Right-Wing Voter Suppression Effort Caught Using Doctored Photo (VIDEO, PHOTOS)

A right-wing group in Houston engaged in a systematic voter suppression and intimidation effort used a doctored photo in its showcase video. Tellingly, a hand-lettered sign carried by an African-American woman at a 2000 Florida, Gore-Lieberman recount rally was changed from, "Don't Mess With Our Vote," to read, "I Only Got to Vote Once."

Huffington Post editors first suspected the photoshopping after I posted "Possible Arson and the Right's Texas Voter Suppression Effort" regarding King Street Patriots' attacks on a nonprofit voter registration effort and the mysterious fire that destroyed all of Harris County's (Houston) voting machines.

In my regular Sunday FireDogLake column, I posted a follow-up piece, "Contempt for Democracy: Attacks on Voting Rights," that included a link to DigitalDupes.org, which had launched an effort to locate the original photo. Within hours, Newshounds found it.

In addition, a Gore/Lieberman sign was altered to read, "I'm With Stupid." Here is the doctored video as presented in King Street Patriots' video, followed by the original photographs.

The King Street Patriots video has disappeared from their website (soon after the deception was revealed), but it remains on YouTube. UPDATE: Video still at King Street Patriots site affiliate, TrueTheVote.org. Here it is:

In the video, King Street leader Catherine Engelbrecht says their effort is all about the truth, that they just want true, fair, honest elections. But if they are so committed to the truth, why did they use doctored photos? Why did they lie?

Because their real intent -- as it has been for similar voter suppression efforts for decades -- is to create barriers between the ballot box and the voters. They want to suppress the vote of people they suspect of opposing their agenda. In this case, as in most, that means assaulting the voting rights of the poor and minorities.

Their pious and sanctimonious rhetoric works -- most of the time. Political journalists seldom get beyond the "he said/she said" accusations and counter-accusations in voting controversies. This deception, in a showcase video, puts the lie to King Street Patriots claims to the truth and destroys whatever credibility they might have had.

 

Follow Glenn W. Smith on Twitter: www.twitter.com/glennwsmith

Comments

[Dolley Madison]

01:33 AM on 10/14/2010

Mr. Glenn Smith, I believe you are in error about this photo. This photo was doctored before the website and video were created by King Street Patriots. I found it on a site dated June 9, 2009 concerning the elections in Iran. Paste this link into your browser and check it out. http://scrapetv.com/News/News%20Pages/Everyone%20Else/pages-3/Iranian-authorities-pioneer-multiple-vote-system-Scrape-TV-The-World-on-your-side.html.
This is not a surprise. Since the original photo is almost 10 years old, it was probably doctored years ago. I believe you owe this organization an apology. I will be writing the editor of your paper.

[sisterdebmac]

08:35 PM on 09/12/2010

Ah, gee, more effin' disgusting LIES from the right? Shocking! Cheating is the only way they can win anything. And they know it. I smell the stink of desperation...

[blueskyseas]

04:27 PM on 09/12/2010

There are people who are Christians, who sincerely try to learn to be good honest people. Then there are people who CLAIM to be Christians, but they are lazy about doing the hard personal work. Worst of all are the liars that twist the scriptures to their own uses, and begin to believe the end justifies the means. They cannot possibly be reading the directions correctly! The Christian taliban doesn't send out rocket propelled grenades, because that is EVIL. They seek to destroy their opposition with lying and hateful words, which is so much 'cleaner'. But it's still EVIL. If they claim to be Christian, it's either a lie they have told themselves, or a lie they told you. Either way, it's just another lie.

[greenmonk]

05:05 PM on 09/12/2010

The problem is that the first group you mentioned are dupes as well. They not only worship their Lord above, they also worship any form of Authoritarianism. They "want to believe". So any snake oil salesman from the third group you mention who is in a position of authority, ie. Dubya Bush, only has to say he's "born again" and that God told him to invade Iraq, spy on Americans, out CIA operatives, use the AG office to politically purge, allow Wall Street to gorge themselves to death, and give huge tax breaks to the already super wealthy,..... and those in the first group, fall all over themselves to be the first to prostrate themselves.

[blueskyseas]

05:27 PM on 09/12/2010

I disagree. Not so much the first group, but yeah, the second.

[1man1voicenovote]

03:51 PM on 09/12/2010

And they cry about what ACORN did!

Boldly UN-AMERICAN tactics from the right wing squads.

[Wickywoo]

12:24 PM on 09/12/2010

Isn't it time to arrest these people now?

I don't think we can trust Texas to properly investigate Republican crimes.

[conal6]

11:33 AM on 09/12/2010

8:58 of my life I will never get back. The video would not play on the Huffpo site I had to go to the King Street Patriots Web site and watch the video. That particular scene was not in the video either they edited it out or it was never in there ? I really despise the way they say "radical left" "leftist policy" as if the wingnuts aren't capable of cheating. Does anyone know where I can find info on the burned up voting machines? are they replacing them? Are the boys in the lab working on it ? Put Walker Texas ranger on the case. I am taking a Texas Government Class and would like to put forth this issue. I am still stewing over the 2000 stolen election by the radical right . They will say the version with the photoshopped scene is not there official version therefore not responsible and perhaps a conspiracy by leftist defame the pure and unstained king street patriots.

