WIN: Ron Paul Wins Virgin Island Caucus, His First Ever Win in a Nominating Contest. LIE: MSM Falsely Reports Romney Win Instead
1st Place - Ron Paul: 29%
2nd Place - Mitt Wallstreet: 26%
3rd Place - Rino Santorum: 6%
Last Place - Newt Skywalker: 5%
WHNT News19 reports:
"Ron Paul got the most votes in the Republican Caucus in the Virgin Islands, but Mitt Romney walked away with more delegates. Why? The caucus system is a complicated one in the Virgin Islands."
Then they gotta throw this in:
"While Dr. Paul getting more votes is a moral victory, during this phase of the campaign, it's all about the delegates."
I'm just sure "it's all about the delegates" for this local news outlet when Mitt Romney wins a nominating contest and Santorum comes in second, but Ron Paul sweeps up delegates. Amiright?
Mainstream Media and V.I. GOP Chair LIE
But actually the hypocrisy goes so much deeper than that. Here is a list, with links, of mainstream media sources that are lying and saying that Mitt Romney won the Virgin Island caucuses:
Associated Press: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
USA Today: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
NPR: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
Yahoo! News: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
CBS News: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
Sacramento Bee: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
Houston Chronicle: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
San Francisco Chronicle: Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus
The Blaze: Romney Wins Caucuses in Wyoming, Virgin Islands, Guam, and Northern Mariana Islands
And they aren't even original liars. They're just copying and pasting the Associated Press' lie. This is just the most brazenly, deliberately, and maliciously lazy, malfeasant, and deceptive journalism I have seen in some time (which in news years, means like two weeks).
How is the Associated Press trying to pass off this lie? It reports that "The Republican Party chairman in the U.S. Virgin Islands says Republican presidential front-runner Mitt Romney has won the territory's GOP caucus," which is technically true. The lying V.I. GOP chairman is saying that. But simply reporting that without noting that it's demonstrably false (here are the numbers released by the V.I. GOP itself), simply saying so without bothering to investigate and add the maybe somewhat relative detail that IT'S NOT TRUE, is either malicious or lazy. Using it as the headline "Romney Wins Virgin Islands GOP Caucus," is to be complicit in the lie. The media is supposed to root out the truth, ask questions, dig deeper-- not smile, wink, and pass on a dirty party bureaucrat's lie.
EDIT - 4pm Eastern: All the text in the post at the link above to the V.I. GOP has been completely changed. They didn't even offer the courtesy of leaving up the original text and simply adding an update with new information. For the original text as the V.I. GOP published it, check out Dave Weigel's excerpt of it here.
And actually, you know what, I'm copy/pasting it here. This is an actual quote that was originally on the V.I. Republican Party's website, but is no longer there at the link I provided above (in its place is an actually pretty conciliatory note to Ron Paul's supporters; a different, more detailed breakdown of the delegate count; and no mention at all of the overall presidential preference tally that I can find-- nice try at burying it, jerks-- this is the Internet, you can't bury information out here):
384 total cast
112 to Paul (29%) Won one delegate
101 to Romney (26%) Won three delegates plus three RNC member pledge. (Pick up a uncommitted delegate after the balloting for a total of seven.)
23 to Santorm (6%) No delegates
18 to Gingrich (5%) No delegates
130 Uncommitted (34%) Two delegates but one changed to Romney after the vote totals were announced
###
You'd think that would be an interesting story-- you'd think it might be newsworthy that a local GOP chair is lying about who won his caucus. You'd think it would be worth reporting that until now, EVERY SINGLE GOP nominating contest winner was determined by who won the caucus tally, not who picked up the most committed delegates, but that when Ron Paul finally wins something, that suddenly the GOP uses delegates to decide the winner. You'd think. But the Associated Press doesn't think so. All you need is to ask yourself, if the outcomes were switched, if Mitt Romney had won the caucus, but Ron Paul picked up more delegates, would all those media sources above be reporting that Ron Paul had won the Virgin Islands GOP caucus?
No. F-wording. Way.
If FactCheck.org doesn't correct this today, it's worthless. In fact, someone please email them and politely ask them to cover this. Tell them Wes Messamore at The Humble Libertarian sent you.
Final word: Props to Dave Weigel for writing "The Virgin Islands Caucus: How Ron Paul Lost By Getting The Most Votes," and noting: "The headline doesn't match the data."
Also, Jack Hunter is seriously pissed off:
Hat tip: Daily Paul
Wes Messamore,
Editor in Chief, THL
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