Nightline: Conspiracy Theory Did * Steal The Election?

[sabra]

Hmmm Here we go!

[Skink]

1. Amish Police force.

SNL. 80's.

[Goldeneye]

2. Can you keep me posted....no tv in this room.

[Cobalt Violet]

3. I guess we're "dieharts".

[marions ghost]

27. "diehards"

must have used that word about 5-6 times...

[nadinbrzezinski]

4. of course it is a conspiracy theory

nothing to see here, move along get over it... no way the vote was hacked....

Ah yes the crack stenography corp does it again....

[sabra]

5. Mitofsky i-view

says exit polls were flawed... Got more cooperation from Kerry supporters over *

[KaryninMiami]

10. Give me a break. Kerry people are nicer so they answered more polls?

Geeeeezzzz.... How come no one mentioned that the only exit polls that switched during election night were the ones in the states with electronic voting? What happened to those great graphas? Guess those don't count.

[buddysmellgood]

47. Now, now. You can't possibly argue with Nightline. They even put spineless

democrats on to say get over it. What a bunch of horseshit

[tintin99]

56. Mitofsky sucks

Mitofsky and the rest of them are trying to make democrats sound like idiot conspiracy theorists. Who are those people they're showing with the charts and the wild haircuts, etc. Screw them and Ted Koppel too!

[paineinthearse]

6. Mitofsky

suggests exit poll discrepency is due to kerry voters being more "cooperative". parallels to clinton in 92.

[sabra]

7. Lawyer rebuts Mitofsky

says the chance they got it wrong, is very unlikely... M says that he is not perfect and doesn't always get it correct...

[sabra]

8. So why pay him the big $, if he can't get it correct?

hmmm

[googly]

90. Mitofsky says even Tiger Woods can't be perfect every time

[sabra]

9. We are be called, the "die hards"

Ohio investigation is coming after commercial...

[tintin99]

57. "Cocaine" Roberts

says the election is a cause to rejoice - jesus h christ!

[sabra]

11. Koppel: there were many tek problems in Ohio

talking about Boxer objection on 1/6

[marions ghost]

12. Democratic pollsters are satisfied...

Mitofsky "Kerry voters participated at a higher rate than Bush voters."

Now going on to Ohio...starting with Barbara Boxer objection
"her failed attempt"

[sabra]

13. Columbus Dispatch: there were problems, but no evidence of fraud...

[Karmadillo]

14. Good friend of fox investigates and concludes fox never entered henhouse.

n/t

[sabra]

15. Moss from the lawsuit speaking

about the long lines in the heavy Dem precincts...

[Cobalt Violet]

16. Few voter machines in Dem. districts.

17 machines never got there.

[sabra]

17. Blackwell time!

Moss bashing Blackwell for co-chairing *

[glarius]

18. They are giving a phony explanation for why the exit polls didn't match

If the question was asked "who did you vote for?" and the answer was "I don't want to tell you" (obviously they didn't say I'm voting for Bush but I don't want to tell you)....how do the pollsters know whether the voters were for Bush or for Kerry?....This is a phony theory!

[UL_Approved]

36. VERY true

Unless the exit pollsters had the information ANYWAY, how could they know this? Did they get the information afterwards to compare? If so, I would like to see the numbers.

[sabra]

66. Why can't they just admit, that there were just more Kerry voters

it's that simple!

[sabra]

19. Blackwell: calling us silly and foolish

[KaliTracy]

why aren't the media's own pronouncements about "moral values" being

the determining factor in Bush Winning (Which HAD to be gotten from Exit poll data) discussed?

[sabra]

20. Some "Dem" pollster is telling us to get over it...

[sabra]

22. Well wasn't that special

not... but I guess many here called it early today...

Next, talking about elections in the early days before the Interenet(s)...

[Cobalt Violet]

24. Punching out pole workers.

[Patchuli]

33. To the "Dem Pollster"

I say f*ck you, you get over it. * cheated. 2000, 2002 and 2004. Those
ugly ol' boys got it down by now. I don't think Abraham Lincoln would
recognize his old party at this point.

Our job is cut out for us. No more electronic voting. We need to do
paper ballots, handcounted. No partisan officials, no blackholeboxes.

[Cobalt Violet]

21. Crackwhore Roberts coming up next!

[sabra]

23. can't wait

:boring:

[marions ghost]

25. "fringe contention"

...the majority of Dems dont believe there were problems with the count..."

"a certain part of the electorate cannot let go..."

"GW won by 3,169,000"

"going on to other flawed races in the past....

[For PaisAn]

26. The term Conspiracy Theory has been twisted

It somehow came to represent people who are nuts. They've done this so they can discount anyone who questions them. That's not at all the meaning of the words. BS as usual. It's so aggravating.

Here are some listings of definitions for these words.

con·spir·a·cy
1 : the act of conspiring together
2 a : an agreement among conspirators b : a group of conspirators
synonym see PLOT

the·o·ry

1 : the analysis of a set of facts in their relation to one another
4 a : a belief, policy, or procedure proposed or followed as the basis of action <her method is based on the theory that all children want to learn> b : an ideal or hypothetical set of facts, principles, or circumstances; often used in the phrase in theory <in theory, we have always advocated freedom for all>
5 : a plausible or scientifically acceptable general principle or body of principles offered to explain phenomena <wave theory of light>
6 a : a hypothesis assumed for the sake of argument or investigation b : an unproved assumption : CONJECTURE c : a body of theorems presenting a concise systematic view of a subject <theory of equations>
synonym see HYPOTHESIS

[Alizaryn]

28. NOT ONE WORD ABOUT CONYER'S

[Norquist Nemesis]

103. This is what really puzzled me

The entire show kept repeating 'conspiracy theorists'. Conyers report detailed voter suppression and irregularities. But not a single mention of the hearings or the report!

