While the non-story of ACORN floods the news cycle on every cable network, corporate media fails to report entirely or hides big stories about real systemic Republican political corruption.
The story about Mark Jacoby and the YPM is already at the top of the recommended list: we all know about it, but it's not getting little air play on any network. Why is that?
http://www.latimes.com/...
This is organized crime, pure and simple. Conspiracy to commit felonies are rife throughout the history of the Republican Party, maybe in your State.
I know in NH it happened in 2002, we have the convicted felons to prove it.
There are other cases of known criminal operations, where actual crimes were committed that have been ignored or minimized by the corporate media.
[AZ]
http://www.azcapitoltimes.com/...
October 17, 2008
Top Stories
GOP source says state party might return donations
By Jim Small, jim.small@azcapitoltimes.com
The Arizona Democratic Party is accusing the Arizona Republican Party of "engaging in large-scale campaign finance fraud" by accepting illegal contributions and unlawfully using them to fund attacks on Democratic candidates.
..
Weeg asked the secretary of state and Maricopa County recorder to investigate the violations and force the Republican Party to return the contributions to SCA. She also asked for the GOP to be fined $315,000 - triple the amount it received from SCA - because the party illegally accepted contributions from the group.
"The (Republican) Party...appears to be funneling illegal contributions from an illegal entity into one of the most deceptive and vile advertising efforts in Arizona history," Weeg wrote.
.
In Nevada ..
http://www.klas-tv.com/...
George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
Investigation into Trashed Voter Registrations
(Oct. 13) -- Federal, state, and local officials are gathering information about allegations of voter registration fraud that were first raised Channel 8 Eyewitness News.
An employee of a private voter registration firm alleges that his bosses trashed registration forms filled out by Democratic voters because they only wanted to sign up Republican voters.
The allegations have set off a political firestorm stretching from Las Vegas to Washington D.C., and beyond.
...
He says he got into a beef with the company over a pay dispute, and witnessed his bosses ripping up registration forms that had been filed by democrats.
The FBI refuses to officially investigate, by the way.
But meanwhile, the DOJ [as we all know] makes public only days before the election ..
http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/...
The FBI is investigating whether the community activist group ACORN helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election.
A senior law enforcement official confirmed the investigation to The Associated Press. A second senior law enforcement official says the FBI was looking at results of inquiries in several states, including a raid on ACORN's office in Las Vegas, for any evidence of a coordinated national effort.
Josh Marshall nails all of this down ..
http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/...
So now we hear leaked word that the FBI is beginning an investigation into whether ACORN "helped foster voter registration fraud around the nation before the presidential election" and where there is "any evidence of a coordinated national scam."
Let's note a few points. DC Republicans have been aggressively lobbying the DOJ to open an investigation into ACORN in advance of the election. And leaking word of such an investigation (possibly starting the investigation at all) most likely violates DOJ guidelines about DOJ/FBI actions which can end up interfering with or manipulating an election.
And as for that NH case, of PhoneGate, every indication is that the Bush WH was directly involved with it in 2002. Good background piece here. Markos covered Bob Smith's outrage here.
To my mind, every State in the Union probably has some rank criminality happening under the auspices of the Republican Party, and it continues to fly under the radar. Corporate media REFUSES to cover it. Yet, every 5 minutes on all cable networks it's 'ACORN ACORN ACORN'.
What I have been personally trying to do is to go to local and State papers and post comments in the blogs where I can, after simply searching for stories of Republican corruption.
Since the corporate media will not report on these criminals, I figure spreading the truth about the Republican crime syndicate is the least I can do. Maybe you folks have ideas that would work better, but I feel overwhelmed by the tidal wave of Republican illegal actions that seem to escape the "news cycle".
Maybe, we can get a Jack Cafferty to speak up about the Mark Jacoby YPM story. Maybe. Meanwhile, most of the country still hears ACORN ACORN ACORN pounded into their little heads.
Congress has to do something about breaking up the monopolies that control our media.
------
I guess my bigger question is .. what can we do as a community about this? We have the power of thousands of active viewers and posters who are capable of breaking away and posting on local newspapers, on radio and TV station blogs.
I think if each of us took just a few minutes each day to visit our local media and spread the truth that the corporate media refuses to deal with, it could make a difference. It might help to force coverage by local news sources.
Can we organize something here to help coordinate or accomplish this task?
I'm sure there will be the regular collection of naysayers, as there always is; to those who will do, rather than post disparaging comments why not spend the time to spread truth, instead.