Fox News In Cahoots With Giuliani?

FOX News Blackballs GOP Candidates

…Giulani Involvement Points to a Conspiracy

“Bias has to do with the elimination of points of view, not presenting a point of view.”
Roger Ailes, President
Fox News

With those words, Roger Ailes once expressed the reason that so many viewers turned to Fox News. In a time when Ted Turner and NBC dominated cable news, Fox News rode onto the scene like a proverbial knight in shining armor. These days, the armor is tarnished and the white horse is muddied - it appears that Mr. Ailes’ understanding of how media outlets most effectively exploit their influence to promote a bias is, in fact, company policy.

In an unparalleled move, Fox has chosen to silence the only Republican candidate who could truly be classified as a traditional limited-government conservative who has demonstrated a strict commitment to the U.S. Constitution - based upon the nearly 4 decades of voting records available for review. The network, consistently #1 among cable news networks in Nielsen ratings, excluded Dr. Ron Paul from its Republican presidential debate Sunday, January 6^th.

Instead, Fox has persistently pushed the names of Paul’s opponents into the limelight - names like Giuliani, whom Paul soundly beat in last Thursday’s Iowa Caucus, capturing nearly three times as many votes. Giuliani was invited to the Sunday debate sponsored by the network, as was Fred Thompson, whose poll numbers in New Hampshire - the state in which the debate was held - have been consistently lower than Ron Paul’s.Fox has repeatedly refused to state its reasons for relegating Ron Paul - long seen as a significant contender for the Republican nomination - to the “need-not-appear” category. It seems that the network’s policy is very specifically to eliminate his point of view.

Mr. Ailes? Is this your policy, or does it come from Mr. Murdoch?

The Giuliani Connection

According to the Columbia Journalism Review, during the first New York City mayoral term of Rudy Giuliani, News Corp (the parent company of Fox News) received a $20.7 million tax break for the building in Manhattan that serves as the home of Fox News, as well as News Corp’s New York Post, and various other News Corp media holdings, including TV Guide.
During Giulani’’s terms as mayor, the Post seems to have eliminated any points of view that might have been negative in any way of the mayor. It seems that Giuliani himself intervened in a critical fight between News Corp and New York City cable provider Time Warner (owner of CNN), in which News Corp used all of its ammo — editorials, cartoons, etc. — to secure a much-needed slot on the city’s cable system in order to compete head-to-head with CNN in the nation’’s most critical market.

More recently, even a cursory evaluation of programming on the news network once touted as “conservative” shows an unusual favoritism toward Rudy Giuliani by framing questions for both viewers and guests in ways that pit Giuliani - more so than any other Republican candidate - against the leading Democratic contenders.

Is Keith Rupert Murdoch, the Australian-born billionaire at the helm of the News Corp empire, returning some old favors by silencing an opponent for his old friend from New York?

The War in Iraq

Murdoch, known to be a staunch supporter of the war in Iraq, may also have a score to settle with Ron Paul for his vehement vilification of the war in Iraq. (Check out this PBS video from 2002 - prior to the US-led invasion of Baghdad - in which Ron Paul speaks out back then against the invasion, for all the same reasons that many do today.) Could it be related to Murdoch’’s own holdings overseas in the oil industry?

Here’’s what the Columbia Journalism Review had to say about Mr. Murdoch’’s tactics:

Murdoch uses his diverse holdings, which include newspapers, magazines, sports teams, a movie studio, and a book publisher, to promote his own financial interests at the expense of real newsgathering, legal and regulatory rules, and journalistic ethics. He wields his media as instruments of influence with politicians who can aid him, and savages his competitors in his news columns. If ever someone demonstrated the dangers of mass power being concentrated in few hands, it would be Murdoch.

That was written in 1998, before Fox News had become the “most trusted name in cable news.”

Can conservatives rely upon a network controlled by a man with a political and financial agenda that would lead him to use every means in his power to eliminate the viewpoints that threaten it?

Unelectable?

While Fox has not specifically leveled this charge, Dr. Ron Paul has been accused by some of being unelectable. Ironically, this was the exact terminology used of Ronald Reagan by Gerald Ford in March of 1980.

In fact, Ron Paul has rallied record-breaking support, raising nearly $20 million in the 4^th quarter alone - while breaking single-day fundraising records… twice. And despite any efforts to silence him in the “conservative” media, Paul continues to gain support - particularly via the internet - enough to put him in a tie with Giuliani for 3^rd place in the New Hampshire polls.

Paul has rallied enormous support from traditional conservatives for his stands on the issues. His vehement opposition of federal government expansion and the neo-socialistic welfare state that the Democrats seem hell-bent to create has earned him the respect of constitutionalists of all ages. Younger voters - those who understand that the government can never fulfill its promises regarding Social Security - have been flocking to the Paul camp because they view his “return to sound money policy” as the only hope for righting the economic ship for their futures.

“… it is ’sinful and tyrannical’ to force the American taxpayers to subsidize programs and practices they find morally abhorrent.”

Ron Paul
Recalling a Thomas Jefferson quote before the House of Representatives as he introduced his Sanctity of Life Act of 2007

Paul, a practicing obstetrician for much of his adult life, has also taken a stand on other issues that resonate with conservatives, including the abortion issue. Having delivered over 4,000 babies, he has voted consistently throughout his 10 terms in Congress against every pro-abortion measure.

With all of these conservative qualities, why would the “fair and balanced” network try to eliminate his point of view?