, likewise, have suggested that exclusion from this upcoming event could backfire. "They (Fox News) are scared of me!" Ron Paul himself is quoted as saying. Unfair Playing Ground The Fox affiliate in New Hampshire has said it had limited space in its studio — a souped-up bus — and that it invited candidates who had received double-digit support in recent polls. Yet analyses of recent poll results suggest that Fred Thompson (who was invited to take part) is in a dead heat with Ron Paul. Prediction markets have Ron Paul way ahead of Thompson Likewise, Ron Paul continues to be the most searched for candidate on the Web. Paul himself has suggested that his supporters are less likely to be reflected in national and local polls since many have never voted before and a large percentage do not have access to land-line phones. Also, it is widely speculated that many of the so-called "undecided" votes will go towards Paul. The Republican's treasure chest is being utilized wisely via last minute ad campaigns that paint the Texas Congressman as a pro-life, pro-gun Patriot who served his country well during Vietnam.
Jesse Benton, Paul's
spokesman, said it
was a "big mistake"
not to include his
candidate,
especially given
Paul's recent
success in
fundraising. He said
the campaign has
been trying to reach
Fox News to explain
the decision, but
its calls had not
been returned.
New Hampshire
Republican Party
Chairman Fergus
Cullen releases the
following statement
regarding primary
weekend debates: Short It! Gambling911.com reporter, Jennifer Reynolds, who was brought on specifically to cover the lucrative Ron Paul campaign, had this to say in response to the Fox News exclusion: Ron Paul supporters will be holding rallies, writing letters to the editor, boycotting all sponsors, calling Fox news and in an additional move there is even talk of contacting all shareholders of the company that owns Fox news (I will let you look that up yourself) and is advising everyone to sell sell sell and for those of you not able to sell, buy short. I am not offering any advice, I am only reporting what I have seen in print. It should be noted that Gambling911.com certainly doesn't advocate shorting News Corp stocks. Reynolds is simply passing along information she gathered across the Net. A look at the News Corp Yahoo! finance forums display what Reynolds is alluding to. That board was inundated with Ron Paul supporters blasting the company even though trading would not commence for a full 36 hours from press time. "Fox is playing the AMERICAN PUBLIC for FOOLS. How dare they!" cries out one poster. "Murdoch and Fox are desperate and could care less about the first amendment and the truth. Complete cowards," voiced another disgruntled Ron Paul supporter. On Monday, News Corp's shares had fallen .19%. ---- Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher CCostigan@CostiganMedia.com
Originally published
December 31, 2007
8:25 am EST
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Ron
Paul Supporters
Could Cause Millions
of Losses for Fox
News