COUP WATCH: Propaganda War & Nov. 21 Links From Red Rock Eater News Service\r\n \r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nCOUP WATCH: Propaganda War & Nov. 21 Links From Red Rock Eater News Service<\/b><\/p>
\r\n\r\n\r\nBy Phil Agre<\/b><\/p>
\r\n\r\nTue Nov 21 15:57:35 2000<\/p>
\r\n\r\nHere are some more URL's relating to the election controversy in Florida.\r\nPlease pass them along to anyone who can use them. Thanks to everyone who\r\ncontributed.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe Propaganda War<\/u><\/p>
\r\n\r\n\"We're ahead, so stop the counting!\" is the cry, and the operatives are\r\nin full fury. You can see how it works. The leadership selects what the\r\nPR people call a \"message\" and political people call a \"strategy\": a vague\r\nbut emotionally charged theme that can be expressed in simple language.\r\nExamples might include \"Gore exaggerates his record\" or \"the hand counts\r\nare out of control\". The call then goes out to find factoids that support\r\nthe message. It doesn't matter if they are true or not, or whether they\r\nare exaggerated or trivial, taken out of context, or otherwise misleading.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe idea is to accumulate enough of these carefully chosen factoids that\r\nattempts to refute them singly will seem futile.<\/i> It is then the job of\r\nthe pundits to repeat the message over and over, lovingly reiterating each\r\nsupporting factoid until it becomes ingrained in the culture. This works\r\nbest if the message is paraphrased in as many ways as possible -- some of\r\nthe pundits even explicitly said that they were working their way through\r\nthe thesaurus to come up with new and different ways to say \"exaggerate\".\r\nThe message should also be interwoven in every possible way with the other\r\nmessaages that constitute the party line at a given time. None of this is\r\nsubtle or complicated: the messages go out by fax and e-mail at least daily. <\/p>
\r\n\r\nPublic Isn't Buying<\/u><\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe striking thing is that the American public isn't buying the messages\r\nof their elite betters. The public is sitting calmly waiting for the votes\r\nto get counted. This shouldn't be surprising. After all, the pundits are\r\ntrying to portray as strange and corrupt a practice that goes back hundreds\r\nof years and is written into the law in many states: when the vote is close,\r\nlook at all the ballots and count the ones where it is reasonably possible\r\nto discern voter's intent. This is plain common sense, and normal Americans\r\nknow that it is.<\/p>
\r\n\r\nRunning Out The Clock<\/u><\/p>
\r\n\r\nBut if the public can't be swayed then the clock can be\r\nrun out, and that's the real danger now. With enough spurious protests and\r\nother legal shenanigans, the constitutional deadlines will creep up. That's\r\nclearly what the Florida Supreme Court is worried about. The bottom line is\r\nto stop the counting. Everyone's falling over backwards to change the rules\r\nfor military people, even though as the Wall Street Journal observes this is\r\nentirely improper, and even though the same Florida Republican who fabricated\r\nlarge numbers of absentee ballots in the last election was participating in\r\npreparing Republican absentee ballots in this one. <\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe sheer backwardness of\r\nit all is stunning: falsely denouncing as \"selective\" a process in which every\r\nparty had the right to ask for recounts, trying to change the rules while\r\naccusing others of the same, denouncing lawyers while hiring twice as many as\r\nanyone else, generally engaging in a campaign of disinformation and doubletalk\r\nwhile falsely accusing your opponent of exaggerating, and above all trying\r\nto steal an election while issuing the same accusation against others. The\r\npunditry is happy with all this, whether through malice or mindlessness, and\r\nthey may even succeed for now. But in the long term it's not going to wash. <\/p>
\r\n\r\n<\/p>
\r\n\r\nAmericans Willing to Wait for Final Tally
\r\n http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/vote2000\/pres81.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nOfficials List Reasons for Rejected Ballots
\r\n http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/vote2000\/pres89.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nKerrey Calls for GOP to Retract Military Ballot Accusations
\r\n \r\nhttp:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2000\/ALLPOLITICS\/stories\/11\/21\/overseas.ballots\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe Mode of Electing the President
\r\n http:\/\/lcweb2.loc.gov\/const\/fed\/fed_68.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nTexans Challenge Cheney's Residency Status
\r\n http:\/\/www.usatoday.com\/news\/vote2000\/cheney2.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nCheney's Residency Challenged
