Why I Call Them “The GOP/Media Complex”

The state of Minnesota has had a solid recount law in place for nearly half a century.  When close elections happen, and they do, the law is triggered and procedures that all parties know and understand are set into motion.  In other words, this ain’t no Florida, as Flash says. 

Yet Norm Coleman’s crybaby Nieman-Marcus Riot Act — an act roundly condemned by even conservative newspapers in Minnesota — is finding a willing set of stenographers in the national press.  Media Matters’ Jamison Foser documents the atrocities:

Here’s how Meredith Vieira, co-host of NBC’s Today, began a report on the Minnesota recount: "If you thought the election debacle in Florida could never happen again, wait until you see the situation in Minnesota."

This is nonsense. The "debacle" in Florida wasn’t that there was a recount; the "debacle" was an absurdly designed ballot that led to thousands of people who meant to vote for Al Gore voting for Pat Buchanan instead. The "debacle" was that thousands of voters were improperly purged from voter rolls. The "debacle" was that the state’s electoral votes were awarded to the candidate for whom fewer voters attempted to cast ballots. None of those factors are present in Minnesota.

Even worse, on that very same Today show segment, reporter Lee Cowan eagerly regurged as fact a bogus story about allegedly-unsecured ballots magically appearing in the trunk of a car — one that got its start from the Coleman camp’s own lawyer Fritz Knaak, and which Knaak had been forced to recant two days before Cowan’s repeating it to a national TV audience.

Ah, but for the most slavish retransmitting of Republican recount nonsense in a media outlet with a national reach — aside, of course, from Rupert Murdoch’s Fox News — one must go to the New York Times.  The Gross Lady not only gave media play to Fritz Knaak’s evidence-free claims of "shenanigans" (without so much as even a bogus hint as to what these alleged "shenanigans" might be), but gave respectful space to other bogosities and groundless opinionating designed to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Minnesota’s recount process – and on Franken’s victory, should he win (which, as Nate Silver explains, is quite possible, and in fact may be likely).   The Gross Lady is also amping up its FOX imitation by passing along, without question or comments, Republican attack hooey on Mark Ritchie, Minnesota’s extremely upright Secretary of State — while ignoring Republican praise of Ritchie’s bipartisan appointments to the state canvassing board.

For the real info about the Minnesota senate race recount, avoid the GOP/Media Complex.  Stick to local media sites (though you might want to avoid much of what the Coleman-endorsing StarTribune emits); local blogs like Centristy, Blog of the Moderate Left, Minnesota Campaign Report, and Bluestem Prairie; watchdogs like Media Matters, and of course Fire Dog Lake — where we’ll do our best to summarize the best reporting and credit the persons behind it.