Why the Media Can't See the Trees for the ACORNs

John McCain and other Republicans making criminal allegations against the community-organizing group ACORN know exactly what they're doing. They're using alarmist allegations of "voter fraud" to fire up their conservative base and suppress the votes of some citizens who may, out of fear, stay away from the polls.

They exploit lingering unease among the poor and minorities who, with some justification, believe themselves to suffer disproportionately from unbalanced wheels of justice in America. These innocents know they don't have to commit crimes to be accused of crimes. Better to stay away from the places where the accusations might be leveled. Like the polls.

The allegations can also help cover up actual election fraud undertaken on behalf of McCain. This is the tactic Karl Rove learned so well from his right-wing predecessors: accuse your opponent of your own unethical or illegal acts.

These are a tried and true -- and grossly undemocratic -- tactics. And they are often accomplished with the complicity of the press.

I don't think there is a journalist covering the ACORN matter who doesn't know with a great deal of certainty that there is a substantial difference between fictionalized voter registration forms and real voter suppression and election fraud. The former are easily identified and never result in fraudulent voting. No one covering these stories believes that someone is going to show up at the polls this year and say, "My name is Mickey Mouse."

A few bad-apple, low-paid canvassers who take jobs registering voters will turn in fraudulent forms. In this case (as in most) it appears the bad registration forms were identified by ACORN and turned over to authorities in accordance with the law.

The media attention granted the right-wing attacks on ACORN begs the question: why does it seem to be a greater sin to be suspected of voter registration mistakes than to publicly engage in voter suppression efforts?

One answer to this question might be simple editorial bias. E&P's Greg Mitchell detailed the right's pioneer suppression efforts in his book, The Campaign of the Century: Upton Sinclair's Race for Governor of California and the Birth of Media Politics.

As reported by Mitchell, in the 1934 race for governor of California, Republicans hatched perhaps the most sophisticated voter suppression scheme undertaken up to that time in America. Taking the shrewd advice of a former New York prosecutor, Eli Whitney Debevoise, opponents of Democrat Upton Sinclair leveled wild charges of voter registration fraud. A cooperative district attorney drew up a secret list of 200,000 allegedly illegal registrants.

The Los Angeles Times advanced the suppression campaign, writing on the front page that "it would be far better for a few honest persons to lose their votes than for a hundred thousand rogues to defeat by fraud the majority will of the people." The publicity, the conspirators knew, would frighten those who were afraid they just might be on that list. Rather than risk capture (for a vague crime they had no understanding of), they'd stay away from the polls.

Ultimately, the effort ended in some embarrassment when no actual voter registration fraud was uncovered and the state's Supreme Court tossed out the accusations. But not before the goal of the publicity was met.

There is some historical symmetry in the fact that in 1982, U.S. District Judge Dickinson R. Debevoise, a distant cousin of El Debevoise, the suppression guru who hatched the California scheme, ordered the Republican National Committee to forever halt its voter intimidation and suppression campaigns. In the 1982 New Jersey gubernatorial contest, the RNC launched a sophisticated "voter caging" campaign. Letters were sent to voters. If they were returned for bad addresses, the GOP challenged the addressees' registration. It raised doubts among citizens about whether they were illegally registered.

A "Ballot Security Task Force," patrolled the polls, lurking beneath signs that read, "It is a crime to falsify a ballot or to violate election laws." The tactic is being used this year by state attorneys general and others. The RNC remains theoretically under Judge Devevoise's order.

When I covered politics for Texas newspapers in the 1980s, the voter intimidation efforts of the Right were well known. We covered some of them, but not with a lot of energy or insight. I'm afraid we took intimidation and suppression as just another part of the game.

But it's a fact that Karl Rove was the consultant to the incumbent Texas governor back then. So it shouldn't be a surprise that county voter registrars received a list of 29,000 alleged felons to purge from the rolls. That got some coverage when it turned out a Democratic candidate for the state house who had no criminal record was on the list. But it didn't stop the intimidation efforts. Signs reading "You Can Be Imprisoned" were posted at minority polling locations.

If media bias is not the answer to broad coverage of spurious registration fraud allegations, what is the answer?

