So I recently expressed both my anger and skepticism at Fox News over the “honest mistake” regarding the CPAC response to Ron Paul, when another huge media whitewash occurred the other day; only this time, it was much more personal to me.
In case you missed it, the Daily Show had a bit the other day on all the new presidential hopefuls to run against Obama in 2012, only Ron Paul’s name is never mentioned! This clip is over seven minutes long, and mentions eight presidential hopefuls*, and Ron Paul’s name is mysteriously omitted? Didn’t the guy just win the frickin CPAC? Can someone please explain how it’s possible to write a piece of news on the noteworthy candidates of 2012 and somehow just completely forget to include the one that many consider to be the biggest threat to the establishment? How’s that for blatant media corruption? Say it ain’t so Jon!
I mention that I take this personal as I am a big fan of Jon Stewart and the Daily Show. However, I can’t possibly ignore or make excuses for something this unexplainable. Not only is this omission totally unacceptable, the “honest mistake” excuse has already been played, and since it didn’t work on me the first time…
Another question I have to ponder is; how many more hopefuls would it have taken before the Daily Show staff were forced to acknowledge Ron Paul as a candidate? Was he edited out as a close #9? Or is it far more likely that it didn’t really matter? I’d say the smart money is on the latter…
The clip runs from about 1:00-8-55:
*the eight presidential hopefuls featured in the bit are Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Haley Barbour, Tim Pawlenty, Mike Huckabee, Sarah Palin, Donald Trump, and Mitch Daniels.
Want to know why this is so significant? The recent CPAC straw poll results have Ron Paul claiming 31% of the votes! That means that if you exclude Mitt Romney with 22%, and give Donald Trump 100% of the “other” votes (5%), Ron Paul still outscores all seven of the other candidates featured in the Daily Show bit combined, 31% to 29%! What an audacious whitewash!
Eccentric Perspective 
You are absolutely right. Ron Paul isn’t corrupt and he is honest. Jon Stewart has nothing bad/funny to say about Ron without making himself look bad but at the same time he hates Ron Paul’s ideology so his only way to deal with this is to ignore him. I think Jon is indeed afraid. I was angry at first when i realized he was going to be ignored but i knew it was coming. This is not a surprise from the Daily Show. But now I’m happy because it shows they fear him. They all fear a weak, soft spoken, old man. Because ideas are more powerful than armies.
Fair points, but I do have to admit that I’m still a loyal fan of Jon Stewart even when I’m forced to criticize him at times. My view is that I don’t believe Jon necessarily dislikes Ron Paul, I just think that at the end of the day, Jon ultimately (perhaps a little reluctantly?) works for the establishment. Obviously, Comedy Central allows a lot more leeway and freedom with the Daily Show’s creativity (versus a more “serious” news program/network), but I don’t believe Jon honestly has 100% control over his show either. But regardless, I still feel that Jon and staff do a great job of pushing the boundaries of “what can be said and shown on television” so overall I feel that the show still does far more good than harm… assuming the viewer can differentiate the reality from the fiction.
To be fair however, there is a possibility that I could have a blind spot for Stewart as well. Is there perhaps a parallel between Jon and the character he played in “Death to Smoochy?” Been a while since I’ve seen it, but it really wouldn’t matter to me anyway as I refuse to believe Jon is a perpetrator of bad deeds, even if he does look like the bad guy when he has to occasionally play by the establishment’s rules. Speaking of which, have you heard the news about Cenk Uygur? If not, I highly recommend it.
But you also nailed the most important points: “it shows they fear him” and “ideas are more powerful than armies.”
What gets me is how pathetic the media acts when it comes to covering Ron Paul, and every time they pull these tricks it shows how desperate and corrupt the establishment really is… This is no longer silly conspiracy theories anymore; the cartoonish level of greed and corruption are so apparent now that these theories can no longer be denied. How bad is it? You know things are bad when even the comedy news has to openly attempt to whitewash a winning candidate to continue to keep the public in the dark about him… comedy show or not, this is what the system looks like when it’s really desperate to save itself… and ironically, it looks just as absurd 😉
I like both Jon and Paul. Although The Daily Show has both sponsors and producers, I don’t think their content is regulated in any other way or by anyone else. They pretty much say what they please. Jon has a lot of control and he chooses to push his agenda, which is roughly half libertarian and half social progressive. Jon and Paul agree on social issues and civil liberty and disagree on economic issues.
Maybe Jon just ran out of jokes? They only thing he can call Ron Paul is a kook or a racist and those two are so played out by now that no one would laugh.