[sabra]

29. Past corruption

calling it shannanigans... 1960 election... here we go...

[Cobalt Violet]

34. Cheer up, by 2050 the MSM will admit 2004 was stolen!

[JudyM]

38. Cold comfort.

[Alizaryn]

30. grrrrrrrrrrr...another rational letter time

[Cobalt Violet]

31. Now they're talking about 1960 being stolen.

So maybe the media will accept 2004 was stolen in 2050.

[sabra]

32. The one positive so far is...

they did admit that corruption can/and has happened... but not this time around... no

[KingoftheJungle]

35. PEOPLE: this is ABC/General Electric we are talking about!!!

Madsen had this nailed long ago...
=================================
"Who Tells You What to Think?

Columbia Journalism Review and Media Channel track the owners and minions of U.S. media interests at http://www.cjr.org/owners/ and www.mediachannel.org, and a visit there is most enlightening. NBC, General Electric's marionette, owns an array of properties from financial institutions in France to long distance telephone services in Hungary. General Electric is a partner with Starbucks Coffee in Talk City. Under the Walt Disney Group entity resides ABC, which recently featured an investigative piece on World News Tonight on whether time travel is possible. This was not a news story but a movie advertisement: Disney was preparing to release its remake of the movie, "The Time Machine." It must have been tough for the quintessential Peter Jennings to turn into an Entertainment Tonight host for a Hollywood gossip and gabfest show masquerading as a nightly news broadcast. Disney also owns interests in petroleum and natural gas production facilities.

The New York Times owns the Boston Globe and has a partial interest in a sports franchise, the Boston Red Sox. Viacom is the holder of CBS and runs everything from Star Trek properties to Spelling Television. The Washington Post co-owns the International Herald Tribune with the New York Times and, along with the LA Times, runs a news service. Gannett, publisher of USA Today, owns "insider" publications U.S. Army, Air Force and Navy-Marine Corps Times, as well as Defense News and Military Market. They also partner with defense contractor General Electric on web ventures.

And then there's The Unification Church's Washington Times Newspaper listed as a "project" on Rev. Sun Myung Moon's website. The Washington Times, along with the Dow Jones' Wall Street Journal (Jones also owns 20 newspapers around the U.S.), cater to a powerful constituency: God, Money, Corporations and Republicans, although not always in that order. Rev. Moon claims that Jesus Christ visited him in 1935 and, according to The Unification Church website, "Jesus asked him to complete the task of establishing God's kingdom on earth and bringing His peace to humankind." Apparently Bush the First and Bush the Second agree with Moon. The elder was on the Moon payroll as a speechmaker and the younger claimed in a presidential debate that Jesus Christ was the greatest philosopher of all time. Finally, no mention of media would be complete without Fox News Corporation. As reported by MediaChannel, Rupert Murdoch's empire is so vast that he claims, "Our reach is unmatched around the world. We are reaching people from the moment they wake up until they fall asleep."

Pay No Attention to What the Media is Doing Behind That Curtain

With incest in the U.S. media as flagrant as it is-combined with its subservience to the current U.S administration and military--is it any surprise that events are scripted to suit the outcome of the U.S. economic and national policies? The recent <U.S.-backed> Venezuelan coup exposed the U.S. media interests as complicit partners in deceiving the American public. FAIR at documented the print media's bovine coverage:

"When elements of the Venezuelan military forced president Hugo Chavez from office last week, the editorial boards of several major U.S. newspapers followed the U.S. government's lead and greeted the news with enthusiasm. In an April 13 editorial, the New York Times triumphantly declared that Chavez's "resignation" meant that "Venezuelan democracy is no longer threatened by a would-be dictator." Conspicuously avoiding the word "coup," the Times explained that Chavez "stepped down after the military intervened and handed power to a respected business leader.... Three days later, Chavez had returned to power and the Times ran a second editorial (4/16/02) half-apologizing for having gotten carried away."

When the corporate megaliths took over the news networks, the first casualties were the foreign bureaus. No longer would network journalists be able to build up a base of sources and contacts within various capital cities and financial centers. The result is that the networks increasingly rely on government spokespeople for "news" that is really nothing more than propaganda. Take Afghanistan, for example. Network and newspaper reporters are confined to Kabul because U.S. military planners have convinced them the countryside is unsafe. Not knowing any better and lacking any in-country contacts, they remain in Kabul and dutifully file as news copy every statement regurgitated by a suspicious military public affairs officer. As Robert Young Pelton indicated in an interview with Salon,

"Well, the military hates the media. The conundrum is that we live and die for the Constitution and one of the elements of the Constitution is freedom of the press -- the right of the democratic public to make decisions based on a free flow of information, without censorship, without people rewriting history. And basically since the Vietnam War, the military realizes that the press is the enemy, because the press is actually faster and more intelligent than the military is. They can assess a military situation long before the military figures it out".

