World Affairs Brief, February 22, 2008. Commentary and Insights on a Troubled World.
Copyright Joel Skousen. Partial quotations with attribution permitted. Cite source as Joel Skousen’s World Affairs Brief
SUDDENLY THE MEDIA IS INTERESTED IN RON PAUL–AT LEAST IN HIS DEFEAT
This week NPR radio had the forthrightness to read two letters from listeners critical of their coverage of Ron Paul. In essence both said, “You didn’t give Ron Paul the time of day during his active campaign for President and now you do a major story on him because he has a primary challenge to his Congressional race. It seems like you are only interested in his defeat!”
Yes, the establishment has put up a neo-con “conservative” to challenge Rep. Paul for his Congressional seat: turn-coat Chris Peden who used to speak highly of Ron Paul. Thomas Woods provides some interesting background on how this challenge came to be.
“On January 12, 2007, a Texas city councilman named Chris Peden told the Galveston Daily News, ‘I have an immense amount of respect for Ron Paul. Politics has a way of forcing people to go against their core principles for political gain. That has never been the case for Ron Paul.’ In case you don’t know, Chris Peden is now Ron Paul’s congressional challenger in the Republican primary in Texas’ 14th District.”
Here’s Peden giving his best neocon spiel: “I think Islamo-Fascist terrorists were responsible for the 9/11 attacks; the incumbent thinks America’s Middle East policies were responsible for the attacks. The terrorists ‘wish to destroy our way of life because they abhor freedom, democracy, and liberty.’ We should continue to encourage democracy around the world ‘even if it takes the remainder of the century.'” Of course, Peden fails to point out where America is going to get all the money and manpower to tilt at these windmills for the next century. As the Comptroller General of the US David Walker recently told Glenn Beck, “this nation is bankrupt.” Sadly, Walker is now being forced out for being so forthright with the truth.
But the real story behind the story of Chris Peden is the influence of a high level Republican shill in Texas: Kathy Haigler. Again, the research comes from Thomas Woods of LewRockwell.com
“There’s also an interesting story behind Kathy Haigler, the lady that Peden quotes all over his website. Peden has gone out of his way to make it appear like she’s some sort of a constituent or representative of the 14th District. She isn’t. Kathy actually lives in neighboring Congressional District 22, an entire county removed from Ron Paul’s district. Her representative is Democrat Nick Lampson, and she is currently the campaign manager for a Republican opponent of Lampson in the CD 22 primary named Robert Talton.
“Kathy has also had a personal agenda against the libertarian wing of the Republican Party for years, which explains her strong animosity to Paul. You probably read about the Tom DeLay fiasco in 2006, when the courts prevented the Republican Party from naming a successor. The court ruling basically barred the Republican Party from putting a new nominee on the ballot after DeLay resigned, leaving them with the option of either backing Libertarian Party nominee Bob Smither or launching a certain-to-fail write-in campaign.
“In the days that followed the court ruling there was a serious discussion among Republican Party insiders about endorsing Smither if he would agree to caucus with the GOP and vote for a Republican speaker… Smither was open to the plan and immediately agreed to caucus with the GOP if elected, and to cast his votes under the
guidance of our very own Ron Paul.
“Then enter Kathy Haigler. She caught wind of the effort to recruit Smither, and for whatever reason – her hatred of libertarianism, her wish to be a ‘player,’ her own overstated sense of self-importance – she began personally working the entire State Republican Executive Committee membership list to trash Smither. She accused him of being an anti-family values social liberal (ironic because Smither is a Christian homeschooler who heads up a missing children recovery charity), she implied that he was pro-abortion (he wasn’t), she accused his Republican backers (including Patterson) of deviating from the ‘party platform’ that she herself has apparently never read.
“Needless to say, Haigler’s smear campaign against Smither worked. Smither attempted to go to the meeting of the State Republican Party [but] was barred at the door largely at Haigler’s instigation. Haigler rallied the group behind a dingbat Houston City Councilwoman named Shelley Sekula-Gibbs, whose brief congressional career as the placeholder for the last month in Tom DeLay’s term was a spectacular embarrassment to the entire state of Texas.”
The end result of Haigler’s machinations was the loss of the District in the next election to a Democrat. Woods asks, “What happened to make Peden go from an admirer to an opponent — and not just an opponent, but one who is running a vicious and dishonest smear campaign against the very man he so recently praised? I have no idea.”
