In the 90 minute Republican Party debate Saturday night, the candidate who is third in many national polls – Texas Congressman Ron Paul – got less than 90 seconds to speak.

Here is a breakdown in terms of time from the last GOP debate, rounded to the closest 5 second interval:

The following is how one blog broke down the talking time for the Republican debate on CBS on Saturday night….

Rick Perry 7:45

Mitt Romney 6:30

Newt Gingrich 6:00

Herman Cain 5:45

Rick Santorum 5:15

Jon Huntsman 3:30

Michele Bachmann 3:15

Ron Paul 1:30

CBS News accidentally included the Bachmann campaign in an email it sent out recently where they admitted they manipulate who gets how much time to speak. CBS News responded to the uproar over their bias by saying Bachmann gets less time because of her poor showing in polls.

So how do they explain Ron Paul getting less than half the time that Michele Bachmann got?

And although the Bachmann campaign might have reason to complain in this instance, the fact is that Ron Paul always gets the least time in the debates.

The following is a statistical average of the talking time during the six major Republican debates there have been hosted by CBS, MSNBC, CNN, Fox News and CNBC during the months of September, October and November.  The raw data for this analysis was originally compiled by We Occupy The Web and Wes Hemings.  Jon Huntsman only has data for five debates because he boycotted one.  As you can see, Mitt Romney and Rick Perry have received much, much more talking time during the debates than the other candidates, and Ron Paul has gotten the least talking time of all….

Mitt Romney (6:30 15:11 14:47 12:09 10:56 11:57) – 11.91 minutes

Rick Perry (7:45 11:01 07:25 11:10 13:54 14:59) – 11.03 minutes

Michele Bachmann (3:15 09:58 06:50 6:13 8:35 9:05) – 7.32 minutes

Newt Gingrich (6:00 07:53 09:10 5:44 7:32 6:53) – 7.20 minutes

Jon Huntsman (3:30 07:54 7:41 7:50 8:52) – 7.16 minutes

Herman Cain (5:45 09:06 08:23 6:23 5:42 5:41) – 6.83 minutes

Rick Santorum (5:15 09:50 05:25 7:06 7:06 6:11) – 6.81 minutes

Ron Paul (1:30 10:05 07:27 4:33 7:34 9:19) – 6.75 minutes

Is this a result of the mainstream media assuming Ron Paul is considered a fringe candidate among Republican primary voters, or is it more a matter of the media being afraid of his message?

Media outlets go to a lot of trouble trying to convince their audience that the Obama vs. Romney match-up is pre-ordained. But what exactly is the difference between President Obama and Mitt Romney? And where does such a match-up leave medical marijuana operators and patients?

- Joe Klare

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