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CNN Leads Media Failure on ACORN Story
Another day, another effort by the McCain camp to seize the political advantage over the bogus issue of ACORN and voter fraud.
This morning, the campaign trotted out former Missouri Republican senator John Danforth -- playing on his reputation for bipartisanship -- to call on Barack Obama to "rein in ACORN."
Said Danforth:
We think that this is really serious, and it goes beyond who ends up winning this election, it goes to the whole integrity of the election, and it goes to confidence in the election, and it goes to whether the American people will have sufficient confidence to be willing to put the election behind us and move forward as one country once the election is over. We are concerned about it.
(Here's Obama's response from later in the day.)
Of course, as TPM has been making clear, the allegations of vote fraud are essentially a crock.
That's not because ACORN hasn't submitted hundreds or even thousands of fraudulent registration forms in several crucial swing states. They have -- though it's worth noting again that in many states, they're required by law to submit any forms their canvassers collect.
But to reiterate the main point: according to experts, fraudulent registration forms almost never lead to lead to fraudulent voting. If ACORN submits a form with the name Mickey Mouse, Mickey is unlikely to show up to vote on election day.
In other words, there's a crucial distinction between voter registration fraud and voter fraud -- and there's essentially no evidence whatsoever of the latter.
But the Republican bamboozlement is crucially abetted by the fact that a lot of the reporting on this story -- much of it prompted by the GOP's strenuous effort to tout the issue -- utterly fails to make this key distinction, and often implies the opposite. And (leaving Fox aside, of course) CNN has been the worst offender.
Consider this CNN report from yesterday, gleefully sent out by the RNC. After reporter Drew Griffin lays out the details on fraudulent forms submitted by ACORN in one (heavily minority) in Indiana county, anchor Kieran Chetry and Griffin have the following exchange:
CHETRY: You know what, not only is it not funny, but it's such a waste of time. If you look at what we went through in previous elections, from hanging chads to voter irregularities, I mean we're talking about our country right now, dealing with an economic crisis, a war in Iraq, a war in Afghanistan. You know, for people to do this, it's just a shame. It just wastes more time and you wonder if the process, if your vote will count.GRIFFIN: Certainly, the credibility has dropped in this system, no matter which way Lake County votes. Lake County, heavily Democratic by the way, which way it votes, either side, they're going to have ammunition to say -- oh there's probably voter fraud.
Which is exactly why the GOP is pursuing this tactic. But it would have less "ammunition" to allege vote fraud in the event of a loss if the news media would report the story properly.
Lou Dobbs has also fastened onto the issue, breathlessly reporting Sunday night:
New evidence tonight that the so-called community left-wing activist group, ACORN, is involved in widespread voter registration fraud. And point of fact, ACORN is a left-wing special interest group that's been under investigation for literally years in various parts of the country for voter fraud and embezzlement.
Later, Dobbs asked Griffin:
We're seeing it from Vegas to Ohio, to Pennsylvania, and to Indiana, all over the country, and these investigations are opening up. How can there be any doubt about what's at work here?
Never did Dobbs explain to viewers the crucial difference between voter fraud and voter registration fraud.
The media's failure to grasp this crucial distinction -- exemplified by CNN -- has encouraged the GOP and the McCain campaign to believe that they can gain a political advantage by continuing to hammer on this bogus story.
In one sense, it's easy to understand the Republicans' motivation, as sleazy as the tactic might be: they're trying to win an election, or at least lay the groundwork to make a post-hoc argument that their loss was unfair.
But media outlets like CNN have no such excuse.
Josh
Zachary
CNN is reporting badly because this issue is tough to explain. It seems immediately rotten that some kind of fraud is going on with voting, and the explanation for why it can't affect actual voting is lengthy. ACORN had good intentions, but this blew up in their faces before, so they should have known conservatives would be gunning for them, yet they did it again, paying for registrations when volunteers might have gotten fewer registrations, but no controversy.
We need to note that ACORN's screw up has already gained more media attention that any real election fraud has ever gotten. It's as if these idiots at ACORN want to undermine Obama's legitimacy should he win.
My suggestion for dealing with this: let's call for major reform of voting registration. Perhaps do it like the Canadians, automatically off tax records.