I do. Haigler appears to me to be a party hack directed by the national party bosses to sabotage any political threat from the constitutional conservatives in that area of Texas. They went looking for someone to oppose Paul and promised lots of support. Hopefully the conservative Democrats and Republicans of the 14th District which have supported Paul in the past will be repulsed by this neocon propaganda and support Paul again. In any case, Ron needs your support since he cannot use his Presidential campaign funds for his Congressional primary contest. Go to http://www.ronpaulforcongress.com to contribute.
Michelle
Maybe the R(love)ution will be televised.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jy8JJU0W8po
Viv la Ron Paul. Viv la liberté!
taylor quigly
NPR is as much a biased establishment shill as any of the other lamestream media. NPR has its (military industrial complex) corporate underwriters, dontcha know, that must be served by propaganda and lies.
On the 2 Fridays after Ron Paul’s 2007 record-breaking moneybombs, Diane Riehm’s weekly news roundup, which spends 1 hour on U.S. politics, did not even mention Ron Paul’s name! They discussed in length all the personality politico hacks, but not Dr. Paul’s history-making contributrion events. Needless to say, I have not tuned into NPR since (and I used to be a supporter and donor).
Scott Frost
The exposure of the extent of the mainstream media’s bias and lack of journalistic integrity is one of the positive things that came out of this election cycle, regardless of the outcome of Ron Paul’s presidential or Congressional elections.
I used to watch MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann because he was humorous, more or less anti-war and good at pointing out the flaws in the Bush administration. Then, as the presidential campaign progressed and I never once heard him utter the name “Ron Paul,” I lost respect for Olbermann’s show and stopped watching.
I had already lost respect for Fox “News,” even before this election cycle began, but it reached a new all-time low when I witnessed Fox excluding Ron Paul from a debate which they sponsoered, for no good reason, in addition to some really horrible interviews and Ron Paul smears. In one interview, the Fox anchor asked Ron Paul to answer her questions in one word. Talk about childish and unprofessional! Then there were all of the times that Fox left out Ron Paul’s poll results or election results, even when they were better than the media-annointed “top tier” candidates’ numbers. I ended up deleting Fox News from my TV channel line-up. I don’t miss it.
The New York Times attempted to smear Ron Paul and, ultimately, had to half-heartedly take their “story” (complete fiction, actually) back in one of the most weasle-like retractions I have ever read. Now there is this John McCain situation. If McCain has a serious scandal, why did the New York Times endorse him when even the McCain campaign acknowledges that the Times’ story was in the works weeks before the New Hampshire primary? If McCain does not have a scandal on his hands, the Times should not have printed the story. Why is the New York Times the most respected newspaper in the country? It should be a laughing stock.
The Seattle Times printed a front page article about the Republican primary in Washington state the day before the polls opened which focused on McCain and Huckabee, mentioned Romney, and even Fred Thompson, several times, but did not mention Ron Paul even once. Not once! This is in a state where Ron Paul had received almost 22% of the delegates in the state caucus just ten days before. Such occurrences are journalistic negligence. It makes you wonder what else they know but are choosing not to tell us — and for what reasons?
I will give credit to the L.A. Times’ “Top of the Ticket” blog for continuing to cover Ron Paul, even with a bit of respect once in a while, and to CNN’s “The Situation Room” for continuing to mention Ron Paul and invite him on for interviews, albeit infrequently. Wolf Blitzer and Jack Cafferty have been the most fair to Ron Paul of any mainstream media TV personalities who I am aware of. CNN’s Glenn Beck started off horrible, accusing Ron Paul’s supporters of being terrorists, but he seems to have come around and gives Ron some respect now.
But overall, the mainstream media “coverage” of Ron Paul has been embarrassingly bad. What we have in this country is not objective journalism. That is a depressing thing to realize, especially after years of making fun of countries that clearly have big government propaganda in place of news. It turns out we aren’t much better than they are. How very sad and pathetic.
Scott Frost
I should follow up on that comment that I made about what the media people know but are not telling us. A couple of examples which come to mind are Sibel Edmonds, with her allegations of high level government officials giving away U.S. nuclear secrets, and the story about the undersea communications cables being cut in the middle east. When four major undersea communications cables are mysteriously cut within a few days of each other, that’s a story. But you only hear about these things in the foreign media or on the internet, not in the mainstream U.S. media.
I no longer trust the government OR the mainstream media. Why should I? Trust has to be earned and they have been caught lying overtly and/or by omission far too many times to be considered trustworthy anymore.
