Lapdogs: the Media Delivered the Election Aiding and Abetting the Swifties

[kerrygoddess]

Good Dogs, Bad Dogs, Lapdogs: How the Media Delivered the Election to Bush by Aiding and Abetting the “Swifities”

May 4th, 2006 @ 9:59 pm

There’s good dogs and there’s bad dogs, big dogs and small dogs. Small dogs are commonly referred to as Lapdogs, they are usually cute and furry and cuddly. But now we have a new breed of Lapdogs… the kind that roll over for Bush and his cabal.

They are not cute and furry, and by no means cuddly, their bark and their bite have caused a lot of damage to America in recent years. Why? Because they became “spooked by allegations of liberal bias” and proceeded to be “afraid of the facts and the consequences of reporting them” during the Bush administration years.

Ron posted earlier today that the Washington Post “reports that George Bush may have Fox News to thank for the 2000 election.” That story in the WaPo is a prime example of what Eric Boehlert’s new book “Lapdogs” is all about. Salon has a 5 page excerpt from “Lapdogs” here.



The HuffPo has a piece on “Lapdogs” as well today, that exposes the truth about the “Swift Boat Hoax” in no uncertain terms.

In his new book, “Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over For Bush,” Eric Boehlert dissects the Beltway media’s culpability during the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth smear campaign from the 2004 campaign and concludes the episode “likely delivered Bush the cushion he needed to win in November” and “represented an embarrassing new benchmark for campaign season reporting.” “Lapdogs” holds the press accountable for the central role it played in enabling a smear campaign that consumed the crucial campaign month of August 2004 — “a media monsoon that washed away Kerry’s momentum coming out of the Democratic convention.”

{snip}

I’m not sure if I want to laugh or cry that someone has taken the pains to lay out in print all of the rotten things the MSM has done over the years to the American people. I do know however, that I plan on reading “Lapdogs,” and for what it’s worth, I hope to hell that American’s start waking up and the MSM stops rolling over for this lying bunch of crooks in the White House.

{snip}

I’ve never been a fan of those little cuddly, furry lapdogs — they yap too much, just like the lying media shills do.

MORE & LINKS - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=2880

[Peace Patriot]

1. Well, I'm all for exposing the war profiteering corporate news monopoly

lapdogs, and the BushWorld delusions that they hypnotize some people with, but I sure don't agree with the following, nor do the facts support it:

“'Lapdogs' holds the press accountable for the central role it played in enabling a smear campaign that consumed the crucial campaign month of August 2004 — 'a media monsoon that washed away Kerry’s momentum coming out of the Democratic convention.'”

In fact, Kerry was polling so well, leading up to the election, and Bush had been polling so poorly for six months, that Zogby said Bush could not win. Further, the Democrats were blowing the Republicans away in new voter registration in 2004, nearly 60/40. People were flocking to the Democratic Party in record numbers. The word on the street was that this was "the most important election in our history." People were dragging their non-voting family members, co-workers and friends to the polls, to oust Bush.

I think some other facts are in order as well:

During the 2002-2004 period , our election system was taken over by Bushite corporations, who "counted" all our votes in 2004 using "TRADE SECRET," PROPRIETARY programming code, with virtually no audit/recount controls. These new, and extremely insecure and hackable electronic voting systems had been hastily purchase and installed as the result of a $4 billion electronic voting boondoggle, called the "Help America Vote for Bush Act" (sorry, the "Help America Vote Act") pushed through by the two biggest crooks in Congress, Tom Delay and Bob Ney. No paper trail. No controls on lavish lobbying. "Trade secret" programming. Secret industry "testing" of the machines.

Given these completely NON-TRANSPARENT conditions, it is not possible to say that Bush won the 2004 election. Nobody can prove it.

The war profiteering corporate news monopolies--after failing to apprise the American people of this transformation of our election system into the private, secret fiefdom of two Bushite corporations--Diebold and ES&S--then FALSIFIED their own exit polls, late on election day, 2004, to force them to 'FIT' the results of Diebold/ES&S's "trade secret" vote tabulation formulae. Kerry won the exit polls. (That has been established and admitted.) Bush won the non-transparent, unverifiable, Bushite-controlled "official result." Exit polls are used worldwide to verify elections, and check for fraud. Not here. Here, they used the exit polls to verify a NON-TRANSPARENT vote count.

It's possible that the relentless anti-Kerry propaganda of the corporate news monopolies prevented Kerry from winning big enough to overcome the advantage to Bush that was likely pre-programmed into the machines by Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S. The exit polls said Kerry won by a 3% margin. If you add in the egregious vote suppression in Ohio, purges of black and brown voters from the voting rolls in many places (Greg Palast estimates a million black voters purged nationwide in 2004), he probably won by a 5% margin. That wasn't enough.

