James Robert Kelley

The Fox News Unfair in the Balance article gave an example of how Fox News shows bias toward Ron Paul in the 2008 Presidential election process, but CNN is not innocent in this matter.

When looking at the CNN website today I noticed a prominently displayed chart that details the fund raising numbers for each of the Presidential Candidates. A copy of the chart, taken from http://www.cnn.com/ELECTION/2008/candidates/ is below:

The chart is on a page with current information, and shows a ranking of candidate fund raising. If you notice the small print, the chart states “TOTAL as of 9/30/2007.” The reason this is misleading is that news agencies have already posted results of 4th quarter fund raising and readers are assuming they are seeing current information (this is a NEWs agency). Ron Paul, who is dead last in this chart, actually raised more money that the two Republican front-runners combined in the 4th quarter; cash on hand is also greater than the combined amount of Mitt Romney and John McCain.

Why would CNN do this? Ask ABC and the Associated Press why they recently released financial numbers and completely left the top earner off of their report. This happens so frequently that no argument can be made that this isn’t an intentional pattern.

This whole debacle causes me to remember one of the plot threads from the Mel Gibson movie Braveheart. The establishment on both sides of the conflict was more interested in their own promotion and importance that they were willing to sacrifice freedom. Today we have oppressive organizations that seek to maintain their power, even if it means sacrificing what is most important.