Ireland talking about vote fraud bloggers vs. traditional media

[Helga Scow Stern]

Another excellent piece of work from DU's Paddy Maynooth:

(Moderators: I was given permission by the author to post this in its entirety.)

Traditional media must fight vote fraud bloggers

Conor Brady is correct to point out the dangers of new media for which there are “no mechanisms for the validation of content, for the screening out of material that is inaccurate, dangerous or likely to spread hatred, panic or fear.” Brady points out that “there are no effective sanctions if the blogger screws up, gets it wrong or spreads disinformation that results in people being hurt – or worse.” (Blogging On, Village 27 May – 2 June.)

But these dangerous deficiencies also apply to the old media’s coverage of the appointment of George W. Bush as president and the invasion of Iraq.

Fox declared Bush the winner of the 2000 presidential election before it was possible to call, and the other networks jumped on, with no validation of content, to make this spurious news item a fact.

Similarly, the traditional media published the lies about Iraq’s (non-existent) weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaeda that justified the invasion.

The /traditional media/ failed to screen out material that was inaccurate and dangerous, and spread hatred, panic and fear. The /traditional media/ screwed up, got it wrong and spread disinformation that resulted in tens of thousands of Iraqis being hurt so they will hurt no more.

The market knows that the traditional media screwed up. A Harris Poll published by NewsMax in January revealed that 62 percent of Americans distrusted the newspapers, 58 percent distrusted television, and only 43 percent trusted the radio. This helps to explain the growth of the blogs.

Now, the traditional media are failing to cover the controversy about vote fraud in last year’s US presidential election that is raging in the new media.

Progressive blogs quote an analysis conducted for US Count Votes by an array of university-based statisticians who find that they cannot reject the hypothesis that discrepancies between exit polls and vote tallies were due to “errors” in the vote tallies that gave Bush a majority.

Conservative blogs denounce this hypothesis as a spurious conspiracy theory.

While Conor O’Clery has mentioned this controversy in his column in The Irish Times on 16 April, the rest of the traditional media in Ireland have been dozing.

But the traditional media cannot afford to doze while the evidence is being debated elsewhere. They must fight to hold on to punters – i.e. customers – who would much prefer to follow the debate in the comfort afforded by the paper, TV or radio.

[Paddy Maynooth]

1. This has been accepted as a letter in Village Magazine

- which is the hottest thing in current affairs magazines in Ireland right now. It's a new magazine, less than six months old, and the editor is one of the most well renowned commentators on current affairs in Ireland.

http://www.villagemagazine.ie/index.html

It seems likely that all relevant editors and journalists on Village will be asked to chew on this stop-dozing call, and it is possible that some of the other media will also pick up on the story. It's clear that the blogs have got them worried, else they wouldn't be dissing them. :)


As far as I know, this has now gone to press and should be on the news stands from tomorrow morning. At least, I got a phone call on Monday to say that it would. As soon as I actually see it in print, I will post an e-mail address to thank the editor.

And if some of you good people can pick up a copy of the magazine at an international news stand, maybe you can even join in the debate on the letters page? After all, the best way to thank the editors is to buy the magazine. :)

Thanks for posting this, Ojai Person!

Paddy.

[Helga Scow Stern]

2. Thank you, Paddy. I will look for the magazine.