Is Fox Excluding Ron Paul from Republican Forum?

Fox News is putting together a forum of Republican candidates to take place two days before the New Hampshire Primary. The release indicates; «Participating in the forum will be Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, John McCain, Mitt Romney and Fred Thompson.» Notice there is no mention of Ron Paul. Ron Paul’s people have contacted the NH GOP Chairman and asked if Paul would be invited and were told that this was unknown. The Chair indicated that this was in the planning stage but that the decision was ultimately Fox’s.

If this is a forum for Republican candidates then Ron Paul should be included as should any other person who is running for the Republican nomination. Fox would not consider excluding Romney or Giuliani and if they did there would be an uproar. The idea of the forums is for voters to get to know the candidates and to be better informed for when they vote. Eliminating any candidate tarnishes the process and makes it appear as if the media (in this case Fox) is deciding for voters who they should and should not hear.

Ron Paul has raised a great deal of money in this quarter and he has a lot of supporters regardless of what his poll numbers show (though money or not, all candidates should be invited). By ignoring him Fox is demonstrating that they are afraid of his candidacy and that they worry he might actually be the nominee. One would think Fox would be a little more sensitive to this considering how the Democrats refused to attend a debate sponsored by the network. Fox was none too pleased to have its credibility challenged and yet the network acts in a way that leaves it open to such criticisms.

Ron Paul deserves to be heard and the people who support him deserve to have their candidate at that event unless he chooses not to participate. All candidates should be invited and all candidates should be heard. Anything less is harmful to the election process and disenfranchises voters.

I did notice that in addition to Ron Paul, Duncan Hunter is not mentioned in the invite. I do not know if he was invited and declined or if he was excluded along with Paul.

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