Ted Koppel READ MY POST TO DU opening the show - re FOCUS FOCUS etc.

[intensitymedia]

Hey Folks -

Not to bang the drum, but I was rather surprised this evening, settling back with a bottle of low-priced California Merlot, to survey the depredations upon the truth that ABC News and Ted Koppel were about to inflict on the American psyche on the Ohio Vote Fraud story, when I hear Ted read, with NO attribution, read: (perhaps not exact, I don't have their text yet - this is the substance:) as an example of wacko conspiracy theories questioning the election of our American Mussolini:

Ted reads:

"We are facing what appears to be a sinister, Stalin-esque conspiracy by all the networks and major newspapers to "shield" Americans from the potentially disturbing information that a neo-fascist tyranny has been imposed upon us by the treasonous and criminal theft of the 2004 election."

Yep folks, thing is you didn't need to waste your time waiting up to listen to ABC News, Nightline, or even broadcast television (I'm sure you've all canceled your cable accounts by now), because that quote, friends and radicals, appeared days ago on DemocraticUnderground.com.

Just for the record, I'll repost the entire letter for "context" (Omigod, they've taken me out of context!) just for the record. Because I was going for the jugglar, and knew we had to concentrate on the pressure point which would bring down the fascist house of cards.

QUOTE ON

FOCUS! FOCUS! FOCUS! It’s the Exit Polls Stupid!


Fellow activists!

We are being made dumb, dizzy and mindless by the MSM in general, and in particular by its refusal even to discuss - let alone release - the NEP/Mitofsky exit polling data, showing discrepancies that are greater than in the Ukraine, and showing in Steven Freeman's analysis that Bush's "win" in Ohio and elsewhere was and is a statistical impossibility.

In other words, it didn't happen.

We have to raise hell about this, and never stop.

Why? ***We are facing what appears to be a sinister, Stalin-esque conspiracy by all the networks and major newspapers to "shield" Americans from the potentially disturbing information that a neo-fascist tyranny has been imposed upon us by the treasonous and criminal theft of the 2004 election.***

Despite all their efforts to censor this information, the Exit Poll data has been available online, a pro-freedom-of-the-press whistleblowing coup that, to my mind, is as historically important as the publication of the Pentagon Papers or even more important.

Send your friends and neighbors to:

http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm

and here for the complete data

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/pdfs/Mitofsky4zonedata/

as well as to Freeman's analyses:

http://www.appliedresearch.us/sf/epdiscrep.htm


I suggest that we find as many ways as we can to take this explosive, smoking gun proof of election fraud and force EVERYONE to confront what it says, and what it means. To me, this is our greatest weapon, and square one of our battle to throw the bums out, making sure that the recent a travesty of democracy we’ve been subject to in 2004 never occurs again in the Land of the (formerly) Free.

peace - but never give up the struggle -

Che

___________QUOTE OFF

of course, Koppel never mentioned my central, and most powerful point, arguing for the reification of the Exit Polls as our greatest political weapon to take apart the fascist conspiracy which has hijacked America.

Love and peace - hail the sixties - but never give up the struggle -

Che de Vera

[RaulVB]

1. Are you serious?

I know we have media minions visiting and reading what is posted here but...

[DemBones DemBones]

2. A number of us have been "quoted without attribution" in MSM. nt

[eg101]

17. yes, they read us. That's why I post here: meme transmission!

Ideas can be filtered out into the ideosphere via forums such as this, thanks in large part because the MSM does read them.

[NurseLefty]

3. I just watched Nightline - sigh.

Did they cite your post as being on DU? If so, I missed it.
Nightline gave the story the treatment I expected. It had a rather condescending tone to it, esp. the "Ha, ha, ha, aren't voting shenanigans silly?" musings from Cokie.
I was ESPECIALLY pissed that they brushed over the Blackwell component to this story. They let him have the last word re: his role with *'s campaign.
Koppel opened the show with comments about all the letters they received, accusing them of of ignoring this story. I suppose Koppel & co. now feel they have done their duty.
Typical.
:eyes:

[LeeB]

5. Phooie. n/t

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. Doing their duty, yes, but not to the public

These guys are bought and paid for. They are fully in the pockets of the b* administration, and vice versa.