\r\n http:\/\/www.salon.com\/politics\/wire\/2000\/11\/21\/cheney_residency\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\nJeb Bush Complained Phone Calls Were Attempt to \"Destroy Our State\"
\r\n http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2000\/ALLPOLITICS\/stories\/11\/21\/recount.emails\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\nComplaints Target DL Offices' Vote Sign-Up
\r\n http:\/\/www.gopbi.com\/partners\/pbpost\/epaper\/editions\/today\/news_13.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nBallot Counting a Tense, but Orderly Process
\r\n http:\/\/www.gopbi.com\/partners\/pbpost\/epaper\/editions\/today\/news_11.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nEvents Day by Day
\r\n http:\/\/www.gopbi.com\/partners\/pbpost\/epaper\/editions\/today\/news_8.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nBush's Potential Dilemma
\r\n \r\nhttp:\/\/www.law.com\/cgi-bin\/gx.cgi\/AppLogic+FTContentServer?pagename=law\/View&c=Article&cid=ZZZD5W2OSFC&cst=1<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\"Results-Oriented\" Court Gets Down to Business
\r\n http:\/\/washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/articles\/A46392-2000Nov20.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\n\"Recount\" Means to Count Again, Florida Official Ruled in '99
\r\n http:\/\/www.latimes.com\/print\/asection\/20001121\/t000111836.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nNewshour discussion of the Florida Supreme Court
\r\n http:\/\/www.pbs.org\/newshour\/bb\/election\/july-dec00\/legal_11-20.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe Twelfth Amendment: A Time Bomb
\r\n http:\/\/writ.news.findlaw.com\/commentary\/20000816_levinson.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nCan Gore Ever Win?
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/21\/opinion\/21FRIE.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nIn Eye of Recount Hurricane, There's Nary a Hint of a Storm
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/21\/politics\/21CREW.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nPatriot Missile
\r\n http:\/\/www.salon.com\/news\/feature\/2000\/11\/21\/schwarzkopf\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\n15,000 Absentee Ballots at Stake as Lawsuit Gains
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/21\/politics\/21SEMI.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nFlorida Supreme Court Takes Center Stage
\r\n http:\/\/www.salon.com\/politics\/feature\/2000\/11\/21\/supreme_court\/<\/p>
\r\n\r\nDivergent Views Are Argued on the Function of the Court
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/21\/politics\/21LEGA.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nFlorida's Justices Zero In on Recount Deadlines
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/21\/politics\/21ELEC.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nNo One Spared as the Justices Look for an End
\r\n http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2000\/11\/21\/politics\/21COUR.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nnonsensical Palm Beach fraud conspiracy theory
\r\n \r\nhttp:\/\/www.reagan.com\/HotTopics.main\/document-11.16.2000.0.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nHow Better Machines May Have Helped Bush
\r\n http:\/\/orlandosentinel.com\/elections\/1118vote.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nThe Mislaid Election
\r\n http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/frameset.asp?boardID=7408&pageloc=\/story\/52\/story_5260_1.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nJudge Won't Order Revote
\r\n http:\/\/www.gopbi.com\/shared\/news\/politics\/florida_gopbi.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nRegistration Problems Plague Alachua County
\r\n http:\/\/gainesvillesun.com\/articles\/2000-11-10a.shtml<\/p>
\r\n\r\nFlorida's Differing Vote-Counting Machines Resulted in More GOP Votes
\r\n http:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/news\/daily\/detail\/0,1136,36000000000129817,00.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nSee-Saw Farce Grips the Sunshine State
\r\n http:\/\/www.observer.co.uk\/international\/story\/0,6903,399830,00.html<\/p>
\r\n\r\nthe famous Democratic memo on military ballots
\r\n http:\/\/www.drudgereport.com\/absent.htm<\/p>
\r\n\r\nend
\r\n\r\n<\/p>\n","contact":"","link":"http:\/\/dlis.gseis.ucla.edu\/people\/pagre\/florida.html","address":"","phone":"","parent_id":0,"mime_type":"text\/html","summary":"A brief, incisive analysis of where the Republican propaganda war stands right now. Plus the latest links from the Red Rock Eater News Service.","numcomment":0,"fileurl":"\/uploads\/2000\/11\/rre_f09.htm","filesize":"10.4 kibibytes","article_url":"\/news\/2000\/11\/4672.php"},"attachments":[],"comments":[]}