A party without the Grand Old Party

Kudos to the New Hampshire state GOP for taking Fox News to task over their exclusion of Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter from Sunday's pre-primary forum:

In protest of Fox News’ excluding Ron Paul and Duncan Hunter from its GOP presidential candidates forum Sunday, the New Hampshire state Republican Party has withdrawn its sponsorship of the forum.

The forum is the last chance for voters to see the Republican candidates face-off before New Hampshire’s first-in-the-nation primary Tuesday. And party Chairman Fergus Cullen said Fox’s decision to limit participation runs counter to the primary’s “national purpose.” “Only in New Hampshire do lesser-known, lesser-funded underdogs have a fighting chance to establish themselves as national figures,” Cullen said in a statement posted on the party’s website.

Cullen told Politico that he had asked Fox News last week to allow Paul and Hunter at the forum...

“Our mutual efforts to resolve this difference have failed,” Cullen's statement said, adding “the New Hampshire Republican Party hereby withdraws as a partner in this forum.”

I'm not a fan of the party system to begin with, but I respect the NH GOP withdrawing its prestige from the event. I only wish they'd taken it further, calling on the remaining candidates to decline to participate. Too bad the show is likely to still go on as planned. This abuse of corporate media power needs to be long remembered.