It sickens me to see Koppel's face as he tries for his Walter Kronkite sincere look. The hyprocrisy meter is pinned at max.

[locomotion]

27. This is what they are getting from me

Dear Sir/Madam,
Your report last night concerning the recent election was very disappointing. While I have watched your show often and always considered it to be a program of journalistic quality I’m afraid like many other news outlets you have slipped into the abyss. To begin with your introduction was so highly editorial that it would be better not to mis-represent yourselves as objective or even all that informative for that matter. To band the serious election problems encountered with the “internet conspiracy crowd” is not only inaccurate but insulting. To take such a serious and complex issue in a commercial riddled three segment hack attack is a public dis-service.
The problem with the exit polling has been largely hidden and with serious concerns arising information has been scant. Instead of pre-ordaining people as conspiracy theorists why don’t you stop opining and start reporting.
Your middle segment created more questions than it answered and included only a minuscule amount of the information that is out there. It undermined your initial assertion given that you could not explain serious machine allotment issues. By the way ever heard of John Conyers? Hello! His staff prepared a meticulous and well documented report that is over 100 pages long! The reason the INTERNET is so vibrant with people trying to piece things together is because you have done such a pathetic job following the story.
O.K. so you do a fluffy piece and sell some advertising but then you have to truly offend. What was the segment with Haynes and Cokie suppose to do? Make it seem O.K.? I had a lot of respect for them both until now. Many on the INTERNET don’t approve of anybody pulling any funny business including the Kennedys. Oh, so if a black is discriminated against today should they get over it because there once was slavery? Should women give up the notion of equality in this culture? Back in the early 1900's they couldn’t even vote!
Many in this country right now feel this President has not been honest. Lack of honesty leads to a lack of credibility, and distrust. With partisanship rampant and transparency at an all time low we need a media that questions this lack of transparency (viewing of electoral records, polling data, etc. on a timely basis ) not adds to it. Perhaps the three of you are uninformed as to the serious problems with a limited number of voting machine companies and their close ties to this administration having a stranglehold on the process. Could any of you make sense of an audit log from a tabulator now in use with your infinite wisdom about this subject? I doubt it. I guess the many complex issues affecting us and perhaps swaying the balance of power, equality and justice in this country in the wrong direction will be explained by the simple notion “boys will be boys” (sorry cokie). At least on the INTERNET one gets many sides, pro and con, crazy and sane, and one must think for themselves and decide (remember critical thinking) instead of a farce of trivialized factually deficient opinion masquerading as journalism. By the way thanks for all the Iraqi and Ukrainian updates. You covered those like a glove. Thanks also for the updates on H.A.V.A. implementation and on the rapid progress in the Congress of other electoral reform. People on the INTERNET are pretty kooky especially the ones who think it is not right to be sending troops to die in foreign lands for the cause of democracy when we apparently are having trouble counting on our own.

[dmac]

32. Very good. I hope they were flooded with letters like this. n/t

[LeeB]

4. CONGRATULATIONS!

That calls for dancing a bit of a jig around the living room! Good job.

Question: Did Koppel call it whacko or was he reasonably respectful? Was there any clue from the discussion that he or any of the Nightline staff had investigated the links? I'm sorry I missed it!

O8) Please, please, please let them wise up and act like journalists!

[BigBearJohn]

6. Well, I have now lost all respect for Koppel

Just another "dismissal" by the media.
The whole program just makes it OK to steal elections.
Talks about how it's been going on for years.
How both Kennedy AND Johnson stole their elections.

Then they get some Democratic polster to agree with
the repukes.

Amazing. Simply amazing. Disgusting.
But why should I be surprised? ABC is all Republican
anyway.

[Wilms]

7. That he'd even read such a thing made my day!

"We are facing what appears to be a sinister, Stalin-esque conspiracy by all the networks and major newspapers to "shield" Americans from the potentially disturbing information that a neo-fascist tyranny has been imposed upon us by the treasonous and criminal theft of the 2004 election."

Too bad the quote missed 911.

But I loved it!

