Fed-up Ron Paul supporters in New Hampshire had a high-profile CNN reporter defending her coverage of the Republican’s presidential candidacy. In a YouTube video post, New Hampshire primary voters approached Dana Bash to question her approach in covering the Libertarian candidate.
Bash, a CNN veteran political reporter and anchor, has established something of a track record for controversial coverage. In response to Bash’s commentary where she acknowledged her own “worry” about a Paul nomination, stating he could “hurt whomever the Republican nominee is,” in January, Revolution PAC called for CNN to take Bash off coverage of the Paul campaign.
The bias perception by viewers compounds considering during the early January Iowa caucuses, a Bash interview with an army corporal with a non-interventionist viewpoint regarding Israel / Iran relations. As the corporal was expressing his view that Israel is capable of holding its own without United States intervention, the network experienced technical difficulties.
“Hopefully you’ll give him a fair shot now. That’d be nice,” a New Hampshire voter says as he shakes his finger at Bash as he walks by her. This followed a woman asking Bash if the “worry” she expressed in newscasts extended to the Federal Reserve ripoff of our children.
While audiences calling out reporting bias on the Paul candidacy appears to steadily gain momentum, the trend is one at least partially fueled by alternative outlets. Going back to the Iowa Straw Poll and caucus, both with strong Paul showings, Jon Stewart’s Daily Show commentary included a collage of news snippets with one well known anchor after another excluding Paul’s name from the results. When Paul’s name is mentioned by one of the news broadcasters, it’s done so with a snicker.
RT.com’s Keiser Report also points to media misbehavior with a CBS news report and Bloomberg.com piece where Paul was summarily excluded from stories.