CNN is unable or unwilling to make the critical distinction between registration fraud and voter fraud. As I've said before, the former is really easy to do, even by accident, and the latter is extremely difficult and rarely occurs. The sheer volume of ACORN registration forms found in Indiana suggests the forms were deliberately filled out wrong, but they do not in any sense prove that there is a widespread liberal conspiracy to steal the election. More likely, ACORN workers were stealing time and trying to get paid without actually doing their jobs. Given how easily the forms were discovered, it would have to be the most inept scheme in the history of the United States.
Last night on Anderson Cooper's show, CNN reporter Drew Griffin concluded the following (via Lexis):
GRIFFIN: It absolutely is a crime. That was a fraud, somebody who filled out those forms. And I looked at them, Anderson. They're obviously a fraud.But the election workers say we have to turn this over to the actual elected board of elections. The board of elections has to then bring in the county attorney to see if an investigation, a criminal investigation, should begin. So all of that will be, you know, weeks, maybe even months down the road, and of course, that's going to be after the election.
Griffin's conclusion leaves open the possibility that there are thousands of fraudulent registration forms that will lead to people voting illegally and thus stealing the election. No where in his report does he acknowledge that voter fraud is very difficult to pull off and thus very rare, he is simply content to frighten people into believing that the fraudulent voter forms could lead to the election being stolen.
By contrast,The New York Times reported yesterday that thousands of voters have been illegally purged from the rolls in several swing states. Cooper gave this non-hypothetical problem about ten seconds of airtime before informing his viewers that they would "look into it in the days ahead."
Here we have one problem that we know is real, is actually happening, and may deny hundreds of thousands of Americans their vote on Election Day. But that's not nearly as sexy or exciting as an election stealing conspiracy that doesn't actually exist. We have a real problem, and a hypothetical one. CNN, like many in the mainstream media, decided the hypothetical problem was more important.
They're "keeping them honest," all right. Everyone but those who might actually affect your right to vote.
--A. Serwer
