Santorum unhappy with debate treatment

DES MOINES, Iowa — Former Sen. Rick Santorum (R-Pa.) has gone after the media as much as any other candidate in the days leading up to Saturday's Iowa Straw Poll in Ames.

After his speech at the Des Moines Register's tent at the Iowa State Fair Friday, Santorum slammed Fox News for failing to give him a fair shake at Thursday night's debate.

Santorum has used the mainstream media as a punching bag throughout his campaign, but Republicans rarely try to score points off Fox News, which is seen as having a conservative tilt.

"We fought for every moment we had," he told The Hill. "When you get one question in the first hour and you have to fight for the second one… we got a few more questions in the second half but we had to scrap for them, and stick ourselves in there — otherwise I'm not too sure we would have gotten those."

Santorum also aired his objections during the debate, at one point raising his hand and telling the moderators: "I haven’t gotten to say a lot.”

During his speech at the state fair, Santorum hit back against the mainstream media.

"The national media has done a very good job of not paying any attention to our campaign," he said. "What does the national media have against a guy who has beaten three Democratic incumbents in a critical swing state who has been able to get conservative things done in Washington, D.C.? I wonder why they're not providing a whole lot of coverage for someone like me."

"Iowa, not the national media, not the political pundits gets to decide who gets to be the next president of the United States," he said, urging Iowans to go to the Ames and support him in the straw poll.