A Petition for Fair and Equal Treatment in the Media of Dr Ron Paul's Presidential Election Campaign

WHEREAS Congressman Ron Paul has shown based upon the first two debate sponsors' own polling data that he is the true frontrunner for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in 2008, and...

WHEREAS MSNBC's own website contains proof via their own post-debate polling that Dr. Paul won the first debate in San Diego on 5-3-07 handily, and WHEREAS Fox News's own call-in polls during and after their sponsored 5-15-07 debate showed that Ron Paul came in a close second at this debate in South Carolina, and WHEREAS an ABC poll showed Dr. Paul as the Republican favorite of over 80% of those participating, and...

WHEREAS this type of performance for someone who was considered a "dark horse" or "third tier" candidate by the major media prior to those achievements would normally merit extraordinary positive coverage by the major media of all types (print, etlectronic, television, radio, etc.) including talk of a "phenomenal breakthrough" in the Congressman's campaign, and...

WHEREAS the mainstream media has not only failed to report the facts of Dr. Paul's amazing campaign successes to date, but have continued to denigrate the candidate, to downgrade his prospects for success, and to mischaracterize what Dr. Paul has said and what he stands for.  And WHEREAS there is an obvious attempt currently underway in the mainstream media to undermine Dr. Paul's campaign with biased and dishonest reporting and to influence the public  perception of the candidate with misleading, and sometimes blatantly false information--examples of which are too numerous to recount in detail here--now then, it is incumbent upon all Americans who truly honor the democratic process and take seriously their allegiance to the United States Constitution to demand that the major media outlets of this nation do their duty to fairly and accurately report the news and to support the democratic process by treating all candidates equally, accurately and with equal respect.

The undersigned hereby demand that from this point forward Dr. Paul be given the status that he has earned of being referred to as a "first-tier candidate" in the reporting done by all named television news agencies, that he be issued a public apology for the aggregious acts of slander, disrespect and false reporting to which he has thus far been submitted, and that he be given equal time and equal treatment in all future Republican debates with the candidates that were previously annointed as the "Republican frontrunners" by the same named news agencies.

Finally, should the named news agencies continue to slander, mischaracterize, and denigrate Dr. Paul and to continue to under-report or hide the true results of their own polling data to this point and from this point, the undersigned will call upon their Congressional representatives for Special Joint Hearings to be done well before the Republican primiray season begins with regard to these matters, such hearings to take place within the United States Congress and to be of sufficient scope and duration to ascertain proper remedies to the damage that has already been done as a result of the actions of the named news agencies to the democratic process.

Given under our hand on this day,

The undersigned....