Big Media's Double Democracy Standards

[Generator]

The Washington Post and other leading American newspapers are up in arms about the legitimacy of a presidential election where exit polls showed the challenger winning but where the incumbent party came out on top, amid complaints about heavy-handed election-day tactics and possibly rigged vote tallies.

In a lead editorial, the Post cited the divergent exit polls, along with voter claims about ballot irregularities, as prime reasons for overturning the official results. For its part, the New York Times cited reports of “suspiciously, even fantastically, high turnouts in regions that supported” the government candidate. The U.S. news media is making clear that the truth about these electoral anomalies must be told.

Of course, the election in question occurred in the Ukraine.

In the United States – where exit polls showed John Kerry winning on Nov. 2, where Republican tactics discouraged African-American voting in Democratic precincts, and where George W. Bush’s vote totals in many counties were eyebrow-raising – the Post, the Times and other top news outlets mocked anyone who questioned the results.

~Snip~
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/112304.html

[LisaL]

1. I really don't think they even realize how incredibly stupid

and hypocritical they sound when they talk about election FRAUD-in Ukraine. Virtually every thing that they think suggests election FRAUD in Ukraine applies to US.
:nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke: :nuke:

[AnIndependentTexan]

7. the sad thing is I think they actually just don't care

that is the true problem. Remember they are the same group who's leader said he is a uniter and not a divider. Look at were we are today with chimp up in the white house. All we can do is pray this wakes up other Americans to see how stupid they are.

[Cowboy Joe2k]

2. They make a big deal about high voter turn out wyoming 106%

http://soswy.state.wy.us/election/profile.htm

[LisaL]

3. Unusually high turn out is all fine and dandy-

when evangelical Christians are coming out in droves to vote for Bush.
:argh:
That means republicans energized their base.
Unusually high turn out in Ukraine, on the other hand, points out to election FRAUD.
:eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes: :eyes:

[consciousobjector]

4. Now is the time to use this

Letters and email to every newspaper, tv station, friend, relative...the hypocrisy is too evident. How can anyone who is not being paid not to ignore the correlation?

[Generator]

5. Yes

It's like a sign we have been given-here's the opening to make our case as the media is actually making it for us with eyes wide shut.

[AmyCrat]

6. they don't CARE

...about appearing "stupid" or "hypocritical" because they know that the vast majority of people in the U.S. don't have even an inkling that something underhanded might have occurred in the election process. We may all look at this from our perspective and say "how stupid!" but for MOST people, they don't have a clue.

[consciousobjector]

8. Then it's time they get a clue

Media, media, media!!! :spank: :spank: :spank:

[Patsy Stone]

9. Here's Nov 1 frozen in time

http://www.ariannaonline.com/forums/showthread.php?t=15...

I'm just going to clip a bit from one post:

"In 2002, multiple races were swung as the result of a "defective chip" found in DIEBOLD machines. In precincts in which the chip was replaced, the vote swung back to what pollsters had predicted. Only a handful of the known defective chips were replaced."

Also, in there somewhere is this Fox poll:
http://www.foxnews.com/projects/pdf/110104_poll.pdf

And you want to tell me nothing smells fishy?

[MarkusQ]

10. There's more than one potential explanation

For example, if you assume that, for whatever reason, there is a general disinclination to report on the situation in the US. It might be a "media lock-down," or it might just be the assumption that anyone who makes too big of a deal about it will have a hard time getting access. It could be that they are spooked by what happened to Dan Rather, or that the advertisers didn't like the way the 2000 recount dragged on. Even if it's a lock-down, it could be for plausibly non-nefarious reasons (worry that it might trigger anti-US action around the time of the Iraqi election or something). The reason doesn't matter, and there are lots of possibilities.

But most journalists are basically good (in the same way that most of the people in a Soccer Mob are basically good--you can't make assumptions about the individuals from the aggregate behaviour, and visa-versa), many of them are above average intelligence and most of them would like to think that they are making the world a better place by communicating the truth.

So what would you do in such a situation? A very common solution, found time and again by people throughout history, is to make analogies, tell fables or parables, or find some other way to get people to think without saying the unthinkable (or at least un-say-able). This was very common in Soviet Russia, and (from what I've been told) made reading the daily paper somewhat like living The Da Vinci Code.

It may not be ironic. It may be just the best compromise anyone has been able to come up with.

--MarkusQ

[proudbluestater]

11. Watch MediaMatters.org

They will surely cover these stories in total. At the end of each story, they will provide you with an email link directly to the offending parties. Quick and Easy way to protest this corporate cabal media.