Gary Johnson Slaps CBS with FEC and FCC Complaints Over Debate Shutout

As the media bias commentator here on HillBuzz, I try to help voters understand how media bias works, how to recognize it, and how to tell if your opinions actually belong to you, or if you’re just repeating a meme planted in your head by the Democrat-Controlled Media.

I tend to use the Ron Paul campaign coverage to illustrate this, because bias against his campaign is the most obvious. (Ron Paul is third in fundraising, has won more straw polls than all other GOP candidates, #1 in donations from active duty military, and is polling #2 in Iowa and New Hampshire, and yet, is dead last in media coverage.)

There are two broad categories of media bias: sins of commission and sins of omission. Both are equally effective, but they’re used differently against different GOP candidates.

If a candidate’s closet is stuffed full of skeletons, or even just rumors of skeletons, the Democrat-Controlled Media will go over those skeletons with a microscope, and blast “news” of those skeletons into the ears of GOP voters with bullhorns 24/7 (See Herman Cain).

If a candidate is skeleton-free, and has a powerful message, the Democrat-Controlled Media simply pretends they don’t exist (see Michelle Bachmann, Ron Paul and Gary Johnson.)

The most recent example of this kind of exclusionary bias was delivered to us via CBS “News” last week. As has been widely reported, Ron Paul was asked only one question, and got only 89 seconds of airtime, during the one-hour televised portion of the debate. Michelle Bachmann received several more questions, but was rudely cut off during several answers, whereas other candidates (Mitt Romney, Rick Perry) were allowed to speak as long as they cared to. And Gary Johnson was excluded from the debate altogether, despite polling numbers that are similar to those of Rick Santorum, who was included.

This obvious bias has inspired Gary Johnson’s presidential campaign to file official complaints with both the Federal Election Commission (FEC) and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). His complaint styles the CBS debate as an “illegal campaign contribution”–essentially, an under-the-table in-kind donation to the candidates who were included in the debate and got the most air time. As reported on TheHill.com,

Johnson’s complaint charges that debate sponsor CBS significantly contributed to the candidates who were allowed to participate in the debate, “directly and significantly supporting those candidates it favors, and advocating the nomination of one of their favorites and opposing the nomination of [Johnson], whom CBS evidently disfavors.”  [...]

Saturday’s debate, co-hosted by CBS and National Journal, was the first debate to air on broadcast television. According to Johnson’s complaint, “the public owns the airways over which CBS broadcasts, and the public deserves to be free from bias — favoring some candidates over others — as well as illegal support of certain presidential candidates on national network television.”

Given the fact that CBS “News” Political Director John Dickerson knew in advance that Michelle Bachmann wouldn’t get many questions, it does tend to confirm Gary Johnson’s charge that the CBS debate was stage-managed to favor certain candidates over others.

This is just the latest and most obvious effort by the Democrat-Controlled Media to nominate Mitt Romney. As CNN’s Howard Kurtz notes in this segment after the Iowa Straw Poll, “We are in the business of kicking candidates out of the race.”

Also Recommended:

• Sarah Palin on Ron Paul Media Blackout, CBS Debate
• GOP Presidential Debate Watch Thread
• Does Johnson + Johnson Support the Statutory Rape of 14 year-old Girls?
• GOP Debate Watch Thread: Dartmouth, WaPo, Bloomberg
• Oakland University GOP Debate Advance Questions

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