Betas & politics
Oct. 8th, 2004 07:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
heidiOk, things are weird. Leaving this here for archival purposes...
FictionAlley celebrates Beta Reader Appreciation Day (thanks to![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
friede for the image-tweaking).
Speaking of betas, we're beta-testing the new artisticalley, wheee!
I am running quite far behind on LJ - I was at skip=400 this morning -
and I haven't read anything posted since about 7am today. But I talked
withtea_and_toast this AM and learned that she hadn't seen
any of the news reports about Sinclair Media and their decision to air
an anti-Kerry film next week which is purportedly focused on his Viet
Nam days. In other words, it seems that they're trying to influence
the election.
Sinclair owns a little over 60 stations around the country, and have
penetration into about 1/4 of the US, and many of those states are in
swing states. You may remember them from the Spring; in April,
Sinclair ordered seven of its stations not to air Ted Koppel's
Nightline broadcast featuring a roll call of the 700 U.S. troops who
had died in Iraq. Republican Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of
war in Vietnam, was among the many who criticized Sinclair's action.
McCain has also criticized some of the people who are expected to be
featured in the film Sinclair will be showing.
Here's a bit from USAToday on the situation:
AmericaBlog summarizes: Sinclair -- which is now synonymous with the
dangers of media consolidation -- is throwing its support behind Bush
because its business is hurting and it wants to consolidate even
further and have the right to control TV stations and radio stations
and newspapers in one broadcast area. At least you could respect them
if it was just a viciously held political belief rather than a cold
calculation.
And quoting: "The decision [to air the anti-Kerry video just days
before the election] annoyed investors. Sinclair's shares, which have
lost about half their value in 2004, closed Monday at $7.38, down 12
cents. That's about as low as they've been since 1995."
And advertisers are pulling away from Sinclair. Sylvan Learning
Centers is one national advertiser who has refused to advertise on
Sinclair if they go forward with this showing. More of their
advertisers are listed here. And as a
former intern in the Political Enforcement Branch of the FCC (back in
the day, we were in charge of the fairness doctrine and equal time
reulations), I also recommend filing
a petition with the FCC to deny renewal of Sinclair's licenses.
Some of the deadlines are November 1, so nothing will happen on the
license front before the election, but it's a way to tell the FCC that
you believe that Sinclair has abrogated their responsibility to the
American public; they are a custodian of the airwaves, and they are
not living up to their promise on how to use that scarce spectrum.
I'll also link to MediaMatters
page on the situation, where they're adding more and more informaiton.
I also wanted to crosspost from Americablog about the actions of a
company funded by the Republican National Committee, which is
especially relevant to anyone in Nevada or Oregon - KLAS
in Nevada Employees of a private voter
registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters
who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election
day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in
the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a
mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread
pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus
of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach
of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months,
registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and
collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of
the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican
registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors
rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her
assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some
of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those
from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork
including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took
them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they
had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on
Election Day are sadly mistaken. We attempted to speak to Voters
Outreach but found that its office has been rented out to someone
else.
The landlord says Voters Outreach was evicted for non-payment of rent.
Another source said the company has now moved on to Oregon where it is
once again registering voters. It's unknown how many registrations
may have been tossed out, but another ex-employee told Eyewitness News
she had the same suspicions when she worked there.
It's going to take a while to sort all of this out, but the immediate
concern for voters is to make sure you really are registered.
Call the Clark County Election Department at 455-VOTE orclick here to
see if you are registered.
The company [collecting and allegedly destroying the registrations]
has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National
Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the
registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
ETA: for some reason, this showed up on October 8, even though I posted it at around 1pm EDT on the 13th. Does anyone know what's going on?
FictionAlley celebrates Beta Reader Appreciation Day (thanks to
friede for the image-tweaking).Speaking of betas, we're beta-testing the new artisticalley, wheee!
I am running quite far behind on LJ - I was at skip=400 this morning -
and I haven't read anything posted since about 7am today. But I talked
with
tea_and_toast this AM and learned that she hadn't seenany of the news reports about Sinclair Media and their decision to air
an anti-Kerry film next week which is purportedly focused on his Viet
Nam days. In other words, it seems that they're trying to influence
the election.
Sinclair owns a little over 60 stations around the country, and have
penetration into about 1/4 of the US, and many of those states are in
swing states. You may remember them from the Spring; in April,
Sinclair ordered seven of its stations not to air Ted Koppel's
Nightline broadcast featuring a roll call of the 700 U.S. troops who
had died in Iraq. Republican Sen. John McCain, who was a prisoner of
war in Vietnam, was among the many who criticized Sinclair's action.