This story has been replayed in cities and countries around the world. Last June, the world media bought the story issued by the government of Nepal that a love sick, drunk, and deranged Crown Prince executed his entire family, including his mother and father -- the King and Queen. Not reported was that incoming King and new Crown Prince were brutal thugs bent on turning the country into a virtual province of neighboring India. The Hollywood-inspired news media liked the O.J. Simpson and Robert Blake angle of the story instead and, without even a cursory independent investigation, decided the official government explanation would suffice. It's the same story-line in Washington, DC.

Rewriting the Record

The recent pro-Palestinian and anti-globalization march in Washington was ignominiously ignored by the U.S. media interests. Only C-SPAN covered it live. However, when the ranks of the protestors swelled to over 75,000, C-SPAN cut away its coverage to air a taped three-day old speech by the head of the International Monetary Fund. Undoubtedly, C-SPAN, like many other networks that have offered unbiased coverage of Middle East news, felt the wrath of a powerful lobby group called CAMERA - the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America - a virtual propaganda arm of the Israeli government known for berating any reporter who criticizes Israel. It effectively uses is financial clout to get wayward media elements to fall in line with Israel's party line.

Another dangerous trend is cable news addiction to Bush. The Three Stooges of cable news broadcasting - CNN, FoxCable, and MSNBC -- all break away for live coverage whether Bush is hamming it up in the mountains of New York State or disembarking from his helicopter. Gone underreported is the doctoring of White House transcripts by staffers who excise Bush's intellectual blunders at press conferences and speeches who, in effect, are rewriting the record. And U.S. military movements in support of the failed coup in Venezuela received scant attention. History is replete with examples of authoritarian leaders surrounding themselves with cameras and one-sided news coverage. Consider Leni Riefenstahl's constant filming of Hitler and how the coverage extended to every German movie house. Or Soviet TV's ad minutiae coverage of Brezhnev, Andropov, and Chernenko. Every time they visited a tractor factory in Minsk or a poultry plant in Kiev, the story was prominently featured on the nightly "Vremya" news.

As U.S. military planners, politicians and corporations continue their global pacification campaign against a now trumped up Al Qeida, they have already planned for the invasion of Iraq and, perhaps, other members of the Axis of Evil. To garner public support for boundless U.S. military operations--from which new exploitable markets magically appear--the war machine has received the enthusiastic support of U.S. media interests whose task, it seems, is to keep the public busy and acquiescent. In reality, most American's are extraordinarily adverse to war, yet the U.S. media interests upon which they rely for "thought" are the integral operatives for U.S. war propaganda and concomitant public indoctrination. Nazi celebrity Hermann Goering would be right at home in the U.S. in 2002, working with U.S. media interests to suppress dissent and bring home a glorious victory for the Homeland.

"Why of course the people don't want war! Why should some poor slob on a farm want to risk his life in a war when the best he can get out of it is to come back to his farm in one piece? Naturally, the common people don't want war: neither in Russia, nor in England, nor for that matter in Germany. That is understood. But after all it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship ... Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger."

http://www.counterpunch.org/madsen0425.html

Viacom Inc. had large trading and shook hands with Unification Church and all its subsidiaries. Mitofsky left Viacom strangely after Moon's visit in which he held the "prophecy"

Mitofsky's family on the other hand, goes back years, and now he's been the governmental puppet to de-construct other governments by force.

[JudyM]

37. Not a word about the people who were 'informed' they were not registered

or those who showed up only to find that they weren't on the rolls (mysteriously) or those who tried to vote for kerry but the machine kept giving them *... or on and on ... what a thin piece of crap journalism. Totally disappointing.

[sabra]

39. Just about out of time: are things better from 20-30 years ago?

Both saying things are much better this time around, machines are better etc... Making fun of us...

[kster]

44. Media knows the

story is getting out with or without them. they are Trying to cover it up ?

[Cobalt Violet]

40. No talk of central tabulators.

These people are just too stupid to understand.

[catgirl]

45. The question is: why is our media corrupt?

Greed over integrity? Do we have to wait for all the
death bed confessions for the truths? What can we do
on a grass roots level to overhaul our media? I suppose
we need to start with overhauling the current gov. This
is painful.

[roseBudd]

101. Computeres count the votes so no one can see, They claim Bush won...

I say prove it to me.

The memme.

[trayfoot]

41. Well.......that was a waste of time!

[SmileMaker]

42. WTF?!!!

That was pathetic!

[sabra]

43. Well there you have it...

Summarization:

- Diehards can't get over it
- Exit polls were flawed, over sampled Dems
- Problems happened in OH, but fraud is just silliness
- Fraud has happened in the past, but not this time


I guess we should have expected this, but some of us still had hope. Oh well!

[Mojorabbit]

50. I'm crushed

Ted Koppel has been a favorite of mine for more years than I can count.
It was a pure fluff piece. Sigh

[googly]

92. Chris Bury, Ted Koppel, Cokehead Roberts....all are whores

all are wrong, only we are right.

[helderheid]

104. I lost all respect for Koppel a while back

Watch this clip from December 2003 of Ted Koppel and Dennis Kucinich:

http://resources.kucinich.us/video/video/debate/debate_real_broadband.ram



Or read this transcript:



KOPPEL: When you hear some of your colleagues here—you know, I get a little bit of a sense of sour grapes here, that if anyone else on this stage had gotten Al Gore's endorsement, he would have been happy to have it. What do you think?