I think it has something to do with our history. The right to vote has always been contested. In our early years, those without property couldn't vote. Neither could women, freed blacks, or slaves. It took 140 years for women to be granted the franchise. Exclusion is a tradition with deep roots in our cultural narratives and founding documents. Historically accustomed as we are to exclusion, maybe we don't judge it to be news.

Illegally crossing barriers to inclusion, however, is news. I guess.

Isn't it finally time for the media to drop the habit and turn its attention to anti-democratic voter suppression tactics they know are anti-democratic? Isn't it time they dropped their complicity in voter suppression schemes? The ACORN controversy would be a good place to start.

Comments

[pb28]

Why does the media always glob onto every fake outrage story and manufactured controversy spewed out by the wing nuts and Fox News? I think the MSM must somehow believe that Fox news is the purveyor of honest journalism. The MSM must think “hey this sounds like a controversy so it must be true” and as long as it sounds like a controversy and something they can exploit why check the facts and do real balanced reporting. It seems that river of phony equivalency only flows one-way

[klo]

Repeat:
The republicans stalling a true investigation yet again.
It's the electoral board's job to confirm every registration form. It's not fraud unless someone submits it intentionally with incorrect information WITH the intent of having it being added to the voter rolls. If Acorn is identifying suspicious registration forms for the electoral board, the fraud, if any, is NOT being committed by Acorn. The fraud is being committed AGAINST Acorn.
Additionally, since a fake form if investigated properly and will not turn into a listing on any election roll there is no fraud. And why would Acorn want something like that? Just ask the question. It makes no sense.
What is more curious is why the FBI is not investigating illegal purging of voter rolls in swing states. This was reported in a big way by the NY Times last week, but no additional mention of it has been made by FauxNews or CNN, (which I'm no longer sure is a real news station). Only Keith and Rachel on CNBC have even mentioned it as far as I can tell. But no one is YELLING at the tops of their lungs about this. Why isn't this being addressed by Newsweek or the FBI? Wanna bet who is being purged?
Voter suppresion is illegal and poor people have the same right to cast their vote. Anything that prevents that makes a mockery of our democratic process and those who perpetrate it should go to jail.

[libbygirl]

Thank you for this article. I actually have emailed all the networks and asked them to go into more depth on their reporting about ACORN and state all the facts and not just report about the fraudulent registration forms. People who don't take the time to research this for themselves are left to believe that ACORN itself is trying to commit voter fraud. Someone needs to hold them accountable for their unwillingness to inform people of all the facts.

[lwilkerson50]

Plus I think that they need to check out all other types of organizations. Not just one. Poor journalism is to blame because they are not doing their homework. They are being lazy.

[vegas9999]

Easy question to answer. One has been proven because of people sent to prison and the other is a myth.

[NationalTreasure]

Sir, it is disappointing that you have not realized the racial and class bias within the media.

ACORN is an organization that works with the poor and underserved. ACORN does not have country club republicans sitting on its board of directors and most ACORN offices are run by people of color.

[ElBruce]

This whole ACORN thing reminds me strongly of when George Bush Sr. tried to demonize Dukakis via the ACLU.

So let's get this straight: Republicans are against civil liberties, against community organizing, and against voting. OK, you guys run with that.

[plafayette]

Amen, Glen. Here too it is time to turn the page.

[brooklyn3]

I am so glad you're bringing this up -- we really need to focus now on Republican voter suppression and the whole ACORN canard -- organizations such as People For the American Way, the ACLU and 866ourvote.org are fighting it and other suppression efforts.

Write to your representatives and to the media today about this! Don't let this be a repeat of 2000!

[jeweline]

We don't have to rely on the mainstream media to get the truth out. We can video what happens on Election Day ourselves and get the message out. Please go to the following site and volunteer.

http://www.videothevote.org/

This was very successful in 2006. See the documentary at: http://www.freeforall.tv/

[WritusMaximus]

Sorry, but the "everybody does it" mantra doesn't hold water. If that was the case, then all jails/prisons should be emptied of all prisoners 'cuz after all, we still have criminals running loose on the streets.
Obama is not stupid. He should drop the hammer down on the heads of the wrongdoers---not all ACORN operatives are incompetent or corrupt. This is a threat to Obama that he needs to dealt with right now or Obama will run the risk of being seen as going easy/giving a pass to voter fraud, regardless of whether the repubs will take the case to the Supreme Court. Obama cannot cuddle/make excuses for criminal acts, regardless of past/present political/business relationships.