Diebold: Until recently, headed by Wally O'Dell, a Bush-Cheney campaign chair and major fundraiser, who promised in writing to "deliver Ohio" to Bush-Cheney in 2004.

ES&S: A spinoff of Diebold (similar computer architecture), initially funded by rightwing billionaire Howard Ahmanson, who also gave one million dollars to the extremist 'christian" Chalcedon Foundation (which touts the death penalty for homosexuals, among other things).

Diebold and ES&S have an incestuous relationship. They are run by two brothers, Tod and Bob Urosevich.

These are the people who "counted" 80% of the nation's votes in 2004, behind a veil of secrecy.

These are the people whom the corporate news monopolies told you nothing about, and covered up for, by DOCTORING their exit polls to match the presidential choice of Wally O'Dell and Howard Ahmanson.

Was the "swiftboating" critical? Possibly, given that Kerry needed MORE than a 3%-5% margin of victory to be inaugurated. But I think it's much more critical WHO counted the votes, and HOW they counted them.

I have zero patience with any discussion of the 2004 election that does NOT include these basic facts about the egregiously non-transparent conditions wrought by that $4 billion HAVA boondoggle for Bush's buds at Diebold and ES&S. If it doesn't include this information, it is fairly useless as political analysis. The hard facts of power--such as who controls the vote counting in a non-transparent system--are everything, and these impressionist speculations--that the "swiftboating" affected anyone's vote--mean very little.

[Peace Patriot]

2. Do I have hope? Yes! But we need to realize that we're in a long term

battle for our democracy. We may see another such coup in '06. We need to be prepared for it, with election monitors everywhere, gathering evidence for election challenges, recounts and lawsuits, and to prepare the case against these non-transparent, election theft machines.

We must never give up on our right to vote. NEVER!

Big turnout can beat the machines, in some cases. (Bumper sticker: "Help Us Beat the Machines--VOTE!"). Absentee ballot voting can be helpful. It is not the total answer, by any means, but it can help with any recounts, and it is a PROTEST against the machines, which is getting very big (a lot of people doing it) and potentially newsworthy. Non-transparent voting systems are indefensible! Put it to your local county election officials and state officials. There is NO EXCUSE for private, corporate "trade secrets" in our voting system. And there is NO EXCUSE for the inability to recount elections that are conducted without a paper ballot backup. Get on them! Demand change!

SOME RESOURCES FOR AMERICAN REVOLUTION II:

Hopeful signs - latest news:

California voters sue the state over Diebold:
www.VoterAction.org is suing the state of California and 18 Calif county registrars on behalf of 25 California voter/plaintiffs, on the illegal Diebold "certification" by Schwarzenegger appointee Bruce McPherson.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2180496
Seven of these counties just promised the judge they would use PAPER BALLOTS, and were dismissed from this lawsuit (4/27/06).
http://kcbs.com/pages/29285.php
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2249205

Maryland rejects Diebold:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x418263

Florida - anti-trust accusations against Diebold, ES&S and Sequoia, re: heroic Florida election official Ion Sancho:
(FLA AG subpoenas the companies)
http://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/legalissues/story/0,10801,110192,00.html
http://www.tbo.com/news/politics/MGBKSY8W8LE.html
(info & discussion)
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2183630

Utah county clerk fights back!
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x419226

-----

More resources for American Revolution II:

www.votersunite.org (MythBreakers - easy primer on electronic voting--one of the myths is that HAVA requires electronic voting; it does not.)
www.UScountvotes.org (statistical monitoring of '06 and '08 elections--they need donations)


(Activist sites with links to state activist groups or info)
www.votetrustusa.org (news of this great movement from around the country)
www.votersunited.org (good general info, and state links)
www.verifiedvoting.org (great activist site)
www.solarbus.org/election/index.shtml (fab compendium of all election info)

www.freepress.org (devoted to election reform)
www.bradblog.com (also great, and devoted to election reform)
www.TruthIsAll.net (analysis of the 2004 election)* :patriot: :applause: :patriot:
www.votepa.us (well-organized local group of citizen activists in Pennsylvania, where important legal issues are at stake, including state's rights over election systems)
Provisions of the PA lawsuit:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x423739

The Voter Confidence Resolution
http://tinyurl.com/rlnr2 (“We Do Not Consent”)
http://guvwurld.blogspot.com (GuvWurld blog main page)
http://tinyurl.com/amryg (Voter Confidence Resolution

www.debrabowen.com (Calif Senator running for Sec of State to reform election system)
www.johnbonifaz.com (running for Massachusetts Sec of State on strong election reform and antiwar platform)

*Some tributes to TruthIsAll, who is very ill:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417007
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x417231
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x675477

Congressional bills:

Russ Holt's HR 550 requires a real paper ballot, bans secret software in "voting machines", and has more than 170 co-sponsors, but the audit required is too weak, it promotes electronic voting and centralized power, and the secret software might be permitted to continue in the central tabulators (the bill is not clear). To sign the HR 550 petition: http://www.rushholt.com/petition.html
At lot of discussion at DU of the loopholes/pitfalls in HR 550:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x422926
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x421136
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=203&topic_id=422967&mesg_id=422967
(Note: Senate Bill-SB 330 and House-HR704 simply require a "voter verified paper audit trail" (VVPAT), which may be best for the moment.)


