NH NEWSPAPER LOW ON RON PAUL COVERAGE?
Tuesday, September 18, 2007 - FreeMarketNews.com
On Sunday, Presidential candidate Ron Paul (R-Tex) won a big straw poll
victory in Manchester New Hampshire (see results below) but reporters from
the state's biggest newspaper - also headquartered in Manchester -
apparently didn't show up to cover it. A search of both Google and the
newspaper's site itself - the Manchester Union Leader - brought up no
articles about the straw poll victory.
Calls placed to the newspaper brought a response that the paper probably
hadn't been aware of the straw poll, nor of its results; yet sources close
to the Manchester GOP said the newspaper likely had been alerted as to the
straw poll. Another GOP source defended the paper's coverage, saying the
newspaper didn't seem to be covering many straw polls thus far in the
primary campaign - and that this was the Manchester GOP"s very first.
None of this is palliative for those who support Ron Paul and believe he
is
not being given the coverage he deserves by the newspaper which has been
seen as one of the pre-eminent print voices for the kind of small
government, conservative "libertarianism" that Ron Paul represents.
Here's what an article in the Spring 2007 Commonwealth had to say:
"Closer to Boston, the Manchester Union Leader, New Hampshire's only
statewide newspaper and once the mouthpiece of the notorious
ultraconservative publisher William Loeb, is now owned by a less strident
nonprofit. In 1999 Loeb's widow, Nackey Scripps Loeb, a member of the
well-known Scripps newspaper family, founded the Nackey S. Loeb School of
Communications down the street from the Union Leader. When she died, in
2000, the school inherited a 75 percent share of the paper. (The other 25
percent is owned by a trust left by William Loeb, the proceeds from which
will eventually be distributed among the paper's 300 or so employees.)"
http://www.massinc.org/index.php?id=625&pub_id=2096&bypass=1
The controversy over what the newspaper stands for and what candidates it
is
favoring is important to the Ron Paul campaign because of upcoming events
such as the Ron Paul Family Walk that are kicking off Ron Paul's major
push
to win in New Hampshire.
Because independent candidates can vote in the New Hampshire primary, and
because of New Hampshire's bias toward small-government conservatives like
Ron Paul, the Texas candidate has a chance to do very well in New
Hampshire,
as did Patrick Buchanan in the 1990s.
Ron Paul's most recent victory comes on the heels of polls that show that
support for Ron Paul has surged to five percent or more in New Hampshire.
This is not much less, according to New Hampshire political veterans, than
Buchanan was polling before he outright won his New Hampshire primary in
the
1990s.
Meanwhile, according to the Manchester GOP, "Hundreds of New Hampshire
Republicans attended our first-ever Republican Rally in Veteran's Park
Sunday. We thank all who attended and who helped to make this a successful
day. ... Thanks to guest speakers Rep. Jeb Bradley, Manchester Mayor Frank
Guinta, John Stephen, Joe Kenney, and John Cox."
The results of the Presidential Straw Poll - as previously reported by
FMNN
and elsewhere - were:
Ron Paul 66%
Fred Thompson 10%
Rudy Giuliani 9%
Mike Huckabee 7%
Mitt Romney 3%
Tom Tancredo 2%
John Cox 2%
John McCain 1%
Sam Brownback .5%
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