KUCINICH: Well, I can't say I was really counting on it.



(LAUGHTER)



But let me say, Ted, let me say—let me say that some of the best talent in American politics is on this stage right now.



(APPLAUSE)



And with all due respect to you, Ted Koppel, who I've admired over the years greatly...



KOPPEL: There's a zinger coming now, isn't there?



KUCINICH: Yes.



(LAUGHTER)



To begin this kind of a forum with a question about an endorsement, no matter by whom, I think actually trivializes the issues that are before us.



(APPLAUSE)



For example, at this moment there are 130,000 troops in Iraq . I mean, I would like to hear you ask during this event what's the plan for getting out. This war is not over. I have a plan, which is on my Web site at kucinich.us, to get the United States out of Iraq .



KUCINICH: I want to talk about that tonight, and I hope we have a substantive discussion tonight and that we're not going to spend the night talking about endorsements.



(APPLAUSE)



KOPPEL: Well, we've got...



(APPLAUSE)



BREAK—



KOPPEL: This is a question to Ambassador Braun, Reverend Sharpton, Congressman Kucinich. You don't have any money, or at least not much. Reverend Sharpton has almost none. You don't have very much, Ambassador Braun.



KUCINICH: We've raised $4.5 million. I mean, that's not nothing.



(LAUGHTER)



KOPPEL: You've got about $750,000 in the bank right now, and that's close to nothing when you're coming up against this kind of opposition. But let me finish the question. The question is, will there come a point when polls, money and then ultimately the actual votes that will take place here in places like New Hampshire, the caucuses in Iowa, will there come a point when we can expect one or more of the three of you to drop out? Or are you in this as sort of a vanity candidacy? Reverend Sharpton, you go first.



BREAK—



KOPPEL: When do you pull out?



KUCINICH: After I—when I take the oath of office, when you're there to cover it...



(LAUGHTER)



(APPLAUSE)



... and I can tell you, Ted, you know, we started at the beginning of this evening, talking about an endorsement. Well, I want the American people to see where the media takes politics in this country. To start with endorsements...



(APPLAUSE)



We start talking about endorsements, now we're talking about polls, and then we're talking about money. Well, you know, when you do that, you don't have to talk about what's important to the American people. Ted, I'm the only one up here that actually...



(APPLAUSE)



... I'm the only up here on the stage that actually voted against the PATRIOT Act and voted against the war—the only one on this stage. I'm also...



(APPLAUSE)



... I'm also one of the few candidates up here who's talking about taking our health-care system from this for-profit system to a not-for-profit, single-payer universal health care for all.



(APPLAUSE)



I'm also the only one who has talked about getting out of NAFTA and the WTO and going back to bilateral trade...



(APPLAUSE)



... conditioned on workers' rights, human rights, and the environment. Now...



KOPPEL: Congressman?



KUCINICH: ... I may be inconvenient for some of those in the media, but, you know, I'm sorry about that.



(APPLAUSE)



(KOPPEL LOOKING LIKE HE SWALLOWED A LIZARD)

[marions ghost]

46. Couldn't have been a more biased report

Basically was designed to lay to rest any and all concerns about any legitimate objections to the election. Rest easy...all is well in
La La Land...drink your kool-aid...

A concerted Whack-a-Mole job.

:evilfrown: :evilfrown: :grr: :grr:

[proudbluestater]

48. Koppel whoring for the corporate media once again.

Apparently he thinks that not only are we stupid conspiracy theorists who haven't a clue, we're also quite gullible and can't see through his chicanery. These are the biggest donors for the Coronation. Scroll down to the F's and you'll find Ford Motor who just HAPPENED to be one of tonight's Nightline sponsors. Have you driven a Ford lately? Never again.


Financing the inauguration
Fifty-three companies gave the maximum $250,000 donation toward President Bush's inauguration this week.
ACS State & Local Solutions, Dallas, Texas

A.G. Spanos, Stockton, Calif.

Alagem Capital Group, Beverly Hills, Calif.

Altria Corporate Services, Inc., New York

American Financial, Cincinnati, Ohio

Ameriquest Capital Corporation, Orange, Calif.

Argent Mortgage Company, Orange, Calif.

AT&T, Washington D.C.

Bank of America Corporation, Charlotte, NC

Boone Pickens, Dallas, Texas

Bristol-Myers Squibb, Washington, DC

Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Corp., Topeka, Kan.

Carl H. Lindner, Cincinnati, Ohio

Chevron Texaco, Concord, Calif.

Cinergy Corporation, Cincinnati, Ohio

Corporate Capital, LLC, New Orleans, La.

Dr. Miriam Ochshorn Adelson, Las Vegas, Nev.

Elliott Broidy, Los Angeles, Calif.

Exxon Mobil Corporation, Washington, DC

FedEx Corporation, Memphis

First Data Corporation, Greenwood Village, Colo.

Ford Motor Company, Dearborn, Mich.

Golden Eagle Industries, Inc., Charlotte, N.C.

