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10/19/04 ABC Nightly Lies It is an article of faith for liberals and reporters on the "Big Three" networks (ABC, NBC, and CBS) that there is really no liberal bias at all. They report the news, and they use objective standards to determine which stories to run and which to ignore. Stories that would favor Republicans, conservatives, evangelical Christians, or members of the Bush family just aren't newsworthy. Neither are eyewitness accounts that dispute the self-aggrandizing and often demonstrably false recollections of Democrats whom the Democratic National Committee (DNC) wants the public to regard as war heroes even if the blood they shed for our country would not fill a thimble. But stories that have almost no factual support, but rest on speculation and perceptions that can often be demonstrated to have been false, if they embarrass Republicans, conservatives, or members of the Bush family, are more than newsworthy: their accuracy need not even be corroborated. Witness the ABC Nightline report on Monday, October 18, 2004, featuring a report on voting problems allegedly suffered by African-Americans in 2000 and, the report opines, seemingly looming again in 2004. "Will anyone in government--state or federal--will anyone ever address what appears to be a systematic attempt to discourage or suppress black voting in Florida?" asked reporter Jim Wooten. Although he had introduced the question as an "imponderable", which would make it a subject for musing but not a question offering an answer, he did answer his own question: "Probably 'No'". Will anyone in the media--on the major networks or in print--will anyone ever address what appears to be a systematic attempt to help Democrats foist off a tapestry of lies on the American people (especially African-American)? Probably not. Mr. Wooten put together a tapestry of allegations and perceptions, added a small dose of carefully-edited denials by a Republican to make the whole thing look like an orchestrated cover-up, and failed to adduce a single fact that would prove any of the allegations. But to those who have trouble figuring out where to punch a ballot in order to create a vote that is valid and legal and can therefore be counted, I suppose he proved his case quite nicely. In the report, one African-American man mused that he could not understand how thousands of votes could not have been counted. I suppose if thousands of people voted for Pat Buchanan and Al Gore for President, it should have been up to the Democrats who actually counted the votes to determine whether they should have counted for Buchanan or Gore (since you can't vote for two different tickets for President). I suppose there are some in our society who think if you're confronted with a "true or false" question you should always answer "yes." After all, if someone tried to say your answer was invalid, you could just accuse them of racism. The chairwoman of the U. S. Civil Rights Commission, whose official report exonerated any Republican of any complicity in any conscious attempt to deny any member of any race or ethnic group the right to vote, said that blacks have every right to be suspicious. This is typical of liberals, like John Kerry. The President says he will not reinstate the draft in his second term, and that gives Kerry the ammunition he needs to prove to his supporters that a draft is on the horizon. After all, they have every right to be suspicious. Some members of law enforcement in Florida are visiting some elderly voters in Florida to ask them about their absentee ballots cast in the 2000 election, which had been gathered up en masse by a single man (this is illegal in Florida, by the way). He claims he did the same thing for Republicans in the past, but the report offered no corroborating evidence except to show pictures of the apparently guilty Republicans while listing the charges. By that standard, you would think the Swift Boat Vets would be welcomed with open arms on Nightline to tell their stories, many of which can actually be corroborated, rather than trusting aging Viet Cong whose stories cannot be corroborated even by the recollections of John Kerry and Jim Rassman. But Wooten wants us to believe that these allegations are true, and that the police are therefore harassing elderly voters, not investigating voter fraud. One woman even said that the police officer had shown her his gun in a gratuitous gesture designed to intimidate her. The officer was not offered a chance to say whether he had done so or not. Wooten also reported that there is only one early voting location in Duval county (Jacksonville), and eight locations in another predominantly white county. Black clergy were shown protesting the disparity, but the rights of everyone in Duval county are the same: vote early at the Elections Office. Governor Jeb Bush has recommended that the county open more locations, a fact which was not reported by Wooten, and the county has in the short run at least extended the hours the location will be open. Clearly they are attempting to serve the public within existing constraints. There is, in short, not one shred of evidence that clearly indicates anyone, Republican, conservative, evangelical Christian, or anyone else, is trying to play favorites in the counting of votes in Florida, any more than there is anywhere else. But Wooten must have seen that elections manual put out by the DNC. He is doing what they said all their partisans should. If there is no evidence of voter intimidation, put out reports about the potential for such things, or, in Wooten's case, the perception of the potential. Mr. Wooten and Chris Bury can have their cake and eat it, too. Anyone who tries to investigate voter fraud in predominantly black areas can be assumed to be engaged in intimidation, even if there are justifiable allegations of illegal activity that would otherwise demand investigation. Anyone who suspects anyone, including Governor Jeb Bush, of engaging in voter intimidation, can be put on the air to lay out their unsubstantiated charges, and anyone who gets on air to deny it can be characterized as suspect because of their connections to the Governor or the Governor's party. But to answer Wooten's "imponderable" question: "Will anyone in government--state or federal--will anyone ever address what appears to be a systematic attempt to discourage or suppress black voting in Florida?" Of course not, Jim, with liberal activists like you masquerading as journalists. You'll go around fostering perceptions that exist, attempting to convince more people to share the perceptions even though you can't find a shred of concrete evidence to corroborate the perceptions. You are painting a picture, using distortions, empty allegations, and biased perceptions, and asking how anyone can counter it. Well, no one should have had to do so. You could have reported the truth, which is that, in spite of the perceptions to the contrary, there is no evidence of any systematic effort to disenfranchise anyone; that clear instructions on how to fill out the ballot can be found on the Duval County web site, and that it is just too bad if someone spoils his or her own ballot by voting improperly and fails to ask for a new ballot. No one can prevent anyone from disenfranchising him- or herself. But the truth is nowhere near as important as your goal: to foster false negative impressions of the integrity and intentions of conservative politicians. To the degree you succeed, what you are doing is worse than the false insinuations you are making against conservatives, because you are stirring people up with falsehoods that may affect their votes. It's a shame that the truth doesn't seem to matter to organizations that used at least to claim that they cared about honesty. Modified: 10/23/2004 |
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