[Nothing Without Hope]

8. Yes, looks like they're paying attention to the benighted internet!

Considering the Gandhi quote that has been circulating around here:

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win."

I'd say we've FINALLY moved through the ignore phase -- which as you'll recall was really most exasperating, what with the totally invisible (on the MSM except for Olbermann) election fraud.

...Then through the laugh phase (with miscellaneous namecalling and the idiotic NYT article featuring the selected DU post asking about nuke-triggered tsunamis)...

...And are showing signs of moving into the fight phase. After all, it cost a lot to prepare that Nightline travesty tonight. This is serious! They timed it for the eve of the Re-Coronation, too, for maximum narcotic effect. Now they are actually talking about election fraud, if only to emphasize repeatedly how silly it would be to give it a moment's thought.

So I'd say, overall, this shows some PROGRESS!
;)

[earth mom]

13. "Maximum narcotic effect" is exactly

what it felt like watching the first part of the show. All the points were glossed over so quickly-sort of neatly tied up with a perky red bow. Ugh! Once Cokie came on, I just turned the t.v. off. And now, after reading some of the threads about it, I am just thoroughly pissed off that most of the public out there -who has nary a clue about what's really going on-most likely watched good ole Ted and swallowed that crap he fed em hook line and sinker! And now that their fears have been soothed and they have no worries...they'll never think about it again. Aaarrrggghhh!!!

[Nothing Without Hope]

15. Yes, they'll think about it again.

Conyers and Kerry and lots of other people, including us, will see to it.

Like I said, we're starting to move into the "fight" phase. Remember when the election problems were a totally taboo subject, even to ridicule? I say this is progress, disgusting as it is.

Way, way past bedtime here on the East Coast! Guess I'm stressing about b* officially being coronated as b**. If I dream about that little blivet I'm going to be pissed.

BTW, Will Pitt introduced me to this wonderfully useful military term in his blog. He pointed out its definition here: http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=blivet
After some consideration, I have decided it is the perfect descriptor for b**.

Good night
:boring:

[earth mom]

25. Thanks...You are absolutely right...

It's hard not to let pessimism take over...

And I love the word "blivet" it is perfect for *! :evilgrin:

[Amaryllis]

31. Good point! Definitely past the ignore phase, you're right.

[otohara]

10. MSM Is So Utterly Disgusting

I fear we will never win another pres. election again. They are so fucking greedy, they will cater to GOP forever.

[whirlygigspin]

12. Ted Koppel, brave defender of the status quo

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.

Sleep well.

Another year of "Soviet" bumper crops, thanks Ted.

[Peace Patriot]

16. No, no, no! Don't despair! There will be many, MANY people...

...out there who heard that quote, and agree with it, and will be heartened that someone said it--even if it was incomplete--and will maybe get on the net and start looking around. This is my firm conviction: We are the majority! Most Kerry voters don't know what happened, and will actually be heartened and relieved to understand that the nation has not gone mad--it's just been disenfranchised!

Disenfranchised we can solve!

I think it has to be solved state by state through the states' power over election rules. (Congress is not going to help, in my view--the Democrats don't have enough power, and the BushCons will cling to their fraudulent election system with both claws.)

Our right to vote and our democracy are NOT dependent on the idiot lapdog press! They are dependent on US acting, now--A.S.A.P.--to achieve

a) paper ballots
b) hand counts

or at least

a) voter verified paper ballot in electronic voting, that takes precedence over electronic tallies in any recount
b) open source code in all voting machines including central vote tabulators

and c) honest exit polls to verify the election and check for fraud (as is done elsewhere in the world).

This is a DOABLE project. Most people would agree that elections should be fair and transparent. Let's get to it! Organize! Contact your Secretary of State, and your state legislators!

[dzika]

11. Video of your the DU quote on nightline

Real Media
http://www.edwardsdavid.com/BushVideos/nightline_050119-01.rm

Sorry, the sound is low. Just turn up the volume if you care what he is saying.

[intensitymedia]

14. thanks a lot dzika - quite a collector's item n/t

[Clark2008]

20. In another era, this would have been cause for outrage.

That so MANY people feel this way and, yet, our corporate hacks in the media make no attempt to discover WHY so many people feel this way, should be proof enough of their complicity.