[rowzeer]

The problem is that many organizations, Dem and Repub, pay volunteers for each completed form. Needless to say some people fill out the forms to get the money. Some Repub volunteers were pushing my 16 year old son to fill out a registration form. When asked why they were pushing so hard they told him the same thing because they would get paid for it.

Acorn BY LAW is required to turn in ALL completed forms even if they suspect fraud. Acorn themselves were the ones who flagged the forms as questionable. Repubs were more than happy to support Acorn, McCain and Schwarzenegger included, until their political arm endorsed Obama.

The Repubs need to stop being so hypocritical.

[ProudAmerican23]

No matter which side of the fence you live on, the bottomline to me is quite clear... WE NEED to demand a new method of registering everyone (a method that cant be questioned whether they are ligit or fraudulent) secondly a foolproof way to tally votes and third... (I love this lil idea!) Offer a tax credit or a rebate check to everyone who does register and vote.

[anniegirl9]

It is as simple as automatically making everyone elligable to vote at 18 years of age. One would only need a social security number - a probably a picture id - to vote. It would take away the partisanship nature of registering voters. And it would insure everyone's right to vote.

[AkronGuy]

This country will NEVER get a fair election system until it adopts a non-partisan civil service which conducts the elections. Most other democracies operate this way, and one seldom hears complaints about their election processes. An election system under control of elected officials is almost guaranteed to be biased.

[magicwanz]

There's going to be a gold mine of voter suppression stories for the media to continue to overlook this election. Republicans have been doing anything to discourage blocks of voters around the country from voting since I became politicaly aware in the '60s (as long as the blocks were predominantly Democratic). They are stooping to new levels of nasty tricks even as we type.

[catzoned]

What is voter caging?
"Used in past elections by the Republican Party to disenfranchise poorer citizens, minorities, college students away at school, or servicemen and women away at war, "voter caging" entails sending mass mailings to certain (unwanted or Democratic) voters and then using the undelivered letters as evidence to take them off the official voter rolls or to compile lists of voters for eligibility challenges".

For more info go to:
http://www.everydaycitizen.com/2007/12/voter_caging_reprehensible_une.html
or use Google search

[WritusMaximus]

What did the dems do in past elections to bring the republican criminals to justice????
What, where, when?

[anniegirl9]

Unfortunatly voter caging is not illigal - just unethical.

By the way, neither is voter registration fraud. It isn't a crime until someone actually casts a vote.

Maybe it's time we changed some laws.

[rowzeer]

The worst thing is they were sending the mailings to service men with black or hispanic sounding names. This is much more despicable than some half-hearted volunteer registering donald duck to vote.

[sippewissett]

When McCain resorted to the claim last night that voter fraud through ACORN was a threat to democracy, I almost fell off my chair. In the U.S. we have a disgraceful hisotry of intimidation of voters and don't count absentee or military votes unless the results are close, but McCain tries to make the case that ACORN can bring down the free world.
Regrettably the Rovian tactics that have tainted his campaign came through last night on several jabbing, but ineffectual occasions. They missed the point: it's the economy, stupid.
The John McCain who should have won against Geo. W. eight years ago missed the chance to run this campaign; his evil twin who compromised ethics and "straight talk" was running instead. When John McCain writes his memoirs, I hope he's honest enough to acknowledge that turning over his moral compass to the RNC was the wrong thing to do. "Rule by fear" is over.

[wm1066]

CNN and wolf B. have really been trying to gin up this story, and shame on them.
They are trying to interfere with an election by setting the stage to say the Democrats somehow stole it. This has Karl Rove's finger prints all over it and wolf blitzer is one of his lackeys.

[WritusMaximus]

This story has been circulating for over a month now, but the dems chose to ignore it until now. Yeah, until ACORN became the subject of investigations in at least 10 states.
Here's free and oh so obvious advice---Ignoring problems NEVER solves them. Heck, it makes the problems worse.