H. Edward Baher, Bluffton, S.C.

Hunt Consolidated, Inc., Dallas, Texas

Kojaian Ventures, LLC, Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

Long Beach Acceptance Corp., Paramus, NJ

Marriott International, Inc., Washington, DC

Mariott Vacation Club International, Washington, DC

Nancy and Rich Kinder, Houston, TX

National Association of Home Builders, Washington, DC

Nelson Peltz, New York, NY

New Energy Corp., South Bend, IN.

Occidental Petroleum Corporation, Los Angeles, CA

Pfizer, Inc., New York, NY

Rooney Holdings, Inc., Tulsa, OK

S. Davis Phillips, High Point, NC

Sallie Mae Inc., Reston, VA

Sheldon D. Adelson, Las Vegas, NV

Southern Company, Atlanta, GA

Stephens Group, Inc., Little Rock, AR

Strongbow Technologies Corp., Burtonsville, MD

Susan and Michael Dell, Austin, TX

The Home Depot, Washington, DC

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC, Chevy Chase, MD

The Timken Company, Canton, OH

Time Warner, New York, NY

Town and Country Credit, Irvine, CA

United Parcel Service, Roswell, GA

United Technologies, Hartford, CT

UST Inc., Greenwich, CT

Wachovia Corporation, Jacksonville, FL

Washington Television Center, Washington, DC

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-01-16-inaugural-donors_x.htm

[abbiehoff]

108. Carl Lindner and American Financial are essentially

the same thing. So Carl actually gave $500,000.

[Fly by night]

49. Here's the letter I sent to Ted Koppel before tonight's broadcast ...

... and I spoke with his senior producer by phone to make sure they knew it was coming. I told the producer what I said in the letter. They could begin to behave like competent, responsible patriotic American journalists or they could keep being crack whores for Karl Rove (well, I was a bit more polite.) So here's my letter:
-------
To Ted Koppel:

Given how very dismissive ABC has been so far in its coverage of the 2004 election theft, I am concerned about how you will present the story tonight. Your promo for tonight's program already suggests that you will once again be dismissive. You do this at your own peril. According to Annenberg, approximately 30% of the American people now believe the 2004 election was stolen. That's a 50% increase in the number of people who hold that belief in just the past six weeks.

You only show your own uninformed, complacent, incredulous or perhaps (in the eyes of many Americans) co-conspiratorial position if you dismiss the evidence for the 2004 election theft. You must know by now that -- even though the corporate media is still holding back from releasing the full exit poll data (for what useful reason escapes us) -- the complete final national exit poll data (not the incomplete early "leaked" data your promo refers to) have already been released on-line by a New Zealand media organization who bought the complete data before Mitofsky stopped responding to requests for it. Those data have been analyzed and those analyses are now widely available. Maybe that's why 100 million Americans believe the election was stolen.

You must also know that the analyses of Dr. Steven Freeman of the University of Pennsylvania are based on the final exit poll data available to all of us directly off CNN at midnight on election day -- once again not the early data leaked on the Internet that your promo refers to. Dr. Freeman's analysis indicates that someone is twice as likely to win PowerBall with a single ticket than that the discrepency between the exit polls and the "reported" vote in just three states -- OH, FL and PA -- occurred by chance. Other analysts -- again using the complete state-level exit poll data (available on CNN at midnight on election night) put the likelihood that the discrepencies between the final exit polls and the "reported" vote in 16 states occurred by chance at 13.5 trillion to one.

Finally, another analysis by Dr. Freeman demonstrates the election theft without using exit poll data. Simply put, Freeman looked at people who voted in 2004 and distributed them according to their self-reported 2000 voting status and their 2004 voting decision within three categories:

1) 2000 Gore or Bush voters who voted for Kerry or Bush in 2004,
2) 2000 3rd party voters who voted in 2004 for Kerry or Bush, and
3) New voters in 2004.

These categories should include all voters for Kerry or Bush in 2004. With this analysis, Freeman has shown that approximately 4.3 million votes were switched from Kerry to Bush between the time the votes were cast and the time the votes were counted. Here's the table from one of the appendices to Dr. Freeman's paper (which is attached):

(Guys, I can't get the Freeman table to line up right in this post. I basically used a simplified version of Freeman's table 2.2 on page 24 in the appendix from his updated paper. Wish I could get it to line up because it is a KILLER table. Here's a link to the full paper and appendix: http://truthout.org/unexplainedexitpoll.pdf )

Suffice it to say, if Nightline does not include Dr. Freeman or another of the many reputable researchers whose work has documented the 2004 election theft in your broadcast tonight, your presentation will be incomplete. Further, if your program once again makes light of or dismisses the overwhelming evidence for the 2004 election theft, you will cement your status as a co-conspirator in this unprecedented rape of democracy.

Of course, ABC could always be the first network to release the complete exit poll data and reports to the American public. If you don't, what do you know and when did you know it? And one more question: just what are you knowingly hiding?

Assuredly, (me)

[proudbluestater]

53. Fantastic letter! He can't say he wasn't INFORMED.

He's just another lying corporate whore. Instead of wasting our time, he just heaped more abuse on those of us who REFUSE to give into fascist Amerika.

[fooj]

72. How about sending a copy of this to the Post and the NYT...

and any other publication that might pick it up. Try Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann. Hell, e-mail it to Hustler. There may be some hesitance, however, the opportunity to "take it to Ted and ABC" may quench the thirst of these ratings starved journalists. What a powerful letter...I bet the rest of the country might be interested in what you've got to say...if given the chance! Kudos! Thanks for taking the time to do this for us!

