Reply #17: My E-Mail to Nightline

[Top Lizard]

I just sent the following e-mail message to the Nightline team:


Dear Ted (and company),

I have long been a Nightline viewer, and your show is one of the few news programs that I regularly watch because I consider you more thoughtful than many "news" shows.

I was rather surprised to see that you were finally doing a story about voting irregularities in last November's election. What took you so long? I would have expected a report earlier, certainly by the time of Sen. Boxer's challenge to the electoral count.

While I do not know for sure that the election was "stolen," it is clear that many things contrary to the spirit (if not the letter) of the law occurred in Ohio, and possibly elsewhere. As a native Buckeye and a historian, I pride myself on having high standards of evidence. Thus, the recent election may or may not have been stolen, but the issue merits further investigation.

Unfortunately, I was somewhat disappointed with your coverage of this story, as it dwelt excessively on "conspiracy theorists" who may or may not be onto something. (Remember, even "Landslide Lyndon's" Senate victory became confirmed as fraudulent only many years later.)You ought to have devoted more time to the Conyers report, which goes well beyond exit polls.

I respect Cokie Roberts and Haynes Johnson, but I think that the discussion became a little too bogged down in tales of past vote fraud. (While it's important for historical context, the focus should be on the present and future.) Even stories of vote theft by the Kennedy campaign in 1960 are still not universally accepted by scholars.

And some of the journalists' answers were a bit glib, as when Ms. Roberts blithely declared that voting machines are better now, and therefore the electoral process flows more smoothly. If you've done any investigation into electronic voting (whether optical scan or touchscreen), it's clear that the prevailing arrangements of proprietary code, lack of receipts, and so on present a serious possible threat to the American franchise. (Ironically, the safest way to vote may be the oldest, an "X" on a piece of paper!)

To be fair, I also think TV's limitations as a medium sometimes require a visual and verbal shorthand which do a disservice to the issues being considered. Have you thought about a multiple-segment show or recurring series on voting irregularities, or the difficulties of democracy in the electronic age? Or what about a bipartisan panel discussion about how to improve the electoral process? Surely both parties are concerned about the right to vote.

Regardless of whether the election was fair, it's clear that this country still needs to improve its voting system (especially if we're promoting freedom around the world). I hope to see more reporting from you on this vital subject in the future.


Some of you may think I was a bit too diplomatic, but I wanted to encourage them to air more such stories in the future--provided they take a deeper look at the subject!