On Hardball, Matthews forwarded discredited rumor over MN ballots
SUMMARY: Chris Matthews echoed the discredited rumor that 32 ballots from Minneapolis were mishandled in the Minnesota Senate race. Matthews asked: "What about these absentee ballots that were found in somebody's back seat and they're now counting them as official -- what is that about? That sounds pretty squirrely or sneaky or what -- I don't know what it sounds like." In fact, a lawyer for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman has reportedly said regarding those ballots that "[i]t does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern."
On the November 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball, while discussing the Minnesota Senate race, host Chris Matthews echoed the discredited rumor that 32 ballots from Minneapolis were mishandled. Matthews asked: "What about these absentee ballots that were found in somebody's back seat and they're now counting them as official -- what is that about? That sounds pretty squirrely or sneaky or what -- I don't know what it sounds like." Matthews later stated: "Yeah, well, if I lost by 30 votes and I found out that somebody had found 30 votes in their back seat, I'd be upset."
In fact, while Fritz Knaak, a lawyer for Sen. Norm Coleman (R), reportedly said on November 8, "We were actually told ballots had been riding around in [Minneapolis director of elections Cindy Reichert's] car for several days, which raised all kinds of integrity questions," he also reportedly said that same day that he was assured the ballots weren't tampered with. On November 10, Knaak further reportedly said that "[i]t does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern."
Additionally, citing "Hennepin County officials," the St. Paul Pioneer Press reported of the absentee ballots in question: "On Election Day, officials attempted to deliver absentee ballots that arrived as part of a late mail delivery to the appropriate precinct. But some precincts had closed by the time they got there, and the ballots were returned to a secure location before being counted according to state law." Additionally, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported on November 9 that the "32 Minneapolis ballots were part of the normal delivery of absentee ballots late in the polling day, according to Election Director Cindy Reichert. She said they were retained when they couldn't be delivered because some polling places had shut down for the day. She said the ballots were kept sealed until other election duties were completed and were being counted Saturday afternoon, with results to be delivered to the state on Monday."
Nevertheless, in addition to Matthews, several media figures and outlets have advanced the rumor that the ballots were mishandled, including The Wall Street Journal, NBC correspondent Lee Cowan, and Fox News hosts Sean Hannity, Brit Hume, and Bill O'Reilly.
From the November 14 edition of MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews:
NATE SILVER (FiveThirtyEight.com): Frankly, in Minneapolis and Hennepin County, you probably have Democrats looking at these ballots. He has maybe a kind of a home-field advantage here too. The secretary of state, you know, is a Democrat in Minnesota, so that's why Coleman's a little scared, trying to kind of cut off the recount before it starts, which you can't really do legally. But he knows that those 200 votes mean very little once you start counting, you know, the millions of votes that were cast in that race.
MATTHEWS: What about these absentee ballots that were found in somebody's back seat and they're now counting them as official -- what is that about? That sounds pretty squirrely or sneaky or what -- I don't know what it sounds like. What do you make of it?
SILVER: Well, I doesn't look good for the state in general when you have these numbers changing, but this actually happens in every state where vote counts are finalized over a 10-day to 14-day period. It happens -- usually people don't care if Obama wins by 10,008 votes instead of 10,012 or something, but when it's this close, people notice stuff like this. Yeah, I think it looks bad for Minnesota if you have this happening in some places, but they seem to be isolated incidents to me and not any kind of widespread fraud.
MATTHEWS: Yeah, well, if I lost by 30 votes and I found out that somebody had found 30 votes in their back seat, I'd be upset. Let's take a look at the Georgia Senate race.
"I don't know what it sounds like" -- then you might try getting the story.
This is why the media's dumbness amazes me. Anyone can make a mistake, but a big media stooge:
--makes extremely simple, introductory mistakes (like failing to get basic background on a topic you intend to opine)
--makes those mistakes many times a day, every day
--has an enormous staff available willing and able to prevent such mistakes
--is incompetent at their own career, which they are passionate about and wallow in nearly every waking moment
The elite media isn't just dumber and more incompetent than anyone else in any other profession, they are orders of magnitude dumber and more incompetent.
You are kinder than I am. I don't think he's making mistakes; I think he knows EXACTLY what he is saying.
Who said these things?:
"If Americans elect Barack Obama President, we will evidence for ourselves and for the world the truth said by our forefathers to be self-evident....As we start this new century now at full speed, Americans seem on the verge of, in one vote, achieving two goals: taking a great American leap towards something better, and uniting our country as never before in our history."
"There's a row open right now, it's the chief jeer leader. When a new administration takes office, no matter how historically wondrous it is, like Barack Obama, there's going to be someone out there on the other side who leaps to the chance to be the person who dumps on the parade every day. Is it going to be Sarah Palin?"
"I have to tell you, you know, it’s part of reporting this case, this election, the feeling most people get when they hear Barack Obama’s speech. My, I felt this thrill going up my leg. I mean, I don’t have that too often."
I'm getting sick of this, too. Can you tell me why Media Matters doesn't report on this in its "Matthews Monitor," steeve? How about you, historygeek? Those are clearly "GOP talking points," Col. Harlan; maybe you can help me out.
Intense Laziness
Bill Mahr once pointed out that the media isn't always in the tank with one party or another sometimes they are just lazy. So they buy the story line being fronted by partisians because it ties in nicely with a narrative they already have going and then you get stories like this one. Obviously, O'Reilly, Hannity and Igram have agendas. So they take a litte bit of truth like a high number of votes for Franken being found during the audit and spin stories about it ballots being discovered in cars and trees. (Remember this comment next time Bill claims he's a journalist). As far as Matthews goes, it was journalistic laziness in the extreme to report this story as he did.
That's what cracks me up, I might have a busy day where I'm driving a lot, and I hear the right wing spin on a story like this from the radio knuckleheads. I'll get home, maybe 12 hours after I first hear the story, and the highly paid "news" people act as if they've just been taken out of a sensory deprivation tank and asked about the same issue with no prep at all.
Even when they seem to be questioning the spin, they start from a point of taking the GOP talking points/Rush Limbaugh angle and working it out from there.It may be that they've been so successful at hammering that "liberal media bias" crap so hard, but it's pretty sad that our media feels obligated to start from the far right propaganda position and slowly crawling toward the truth from there.
Looks like both Alaska and Georgia are leaning Democratic. All that's needed is MN and the GOP enters its long Winter of discontent with a Democratic 60 seat fillabuster proof Congress.