Like claims the U.S. was responsible for 9/11 and Republicans were fixing gas prices, the media promoted the left-wing electronic vote-rigging conspiracy.
Now that the votes have been cast and counted, Republicans lost, and the silence of the national media has been deafening.
The idea was that somehow the company Diebold had programmed the machines to let Republicans win. The theory, perpetuated by left-wingers posting on Daily Kos and The Huffington Post and Bev Harris’ book, “Black Box Voting,” was embraced by all three broadcast networks, as well as CNN and MSNBC.
Following Sen. John Kerry’s (D-Mass.) defeat in 2004, MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann ignored statements by the candidate’s own Ohio attorney about the lack of evidence of “confirmed fraud.” Instead, Olbermann ranted for days about fraud causing the Kerry defeat during his show “Countdown with Keith Olbermann.”
Leading up to the 2006 election. Lou Dobbs and Kitty Pilgrim waged a five-month long, two-person war against electronic voting in regular “Democracy at Risk” segments during CNN’s “Lou Dobbs Tonight.”
Dobbs fostered mistrust of electronic voting throughout his broadcasts. “When it comes to the federal government, don’t expect much assurance that your electronic vote will be counted accurately. New standards for electronic voting machines may not be ready in fact, for years,” he warned on Oct. 29, 2006.
And on election day 2006, NBC’s Brian Williams said there were complaints of “plain old trickery at the polls.” As Williams tossed the story to reporter Chip Reid, the response came, “Well, most of it, Brian, is electronic voting.”
Ironically, electronic voting went national because of a bipartisan push for election reform after the disastrous 2000 Florida recount. But that bipartisan support for such voting machines turned into allegations and conspiracy theories after the 2004 elections.
WASHINGTON - Sen. Russell Feingold, a leading liberal in Congress and an outspoken foe of the Iraq war, announced on Sunday that he would not seek the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination.
"I'm sure a campaign for president would have been a great adventure and helpful in advancing a progressive agenda," wrote Feingold, who is from Wisconsin, in a letter e-mailed to supporters and posted on his Senate campaign web site.
"At this time, however, I believe I can best advance that progressive agenda as a senator with significant seniority in the new Senate serving on the Foreign Relations, Intelligence, Judiciary and Budget committees," the three-term senator said.
Like many members of Congress, Feingold has been mulling for months a possible run for the White House in 2008.
His announcement that he has decided against a presidential bid came in the wake of Democrats winning control of the Senate and U.S. House of Representatives in last week's elections.
The new 110th Congress will convene in January with Democrats in control of both chambers for the first time in 12 years.
During the next couple of months, a number of Democrats and Republicans are expected to announce if they will run for president in 2008.
Posts
All Comments
