This is a classic example of journalism. "Its premise is that a Republican victory in November is imperiled by widespread voter fraud, a baseless charge embraced by President Trump but repeatedly debunked by research." Straight news, people.
It's amazing that the courts have imposed this limit on Republicans, but not Democrats, since 1982. It's not even a principled ruling that monitoring voting is bad; it's a partisan ruling that Republicans are evil and cannot be trusted to do what good actors like Democrats can do.
No, this is a classic example of tabloid journalism, which is all we've had for a saddening number of years. This is the self-appointed gateway and filter of what ordinary Americans would be permitted to know about the goings on in our nation or the world at large or of the doings of our government, if the journalist guild were all we had.
It's also commentary that The National Enquirer has more entertainment value and does better satire.
Speaking of "tabloid" journalism, here is a blast from the past as reported in "The Dallas Observer" -- one of those weekly tabs supported by massage and escort advertisers on the back page. 2001. A non-partisan election concerning a tax/bond proposal for ... whatever it was that year. A sports arena, a convention center, a vanity bridge, a road atop a river. It's always something.
For less than $12,000 paid to the right people, you can buy the early and absentee ballot vote in eight precincts in Southern Dallas--just enough votes, it turns out, to win you a $125 million taxpayer subsidy for your new sports arena or a $246 million city bond issue [snip] precincts could yield the margin of victory for a venture that will provide taxpayer guarantees for hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of private development.
The key to the Dallas machine ...is disciplined voters: voters who can be counted on to turn out and vote the way their leaders tell them. Those voters in Dallas happen to be African-American--not white, not Mexican-American. But it would be a grave error to assume that the machinery is even especially beneficial to African-Americans.
It always seemed an odd alliance to me--African-American voters in some of the city's poorest precincts and the zillionaire developers who seek major public subsidies for their private-gain ventures. But I really had no idea just how odd the whole arrangement was until a recent series of events brought me face to face with my own naïveté.
The manipulation of African-American early in-person voting and absentee by-mail voting is a major element in the way all citywide elections are won in Dallas.
Read the whole thing, and learn a little grammar.
The term of art here is "vote" as a transitive verb, as in "Felicia votes the people on Colonial Avenue." Some of the operatives best known for "voting" people in specific precincts are ferociously possessive of their turf and proud of their work.
And speaking of denying or suppressing votes:
"Say the broker goes to Caraway with 1,500 ballots," she whispers. "He says, 'These votes are for you. I want $3 apiece for them.' Caraway says no. So he takes them to the other candidate. 'These votes are for Caraway. I want $3 apiece for them.' If the other candidate pays, the broker throws the ballots away."
Oh, and an update? This month the old-school reporter who did the leg work and wrote that story about how voting worked (and still works) in Dallas and other Texas elections? He was just put out to pasture by his tabloid.
5 comments:
Like a broken (paper of) record.
I'm sure you mean the Babylon Bee
This is a classic example of journalism. "Its premise is that a Republican victory in November is imperiled by widespread voter fraud, a baseless charge embraced by President Trump but repeatedly debunked by research." Straight news, people.
It's amazing that the courts have imposed this limit on Republicans, but not Democrats, since 1982. It's not even a principled ruling that monitoring voting is bad; it's a partisan ruling that Republicans are evil and cannot be trusted to do what good actors like Democrats can do.
This is a classic example of journalism.
No, this is a classic example of tabloid journalism, which is all we've had for a saddening number of years. This is the self-appointed gateway and filter of what ordinary Americans would be permitted to know about the goings on in our nation or the world at large or of the doings of our government, if the journalist guild were all we had.
It's also commentary that The National Enquirer has more entertainment value and does better satire.
Eric Hines
Speaking of "tabloid" journalism, here is a blast from the past as reported in "The Dallas Observer" -- one of those weekly tabs supported by massage and escort advertisers on the back page. 2001. A non-partisan election concerning a tax/bond proposal for ... whatever it was that year. A sports arena, a convention center, a vanity bridge, a road atop a river. It's always something.
https://www.dallasobserver.com/news/absentee-minded-6391500
For less than $12,000 paid to the right people, you can buy the early and absentee ballot vote in eight precincts in Southern Dallas--just enough votes, it turns out, to win you a $125 million taxpayer subsidy for your new sports arena or a $246 million city bond issue [snip] precincts could yield the margin of victory for a venture that will provide taxpayer guarantees for hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of private development.
The key to the Dallas machine ...is disciplined voters: voters who can be counted on to turn out and vote the way their leaders tell them. Those voters in Dallas happen to be African-American--not white, not Mexican-American. But it would be a grave error to assume that the machinery is even especially beneficial to African-Americans.
It always seemed an odd alliance to me--African-American voters in some of the city's poorest precincts and the zillionaire developers who seek major public subsidies for their private-gain ventures. But I really had no idea just how odd the whole arrangement was until a recent series of events brought me face to face with my own naïveté.
The manipulation of African-American early in-person voting and absentee by-mail voting is a major element in the way all citywide elections are won in Dallas.
Read the whole thing, and learn a little grammar.
The term of art here is "vote" as a transitive verb, as in "Felicia votes the people on Colonial Avenue." Some of the operatives best known for "voting" people in specific precincts are ferociously possessive of their turf and proud of their work.
And speaking of denying or suppressing votes:
"Say the broker goes to Caraway with 1,500 ballots," she whispers. "He says, 'These votes are for you. I want $3 apiece for them.' Caraway says no. So he takes them to the other candidate. 'These votes are for Caraway. I want $3 apiece for them.' If the other candidate pays, the broker throws the ballots away."
Oh, and an update? This month the old-school reporter who did the leg work and wrote that story about how voting worked (and still works) in Dallas and other Texas elections? He was just put out to pasture by his tabloid.
Journalism is dying of suicide.
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