Ron Paul and the Internet: Who's Found Who?

“It’s kind of sad, but the money is what has given us credibility, not the authenticity of the ideas.”
--Ron Paul

The New York Times looks at the Internet and Ron Paul and reports it straight--rare stuff for the Times. It's a "make up your own mind about the Internet and Ron Paul" story in the mainstream media.

The interesting premise: Ron Paul's campaign didn't harness the Internet. It was the other way around: Internet users found Ron Paul and took his campaign on a ride.

More on this interesting look at the Internet phenomenon known as Ron Paul, By KATHARINE Q. SEELYE and LESLIE WAYNE at The New York Times:

From posting video on YouTube to enlisting friends through Facebook, all of the presidential candidates are looking for ways to harness the Internet. In the case of Ron Paul, the Internet has harnessed him.

If his campaign had taken place in the pre-Internet era, it might have gone the way of his 1988 Libertarian campaign for president, as a footnote to history. But because of the Internet’s low-cost ability to connect grass-roots supporters with one another — in this case, largely iconoclastic white men — Mr. Paul’s once-solo quest has taken on a life of its own. It is evolving from a figment of cyberspace into a traditional campaign, with yard signs, direct mail and old-fashioned rallies, like one here on Saturday attended by a few thousand people under cold, gray skies. Mr. Paul said it was his biggest rally so far. He said it proved his campaign was more than “a few spammers” and called it a “gigantic opportunity” to establish credibility.

How much the Paul campaign had snowballed on the Internet became evident last week when supporters independent of the campaign raised $4 million online and an additional $200,000 over the phone in a single day, a record among this year’s Republican candidates. There is even talk that Mr. Paul could influence the primary in New Hampshire, where he could draw votes from Senator John McCain of Arizona, who is trying to revive the independent persona that helped him win the state’s primary in 2000.

The story goes on and is interesting. It's not often we agree with the NYT, but this is a nice job.

The Paul supporters should be happy that a mainstream media outlet reported their man and the Internet happenings surrounding him in a straightforward manner.

This story is reported as a story ought to be: presenting the facts and letting the reader make up his/her own mind. It's a rare item at the Times when the subject is politics.

The rule in many places is: if it's in the Times, it's in the trash. Good for a laugh and a thumbnail of what the world looks like while wearing moonboots.

It's not that the New York Times couldn't be a good newspaper. It's that it tries so hard not to be one. This is an example of what the Times could be if it only would play it straight--instead of injecting its liberal/Leftist worldview into every news story it publishes.

by Mondoreb



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