Ron Paul Misses NPR Opportunity

[expatinireland]

And when you say "I think this has happened many times," what evidence do we really have? Because this just sounds like groupthink to me. I'm not saying they haven't dropped the ball, but we can't get down on every little thing.

One journalist, whose name escapes me right now, wrote a column on how bad Ron Paul's media relations were and that this was the reason for the campaign receiving scant media attention. I will post the column if I can find it.

 

[Renter45]

One journalist, whose name escapes me right now, wrote a column on how bad Ron Paul's media relations were and that this was the reason for the campaign receiving scant media attention. I will post the column if I can find it.

Yeah, I remember reading that column... and his excuse was that Ron Paul was more interested in talking with donors than the press. Well, I remember that event, and if you saw how upset all of us donors were because Ron Paul's plane was delayed, you'd have chosen to spoke with the donors instead of the press, too!

 

[teshuah]

I was listening to NPR yesterday, to their mid-morning show "Roundtable". On the show, one guest was saying how the media covered Ralph Nader's announcement to no end, but despite the many Ron Paul signs she sees around her town, she never hears about him in the media. At this point, the hosts said that they approached him numerous times (since the Fox News debate he was cut from) to do an interview, but they never received a response. They said that they were willing to give him an ENTIRE HOUR. Everybody at the Roundtable studio was interested in hearing from him. Can somebody get this message back to the campaign?

He was briefly interviewed by NPR before his appearnance in Minneapolis Feb 4th

 

[coffeewithchess]

That seems reasonable, but do we know why they didn't? If I were Ron Paul, I'd want to talk about it once (like on Wolf Blitzer) and then forget about it. I think it'd be smart not to talk about the newsletters more than you have to. Do we know that this wasn't Ron Paul's strategy?

Yea...talk about it once...why? Considering not everybody in America watches CNN and some of the people listening to NPR might not watch CNN, why wouldn't the campaign want to make sure the truth was heard by everybody that had the chance, just so they could hear it from the "horse's mouth" that RP didn't write them.

 

[liberteebell]

Which newspaper? Was it local? Is it reasonable for HQ with limited resrouces to respond to every little local request at the expense of more important ones?

And when you say "I think this has happened many times," what evidence do we really have? Because this just sounds like groupthink to me. I'm not saying they haven't dropped the ball, but we can't get down on every little thing.

This was the Virginian-Pilot. It serves the very large (about 1.6 million people) and very military area of Tidewater Virginia. Norfolk alone is home to the LARGEST naval base in the world. Since Ron Paul received the most in military donations than any other candidate, I wouldn't think it would be too much trouble to return a phone call.

And yes, I personally know of several other times requests have been made of HQ and the response was chirping crickets. Not answering the phone or returning emails is completely unacceptable to me. HQ could have easily assigned a spokesperson in the grassroots in each state to answer media requests if it was too much for them. I can speak for myself and many other people; we would have been more than happy to do that. As it was, I couldn't get a response out of them for anything.

Sorry, but I think good communication is paramount to getting information out there. And since the msm was ignoring Ron Paul, what better way to get the word out than through local media??

 

[expatinireland]

Yeah, I remember reading that column... and his excuse was that Ron Paul was more interested in talking with donors than the press. Well, I remember that event, and if you saw how upset all of us donors were because Ron Paul's plane was delayed, you'd have chosen to spoke with the donors instead of the press, too!

No, a candidate that wants to win would talk to the press first, and knowledgeable sympathetic supporters such as Ron Paul has would understand that press relations take precedence.

Unfortunately, the campaign staff have made a bollix of press relations.

 

[Renter45]

This was the Virginian-Pilot. It serves the very large (about 1.6 million people) and very military area of Tidewater Virginia. Norfolk alone is home to the LARGEST naval base in the world. Since Ron Paul received the most in military donations than any other candidate, I wouldn't think it would be too much trouble to return a phone call.

And yes, I personally know of several other times requests have been made of HQ and the response was chirping crickets. Not answering the phone or returning emails is completely unacceptable to me. HQ could have easily assigned a spokesperson in the grassroots in each state to answer media requests if it was too much for them. I can speak for myself and many other people; we would have been more than happy to do that. As it was, I couldn't get a response out of them for anything.

Sorry, but I think good communication is paramount to getting information out there. And since the msm was ignoring Ron Paul, what better way to get the word out than through local media??

Sure, agree with that totally, but it's also impossible for Ron Paul to do every local press op that comes along. It seems reasonable to me to pick those that have the biggest impact. So I can't comment on your specific examples, but were they national shows? Or were they local things in states that were unimportant at the time?

And as far as grassroots spokesmen... isn't that illegal? I'm pretty sure there can't be colluding with us in the grassroots cuz then we'd need to be paid.

 

[Renter45]

No, a candidate that wants to win would talk to the press first, and knowledgeable sympathetic supporters such as Ron Paul has would understand that press relations take precedence.

Unfortunately, the campaign staff have made a bollix of press relations.

I don't know much about how the campaign has handled press appearances, but it does seem true to me that when Ron Paul is traveling, there's only so much press that he can do. I would think the campaign would want to schedule him as much as possible (I mean, why wouldn't they want to?), but I doubt he has all that time.

And you think us supporters we're understand? We're crazy sometimes... imagine if Ron Paul said "sorry, i can't do the philly rally when you want it because i'm going on a local affiliate of NPR" !!

 

[DFF]

Y'know, Ron Paul's been involved in politics for a LONG time. Longer than a lot of us on these forums have been alive. The man knows the ins and outs. So in my eyes, he's more culpable for these screwups than HQ are. And don't even get me started on missed opportunities during the last two debates...

 

[Bossobass]

My complaints about HQ stem from, among other things, the pre-election guide in our newspaper omitting Ron Paul. I called the reporter, who is usually excellent at election coverage. He told me that he had tried for a week to contact the campaign and they never returned his calls.

Now, if this had been an isolated incident, I'd blow it off but sadly, I think this has happened many times and this NPR thing is probably another example.

I could just cry.

Must be one hell of a reporter if he needed HQ to get the info he needed for his pre-election guide. It didn't take much to send you away blaming Ron Paul for his glaring omission.

I recall the time in Iowa when Larry King made Ron stand out in the freezing cold (you could see his breath for F's sake) to do a 'live' interview that wasn't being aired.

The ABC interview with Stossel that was relegated to the web only 'because RP is popular on the web but not in real life'.

I was duped into passing along to the campaign the numerous requests for RP to sit with Glenn Beck, who I had never heard of until then. After all the whining that RP was wrong to stand this hack up, he finally did agree to this 'exclusive offer of a whole hour'. That interview was the most bizarre bowl of tripe I've ever had to sit through.

Neither was NPR RP friendly at all. I certainly would like to see names, dates and details before I condemn anyone for this presumed wasted chance.

Remember, listening to an NPR interview after the fact on you tube has nothing to do with any impact that interview may have had in real life. As was already brought up, what the details of the interview request were is not known and that would include a lot of variables.

RP agreed to an ABC request for full access to his campaign trail which ended up being called 'On the Trail, the Lone Reporter with Paul'. The reporter (Zach Wolf, you know, the BIG name reporter from ABC) was given full access to the point of being able to hold a grand baby and ride in Ron's vehicle with him. It ended up buried on the web site. Anyone remember seeing it?

Let me say this for those who haven't been paying any attention at all: There is a media blackout against Ron Paul. It is NOT because the media is struggling to get info to report. It is NOT because some paid staffer didn't answer the phone or forgot to tell Ron ABC, NBC, CBS and Fox called repeatedly for over a week.

Bosso