November 03, 2009 5:05 pm ET
M E M O R A N D U M
To: Interested Parties
From: Ari Rabin-Havt, Media Matters for America
Re: Conservatives' predictable cry of voter fraud -- will the media fall for baseless accusations again?
Date: Tuesday, November 3, 2009
In covering today's gubernatorial election in New Jersey, media conservatives have already begun to lay the groundwork to undermine Gov. Jon Corzine's potential victory by returning to what has become a predictable pattern: baseless accusations of voter fraud. Both Andrew Breitbart's BigGovernment.com and Wall Street Journal columnist John Fund -- who has literally written the book on crying voter fraud -- claimed that Garden State Democrats were attempting to "steal" the election from Republican candidate Chris Christie, offering no evidence to back up these allegations other than anonymous sources and blatant falsehoods.
Conservatives crying voter fraud is nothing new. And in previous instances, a number of media outlets actually covered these allegations, ignoring the much more serious problems of voter disenfranchisement and voter suppression. In 2008, for example, media outlets barely touched on reported instances of mass voter suppression in several swing states but jumped on claims that ACORN submitted fraudulent voter registrations. And already, there are reports of police being called to polling sites in New York's 23rd district to respond to "overzealous electioneering" by supporters of Doug Hoffman.
Voter fraud is a serious allegation and one that deserves media attention. However, unless conservatives can produce actual evidence to support their claims, media figures should call this what it is: a documented pattern of crying wolf.
Conservative media baselessly cry voter fraud in New Jersey gubernatorial race:
SUMMARY: Continuing the conservative media's pattern of baselessly accusing progressives of using illegal means to win elections, Andrew Breitbart's website BigGovernment.com suggested that New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine's re-election campaign and its allies are planning to "rig" or "steal" the upcoming election. BigGovernment.com offered no evidence to support that claim, instead offering allegations including that "state democrats are paying for robo calls supporting Independent Chris Daggett" and citing "the sudden appearance of ACORN on the scene."
SUMMARY: Appearing on Fox News' Glenn Beck, John Fund claimed that Hispanic voters in Camden, New Jersey, are being told that there is "a new way for you to vote, la nueva forma de votar" -- an anecdote Fund suggested was evidence of voter fraud in the state's 2009 gubernatorial election. In fact -- as Fund himself wrote in a Wall Street Journal column published hours earlier -- that incident actually occurred in Philadelphia in 1993, not in New Jersey in 2009.
EXCERPT: In the third sentence of his 1,220-word innuendo-filled column warning of voter fraud in the New Jersey gubernatorial election, The Wall Street Journal's John Fund wrote that "if serious allegations of fraud emerge, you can also expect less-than-vigorous investigation by the Obama Justice Department." The key word there is "if." Fund was obviously unable to come up with any actual "serious allegations" of voter fraud, so Fund -- as he has almost every cycle -- made a series of unserious fraud insinuations that are unconstrained by actual facts.
Media have a history of ignoring actual cases of voter suppression:
SUMMARY: USA Today reported, "Less than three weeks before the November election, the Democratic and Republican presidential campaigns are trading accusations of voter fraud and voter suppression and gearing up for possible court battles over the outcome." The rest of USA Today's report focused on allegations that ACORN demonstrated "a pattern of submitting fraudulent voter registrations," providing no examples of allegations of voter suppression, even though there have been numerous reported instances in battleground states.
SUMMARY: On World News, Jake Tapper reported on "accusations of voter fraud" against ACORN workers, noting that "ACORN officials said the primary problem isn't a few phony names on voter registrations, but real voters being prevented from casting their ballots." But World News did not report on the indictment of former RNC official James Tobin and in the past two weeks has not aired any reports on the issue of voter suppression.
&mdash
Copyright © 2012 Media Matters for America. All rights reserved.