[Fly by night]

83. Done. and done. Now to bed (finally). n/t

[Fly by night]

84. I'm getting interviewed (live) on Pacifica and Voice of America (Africa)

radio networks tomorrow morning about our Orange State protests against the 2004 election theft. Really grateful for the opportunity that these networks are providing to speak truth to power, to the Left Coast and to the world. Not bad for a sleepy-eyed Tennessee yellow dog, armed with the facts, figures and fur-flying fury that DU has endowed me with. Ni-tall.

[fooj]

94. sleep well!

Peace!

[fooj]

95. Hiya fly by night...What do you think

about sending this to randi rhodes...she'll get it on the air! I would bet on it! Just another thought to ponder...good luck tomorrow! Give 'em hell!

[Fly by night]

102. Done. And I sent her the prospectus for our proposed national conference

... on the 2004 election theft and the need for election reform, which we hope to hold in Nashville in the spring. Who knows, maybe we could get Randi to speak about the silence of the corporate media and the emergence of new media that is necessary to inform us about the serious threats to our democracy. That would be great. Thanks for your good ideas.

[fooj]

107. Anything for our moral and just cause!

Lets rock and roll...if you need anything or can suggest how I may be able to help...please let me know! I live in California, FYI. PEACE!

[buddysmellgood]

51. ugh. "Blackwell somehow had his thumb on the election." They defend

that ass. Fuckers.

[buddysmellgood]

52. I can't watch anymore. I could easily have torn their piss poor story to

shreds. Why didn't they take a serious look at Blackwell, at the recount, at the democrats who owe their jobs to Blackwell? Will they mention Warren County and the lockdown? Fuck them.

[Carolab]

61. Oh, and his nice and tidy pat answer about the system being bipartisan.

For a conspiracy to have happened it would have taken ALL of those people sitting on elections boards. Uh huh. Or a few carefully placed programmers and technicians and media "enablers" for the "cause", Ken? Karl Rove with a cell phone and a laptop in the old family dining room?

[Mojorabbit]

54. The last part of the show

says it all. We have had peaceful transitions for two hundred years without revolution. I am thinking that no one wants there to be people on the streets as in the Ukraine. An orderly transition no matter what has to be overlooked to keep face.

[buddysmellgood]

65. Did people die from protesting in Ukraine? I would LOVE to see Americans

stand up for their rights. An orderly transition no matter what...that's how the Germans responded to Hitler.

[Carolab]

55. Koppel afraid to be "Ratherized".

After he went against the grain and showed the dead soldiers last summer.

Oh well, what did we expect after the "explanation" for the polls went out today. Oh, yes, too many Kerry voters answered. Sure, that explains ALL of it. Thanks. Oh, and here's a nice piece from Nightline to drive the point home, the night before the "inauguration". Think that was a coincidence?

PUMMEL them with e-mails and tell them what was wrong with that piece of whitewash. Fuck you, Rove, and your control of the media. We're not going to stop telling everyone the truth.

And we're shutting Ted off from now on in our house.

[Top Lizard]

58. My Message to Nightline

The sunny-side-up sentiment is a weakness of the mainstream news media, which likes to report individual sad stories but prefers to tell a metanarrative of American "progress." (The Columbia Journalism Review did a fascinating piece in early 2001 on how this tendency adversely affected Al Gore during the Florida vote fracas.)

FYI, this is the text of an e-mail which I just sent to the Nightline staff:


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.

[Mojorabbit]

67. Excellent letter. n/t

[Top Lizard]

69. Thanks

Thank you. I was hoping that "constructive criticism" might move them further along the road toward future coverage depending on what else develops out of the Conyers investigation and/or other events.

[LiberalHeart]

60. You know how reporters were embeded with the troops?

We need to embed some MSM folks with us and present the facts that need to be explored and explained. I'd also like to have Ted sit down again with the pollster and have him explain why in this particular election did he decide backers of one candidate didn't want to talk to them. Ask if it(one party being chatty, the other party claming up) ever happened before. Then ask him to PROVE how he knows that's what happened this time. One way to provide that proof would be for his organization to go over each step of the investigation his firm conducted after the election ... let us see what research and soul-searching and information weighing and manipulation finally led him to his conclusion, which he repsents as solid fact. If he can't back it up, then he should be made to call it what it is: a guess that he just pulled out of his butt to explain the vote totals -- to avoid rocking the political boat by admitting the US is another Ukraine.

[marions ghost]

71. Same here, Nightline is History...

Have a list of media heads and journalists from whom I will never trust another word they say. Cokie was already on the list, but now Ted is there too...and I've watched Nightline fairly often for a number of years.

I'm inspired by the email letters here and will spend some time on mine to Ted's Spin factory. You are right, carolab...they should hear from us. This "report" was one of the shabbiest performances I've seen in awhile. I guess all the circus dogs got a big pat on the head for this.

Call me a "diehard"...but why do I feel so much better after this
abrupt weaning from MSM? It's cathartic...clearing out, for something new and better.

[NationalEnquirer]

106. WE CAN DO the "Ratherizing".

You know its not just the right-wing-nuts who have blogs.
We can take them down as well.

