Reply #15: I "called you out" because you have exit polls on the brain (without much room for anything else)

[Fly by night]

Even without seeing the trailer, I had read the reviews and spoken with the director and knew what the bulk of the film was about. I have also met Clint Curtis and have followed his story for the past four years. If exit polls did not exist at all, Clint's experience would still be a disturbing story that demands action, here and elsewhere.

As far as not wanting to engage you on this issue again, I do accept that the exit polls were a serious "smoking arsenal" in 2004 and in 2006. You don't. I also accept that the evidence for Rethugligans' decade-long effort to tamper with the franchise is overwhelming and multi-faceted. It's hard to tell what you believe about much of anything except exit polls.

I stopped typing at you here a while back when I received an unexpected call from a Utah reporter who was planning a hatchet-job story on Kathy Dopp. You had already been highly critical of Kathy with that reporter and (I presume) you expected me to corroborate your story. At the time, the battle over DREs in Utah was raging and I knew that any media story that was critical of Kathy would be spun to discredit her strong arguments against DREs. So instead of repeating your criticisms of Kathy (some of which I do share), I redirected the reporter to do a story on Bruce Funk and his own experience with Rethug election thieves. I also told the reporter that, despite my personal feelings about Kathy (which I did not share with her), I supported Kathy's efforts to get rid of DREs in Utah.

After I finished that phone call, I thought about your referring a reporter to me on such a politically sensitive topic without giving me any "heads up" whatsoever. I also wondered how anyone could be so blind to the potential negative effects of attacking Kathy with the media that they would risk weakening the anti-DRE effort in Utah (and elsewhere) and -- worse -- try to drag me into that counter-productive process as well. It seemed, at best, to betray a lack of sophistication with the media and, at worst, it seemed to place your personality and your professional cred over the goals of free, fair and transparent elections in this country. That is when I stopped responding to you here.

I think you are dead wrong on exit polls and I think you need some serious education on what to say (and what not to say) with the media. I am sure you might be able to find someone to help you with that, but it's not me. As my Daddy used to say, you can always tell an overly self-important man, you just can't tell him much.

Thanks (once again) for trying to high-jack another ER OP unrelated to exit polls. It simply confirms the wisdom of not rising to your bait again. Don't call me (or give any other reporters my phone number); I'll call you. Or not.