GREAT DUer letter: How to respond to media's "It's not newsworthy"

[Paligal]

I thought this letter deserved it's own post. There have been several posts by DUers who have received replies from media that the fraud story is not legitimate and not newsworthy because we have no conclusive proof (I know, we disagree, but that's their tagline). This DUer, a GREAT newbie, suggested this response.

Original thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=203x135296

nmoliver (38 posts)
I'd reply like this:

Proof? What was the proof of Whitewater wrongdoing? What was the proof of WMD's in Iraq? What was the proof that Saddam Hussein was tied to 9/11? What was your proof that the Paula Jones case had credibility or validity? Did you keep these stories out of your newspaper until you had tried the case and proved it? What proof did you have that the election was stolen in Ukraine? The exit polls? Yeah? Did you keep that from your newspaper because you didn't see the proof?

You don't need to have proof of wrongdoing to report that thousands of people are actively questioning the legitimacy of this election, that there have been congressional hearings with testimony and witnesses and statistics and data, that there have been FOIA lawsuits to get audit logs of the computers, that Mitofsky has refused to hand over his raw data but has admitted that he changed his methodology late on November 2 to conform to the tallies.

You are not the judge and jury of the news, passing verdicts on it before it makes the front page. You are obligated to report the sides of the story, the controversies, so that your readers know that these differences of opinion are ripping at the fabric of our society.

What you are confessing here is that you are setting yourself up as censors, suppressing information about vital controversies going on in our society because you already have your opinion about it.

My friends, that is not your job

[jn2375]

1. Great comeback... SUPER!!!!!

[berniew1]

15. there is obviously significant documentation of malfeasance/irregularities

Documentation of Widespread Systematic Voter Suppression in Ohio

Stealing Votes in Columbus http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/columbus.htm
Stealing Votes in Cleveland http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/cleveland.htm

www.votersunite.org/electionproblems.asp?sort=date&selectstate=OH&selectproblemtype=ALL

[berniew1]

16. And evidence of glitches, fraud; and indications that Kerry won

Documentation that Kerry won Ohio
http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/supreme.htm
(under construction)

Strong Evidence of fraud in Miami County, Ohio
http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/miami.htm

High undercounts in Kerry precincts and low undercounts in Bush precincts in Cincinati
http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/cincinnati.htm

Indications of Fraud in several Ohio counties
www.flcv.vom/fraudioh.html

Indications of possible ballot box stuffing in S.W. Ohio counties
http://www.flcv.com/swohio.html
http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/warren.htm

Favoritism in the Suburbs http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/suburbs.htm

Stealing Votes in Cleveland http://web.northnet.org/minstrel/cleveland.htm

[tk2kewl]

2. That's awsome!

Go nmoliver! And welcome to DU. :toast:

[Vote4Kerry]

3. That is a great letter!

Thanks for posting!

[HEAVYHEART]

4. I love it!

:kick:

[joeunderdog]

5. How bout OJ? Swift Boat Vets?

My LTE to the Boston Globe got ignored too. I sent this weeks ago...

Like most major new sources, The Globe’s silence regarding the alleged voter fraud of this year’s Presidential election is itself a story. Now that we’ve convicted Lacy Peterson’s killer, Globe readers are indeed safer. Unfortunately, our elections don’t appear to be. Readers just won’t learn about it here.

The Globe simply “dismissed” the so-called Internet conspiracies that referenced the F-word (fraud.). Dismissing is easy. Anyone can do that. It would have been better journalism if they took the time to actually discredit these conspiracies with facts and figures.

It’s hard to imagine how a story as sensational as the dramatic speculation of a stolen US Presidential election wouldn’t sell newspapers. O.J. did, and sales were brisk debating the judicial process there. Maybe someone has to die for this story to get legs. (For what it’s worth, the inventor of a verifiable computer voting system did die in a car crash, but that might be too tabloid.) Maybe the Globe just has no more election ink to give after spilling it all on the hot rumors on the candidates’ 30-year-old war records.

Am I disappointed in all of this? Sure, but not as much as those people whose votes are missing. In North Carolina, Official Voter Records acknowledge that Craven County “lost” 4500 votes to a computer (ehem) “glitch." A nearby NC county reported another 11,000 vote “glitch.” In Florida and Ohio, literally dozens counties actually reported more votes than voters. To date, not one of these so-called glitches has favored Senator Kerry. What exactly is it about these very official election numbers that conjures up the notion that Internet paranoia is based on wild speculation?

