STATEMENT TO THE PRESS ON PRO-BUSH MEDIA BIAS November 26, 2000 Produced by the Houston Fair Vote Organization Website: http://www.hal-pc.org/~edi/houston.html Contact: Edwin Johnston edi@hal-pc.org As a non-partisan grass roots organization interested in the full and fair count of the votes, we feel that the media so far has been one sided. Instead of giving a clear perspective on the issues, the news media has focused on political strategy and personality, turning the right to vote into a win or lose political sport. But this is not the worst result; it is the blatant incitement and encouragement of intimidation tactics by extremist right wing groups using the news media for the purpose of swaying public opinion. What has happened to fairness and honesty, critical examination of the issues and investigative reporting by the media? Is there no longer a sense of pride, integrity or moral obligation to report on meaningful and important ethical and constitutional issues? We would like for you to consider the rights of the voters of Florida above your own self-interests. It is the media's job to expose the anti-democratic forces that are stalking the presidency and jeopardizing democracy by subverting the constitution through racism, nationalism, religious zealotry and criminal mischief. Justice should not be compromised in the name of expediency, ratings, profits or partisan politics. Below is a list of specific issues related to this election that the media has either misreported, misrepresented, downplayed, ignored or hasn't adequately covered. Election Day: Media role in wrongly calling Florida for George W. Bush An astounding story that the media mentioned only briefly, then soon discarded was how a Bush relative, John Ellis of Fox News, was in constant contact with his cousins, Governors George W. and Jeb Bush over the entire evening on election day. First Ellis provided them with information that apparently Gore had won Florida. This made George W. Bush interrupt his dinner and hastily call an unprecedented election night news conference to claim that there weren't enough votes cast in Florida yet for a Gore win there. The media then placed Florida in the too-close- to-call category. Then at 1:16 am on November 8th, Ellis had Fox News report (erroneously) that Bush had won Florida and thus the Presidency. The rest of the networks reported this as fact without notification from the Voter News Service, the official tally of election votes as previously agreed upon by the media. Fair Vote The Gore campaign has every right under law to call for a manual recount of ballots due to the closeness of the race and widespread voting irregularities. The Bush campaign chose not to have any manual recounts of their own in Florida and has tried to prevent legal recounts from occurring. The Florida Supreme Court ruled that manually recounted votes must be added to the total vote based on sound law and democratic tradition. The Bush campaign refers to this as a kangaroo court of democratic activist judges, when in actuality the judges are conservative Democrats. Demonstrators The first demonstrators to come out on the streets concerning this election were citizens in Florida who were outraged over massive voting irregularities and voter disenfranchisement that verged on outright fraud. These protestors were then supported by a non-partisan grassroots movement of protests held nationwide on November 11th and 18th that was facilitated over the internet. Once pro-Bush supporters figured out how this grassroots movement operated, they stole the list of published protest locations and promoted them as their own in order to counter- demonstrate against a fair vote. This was then wrongly portrayed in the media as a conflict between Bush and Gore supporters. Angry mobs of Bush supporters succeeded in ending the manual recount in Dade County. The media initially stressed that the Dade County canvassing board's decision was based on their inability to meet the deadline imposed by the Florida Supreme Court. However, just two hours previous to this violent disruption the board decided to count 10,000 previously undercounted ballots. It's now confirmed that Bush campaign operatives directed this mob with assistance from radio programs based in areas of far right-wing anti-Castro Cubans. Stealing the election Bush supporters are all over the media claiming that Al Gore is trying to steal the election. But the evidence shows that Gore has all along taken reasonable legal steps to assure a fair vote. Gore won the popular vote, is ahead in the electoral vote and is gaining in the Florida recount. In reality it is the Bush team that is suspect when it comes to stealing the election in Florida, which has a long record of ballot rigging and is overseen by Bush's own brother. Bush's "Big Lie" technique of accusing his opponent of the crimes he himself is committing is being adopted by the media and is assisting the Bush campaign in their aims. The forces behind Bush are the same ones who were behind the Starr investigation and failed impeachment process to remove President Clinton and overturn two previous lawful elections. The media should be investigating the connections between the Bush campaign and anti-democratic forces behind the Clinton impeachment. In conclusion, the question exists of whether the media can manage and direct themselves for fair coverage or will it be the instrument of powerful demagogues? We feel it is necessary to point out media bias and inaccuracy at this critical time as a group of citizens concerned about the fate of democratic rights in the United States of America. We end our statement with quotes from an American founding father, Thomas Jefferson: The will of the people is the only legitimate foundation of any government, and to protect its free expression should be our first object. I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much liberty than to those attending too small a degree of it. Information is the currency of democracy.