Swanson: So, where's the rest of the media?

[paineinthearse]

by email from dswanson @ Let's Try Democracy.

Election Story Grows
Submitted by dswanson on Fri, 2006-06-02 00:58.
OF COURSE THE 2004 ELECTION WAS STOLEN

I published this on Nov. 8, 2005:
http://www.counterpunch.org/swanson11082004.html

Rolling Stone took almost 7 months to pick up the trail:
http://www.rollingstone.com/news/story/10432334/was_the_2004_election_stolen

We've seen a report by the House Judiciary Committee minority staff, books by Crispin Miller and Palast, endless coverage on Brad Blog and other websites.

I think we've finally proven...
that a rolling stone can gather moss.

So, where's the rest of the media?

November 8, 2004

Votes Aren't the Only Thing Missing in Ohio
Media Black Out on Vote Fraud Allegations
By DAVID SWANSON

The "mainstream" media has fallen down on the job by failing to cover efforts since November 2 to ensure that all votes in the presidential election are accurately counted. The conclusion by John Kerry that an investigation could not possibly reverse the election may quite possibly have been premature. But the question that both activists and the media should be asking is not whether there was enough fraud and errors to decide the election, nor even whether there was more than is usual, but whether there was any fraud or errors, where the problems occurred, how they can be prevented in the future, and -- in particular -- whether new kinds of fraud were permitted by new technologies and by the privatization of our election process.

The International Labor Communications Association is particularly concerned, because of indications, detailed below, that fraud may have occurred in areas where there are heavy populations of workers, African-Americans, and other progressive voters that our member organizations represent. People deserve to have their votes counted, and the strategists who will spend four years studying the election results deserve to have the facts. Some citizens and independent media outlets are raising these issues, but the corporate media is AWOL. An investigation by the media would seem especially appropriate, since the 2000 election led to investigations in Florida that determined the loser was occupying the White House.

Evidence existed before this election that quite possibly "the fix" was in: the co-chair of the Bush-Cheney campaign in Ohio was running the 2004 election in that state and had for weeks been demonstrating every intention to disenfranchise Democrats; the head of a company manufacturing electronic voting machines for use around the country had announced his intention to help Bush stay in the White House. The weaknesses and susceptibility to abuse of electronic voting machines, including the machines that many people vote on and the machines that add up the votes from multiple precincts, had been well documented.

QUESTIONS ABOUT EXIT POLLS

If the pre-election context wasn't enough to put the media on alert, the exit polls on election day should have been. The polls by the National Election Pool, throughout the day, showed Kerry ahead in a number of swing states. Media commentators made it quite clear that they had seen and took seriously the polls. Professional pollster John Zogby took them seriously enough to call the race for Kerry. Wall Street took them seriously enough to start dropping stock prices.

more....

[babylonsister]

1. If this story doesn't have legs, I give up. We heard all about

RFK's cousin driving erratically. I say, give this Mr. Kennedy at least equal time.
:popcorn: