Mainstream media tunes out Jon Huntsman Jr.

Twice in the past 10 days, former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. had the courage to say something intelligent and unconventional on national television — but both times the mainstream media paid precious little attention to Huntsman's pronouncements.

Last Thursday during an interview on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" program, the one-time Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. ambassador to China walked a very fine line by saying "the Republican Party is broken" and calling for a third-party presidential candidate while insisting that he continues to endorse former rival Mitt Romney for the GOP nomination.

Per MSNBC.com, Huntsman said, "We’re going to have problems politically until we get some sort of third-party movement or some kind of alternative voice out there that can put forward new ideas. … Someone’s going to step up at some point and say we’ve had enough of this. The real issues are not being addressed, and it’s time that we put forward an alternative vision, a bold thinking. We might not win, but we can certainly influence the debate.”

According to a Google News search for "jon huntsman third party," Huntsman's comments on "Morning Joe" generated a grand total of 36 news articles.

Then on Tuesday, Huntsman appeared on "Charlie Rose" and confidently affirmed that China has no intention to "play by the rules" in its monetary and economic policy.

The international policy website Atlantic Sentinel reported Huntsman was speaking about China's leadership when he told host Charlie Rose, “Do they want to abide by the rules of the road? Not yet — not until there’s greater certainty and clarity in terms of what the global economy looks like. Because it all comes down to one word — stability.”

A Google News search for "jon huntsman charlie rose china" revealed the Atlantic Sentinel article was the one and only news piece to emerge from Huntsman's comments regarding China's economic intentions.