For years, Minnesota has led in election integrity processes to make sure every vote is counted fairly and accurately. Media does not want to tell an orderly fair process story, instead they want drama, even when there is not drama! I was at the biggest Minnesota recount center, Ramsey county when Republican Bob Murray had the "dustup" with Ramsey elections director, Joe Manski. The drama story is not the story I saw and videotaped. Here is the story not being told. This a story about good process not drama, can you handle that?
Here is the Bob Murray story told by the Star Tribune (owned by oil company Avista Capital Partners the challenger Bob Murray story:
One dustup came when Coleman observer Bob Murray questioned Ramsey County elections manager Joe Mansky on all the people jamming in the room as well as how ballot stacks were being counted. When Murray challenged a handful of ballots in which voters appeared to mark Franken clearly, Mansky said they were frivolous challenges, something state law prohibits.
"If you want to deal with it, take me to court," Mansky said
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Fortunately, Noah Kunin of the independent media Uptake was producing my actual video of the what happened, and actually put this comment on the Strib's article
The quote from Mansky is slightly inaccurate as posted here. Consultation of video from the incident produces the following exact quote:
MANSKY: If you want to deal with them, you can take my determination to court.
Slightly more politic, I’d say...
Noah Kunin
Senior Political Correspondent
Basically an independent journalist was doing a better job in the comments of actually reporting what really happened. The best reporting is actual video. Here's my video, produced by Noah Kunin:
Note that I have seen all major networks get far better video and better access to interviews. Yet they report only snippets and there no consideration of contrary evidence. Showing video or quoting someone who is "misrepresenting" or shall I just say lying, without the contrary evidence is helping the lie. So my video may not come from a high quality camera, however I am telling you the whole story.
Now the media needs a story, and the Bob Murray story is a story. The problem is this. Bob Murray is an ordinary citizen volunteering and trying to a good job. He does not have great diplomatic skills that combine with a really loud voice, which will then show more provocation than he might intend. He apologized later. He also was counseled by other Republican volunteers to be more low key.
The Joe Mansky part of the story is actually different than represented as well. All day, the election judges were explaining procedure, letting challengers and observers know what the process and the options were at each step. In the beginning, I actually heard comments like "Here is a ballot that has something interesting, does anyone want to challenge this?". So when Joe was saying, "If you want to deal with them, you can take my determination to court.", he was actually telling Bob Murray the next step in the process. And there were lawyers ready to do that in the room. In fact, Joe Mansky had been taken to court and sued that very morning. So really this was an informational statement, not a provocative statement. Bob Murray gets to make challenges, Joe Mansky gets to review those challenges and then lawyers get to challenge Joe Mansky. All part of the process!
All this type of learning and explanation is expected on the first day of a recount. To be fair, there is more depth of experience on Minnesota Democratic side on recounts, since maintaining election integrity is a major Democratic issue, so the expertise showed. However, the Republican challengers quickly learned the process.
So the independent video media and the blogging universe is actually paying attention. Unlike most corporate media, I was there all day for two days. So there is no way that a reporter who does not know the process the way I do and who has not been totally absorbed in the process, could report with the same depth of background that I have. Those corporate reporters do get better equipment, get support staff and even get paid. (Hint donations on the side bar of my blog mnblue) .
I have seen many stories that I have been covering looking entirely different coming out of corporate media. I think even the fact that we are here, has kept corporate media more honest. However the corporate media making drama about the Minnesota recount is happening nationally.
Naturally, conservative radio hosts are working themselves into a lather, baselessly accusing Democrats of trying to "steal" the election...
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."...
During that Today segment, reporter Lee Cowan announced that the situation "has some remembering shades of Florida, of butterfly ballots and hanging chads. There are neither of those here."...
Cowan continued: "Still, ballots have suddenly appeared out of nowhere, including some found unsecured in an election worker's car."
That appears to be completely false. Election officials have said the ballots did not "suddenly appear[] out of nowhere," and they were not "unsecured." The claim about unsecured ballots in a car appears to have originated with Norm Coleman's lawyer. ... What makes it worse is that the lawyer had already backed off the claim. Two full days before Cowan's report, the Coleman lawyer had been quoted saying that "we've heard enough from the city attorney to let go of this. It does not appear that there was any ballot-tampering, and that was our concern."...
Today's New York Times similarly promoted the idea of chaos and impropriety in the Minnesota recount -- without actually providing any evidence or examples...
From Media Matters, read the whole story here!
For national media, a Minnesota election process being done carefully and deliberately is just way too boring of a story! The national story that should be told is how Minnesota has the best and most fair voting process that ought to be copied across the US!