October 14, 2008 7:22 PM | Reply | Permalink
Drew Griffin seems to deliberately distorting the story to make Obama sound more culpable than he is. Wolf Blitzer pressed him to describe "specifically" what Obama's past involvement was, and Griffin just repeated the McCain campaign line that he was a "trainer" for the group, when he could easily have specified that he merely conducted two hour-long leadership sessions. He also spun some vague narrative on how the Obama campaign has been equivocating on its relationship to ACORN for maximum conspiratorial effect.
I also don't think he has ever once mentioned anything about legal requirements for groups to turn in all registration forms regardless, and even though ACORN claims it has flagged most of the fraudulent forms, I don't think Griffin has ever even attempted to verify whether they actually did so (in fact, has anyone?).
The story is complicated, perhaps too much for cable news, but he's clearly trying to fan controversy just for the sake of it.
October 14, 2008 8:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Lou Dobbs is a bloviating gas-bag and Drew Griffin is a putz who rarely gets anything right. CNN has some good people on board, but these two aren't among them. This whole ACORN thing needs to end yesterday. The Republicans aren't going to get any traction out of it, and it's boring the rest of us to death.
October 14, 2008 7:38 PM | Reply | Permalink
Please. As a news source, today's TPM has about as much credibility as Stephen Hayes. Is it too much too ask that ACORN be able to provide answers when the media asks about their operations? The whole world isn't going to toe the Obama line.
October 14, 2008 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Pundits talking about polling data and the insurmountable lead that Obama has? boring to discuss such inevitabilities
A radical organization hellbent on stealing the election? exciting, especially if my American ideals of free and fair elections are on the line
As people lose interest in the predictions of who will win and who will lose, the media has decided to focus on the controversy of the eventual outcome. Ratings = money.
October 14, 2008 7:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
CNN ... oh yeah, a promulgator of the low-information-voter. Especially Lou (Free Judith Miller) Dobbs.
Whatever happened to Jack Cafferty ? He came back for a week or so after his wife passed away. During that week he had a segment on what's her name, that you betcha lady.
October 14, 2008 7:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
i agree it's serious. i thought your previous article on this was better than what we've seen in the MSM so far.
it won't help to only make the point that this can't affect actual voting, that almost none of these fraudulent voter registration cards will lead to actual votes. that still smells primarily like fraud to the now infamous "joe sixpack".
the salient point here is that temporary workers hired by ACORN are responsible because they personally gain income from meeting a sort-of quota, that ACORN itself is not creating these registrations, that ACORN itself is already flagging them as fraudulent, that ACORN must (or thinks it wise to) turn the cards in whether or not they think they're fraudulent -- and if you're under scrutiny, i think it is wise. ACORN works _with_ election officials and prosecutors.
yes, the registrations can also usually not be used to actually vote while not entitled to vote because they're not created for actual people with false ID who then vote an extra time. they're created for fictitional characters who'll never show up to vote (like micky mouse) or for people who wouldn't ever vote in that location (like the starting lineup of the dallas cowboys).
and of course the republicans' own efforts are the real voter fraud -- in their zeal to keep a few unentitled people from voting (which is not a problem in significant numbers) they're disenfranchising hundreds of thousands eligible voters by contesting their rights via technicalities such as having moved recently.
but obama himself needs to do more here than try to minimize how much he's been involved with ACORN. this is getting whipped up, and he needs to explain it to defuse it. this isn't ayers; it's actually more important.
October 14, 2008 7:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's put the shoe on the other foot. What has happened with the statistical studies that claimed votes in Florida with voting machines were significantly in favor of Bush compared to precincts without voting machines. It wasn't a purely random fluctuation by this test. The article below from Wired Magazine presents commentary from both sides, but I don't know the definitive result of the controversy. But it puts Repubs on the defensive.
http://www.wired.com/politics/security/news/2004/12/65896
October 14, 2008 8:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's not forget Lou Dobbs buying Obama Waffles.
http://www.thedailyshow.com/video/index.jhtml?videoId=187612&title=intro-the-first-great-depression
http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/alerts/481
October 14, 2008 8:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here's the right link, the buzzflash link has the screen grab of Lou posing with a box with the creator of Obama Waffles.
October 14, 2008 8:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://thinkprogress.org/2008/09/13/obama-waffles-featuring-racist-stereotyped-images-sold-at-values-voter-summit/
October 14, 2008 8:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
One of the states being cited in this "voter fraud" hoax is my old home state of NC. The Winston-Salem Journal reported this afternoon that Durham County (with a population of around 247,000 and registered voters numbering around 160,000), has reported a total of 120 "suspect" voter registration applications turned in last month county-wide. This number is from all applications submitted regardless of the source.
