198.6 - Outrage of the Week: Media failure on voter suppression

Outrage of the Week: Media failure on voter suppression

So why aren't people more disturbed by this process of voter suppression, why aren't they more upset about their rights being stripped away in service of an economic and social elite?

Maybe because - in part, certainly because - of the utter failure of our so-called media to simply tell the truth. And that failure is the Outrage of the Week.

In reporting on the Supreme Court's refusal to take up the challenge to the Wisconsin law, this is how the Washington Post described the issue: It referred to

measures that Republicans say combat fraud and Democrats say discourage voting among minorities, the elderly and the poor.

Earlier in March, this is how our "paper of record," the New York Times, put the issue:

Republicans have passed new laws requiring voters to show identification cards and restricting early-voting hours, arguing that these methods would help prevent voter fraud.

Democrats say such fraud is nearly nonexistent, and charge that the laws are a new push to disenfranchise minority voters and the poor.

In other words, it's just "A said this and B said that." Just another bit of political back-and-forth, just more blah-blah, just more partisan blather, who knows who's right and yada-yada-yada.

But there is an objective reality here, an objective reality testified to by multiple studies from multiple sources, an objective reality that declares loudly and clearly that one side here is lying and one side is telling the truth. Yes, they are each taking the stand that serves their partisan gain, but that doesn't change the hard fact that one side is lying and one side is telling the truth.

But our national media, which most of us for better or worse (but usually worse) still depend on for news and facts, having long since replaced journalism with official stenography, won't say that, it just says "A says this and B says that," figuring it's done its job while leaving us uninformed, malinformed, and misinformed as our right to vote is slowly and increasingly circumscribed in service to a long-term goal of subverting democracy in pursuit of enshrining a permanent, unchallengeable elite of a sort that would make a medieval lord of the manor jealous.

We are often told by the Tea Party minions of the right that our democracy is in danger. They are right - but not for any of the reasons they suppose. And the fact of their - and our  - ignorance, the cause of their - and our - ignorance, is an outrage.

Note: Yes, there is a difference between this post and the video in that the decision to make this the Outrage of the Week was made after the video was completed.

Sources cited in links:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/supreme-court-lets-wisconsin-voter-id-law-stand/2015/03/23/9d82b8da-d162-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html
http://fair.org/blog/2015/03/09/voting-rights-shall-not-overcome-nyt-reporting-like-this/