Exit polling has historically been very accurate, but was off in 8-plus swing states this year by up to an unprecedented 15%, and all in favor of President Bush. More fodder for the Conspiracy Theorists--the probability of this is less than one percent, according to statisticians. In not one state did Kerry outperform exit polls by more than the margin of error. Interestingly, these kinds of extreme irregularities occurred this year in not a single state with a paper trail.

Looking for a motive in this mystery? The companies who produce the computer voting machines are owned and operated by Republicans to the exclusion of Democrats, and business is booming. Walden O'Dell, chief executive of computer voting’s Diebold Inc. is a proud Bush activist and a successful Republican fundraiser. Fox, meet henhouse. Walden said on record that he is "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president (this) year." He just may have. As Stalin said, "Those who cast the votes decide nothing, those who count the votes decide everything."

Unfortunately, the copyright concerns for the compu-voting companies take precedence over the preservation of a fair and transparent democratic process for America. This means no voter verification by impartial parties. In the meantime, Diebold and leading Republicans consider questions about election results to be offensive and objectionable despite flatly refusing to implement a verifiable voting system. Similarly, the Globe has not found Diebold’s symbiotic financial relationship with President Bush to be important enough to investigate corresponding anomalies across e-states during the election.

No, vote theft is not “news.” Both Democrats and Republicans have historically tried to further their personal and political agendas by beating the election system and its technology since before George Washington took office. This year, what’s different is that because of computer voting, large numbers of have been moved or lost without a receipt or a trace. And our own Official Election Results indicate that it is in fact happening. They are not “glitches.” They are an indication of a bigger problem that is being swept under the mats of the Globe and major new sources like it. Even if it’s only to dispel the rumors, shouldn’t the Globe be looking into it?

Look, O.J. was ultimately exonerated, but it still made for a great news story for the Globe.

[bleever]

6. Excellent! Let it be plagiarized far and wide!

And welcome to DU!

:toast:

[aquart]

8. I hope to plagiarize it at the earliest opportunity.

Saving it in Word now.

[lonestarnot]

7. Similar letter needs to be sent to Marsha Blackburn - Tennessee

Repulsive for her attempts at marginalizing those of us WHO KNOW! AND KNOW THAT SHE KNOWS! Media chose to air her comments re no amount of votes, ghost votes or whatever the fuck she said was going to change outcome of the election. Who made her queen of the chimp team?

[life_long_dem]

14. Did you notice that she didn't mention one thing about voter

supression? Well, I guess if your candidate wins then nothing else matters. What a ****. I wont write that word, my wife will slap me if I do.

[lonestarnot]

22. will post a link with her email if I can find blackheartblackburnbiatch

[The Judged]

9. yay!

[Straight Shooter]

10. I'm impressed. "What you are confessing here ..."

What they are doing is criminal. Excellent analogy. :thumbsup:

nmoliver's letter avoids namecalling, something that Repubs are apparently incapable of resisting. Those of us who read the WSJ editorial can attest to that character flaw which is part of the Repub DNA. I won't repeat the recent denigrating label, as it is beneath contempt and does not deserve the honor of repetition.

[helderheid]

11. Super big

KICK!

[spooked911]

12. That is perfect--- if only they would listen

unfortunately I think their minds are made up on the idea that Bush won fari and square

[prairierose]

13. Fabulous response & right on the money....

The media's job is provide information, not to judge for the people what they might be interested in.

They (the media) have gone so far to the dark side that all they are interested in is scandal and speculation. I do know that if I had ever editorialized the way they do today when I was taking journalism classes, that I would have flunked.

At one time, the standard of journalism was to present a story objectively. That is not necessarily just reporting both sides. It is also a reporter's job to look into the veracity of the information and the source. None of those things seem at all important today.

[European Socialist]

17. What's really crappy.

Usually the m$m is good about airing civil rights stories, but when it comes to the vote suppression stories-they don't care. Black athletes should pull off some sort of protest at a NFL or NBA game. That would get us more publicity than all the E-mails sent since the election.

[RaulVB]

18. Was this letter...

Sent already to the "Miami Herald" (reporter)?

It's an excellent response.

[terry4kerry]

19. beautiful!!

That was beautifully worded!

[november3rd]

20. response

nice

[Paligal]

21. kick

ammunition for DUers!

[electropop]

23. Perfectly crafted n/t

[greenmutha]

24. Oh yeah... I am saving this one for sure!

I am *so* sick and tired of the MSM's attitude toward this.

Thank you, nmoliver, for an extremely well-written comeback! :toast:

[TexasLawyer]

25. kick n/t

[Kellis]

26. niiiice

damn that is *GOOD*.Bravo to the writer.