Last weeks CBS republican debate has earned widespread criticism. CBS has shown that they aren’t being fair to all the candidates. Some candidates, because they aren’t top candidates, didn’t receive much time to speak. Also, evidence has come out that CBS deliberately was taking time away from certain candidates from the start.

A common trend in the Republican debates has shown that the networks and company’s hosting them are only giving the “top candidates” time to speak. A lot of people think that this is one way the corporations are choosing the republican presidential candidate.

Last Friday saw  Congressman Ron Paul only receive ninety seconds of time to speak in the entire debate which lasted an hour and a half. Although Paul has consistently been among the top three or four candidates, it would seem as though the networks don’t want people to hear his libertarian stances.

Michele Bachmann also took to the air after she found evidence beforehand that showed she would be limited in questions before the debate started. The evidence that was found was an email accidently sent as a “reply all” rather than a “reply” to one person. It was from the CBS political director and it said “Okay let’s keep it loose though since she’s not going to get many questions and she’s nearly off the charts in the hopes that we can get someone else.” Now the Bachmann campaign is trying to get him fired for this.

CBS sets guidelines for who is let into the debates, as they should, so that there aren’t a ton of people on stage. But if you set guidelines you should at least follow them. Republican candidate Gary Johnson met all the criteria set for him to be up on stage. He met the minimum percent of supporters in the minimum amount of polls, but he was still barred from participation.

Many of the candidates in this debate were upset with CBS. If you are going to invite people to a debate, shouldn’t they get attention? The underlying notion is that debates are meant to give each person an equal chance of coming out on top. But it doesn’t seem to be the case here.