I have no idea what percentage of these are indeed bogus, but I can guarantee you that not a single illegitimate one will get through the verification process AND that this number will pale in comparison to the legitimate votes that end up being challenged by the GOP come election day in that county.
Anyone who is concerned about a fair election should worry a lot more about the votes that aren't counted than the ones that are.
October 14, 2008 8:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
Was this one of the Stations that promoted the Iraq war?
October 14, 2008 9:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Acorn needs to hold national press conferences, and op-eds with short concise explanations. Show the statistics of voter fraud convictions compared to what these republican operatives are claiming. Joe sixpack is just as competent at seeing how repubs cheat and lie as they are gullible. Repubs have lied about everything else...sos the polls show how well that is working for them.
ACORN is clear and simple in it's explanation of why these repukes are charging voter fraud fraudently and what they hope to accomplish by doing so. Another warning not to be fooled because keep in mind ...the majority isn't buying into it and the rest is just skeptical and looking for an explanation.
The irony of a party that had it's president installed by the SC accusing the other side of massive voter fraud. Will we ever be rid of these goobers?
October 14, 2008 11:43 PM | Reply | Permalink
btw...Danforth is really just not all that bright...really...just good name recognition.
October 14, 2008 11:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republicans can kick up all the dust they want. In the end, people aren't going to see how this affects the process unless someone bothers to explain it in a way that appeals to common sense.
Obviously cartoon characters, and dead people can't vote. So who's going to show up? So far I have not heard even one Republican explain that ACORN is going to have to not only register fake people, but also provide them to show up and vote in order for the evil masterplan to work! Then, is the fruit of all of this labor supposed to hinge on an election in these swing states where a few dozen or even a few hundred votes will make an actual difference?
This exchange between the CNN anchor and reporter can't go any deeper without having to address the difference between registration fraud and actual voter fraud. And, believe me, while Republicans may actually be stupid enough to try and concoct a way within the next three weeks, there's no way it will hold water and thus, CNN probably won't revisit this. This was a time-filler. CNN probably thought they had better say something about it in case the Republicans succeed in raising a big enough stink that it does become bigger and they can say they were in front of it.
Doubtful.
October 15, 2008 12:03 AM | Reply | Permalink
What I think a lot of people are missing is that what is mass of fraudulent forms actually disadvantages Obama -- and not just in the form of bad press. Voter registration fraud, as Josh Marshall and others have pointed out, rarely leads to actual voter fraud. This is especially true when so many of the bad forms are obviously fake, as in "Mickey Mouse" -- it is hard to believe that somebody actually intended to try to vote under that name. The real problem with voter registration fraud is that it makes it more tedious and difficult for election boards to process legitimate forms. Since a large part of Obama's strategy is registering and turning out new voters, it hardly seems like it would be to his advantage to clog up the works. The very idea of an "Obama-ACORN conspiracy" doesn't make sense.
October 15, 2008 12:31 AM | Reply | Permalink
it´s quite strange to watch from austria what´s happening in US. could it be that your system is not the best?
to collect data about people who are entitled to vote is a legally defined task of the local authorities who follow federal legislation. about 2 months before each election the roll of eligible voters is publicly offered for a period of (at least) 7 days at town halls and everybody can look if he is on the roll. if he/she or if somebody else is or is not on it who should or shouldn´t be it is possible to request the correction of the electoral roll which has to be dealt with in a legally defined procedure.
need to correct the roll arouses rarely and most people just go to their polling station on election day - and that´s it. as a reminder to eligible voters each one get´s an official information from the local election-authority a couple of days before election day.
a little bit beaurocratic maybe - but the system works.
best wishes for november 4
karl from austria
October 15, 2008 2:58 AM | Reply | Permalink
Has anyone considered the basic source of these fraudulent registrations? After all how could a few "dirty tricks" operatives do more harm in less time than gum up ACORN's works at this time. I saw an article that stated that the signatures "all looked like they had been written by the same hand" referring to one particular bunch of obviously bogus registrations. I am wondering how well some of these people are vetted vis a vis the "other side".I think we would have to agree that the tactic might be very effective.
October 15, 2008 3:22 PM | Reply | Permalink