Also of interest:

Michael Collins (Autorank)'s searing election reform article for New Zealand's Scoop.com
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x971363

Bob Koehler (-- four recent election reform initiatives in Ohio, predicted to win by 60/40 votes, flipped over, on election day, into 60/40 LOSSES!--the biggest flipover we've seen yet; the election theft machines and their masters are now dictating election policy! Title: "Poll Shock" 11/24/05)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col321.htm

Bob Koehler's latest: "Trust us: Take this box and stuff it" (3/16/06)
http://commonwonders.com/archives/col337.htm
More Koehler:
www.tmsfeatures.com/tmsfeatures/subcategory.jsp?file=20051124ctnbk-a.txt&catid=1824&code=ctnbk

Amaryllis (Diebold, ES&S, Sequoia lavish lobbying of election officials - Beverly Hilton, Aug. '05)
www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x380340

HOWARD DEAN remarks on electronic voting machines 04/06
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x994507

------------------------------------------------

Throw Diebold, ES&S and ALL election theft machines into 'Boston Harbor' NOW!

:think: :patriot: :woohoo: :patriot: :think:

-----------

"That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it." --Thomas Jefferson, The Declaration of Independence

[kerrygoddess]

3. Take this in the context presented

It's purely about the media complicity in the swifty attacks and other issues. That's what the other is presenting and it's important information. There's more than a few differnet battles here - one is the media complicity - another is transarent voting.

[Peace Patriot]

6. I agree, KerryGoddess, it's a combination of fascist forces that are

destroying our country. I just wanted to point out that they are using a very specific mechanism of control: "trade secret," proprietary vote tabulation, a new phenomenon that is still reversible, if we get on it fast and in an organized way. It's useless to lament the fascist control of the "news" media, if we no longer possess the mechansim of power--our vote--to demand that legislators bust up the corporate news monopolies, which is what they SHOULD BE doing, if they represented the common good. But we have been stripped of that power, our right to vote--the mechanism by which we exercise our sovereignty as a people. And, until we get it back, they will go "swiftboating" any good and honest politcian who threatens corporate looting, corporate-driven war and fascist rule.

The "swiftboating" rarely convinces anyone--just as their lies about Iraq did not convince anyone. (58% of the American people opposed the Iraq war, before the invasion, and after Colin Powell's speech to the U.N.--Feb. '03. They didn't trust Bush even then.) But the smearing and the lies create a PLAUSIBLE narrative for why they are in power.

And that is a very, very important thing to understand. It's not the "swiftboating" that put Bush in power again--it was the Bushite control of the vote tabulation with SECRET programming. The "swiftboating" is the icing on this sickening cake--it is the explanation that covers up their actual power to easily rig elections. The "swiftboating" is not any less disgusting, because of this. It, too, is a manifestation of fascist corporate rule--control of the newstream NARRATIVE. But neither the "swiftboating" lies, nor the Iraq lies, gives the Bush junta any power to do evil. Controlling the vote count DOES.

So THAT is what we have to attack--the actual mechanism of power that is now in the hands of Bushite corporations.

[kerrygoddess]

7. I agree with the voting

issues, but they have had their pulse on the media for a long time as well and it does convince people - not those of us who don't pay attention to Fox but those who listen to the noise machine buy into it.

[karynnj]

8. The point is that by exposing the media complicity

and getting a critical mass of people to believe that, then people might also see that the media ignored all the Democratic complaints on the various voter suppression and fraud. There are many layers and it takes time for people to accept that their government has been taken over. This is a good step.

As KG said, the swiftboat stuff was needed to keep the margins down. The media gave people permission to believe the lies. It still really bothers me that the media did not show any outrage at all when the Republican deligates wore purple heart band aids. Kerry was lucky that his wounds were neither crippling or life threatening, but he could have been killed any day he was there. As it was, his Vietnam experience did leave him with nightmares that have lasted for decades, hearing loss, scrapnel in his leg, and an arm that had surgery a couple of times. Remember though that even Max Cleland wasn't spared by these goons.

I do think they need to address the various problems in how elections are run. Although the DNC will likely work on this, it's interesting that Kerry is the commencement speaker at Kenyon College, the liberal arts college where kids waited 10 hours to vote.

[Peace Patriot]

10. "...the swiftboat stuff was needed to keep the margins down."