McCain has also criticized some of the people who are expected to be
featured in the film Sinclair will be showing.
Here's a bit from USAToday on the situation:
AmericaBlog summarizes: Sinclair -- which is now synonymous with the
dangers of media consolidation -- is throwing its support behind Bush
because its business is hurting and it wants to consolidate even
further and have the right to control TV stations and radio stations
and newspapers in one broadcast area. At least you could respect them
if it was just a viciously held political belief rather than a cold
calculation.
And quoting: "The decision [to air the anti-Kerry video just days
before the election] annoyed investors. Sinclair's shares, which have
lost about half their value in 2004, closed Monday at $7.38, down 12
cents. That's about as low as they've been since 1995."
And advertisers are pulling away from Sinclair. Sylvan Learning
Centers is one national advertiser who has refused to advertise on
Sinclair if they go forward with this showing. More of their
advertisers are listed here. And as a
former intern in the Political Enforcement Branch of the FCC (back in
the day, we were in charge of the fairness doctrine and equal time
reulations), I also recommend filing
a petition with the FCC to deny renewal of Sinclair's licenses.
Some of the deadlines are November 1, so nothing will happen on the
license front before the election, but it's a way to tell the FCC that
you believe that Sinclair has abrogated their responsibility to the
American public; they are a custodian of the airwaves, and they are
not living up to their promise on how to use that scarce spectrum.
I'll also link to MediaMatters
page on the situation, where they're adding more and more informaiton.
I also wanted to crosspost from Americablog about the actions of a
company funded by the Republican National Committee, which is
especially relevant to anyone in Nevada or Oregon - KLAS
in Nevada Employees of a private voter
registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters
who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election
day. The company claims hundreds of registration forms were thrown in
the trash.
Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a
mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected.
The I-Team has obtained information about an alleged widespread
pattern of potential registration fraud aimed at democrats. Thee focus
of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach
of America, AKA America Votes.
The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months,
registering voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and
collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of
the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican
registrations.
Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors
rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats.
"We caught her taking Democrats out of my pile, handed them to her
assistant and he ripped them up right in front of us. I grabbed some
of them out of the garbage and she tells her assisatnt to get those
from me," said Eric Russell, former Voters Outreach employee.
Eric Russell managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork
including signed voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took
them to the Clark County Election Department and confirmed that they
had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law.
So the people on those forms who think they will be able to vote on
Election Day are sadly mistaken. We attempted to speak to Voters
Outreach but found that its office has been rented out to someone
else.
The landlord says Voters Outreach was evicted for non-payment of rent.
Another source said the company has now moved on to Oregon where it is
once again registering voters. It's unknown how many registrations
may have been tossed out, but another ex-employee told Eyewitness News
she had the same suspicions when she worked there.
It's going to take a while to sort all of this out, but the immediate
concern for voters is to make sure you really are registered.
Call the Clark County Election Department at 455-VOTE orclick here to
see if you are registered.
The company [collecting and allegedly destroying the registrations]
has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National
Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the
registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.
ETA: for some reason, this showed up on October 8, even though I posted it at around 1pm EDT on the 13th. Does anyone know what's going on?
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:25 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:26 pm (UTC)There's so much wrong about this president I just don't know what to start.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:18 pm (UTC)Yeah, it aggravated me when Kerry did it, actually. I was shouting at the screen, "Answer the question! It'll make you look better!"
When he actually did answer the question, he was great. But I worry that his meandering to make other points will hurt him.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-09 06:15 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-09 11:23 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:28 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:31 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:29 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:34 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:44 pm (UTC)Perhaps he's our first "special" president?
Mr. Bush, we don't eat glue, sir...
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:49 pm (UTC)I think he may be. But then, look at his dad. The Elder Bush consistently spoke in idiom so much that reporters from non-English-speaking countries were often at a complete loss for how to translate his "homespun" (i.e. completely meaningless) phrases. Perhaps he was just used to speaking in code so much because of running the CIA? Of course, the idea of Dubya spying is utterly laughable because he seems to think people are speaking in code even when it's completely straightforward English and he's left sputtering, trying to work out what they've said.
What's scarier than this t00b having been president for almost four years? The idea of his being president for another four....
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:42 pm (UTC)The environment guy looked... you know if looks could kill.... But maybe I was imagining things.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:32 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:48 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 07:49 pm (UTC)What. The. FUCK.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:13 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:23 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 08:51 pm (UTC)Proving once again that education is no cure for idiocy.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-08 11:59 pm (UTC)Meh.
(no subject)
Date: 2004-10-09 06:16 am (UTC)