James
The man who posted above me stole my thunder. Everything he said I agree with totally. Even the Keith Olbermann comment. I used to rush home to listen to Keith olbermann go on about the Bush’s and I would think, Damn this man is the only journalist on TV.
I don’t think that anymore. I have stopped believe anything they say and realize we are living under tyranny as I type these words.
You want the truth? Don’t watch the News and use the Internet while we still have it. They will close it down soon enough.
Our news organization is a sorry excuse for one claiming to tell the truth. But hundreds of thousands have had their eyes open to what is going on and now we are looking at them for being part of the corruption. They are all frauds and liars and paid two bit actors.
Javier
I agree, if anything stood out crystal clear, during this election so far, is the total bias that the MSM has. It is so disgusting that I no longer watch FOX and anything on the other news channels I can only believe partially, because I have no idea if it is true or just another made up story, to comply with the orders of those that are controlling the news.
The move to suppress Ron Paul involves most of the Media and it is so obvious, that it makes it easy for us to recognize who’s doing it. We’ll remember.
It is sad times, when we can no longer trust our Government,Politicians, Broadcasters, News Media and Information on Medicines or Food.
I can only hope that the masses realize how bad the problem really is, before it is too late.
Ron McKuen
“….frauds & liars & paid two bit actors.” What a beautiful phrase. Unfortunately, all too true. Also unfortunate is the fact that we have only ourselves to blame. Through the efforts of our Government, our public schools and ultimately STUPIDWHITEPEOPLE, our society is a shinning example of the ultimate effects of all those years living and learning to the standards of that “vast waste-land” that now defines our culture. Welcome, welcome indeed, to the Brave New World. This Nation bankrupt? Well, fire the accountants and print more money, no one is smart enough to know the difference.
Tricia
My seven-year-old son wanted to listen to the NPR election coverage on Super Tuesday. We listened for a few minutes and there was not one word on Ron Paul, but plenty on other candidates. Mike Gravel also seemed to receive the media shaft. I have lost a lot of respect for NPR and instead of just refusing to listen when Bush is on, I now refuse to listen at all, to what has surely become National Propaganda Radio.
Will Spain
Look at what we have allowed again America.
come November look at what we have to choose between.
The Lesser of the Least.
We let the media do it to us again, and I was oh so hopeful for real change.
daddysteve
If you want more news gauranteed to make you nervous then check out GATA.ORG . Sherman anti-trust Act violations to keep the price of gold down and instill confidence in the worthless dollar. These people aren’t wackos, they’re international commodities traders going up against the central banking monolith. If this stuff is true(and they have a butt-load of evidence)then crisis could loom more closely than even my pessimistic mind had imagined.
Barry Tipton
Daddysteve………….thanx for the GATA link. The hour is late.
We’re screwed, I’m afraid. But, I for one, will never quit the fight, even unto death.
Brett Celinski
Does anybody even pretend to believe that Ron Paul is going to lose in March? Anybody?
Barry Tipton
Brett……………you mean “win in March”?
It’s not about winning today, Brett. It’s really not even about Ron Paul.
It’s about Right vs. Wrong
It’s about liberty
It’s about keeping our hard earned wages, not surrendering a portion of them to the crooked Fed. Res., only for them to send it to China.
It’s about saving our Constitutional Republic.
It’s about keeping my descendants OUT of slavery
It’s about liars, thieves, counterfeiters, fascism, con-artists
It’s Good vs. Evil
And finally, it’s about the U.S. Constitution.
Do you really not get this ??
Ken Caudill
I am sorely disappointed in NPR. I don’t know why. It has been on the steady decline since the Reagan years. Still a wan hope that they would cover issues instead of personalities lingered.
At least we still have Garrison Keillor.
tobefree
Ken,
May Lake Wobegon actually happen in our lives,
whether the economy turns around or not.
Jeff Fenske : )
Fascist Nation
I keep say the Corporate Media can say whatever they wish about Paul as long as they spell his name correctly.
And David Walker is leaving to go to head the Peterson Foundation. Peter G. Peterson (81) had endorsed McCain and he is a past Chairman of the CFR and is a former chairman of the NY Federal Reserve Bank. Go figure.
http://www.dailypaul.com/node/38350
Brett Celinski
Barry,
I meant to say, does anybody really think the Dr. is going to lose?
Even NRO’s Freddoso doesn’t buy that, and from Mark Elam’s word, Paul’s got the nomination sealed in terms of poll numbers.
Not to mention fundraising ;). I just donated $25 today.