Mainstream media? Hardly. More like Fascist enablers.

[flpoljunkie]

21. Reminds one of the failure of those in government to imagine 9/11...

when it was right in front of their faces!

[Nothing Without Hope]

23. My RealMedia player isn't working - did he specifically cite DU?

or is this a generalized smear against "internet blogs"?

[intensitymedia]

26. No, neither DU nor my own identity appeared with the onscreen text

that actually spelled out the words Koppel was reading...

The Real Player clip is worth listening to carefully however - download the latest version and give it a try. Koppel didn't identify DU or any forum or blog, just "internet" generally, but clearly implied that internet questions and unrest were the motivation for their story.

Of course he neglected to mention the real purpose of my post, which would have come up in the next line of the text .... those nasty Exit Polls which the MSM doesn't seem to know what to do with.

Thanks for your interest - I do think this is a startling advance for our cause. We made the MSM not only listen, they stood on their hind legs and barked!

Peace - hail the sixties - but never give up the struggle -

Che

[Nothing Without Hope]

28. Thanks, Intensitymedia, for everything in your reply to my post.

Not such great journalism to pluck a single post among the zillions on the internet, pluck a short segment of that out of its context, and then pompously pronounce it as if it summarized everything going on all over the internet. Pretty sleazy, in fact. His aim was to reinforce the image the MSM is trying to paint that we are all a bunch of conspiracy theorists with absolutely no evidential basis for our concerns. Unlike what even a journalism STUDENT would have known to do, there was no source attribution, no context, no nothing to explain that brief isolated quote.

This wasn't news, it was propaganda. It not only is it intended to support the status quo vis a vis b**, it's also supposed to reinforce the MSM portrayal of internet-using progressives as nut cases who have no facts or evidence and are best ignored. The MSM are protecting their turf -- which means that they must be feeling threatened. Good.

It's sort of appropriate that Ted Koppel himself looks even more like Alfred E. Newman from the Mad Magazine cover than he used to. "What, me worry?"

Thanks again and welcome to the always-exciting world of DU.

[eg101]

18. I hope you now see the power of the Internet

Why not use this power to make real change in America. Forget this vote fraud nonsense and force the media to address healthcare in America and the welfare state. Force them to talk about why America is virtually the only western nation without universal healthcare, and the only western nation where college students have to go into massive debt, and why workers in countries like France, Belgium, denmark, etc have so much more time off.

Make the MSM talk about the history of American imperialism and exploitation.

We have the power. You saw it here. Just do the same thing you did with the vote fraud nonsense--except this time it won't be nonsense.....

[fasttense]

19. So you go to this discussion forum

And you tell everyone there that what they are doing is nonsense. Do you want an argument? Do you want people to post messages that question your intellect. No? What is your problem? Don't you get enough adrenalin from jumping off airplanes?

On the off chance that you really think calling our efforts nonsense is because you have not the slightest idea of how government works. I will point one simple fact out to you.

According to the wonderful Ted Kopple show these shenanigans have been going on for awhile. By shenanigans his program means fixing votes, and rigging elections. So there really is voter fraud. So there really is a chance that your vote didn't count. Especially if you happen to be in one of those states that has those shenanigans going on. So it's only some votes some of the time that don't get counted. And if next year they get even better at it and there are shenanigans in every state, well that wont matter either.

Now that your vote is not counted let's address all the problems of this democracy. Oh wait your vote doesn't count, so I guess you just have to hope that the best cheater or shenanigan maker is really interested in democracy and wont just raid the coffers when he gets into office. Have fun with that.

[Nothing Without Hope]

22. Was DU mentioned as the source of the quote?

Or was it a general hit at "internet blogs"?

[Land Shark]

24. Misguided notions of journalistic balance "inform" Nightline

THe bottom line of the report was YES THERE'S A "CONSPIRACY THEORY" RAGING ON THE INTERNET (hint hint google) of A SECOND STOLEN ELECTION THAT SOME POLLSTERS ARGUE AGAINST BUT THERE IS A COLORFUL HISTORY OF STOLEN ELECTIONS AND EVEN THOUGH THINGS ARE IMPROVING IN THIS COUNTRY, SOME CONSPIRACIES ARE TRUE AND SOMETIMES THE DIEHARDS ARE RIGHT.

