Dr. Phil is a Joke Blog

Some sloppy reporting, instant web indignation, and holiday vacations produced a surge of hysteria that might have been avoided.

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by William Westmiller
(Libertarian)

One of the hazards of instant mass communication is that incorrect stories can get distributed immediately. A particular hazard during holiday vacations.

There is NO NH DEBATE on January 6th. Ron Paul was NOT EXCLUDED. That event was canceled three weeks ago.

Ron WILL participate in the January 5th ABC/WMUR GOP debate in New Hampshire.

So, what happened?

Months ago, NH GOP chairman Fergus Cullen had been in touch with FoxNews about a possible forum on January 6th. He had even contacted all the GOP candidates to see whether they were available. However, plans for the ABC debate were finalized with all candidates early in December and Cullen "threw in the towel." See "OUTFOXED" in the NH Union Leader of December 16^th.

At that time, Cullen had not received a response from Ron Paul, who had committed to a conflicting luncheon at the NH Liberty Forum at the same time.

Skip ahead to December 27th, when the Union Leader reported that all candidates had agreed to the ABC/WMUR debate and reporter Garry Rayno added a confusing paragraph about Giuliani finally agreeing to the (canceled) January 6th forum, which had already been converted into a simple state GOP brunch.

Due to the timing of this article, there was no way to confirm who will or won't attend the brunch, but it is not a broadcast debate and has nothing to do with FoxNews. Nevertheless, a blog in Washington picked up the story, scrambled it and their "BHDC Staff" reported a list of the candidates who would be attending, which did not include Ron Paul (he hadn't officially confirmed, due to the conflict).

That story was picked up by the AP Newswire, which added some information that it had from a month earlier about the format being discussed.

Finally, the AP article was picked up by Lew Rockwell and passed along to DailyPaul.com, with all the errors intact. Of course, a firestorm ensued on all the Ron Paul nets before the information could be verified. Immediately, thousands of messages went to FoxNews and the NH GOP protesting the exclusion.

Unfortunately, the Ron Paul campaign didn't sort out the facts before sending out a news release blasting Fox for their "outrageous" conduct, even if they did note that the information had not been confirmed. From there, the report spread into dozens of blogs and news commentaries.

An unfortunate false alarm. Lesson: Fast news is sometimes "bad" news. Faux News is worthy of criticism for what they have done, not for what they haven't done. Look before you leap.

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Update1: Not all MSM is bad. For some favorable coverage of Ron Paul, see my "Media Ears" articles: ABC, Newsweek, PBS & Cable 47

Update2: The New Hampshire GOP website makes no mention of any events on January 6th, but it does promote the NH Liberty Forum scheduled for January 5th, where Ron Paul will be speaking. I'm informed that the campaign was working with Forum sponsors and Cullen to accomodate any possible NHGOP event.
Fox News does mention the January 5th ABC debate on their schedule, but nothing in New Hampshire on January 6th.
There does appear to be some residual confusion about the GOPNH brunch on the 6th, which may occur, where some candidates may attend, and which Fox may cover as a news item, but it certainly isn't a live, broadcast debate or forum. Those questions probably won't be answered until after the New Year. Best wishes to all, particularly Ron Paul.

Update3: If you believe there is an error in my report, please provide a link. The story from the Big Head DC blog, linked in the article, may be a satirical fabrication intended to distress Paul supporters, which is their inclination. As for St. Anselm College, their schedule show no events whatever on January 6th.

Update4: This gets more interesting. The source for the original story was the Big Head DC blog, run by one Rob Capriccioso. At first, I thought he had just made an innocent error, but his wife says he is "working on a cutting-edge blog war strategy.

""Blog wars were so lame before my husband came around. It was just people making fun of each other or posting unflattering pictures. BORING! But then my husband figured something out: posting full names and job names really scared people and can potentially disrupt their lives. So exciting!"

Then, I discovered that Capriccioso was responsible for "outing" Trent Lott, apparently with fabricated emails from a purported homosexual lover. Did he decide to spoof the entire Ron Paul story, just to "disrupt the lives" of Ron Paul supporters?

Update5: WorldNetDaily, in a post by Chris Brunner, has confirmed the accuracy of this report.  In a review of other candidate websites and news schedules, no such event exists. It is unlikely that there will be any additional updates until January 2nd.