The reason is that Frank Lutz pays the same people, over and over, to be in those "focus" groups. They are "actors"

He also tells this group to only concentrate on the "frontrunners", and to ignore Paul, because he isn't going to win anyway.

Pretty fair and balanced eh?

I used to work for someone running for governor and I knew that they did this at town halls ..ie having people freindly to you... but this is ridiculous.. and I live in South Carolina.. who are these people in the focus group.. most of them look the same and why do they keep saying Thompson won.. they have hardly mentioned the Ron Paul thing...

They just read out the newest results of the winners of the text vote and they did not show it.. I am recording it and they said the following word for word... "New fox poll Mccain at 25%, Huckabee at 18%.. so Mccain is still doing well.. would he not be the toughest candidate to beat" What the French Toast!!!.. are people really buying this? How did Ron Paul go from 38% to nothing? Or is that a different poll they created... Wow... Im turning the TV off..

This is my 1st reply on ATS with anything related to politics but bare with me... I don't know how to note my source...so I found the following on Yahoo News..

Romney drew mixed boos and applause from the audience when he criticized Texas Rep. Ron Paul for saying the United States must avoid another war.

Romney said Paul had been reading "too many press releases by (Mahmoud) Ahmadinejad," the Iranian president.

"Make fun buddy," muttered a clearly irritated Paul.

I am neither for or against Paul... but if I was Paul I woulda backhand slapped Romney and told him if its a war he wanted add it to his campaign

Im not for or against him either.. but to me it seems he is outside the NWO and I doubt he is a member of the Bohemian Grove.. It is just frustrating to hear about this stuff and then realize that it might just be true..

How did paul go from 38% to 5%? This reeks of corruption!

Originally posted by scriptz
I am neither for or against Paul... but if I was Paul I woulda backhand slapped Romney and told him if its a war he wanted add it to his campaign

ROTFLMAO!

Now to see that happen would have been worth buying a new tv, hooking up the cable and wading through the hip-deep faux "news" bs spin-zone!

Slap the caps right out his face!!

It always amazes me how people think that electronic/internet polling is somehow representative of the population. I support Ron Paul, but there is no way text voting shows who "won" - it just shows which candidate had their most avid supporters texting in. The general population doesn't care.

Fox was THE ABSOLUTE WORST they have even been tonight.

1. First, asking him about "911 Truthers", thus trying to associate him with 911 Truth movement, instead of asking him a real question.

2. Then, asking him, blatantly and incredibly disrespectfully, if he has any electability.

3. The (unbelievably well-spoken, hand picked from the Thompson campaign) "focus group" was a joke.

4. Then showing some psuedo-"scientific" real-time "grapho-meter", saying that the graph "went off the chart", that it had never gone as low as it did tonight when Ron Paul spoke. So, really, everyone thinks following the Constitution is a bad idea??? This is an insult to our intelligence.

5. Then they simply discredit their own viewer poll. Paul recieved over 30% of the votes, but he REALLY didn't win... becuse Hannity, some no-name "expert", and some "focus-group" in S Carolina said so.

My blood was boiling at how much disrespect he was shown and how flagrant it was, and that was just from the Faux gang. Throw in the other candidates, and it was nothing less than an outright ambush on Dr Paul. And I have no doubt that this was a planned and coordinated effort.

But, I guess it means they're scared. Why else would they take such an offensive? Could it be that Paul still has around $20,000,000 in the bank and the others are running dry. It's time a couple candidates drop from the race, and they know it won't be Paul with all that money still left. Could it be that he will remain, and rise, as a contender after Giuliani and Thompson, and they want to ensure that their votes don't turn into Ron Paul votes? Or maybe they're trying to force him out in an effort to get him to run as an independent, effectively stealing votes from the Democratic nominee in the elections?

Who knows? But one thing's for sure, the "man behind the curtain" is at work in full force. Scratch that... it is QUITE CLEAR that the neocons WILL NOT ALLOW a true conservative to jeopardize their power. And they don't care if you know it. They will flaunt it in your face. They aren't just attacking Dr Paul, they are attacking the idea of liberty and a free society, that is a society free of their own government! It is time that we not only wake up... it is time we stand up and do something. There is finally someone who will stand up for us, against big, corrupt government... the least we can do is stand up and fight with him!

[edit on 2008/1/11 by evilod]

I haven't posted on AbovePolitics or Abovetopsecret in a long time.

But this debate has angered me as an American, and has made me question if I really want to stay in a country that allows such a biased, propaganda fueled, debate such as this.

I caught the debate. And was shocked/ happy to see Ron Paul on. To see an utter disregard for fair and balance just shocked me.

From the Focus group, to the bogus questions, to the non validation of the text poll, to not interviewing Paul afterwards (and blaming him) I am left with a bitter taste in my mouth.

How can a news agency claim fair and balance when they keep claiming he can not and will not win, over and over. How is that balanced, when they are basically claiming a stance.

In a way I felt they kept trying to show the focus group to change the text poll results, and at the end, they gave up, gave the numbers, and said they were not valid basically.

So I ask myself, when this channel is backed by politicans, what's that say about the true state of the government. If they honestly can back something like this, I have to say I am leaving this country before it is too late. How we back anything like this? How are we a democracy anymore. We are the ghost of a slain government.

If Paul doesn't win, the constitution is dead and will just become more "worthless", and I am leaving this Country. The rest of the candidates are all the same (both dem and republican), backing propaganda media because it serves their purpose and their corporate backer purposes.

I am still in shock. If anyone watched that, and didn't see this, well I guess that explains how dumb people have gotten.

On yeah, the topper ( I was never a Republican or a democrat before, never cared, never even bothered to move). I lost respect with the system during the last two elections and poll tampering. Ron Paul is a diamond in the mud. He is for us, why can't people just look at this. We are the constitution. And the constitution is there to protect and guide us. Say good bye to that.

I'm surprised anyone is shocked by the FOX News debate last night. They didn't include him in the NH debate, and wouldn't have included him in the SC debate if he hadn't placed above Fred Thompson in the NH primary. They HAD to include Paul in this debate for that reason, and also because he is a lightning rod and his mere presence jacks up the number of viewers.

I'm not at all surprised at the questions Paul was asked. They know they don't have to literally say Ron Paul is a 9/11 Truther because if they just use his name in the same sentence, many viewers will take that to the bank and associate him with a fringe group. This is nothing new, the media and politicians have been doing this to Paul since he declared his candidacy.

I grow more and more disgusted with those candidates who want to target Ron Paul in the debates in an effort to make themselves look better. Everyone wants to be funny and everyone wants to take a crack, but nobody wants to lose support. So they pick on Ron Paul who is an easy target (admittedly), and whose supporters likely won't turn to Romney or Huckabee. To date i've never heard a wise-crack actually stick to Dr. Paul.

I've seen Frank Lutz on Real Time with Bill Maher and honestly, that's all i needed to see. He was candid and arrogant in his interview, showing us exactly how easy it is to spin things and to sway people by using subtle tactics. Shortly after his appearance on RT, i started seeing him more and more on FOX News. Now he handles the "focus" groups for the debates. I didn't trust him back when he wasn't working for FOX, i sure as hell don't trust him today.