Of course, real conspiracies like Enron's cooked books and Enron's conspiracy to control CA power prices are never called conspiracies, that name is referred to something we simply want to dismiss as unlikely and unapproved thought.

It plants a seed, while trying to inoculate Nightline against a conservative backlash and does this under the notion of "balance". I doubt it's even possible to give time to the Republican side without calling it "consiracy" since that unthinking dismissal is central to their response.

Koppel did a poor job of capturing the true depth and breadth of the election fraud case, but the MSM typically leaves one WITHOUT ANY FACTS from which to accept the so called "conspiracy theory". I think some Kerry supporters watched and "heard" that "yes, there is a history of stolen elections" and "yes, things are better now" and "yes, there's a debate about the election based on long lines and so forth."

Granted, Koppel did a poor job and yet most MSM would have done worse by leaving the viewer without any facts from which they could even potentially conclude that the conspiracy theory is right. By talking about the exit polls, the lines, etc., it could pique the interest of a viewer to check out the rage on the internet.

I'll bet Nightline thought the only "responsible" way to report the other side of this story was to make fun of it, because that's what R's are saying about it. That's what the Soviet media thought it was doing as well, being "responsible" and repeating the government's character assassinations of dissidents. But I doubt we lost any supporters from the story overall, I'll bet we went from 30 to 31% last night.

THe reaction to the story will determine whether the story builds or whether it is never heard from again.

[genius]

33. Let's all write Koppel and tell him to stop being part of the fascist

conspiracy.

[intensitymedia]

29. The weird thing is, they flattered me an didn't mention the Exit Polls

I had to get over the experience of watching television and hearing my own words intoned from the mouth of Ted Koppel.

He read (with a text window in the BG showing what he was reading:)

"We are facing what appears to be a sinister,
Stalin-esque conspiracy by all the networks and
major newspapers to "shield" Americans from the
potentially disturbing information that a neo-fascist tyranny
has been imposed upon us by the treasonous and
criminal theft of the 2004 election."

YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS?

They're scared of us and covering our website .


peace - but nver give up the struggle-

g

[intensitymedia]

30. but it's always censorship

and after a day of reflection I realize that they cut the balls off the rather incendiary statement Koppel intoned - only part of -

no mention of exit polls

nothing about conyers

nothing about the consitutional objection

no placing this in any kind of historical context

in fact, no nothing

just the loud part, without the reason, or the reasoning

i'm not so happy about it now -

apologies to my sisters and brothers -


che de vera

peace- but never give up the struggle

[Laurab]

34. He forgot to say "internets" though

maybe he hasn't finished his training yet...

[Nothing Without Hope]

35. Nah, he was just demonstrating his independence from the blivet** n/t

[bush_is_wacko]

36. Whatever happened to "The fleecing of America" series?

Seems to me this could take up several months of THAT weekly report. I guess it just isn't Kosher to talk about the INTELLECTUAL fleecing of America. That might make it sound as if too many Americans are asleep at the wheel over here! MSM will only get on board when impeachment is imminent, and then it will just be to debunk all the reasons for it. When are they going to be embarrassed to call themselves "main stream?'

[bleever]

37. I used to really respect Ted Koppell. But to take your text and select

the part with the most buzz-words that might characterize "internet conspiracy theorists" without all the unimpeachable substance behind it is execrable.

When he moderated that Dem primary debate and asked that stupid question about whether any of the candidates believed Dean could beat *, he lowered himself and the conversation to a level more suited to handicapping the Golden Globes than finding the best man to be leader of the free world.

Ptooey.

:thumbsdown:

[Patsy Stone]

38. Ptooey is right!

:hi:

[bleever]

39. Ptooey with a "t"!

Hi Pats, nice seeing you around.

:hi:

[Patsy Stone]

40. You, too.

I thought I'd get back to finding out how the fight for democracy is going. I've been a tad distracted recently. :)