[Robert Kaufman]

06:55 PM on 09/12/2010

They did edit the video to remove that scene, I saw the version when it was on YouTube and even their version on their site before they altered it. They got caught and tried to cover it

[ImAllCorporationey]

08:40 AM on 09/12/2010

Conservative Christians have done and continue to do more damage to this country than even Dr. Dobson thought possible.

Blinded by their faith, too ignorant to think for themselves.

[pjlim]

06:56 PM on 09/08/2010

No doubt the perpetrators of this fraud are devout, conservative Christians. It's only wrong if you get caught.

[skatscan]

04:14 PM on 09/12/2010

Forright wing Christians, The ends ALWAYS justifies the means.

[Mark Scott]

07:13 PM on 09/07/2010

Is anyone surprised by this? the 2004 election was rife with reports of right wing intimidation of voters, especially that of minorities.

The voting machines were rigged, and even with that amount of extreme right intervention the Rep!gs only just scraped a victory over the lacklustre Kerry.

I don't doubt that the right had a massive vote rigging/intimidation assault in 2008, but the landslide against them was so huge the tactics failed.

I think the right is going to get even dirtier this time.

[BMcCue7]

03:42 PM on 09/08/2010

I think you're right.

[intolleft]

01:49 PM on 09/09/2010

All proven fabrications but you get an A for continuing the spreading of lies.

[Mark Scott]

07:04 PM on 09/09/2010

"proven"? You mean Faux denied the stories and got a bunch of right wing shill pundits to convince their rube viewers to buy the denials.

Right wing vote rigging was witnessed and proven in every election from 2000 onwards.

[skokie57]

06:33 PM on 09/07/2010

Make no mistake - the Right wing will stoop to ANYTHING to get their way. We must enact stricter laws against private citizens who interfere with a citizen's right to vote. In the past they have deliberately disseminated false information to minority group neighborhoods, threatening them with arrest and imprisonement if they exercised their right to vote when they owed private creditors money or the government taxes or if they were on welfare, etc. They have also broadcast false information about the location of polling places. These self-righteous hypocrites must be watched vigilantly and challenged and exposed for what they are constantly.

[conal6]

11:37 AM on 09/12/2010

Good luck with that now that corporations get one vote. Your boss gets a vote and his company gets a vote. Somehow that adds up to one man to two votes.

[Henryeb]

03:15 PM on 09/07/2010

Why would anyone be surprised by the outlandish behavior presented actually by both sides of the political aisle. As an Independent who leans left of center I will state without a doubt that in my mind the Right takes hypocrisy to an entirely new level. For instance so called liberal progressives come out and just let everyone know that they are gay and fight for gay rights and such. The Republicans fight against gay rights, condemn gay people and then are found cruising bathrooms and having gay sex all over the place. So hypocritical as to indulge in self hate so as to maintain the approval of the base.

For any one of us to ignore the wrong doings of someone just because we share a political ideology is insane. Rush proclaimed that anyone caught using illegal drugs should be locked up and the key thrown away and then he is found in a parking lot obtaining illegal prescription drugs and the loyal base excused him. Fox is found out to alter footage to fit an agenda and yet the base stays loyal. Beck is making himself cry but so what. They speak of family values and then are found to be philanderers and the base stays loyal. They are found to be hypocrites time and again yet the base stays on script with the same talking points. As you see with this some are saying it ain't so bad and almost "When we do it it is different".

[greenmonk]

05:08 PM on 09/12/2010

Fanned.

couldn't have said it better myself.

[ChiBloger]

02:41 PM on 09/07/2010

Look , look white people, Black people and the poor are stealing your votes!
This lie is as old as the people making it up. And some are dumb and bigoted enough to continue to fall for it. Of course you won’t see these people in Ohio when Republicans and ken Blackwell stole an election.

[Bostontru2u]

02:21 PM on 09/07/2010

Wow, poster KMSbears; Sorry, they deleted both of our posts to each other. I guess the wisdom of age, experience , memories,and historical facts is not applicable to the internet age of one bite slogans and witty jargon. This internet newspaper does not understand that some people in America really lived 35-40 years ago, and life just didn't start then.

[T-Haight]

02:14 PM on 09/07/2010

Um, can anyone explain how an altered photo is "voter suppression"?

BS, yes. However, it isn't voter suppression unless, I don't know, somebody's vote is suppressed.

Also, how is this connected with Mr. Smith's mysterious fire, that still isn't resolve?

[intolleft]

01:52 PM on 09/09/2010

You want to but an incident to this story, look at Oakland County and the fake T-baggers that didn't sign affidavits but where notarized by a Democrat official.

[kemo5]

12:34 PM on 09/07/2010

The conservative propaganda machine is powerful and shamelessly persistent. They scream the loudest, and blame all other types of media of being liberal and well financed. The hypocrisy is laughable, and unfortunately destroyed our country. We can't recover until non-partisan media outs them with real journalism. It isn't going to happen, because when you "out" them, you are labelled as liberal, and miss out on the conservative sheep audience $$$. So, you get CNN.

[above]

01:14 PM on 09/07/2010

i

[dylbud]

01:46 PM on 09/07/2010

The power of journalism to reveal the truth, and influence people with nothing by truth, is gone.

[Bostontru2u]

02:32 PM on 09/07/2010

Totally.