The International Murdoch Media Smearing Of Ron Paul Begins

by Darryl Mason - Oct 12, 2007

The Rupert Murdoch media in the United States mostly pretends Ron Paul doesn't exist, or simply doesn't matter. As hard a myth that is to maintain, Murdoch is clearly backing Giuliani and Billary and no-one else for the White House in 2008. Like most American elites, Murdoch doesn't care if it's Billary or Giuliani, just as long as it isn't Ron Paul in the White House come 2008.

In Australia, now that Ron Paul's infamy is spreading fast, and his reputation as one of the more credible and interesting Republican candidates is taking root, the Murdoch media has decided to kill off the story of a real presidential underdog before it excites too many journalists down under.

The first shot from Murdoch's Australian media claims that Ron Paul's impressive dominance of internet campaigning is merely the result of a "fake online campaign."

Wait. Here's the full headlines from news.com.au :

Republican Ron Paul In Possible 'Fake Online Campaign'

In the story, journalist Mark Schliebs makes a fistful of accusations of online fraud, based on little more than his own opinion and the strategic use of words like 'possible' and 'may'. If the headline wasn't bad enough, check out the opening paragraph :

A candidate for the US presidency is being buoyed by a massive online campaign that may be a fake grassroots movement organised by party staff.

It gets worse, and far more dubious :

YouTube footage of Texan Republican Congressman Ron Paul, whose candidacy has been overshadowed in the media by competitors Rudy Giuliani, Fred Thompson and John McCain, has been viewed by tens of thousands of people in the last week.

As of 11am (AEST) today, a compilation of different clips of Dr Paul was the “Top Rated” video of the past 24 hours.

The clip had been viewed nearly 60,000 times since it was uploaded yesterday.

But it was not the only clip of the Congressman receiving kudos from Youtube users, with another 10 videos appearing in today’s list of the site’s 100 "Top Rated" recordings.

Of the 11 featured clips of Dr Paul, only one user uploaded more than one of them in the last 24 hours.

Just one of the 11 clips in the list was actually featured in today's top 100 "Most Viewed" videos.

Head of Flinders University’s Department of American Studies Don De Bats told NEWS.com.au that it “sounded like” an astroturfing campaign.

Astroturfing is the term used to describe a fake grassroots campaign, where members of an organisation create the illusion that “ordinary people” are behind the movement.

Professor De Bats said that for a relatively unknown candidate like Dr Paul to have so much prominence online was suspicious.

“I would not put any credibility on those results,” Prof De Bats said.

“I find it terrifically surprising and unlikely (that Dr Paul would attract that level of response).”

Earlier this week, the Republican's campaign team issued a press release that said: “Dr Paul's video channel has been viewed 4.5 million times by supporters who embrace his message of freedom and limited government, making him one of the most-watched presidential candidates in internet history.”

Those figures were only based on clips uploaded by one user, RonPaul2008dotcom, who didn’t have any clips in today’s 100 Top Rated list.

What the hell is this guy talking about? Can anyone make sense of this nonsense? The Ron Paul 2008 channel is an election channel, which every presidential wannabe who is seriously pursuing an online audience also has, including Billary, Giuliani and Barack Obama.

It's an online campaign, so of course Ron Paul supporters or Ron Paul's own office is going to post clips, just as the teams behind Giuliani, Billary and Obama are now also doing.

Similar claims of 'astroturfing' have been made about Ron Paul's extraordinary showing in online polls after Republican debates, where he often heartily trounces higher profile candidates like Rudolph Giuliani. Despite the fact that most major media organisations only allow one vote from each IP address for such polls, the smear campaign continues to claim that Ron Paul staffers, and a small pool of supporters, are stacking the polls.

So when there is clear evidence that Ron Paul is making a deep impression with hundreds of thousands of Americans online, via impressive viewing numbers for videos on YouTube, a Murdoch journo tries to claim that this is merely yet another example of astroturfing?

There's many reasons why it is in the interest of the 'establishment' media to try and discredit Ron Paul every chance they get. Here's one reason why - Ron Paul talks like this about the international Murdoch media campaign to ramp up support for a War On Iran:

"Why don't we just open up the Constitution and read it? You're not allowed to go to war without a declaration of war. Now, as far as fleeting enemies goes, yes-- if there's an imminent attack on us. We've never had that happen to us in 220 years. The idea that Iran could pose an imminent attack on the United States is preposterous. There's no way."

"This is just war propaganda preparing this nation to go to war and spread this war not only into Iraq but into Iran unconstitutionally. It is a road to disaster for us as a nation. It is the road to our financial disaster if we don't read the Constitution once in a while."

No wonder they want to shut him up, and shut him down.

What the Murdoch media journo also failed to point out is how miserable the YouTube viewing numbers, and online poll results, are for presidential wannabes like Giuliani, who is supposed to be the chief Republican contender for the White House, and is "electrifying" the Republican heartland, if you believe what you hear on Fox News.

Tens of millions of Americans spend more than three or four hours online every day, but how many of them are drawn to check out Giuliani videos on YouTube? Not many. This Giuliani YouTube video, where he espouses on one of his key platforms, attracted a measly 370 viewings after a week. The clips where Giuliani scores tens of thousands, or hundreds of thousands of viewings, are the ones where he and Ron Paul are going at each other during Republican debates.

Here's Giuliani on free trade (94 viewings), on combating internet predators (113 viewings), and on energy independence for the US (120 viewings) - at the time of this blog posting.

But when an anti-war Republican, who personifies the core values of real American conservatism, and who 'courageously speaks the truth', finds a massive online audience who flock to each new video in their hundreds of thousands, it's all supposed to be fake?

If Ron Paul supporters are so easily stacking YouTube viewing numbers, and online polls, then why aren't Giuliani supporters doing the same?

The Australian Murdoch media story on Ron Paul is a beat-up, hack work, nasty and vindictive and a standard example of the kind of insidious propaganda that gets flung at anyone who hits the American heartland talking of changing the status quo of an American in deep, deep trouble.

The Murdoch journalist also failed to mention the biggest Ron Paul story of the last few weeks - the fact that he has managed to raise $5 million in only a few months, with the vast majority of donations coming in small amounts from tens of thousands of supporters, as opposed to Giuliani who gets a handful of checks worth hundreds of thousands of dollars each instead.

The 'Fake Online Campaign' story has gone up on News Limited's central media website for Australia, and it is likely to filter out into city newspapers across the country tomorrow, and also become fodder for talk back radio. Remember that Rupert Murdoch controls 70% of all Australian newspapers. That's some distribution system for propaganda like the Schliebs story.

The lies propagated by Mark Schliebs will stick, and the rest of the Australian media will follow the Murdoch media line: that Ron Paul's remarkable grassroots support base is nothing more than a fake campaign, organised by his staffers, instead of a revolutionary change to the way Americans elect their presidents, or at least hear what they have to say and what they stand for.Another voice of rational American politics, which could help change the blood-stained international reputation of the United States, has been maligned, and discredited in Australia today.

If more Australians, Europeans, Asians and Russians heard what Ron Paul had to say, the horrific international poll results showing anti-American dissent is soaring across the world might level off a bit.

This Ron Paul video (and remember this is a video clip about politics, not Paris Hilton nude or skateboarding dogs) has been viewed an extraordinary 472,000 times.

Astroturfing? They wish.