But it didn't--not to any significant degree! The vast majority of independent voters voted for Kerry--as did the vast majority of new voters and former Nader voters. The "margins" voted for Kerry, overwhelmingly!

I think the "swiftboating"--and other such tactics (such as the gay marriage initiatives)--serve a different function. They serve the function of creating a plausable narrative for why Bush "won." I don't think we all realize the extent of the newsstream manipulation, and the implications of the corporate news monopolies FALSIFYING their exit polls to confirm a secretly tabulated Bush "win." The corporate news monopolies go along with this NON-FACT-BASED, smeary, squishy, unobjective, impressionistic, newsstream narrative.

Let me give you another example. After the election, Rove or Cheney was asked how they won, and they attributed it to their "invisible" get out the vote campaign. There is NO evidence for that campaign. Zero. Zilch. It was the grass roots of the Democratic Party that was succeeding, overwhelmingly, in new voter registration and get out the vote. But they had set up this myth in the newsstream that they had something going in "the churches." There are NO FACTS to support this--that some "invisible" effort they had in the churches is responsible for Bush's "win."

Newsstream NARRATIVE!

We really should just turn off our TVs and STOP WATCHING, and unsubscribe to corporate news rags--and get everybody else to do so. They are HYPNOTIZING us with a self-fulfilling prophecy kind of news manipulation.

Find me ONE PERSON who changed his/her vote because Fox yammerers were going on about Kerry's medals--or ONE PERSON who ran to get a voter registration card and determined to vote for the first time BECAUSE they fell for the 'Swiftboaters' smear tactics.

The OPPOSITE IS TRUE. That's what the FACTS say. The Dems beat the Repubs in new voter registration 60/40!!! People were flocking to the DEMOCRATS--not to the Bushites.

We need to challenge the very premises of the election narrative that the corporate news monopolies have created. It's full of black holes--huge pieces of missing information--and outright lies.

[agincourt]

11. That's what I've been thinking,

It's only the states that Bush had in the bag, like Nebraska, where there were new voters for Shrub. I always felt his base was pretty much tapped out in 2000. The black box voting has been the GOP key to power. And if they can rig elections the media can certainly rig polls.

[welshTerrier2]

4. terriers of the world unite!

those of us of the canine persuasion object to the continued derogatory use of the term "lapdogs" ...

we're OK with "lapcats" if you would prefer to use that instead ...

[kerrygoddess]

5. LOL!

"lapcats" works for me! Or how about lap-lickers!

[karynnj]

9. Can the maltese join the terriers of the world?

Punky, dressed by my college Freshman as Anna Karenna, objects to being associated with that weaselly press core as well and says he would have attacked any of those evil SBVT if he was let free near them.

[skeeters2525]

12. Amen

This is our biggest obstacle. They led us to war. And all the evidence of no WMD's was out there and ignored. The Swift Boat lies were never looked at. Just printed in headlines. A week later Nightline actually looked at the charges and said, well oops, I guess it was bullshit. NO RETRACTION ANY WHERE ELSE, JUST ON TO THE NEXT LIE.

And my fear is many Democrats will still fall for the bullshit. I wish we could convince everyone to turn the idiot box off.

How can you have a Police State without a government controlled media. We will find out if we are able to fight Pravds as well as the Republican Evil Empire.

[otohara]

13. They Are Getting Worse Not Better

nothing seems to phase them, shame, criticism, ridicule, not even bad ratings and low circulation. Which is something the bosses should be looking at and saying WTF are we doing wrong?

I still hold on to the theory that they continue to suck up to the right in hopes of more deregulation. It's no secret newspapers are dying to buy local TV stations. Clear Channel would love to own more stations and then there's the internet.

Thank Gawd the internet has provided the left with a voice. Cuz we sure are out numbered in all other forms of media.

[agincourt]

14. Take Fox news

Rupert Murdoch pours money into that media love child, even though it never turns a profit. Why? Because they have money to burn, so they use it to get GOP elected. This RW media shit is a product of our inequitable economic system. Too many rich assholes with too much money on their hands, catapulting RW propaganda no matter what the ratings are. We don't live in an information age, we live in a propaganda age.

[Totally Committed]

15. Regardless of what I feel, personally, about Kerry or the last campaign,

I totally agree with this. The press aided and abetted the Republicans (and that hasn't changed) in their "win" in 2004. They may have even been what tipped the scales, and made it possible in the minds of the public that the Bushies could have won, when the election was, in reality, stolen.

Saddled with the "lapdog" conglomerate media, Kerry would have had to pull out all the stops and go at the Republicans head on to have had any chance at all, and even then, if the media chose not to cover the ensuing melee, would still have been made to look like the loser in the end anyway.

We MUSt get the media conglomerates broken up again. We must find a way to make them fair again. If we don't, we may never "win" an election again, even if we DO WIN.

TC