Bob Barr // Current

YouTube Star Summoned to White House?

WorldNetDaily is reporting that Bob Basso, who has released videos urging Americans to... more

bbar
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8 months ago
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2 comments

Baldwin, Paul and Barr Send Letter in Opposition to MIAC Report to Missouri Officials

Appearing on the Alex Jones Show today, founder-pastor of Crossroad Baptist Church and... more

TheEmpireGuy
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Barring Barr: The Fifteen Percent Rule

The fifteen percent rule established by the Commission on Presidential Debates says... more

FallenMorgan
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9 comments

Citizen Kate BITES The Political Sausage

It turns out most people are still unaware of their choices for candidate. Last week I... more

CLund
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1 year ago
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Libertarianism and The Center

The left-right paradigm characterizing our political system will not change anytime... more

unitedliberty
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1 year ago
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On Voting for the Lesser of Evils

The lesser of evils is still evil.

austin356
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1 year ago
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3 comments

Election Day Decisions & Predictions

United Liberty was begun by individuals from a large variation of backgrounds, all... more

unitedliberty
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Third Party Presidential Candidates Debate 10.30.08

video from http://cspanjunkie.org/?p=964 October 30, 2008 C-SPAN Chuck Baldwin... more

DandelionSalad
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1 year ago
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Bob Barr Is Not Worth Your Vote

When I first heard about Bob Barr’s Libertarian Party run, I actually looked at his... more

austin356
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Third Party Debate 10.30.08 and VP Debate 11.02.08

video from http://www.youtube.com/user/votethirdpartynow Thursday, October 30,... more

DandelionSalad
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Revolution 08

Coldcut vs TV Sheriff "Revolution '08" Music Video

donkeyfly69
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so you think you can be president?

the real debate

donkeyfly69
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1 year ago
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Why not Ron Paul for President?!?!?!?!

I FINALLY registered to vote. I decided to vote thinking about when people of Iraq... more

natabeanz
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1 year ago
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20 comments

Third party candidates: Know all your choices for President

Bob Barr and Cynthia McKinney won’t be the only also-rans in the pack of... more

Hawkmang
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1 year ago
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16 comments

Live Debate Tonight, Thurs. Oct 23!

The debate is on! "This morning, Christina Tobin, Director of Free and Equal,... more

futuregen
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1 year ago
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While the major-party race for the White House has been the subject of broad media attention for more than a year, the corporate media have mostly ignored at least four substantial third-party and independent candidates for the presidency.

Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and Libertarian candidate Bob Barr are both former congressmembers from the state of Georgia. Their presence in the White House race, along with independent candidate Ralph Nader and Constitution Party candidate Chuck Baldwin, would seem to present an interesting counterpoint to the major-party race between Barack Obama and John McCain. While the corporate press has apparently decided that the differences between Obama and McCain are more or less the only political opinions worth exploring this election season, the third-party and independent candidates take positions on issues like drug war policy, Israel-Palestine, civil liberties and military intervention that differ markedly from the views of either major-party candidate.

According to a Nexis news database search of the major network newscasts, McKinney's name has never been mentioned this year on the networks' news programs, while Barr and Nader's candidacies have garnered a total of only 31 mentions between them (15 times on ABC, 12 times on NBC and 4 on CBS). Including the Fox network-- which airs Fox News Sunday on its broadcast affiliates--yields one passing mention of Nader, and an interview with Barr (6/29/08). PBS's NewsHour with Jim Lehrer offered passing mentions of Nader and Barr when they announcements as candidates (2/25/08, 5/12/08); more recently, the show has interviewed each of them one-on-one (10/14/08, 10/20/08).

The context in which Barr and Nader have been covered is worth examining; by FAIR's count, many of the references to the candidates dealt primarily with the potential effect on the fortunes of the major-party candidates--i.e., whether a third-party candidate would be a "spoiler." That accounted for 11 mentions of Barr and Nader.

Passing mentions of Nader or Barr accounted for another 13 mentions; four of these were joking or mocking references to Nader. (ABC's This Week includes humor clips from late-night talkshows, two of which included Nader as a punch line.)

A March 4 report on ABC's Good Morning America discussed the presidential election with a panel of children, one of whom asked, "There's like another thing, there's a guy named something Nader…. I think he's either running for the Green Party or the independents." ABC correspondent Chris Cuomo misinformed the children by saying "Green Party."

Actual interviews with the candidates were somewhat rare, but Nader has appeared on NBC's Meet the Press (2/24/08) and Nightly News (10/20/08), ABC's This Week (6/29/08) and the CBS Early Show (2/25/08). Barr has appeared on ABC's This Week (7/16/08).

The main question media tend to pose about third-party candidates is whether or not they will impact the outcome of the election. This is not at all surprising, given corporate media's preference for focusing on the horserace aspect of politics. The lesser-known candidates' generally low standing in the polls appears to make it less likely that they will play a decisive role on Election Day, but the media's refusal to open up the political conversation makes this outcome more or less a self-fulfilling prophecy.
While the major-party race for the White House has been the subject of broad media... more