[GettysbergII]

59. My letter to Nightline

Mr. Coppel,

Tonight Nightline has slunk to a new low. After ignoring the possibility of election fraud until after the electoral votes have been already certified on January 6, 2005, you presented a sanitized and slanted version of the vote fraud story without ever mentioning the raw data of the exit polls still has not been released to the public but only to the networks. What a farce and a corporate mouthpiece you and your network have become. Are you possibly able to look Bill Moyers in the eye when you chance to meet these days?

Nor did you, a mere two days after Martin Luther King Day, adequately address the continued targetting of minority voters for intimidation and suppression that has been well documented in Ohio and Florida going back to the 1980s and which has now spread to New Mexico and Pennsylvania in 2004.

Please look into your heart and ponder these words of Dr. King "A time comes when silence is betrayal. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought, within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world.". It's not too late to rejoin the human race.

[fooj]

73. Powerful letter

Maybe you can circulate...letter to the editor? Just a thought! Thanks! Too bad they didn't bother to tune into or cover the Conyer's Ohio Hearings...they would have had something of REAL value to report!

[GettysbergII]

81. I give it a try with my local papers in Chicago. Thanks for the kind words

and suggestion

[marions ghost]

78. great points, well said

:toast:

[Eric J in MN]

86. he spells his name Koppel (nt)

nt

[intensitymedia]

98. And My Letter to nightline

(NB sent this before I learned Nightline was going to quote my DU post FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS at the top of the show.....)



QUOTE ON

TO ABC NEWS NIGHTLINE January 19, 2005

Your belated attention to the Ohio story is depressing given the importance the election there held for everyone, and the silence of ABC on the discrepancy between exit polling data and the "actual" vote, which proves to many, including myself, that the Ohio vote was fraudulent,as were election results in several other swing states.

This story is already out of control, and will become, I predict, as or more important than the JFK assassination as time goes on. The MSM has actually nailed its own coffin shut by trying to foist the notion on Americans that this election didn't deserve scrutiny. We know it did, and know that the "liberal" media has proven itself craven and cowardly in submitting to Republican bullying in refusing to report on what is without a doubt the most important political story of our time.

Che de Vera

Peace .. and Hail the Sixties

but never give up the struggle

[dmac]

62. I am glad I missed this . . .

the timing is awful and I am sick after reading through what all of you said was on the broadcast (and I almost had my mother convinced today - great . . . )

I still don't get it. I don't get how a reporter like Koppel doesn't see or even can pretend not to see. Remember Koppel was the one who visited Nam to try to corroborate Kerry's story versus the Swift Boat Vets? And he has thwarted his superiors on other things too - such as the broadcast of the soldiers' names. It just doesn't make sense, doesn't ring true. But why is this true just to us? For the longest time someone was making sure there was no media attention at all for this and now someone is making damn sure that any media attention that does come will totally discredit all of the believers as stupid, spoiled, delusional.

There are times when I honestly believe we are going to get somewhere but things like this are sure a setback.

As if tomorrow isn't going to be hard enough . . . .

[glitch]

63. Better Diehard Than Diebold

saw that on a protest sign somewhere and liked it.
I think there is a serious tech-gap going on here. It cannot be that they are all this corrupt, there must be serious ignorance involved. It's almost as if someone says "computer" to the talking heads and they go all :crazy:
Signed, a you better believe it bitter-ender.

[marions ghost]

80. good for bumper stickers and t-shirts too

"Better Diehard Than Diebold"
--orange and black

[Dragonfli]

64. I expected this...and yet I feel horrible

The propaganda may be obvious to those of us who at least know what is being debated and actively pursue the information needed to have that debate. Unfortunately this garbage (or worse) is what most mainstream people think is the true debate.

It will be that much harder now as I will have to re-convince those among my MSM consuming friends and relatives that "no I am not crazy" and "no that was not the whole story about The Election Fraud controversy".
My sister was starting to forward things I sent here and signing petitions, largely because of respect for my intelligence. Now after seeing this, she emailed me and asked me if the stuff I sent her was made up or perhaps mistaken (she thinks that only faux is bias, don't laugh please she just thinks Nightline is real). I will be able to repair this damage and re-introduce her to all the facts. As always in our discussions she makes up her own mind as do I.

It's just so tiring, constantly having to point out the faults and bias of the misinformation machine.
I shouldn't have to do that in America, Just how did the free thinkers in the Soviet Union deal with this sort of thing?
Pravda(old school)= Nightline(now) same beast, how does one make real progress against it?

I am so tired right now and so very open to suggestions.

[glitch]

70. If it's any consolation - I believe your friends and family will realize

the truth soon enough.
The charade is getting harder and harder to sustain. IMO.

[dmac]

75. Sure pray you are right. eom

[Dragonfli]

82. True!

I smell the fear as well as the bullshit!

The criminals do appear to be getting defensive and lashing out more..
Also I do not think they expected the confirmation hearings to go as they have...

(remembering now that his friends and family are not morons
he grabs a beer and starts to laugh at himself)

It is going to get harder and harder for the media to hide what these arrogant fascists do so openly and unapologetically.

Thanks for the encouragement

[AtLiberty]

68. I'm fed up with fact being called conspiracy theory...

...If there's nothing to hide, then why is everything being kept a big secret?

