The "voter fraud" fraud - #2

Huffington Post political writer Dan Froomkin says that no journalist, who is not an actual shill for the right, actually believes Republicans are pushing voter ID laws because they're concerned about voter fraud.   People trying to vote fraudulently is simply not a problem, but journalists treat the controversy over the laws as just another he said/she said disagreement.   In doing so they are failing their duty to inform with accurate information.

At the same time, voter intimidation is a serious problem.  A new law in Pennsylvania, now on trial in court, will disenfranchise as many as 10% of legitimate voters.   In Philadelphia, it is much higher.   And state officials have acknowledged that they have no -- repeat NO -- evidence of voter fraud, nor any likelihood that it will occur.

And yet there the laws are.   They could decide the election in swing states.

Froomkin says this is about more than just the election outcome, however:

This is not simply another gratuitously partisan act by the GOP.  This is an attack on the very notion of democracy. The voter ID push, along with intimidation of voter registration groups and purges of voter rolls have only one goal: blocking legitimate but probably Democratic voters from exercising their constitutional rights. It is a poll tax with a new twist.

And the pursuit of this goal ostensibly in the name of voter fraud is an outrageous deception that only works if the press is too timid to call it what it really is.

For reporters to treat this issue like just another political squabble is journalistic malpractice.

And where is the outrage?   Why aren't the headlines screaming about the "voter fraud" fraud?   Is it because most of the media (print, radio, tv) are owned by corporate interests, and they are mostly Republicans?

There was a time when Republicans would be just as outraged over this perversion of democracy as Democrats.   That this is no longer true is a travesty of the current state of partisanship in this country.

Ralph