Donald Trump’s candidacy received three times more coverage than Ron Paul’s candidacy By Eric W. Dolan Thursday, August 18th, 2011 -- 5:34 pm Print 34
Tags: ames straw poll, congresswoman michele bachmann, pew research center
Donald Trump received over three times as much news coverage than Republican presidential candidate Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX) this year, according to a report by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.
The report found that Trump was featured in 94 campaign stories by 52 major news outlets from from January 1 to August 14, but the same news outlets only featured Paul in 27 campaign stories.
The real estate mogul and reality television star briefly considered running for president in the spring.
After Paul came in second place in the Ames Straw Poll in a near tie with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Politico chief columnist Roger Simon and The Daily Show host Jon Stewart both noted that the Texas congressman had not received the media attention he deserved.
Paul, a libertarian, has gained an enthusiastic following for his strong views on limited government, free market economics and non-interventionist foreign policy. In the 2008 Republican presidential primary, his views clearly made him an outlier, but -- thanks in part to the tea party movement -- many of his economic positions have now been adopted by mainstream Republicans.
Nevertheless, Simons said the media still treats him as "an exotic, unworthy of attention" and Stewart wondered "how Ron Paul became the 13th floor in a hotel?"
Confirming their suspicions, the Pew report also found that Paul was mentioned just 29 times in the days following the Ames Straw Poll, while Texas Gov. Rick Perry was mentioned 371 times, Bachmann was mentioned 274 times and Mitt Romney was mentioned 183 times.
Romney is the top newsmaker among Republican candidates, being featured in 120 news stories, and Newt Gingrich is the second top newsmaker among Republican candidates, being featured in 112.
Paul has only been featured in more campaign stories than Herman Cain and Rick Santorum.
President Barack Obama is the top campaign newsmaker overall, being featured in 221 stories. Although the media attention Obama received may seem high compared to individual Republican candidates, it is meager compared to the 707 total new stories for Republican candidates.