[ClintCooper2003]

74. Transcript? n/t

[VoteJohn04_com]

93. Transcripts?

INDEED... I've been looking too...

ANYONE HAVE A LINK TO A TRANSCRIPT FROM TONIGHT!?

[Senator]

76. Nightline Forums

http://forums.go.com/abcnews/forum?start=0&forumID=15

Tear 'em up.

www.thedeanpeople.org

[Kashka-Kat]

77. write to nightline!

here's their email addy, fwiw

http://abcnews.go.com/Nightline/News/story?id=64544

I wrote.....

Re: election fraud prog on 1/19, you only told half of the story! In true mass media fashion you set up this simple-minded polarity of "yes, there was a conspiracy to steal the election" VS "no there wasn't" which does not capture the true picture.

If you've been on the internet reading the conspiracy theories, you must've ALSO seen the equally voluminous outpouring from people who arent saying yes or no to the stolen election question, but who are deeply troubled by the alarming hackability and lack of security of electronic voting systems as they exist today.

How about interviewing someone like Chuck Herrin, a Republican systems security expert whos written a great deal on this topic, or someone from VErified voting.org or blackboxvoting.org (apparently they have someone who's demonstrated live to legislators how easy it is to dial up and hack away at some county's database!). Or Greg Palast a respected journalist (at least at the BBC) who wrote "The Best Democracy Money Can Buy".

And then get back to us with a follow up program on this EXTREMELY important issue.

Oh, and funny that Kenneth Blackwell didn't mention that the Ohio recount was, under his direction, performed incompletely and in a manner noncompliant with Ohio Statutes. That is, the 3% samples were not random but pre-selected, and the signatures in poll books were not cross-checked against machine totals.

The lack of confidence in the system as it is now, the lack of paper trail in some electronic systems ( with republicans voting down legislation which wouldve required this), the fact that the existing recount procedures aren't set up to be able to detect electronic fraud at the level of the central tabulators..... all of these things should be of concern to any thinking American.

[VoteJohn04_com]

79. DON'T FORGET THE FORUM!

Currently I've seen only a few posts and they are
mostly from BUSH SUPPORTERS---CONDEMNING Nightline
for trying to "beat a dead horse" and "Divide America"!

WERE THEY WATCHING THE SAME SHOW?!?!

Too dense to realize that Nightline was completely
on THEIR Side of this issue?!

THEY PAID IT LIP SERVICE...NOTHING MORE!

They told us "Diehards" and "Conspiracy Theorists"
to SIT DOWN & SHUT UP!

Forgive me while I STAND UP AND SHOUT instead...

[pbartch]

91. GREAT letter

Wish I could write now but it's too late (almost midnight where I am) amd I'm too pissed off

[greenmutha]

97. Here's what I wrote them:

Well, you guys blew it tonight. "Massive Conspiracy Theory" indeed.

Perhaps you should acquaint yourselves with Chuck Herrin - http://www.chuckherrin.com/integritystupid.htm - a computer security systems expert, and a REPUBLICAN that knows that this election was stolen too. It really would only take one good computer hacker hacking into the tabulators.

And as far as the so-called "Recount in Ohio" goes, it was a complete farce. They completely ignored the requirement for the precincts to be "randomly chosen" and instead hand picked which ones to count.

Perhaps if you really looked into it, with an investigative journalist's eye, you would see what millions of us are screaming about on the internet!

http://www.redhandsmovement.com/docs/20_facts.pdf

[LeahD]

85. Since Nov 3

I've been disheartened, I've been frustrated, I'be been angry. Tonight I'm seething. NGU

[LeahD]

87. Pardon Moi

Thirty minutes into Nightline, I can't stand it anymore. Pardon my French, but I am pissed, and I usually don't use those words.

[consciousobjector]

88. I was disapointed, but not surprised

at the general theme of the show. My husband, who agrees there was fraud, but makes fun of me for my involvement in the "tin hat movement", as he calls it, was amazed that the fraud issue was discussed on MSM at all. He thought that no matter how they spun it, that the reporting that there is a suspicion of fraud (especially the day before the inauguration), will bring the issue into the minds of a lot of people who have thus far heard nothing about it...I sort of think he's right.

[Carolab]

89. How'd you like Blackwell's and Mitofsky's "public faces"?

Oh, Mitofsky looked like such a nice, friendly, grandfatherly type, didn't he? Contrasts sharply with the nasty e-mail responses I saw from him on this board.

And, Blackwell--looked so official and calm and collected there in his office, didn't he? Kind of a different Kenneth Blackwell than we've seen elsewhere, wasn't he? How about the nasty, name-calling, frantic Blackwell we saw on Keef's show? Or the rotten SOB that had those people from California arrested for trying to deliver Conyers' letter?

[whirlygigspin]

96. go back to sleep, everything is fine

Thank god Nightline is there to defend the status quo against all those conspiracy theorists--exit polls are only accurate in the Ukraine & Palestine, not in America, where apparently, Americans aren't quite capable of this very difficult endeavor.

Perhaps should we import some Palestinians for the next election to show us how it's done.

Sleep well.

Another year of "Soviet bumper crops".

[sabra]

99. kick... for the morning crowd that is interested in last night's fluff

[Hugin]

100. I TOLD YOU SO!

I've always wanted to say that. =)

[Lauri]

105. Total BS - Not one word mentioned about Conyers' Report n/t