Fox Botches Report On Decision To Uphold Early Voting In Ohio

[kpete]

Source: Media Matters

Just minutes after the Supreme Court ruled to allow early voting in Ohio the weekend before Election Day, Fox News host Jon Scott falsely claimed that the Obama campaign sought to stop military families from early voting in the state. Scott further botched the state's early voting history when he claimed that Democrats sought to limit early voting when in fact, it was Republicans.

The real story is that Ohio expanded early voting in 2008 and 2010 in response to long wait times for thousands of voters during the 2004 election. But last year, the Republican-controlled legislature eliminated in-person voting during the three days before the election for everyone but military families and overseas voters.

In response, the Obama campaign and other Democrats filed a lawsuit seeking to restore early voting for all Ohioans. Today, the Supreme Court let stand a ruling that sided with the Obama campaign.

Scott's rendition of these events conflicts with reality and ignores the role Republicans played to limit early voting:

SCOTT: Ohio's voting laws are going to be changing, it would appear. There was an early voting program voted in by the state of Ohio for military members and their families. They were to be allowed to vote early. The Democrats and the Obama campaign asked that that be blocked. They, for whatever reason, did not want military families and military members voting extra early. A couple of lower courts blocked the law -- again, at the request of the Obama campaign and state Democratic officials. Now it's gone to the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court is going along with that block. According to our Shannon Bream, who covers the Supreme Court for us, we believe that is what is going to result from all of this is that everybody in Ohio is going to be allowed extra-early voting. No special privileges for military members and their families.[/div class="excerpt"]

Read more: Link tohttp://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/10/16/fox-botches-report-on-decision-to-uphold-early/190663 source

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Video: http://mediamatters.org/blog/2012/10/16/fox-botches-report-on-decision-to-uphold-early/190663

[KamaAina]

1. "Botched"?

Don't you mean "deliberately distorted"?

[GoCubsGo]

6. Yes.

They've been pushing that bullshit for as long as the Dems have been fighting the whole thing. It's not "botched". It's "Same shit, different day."

[KamaAina]

8. They should change their name to "The Malarkey Channel"

[valerief]

34. Bwahahaha! DUzy!

[kracer20]

30. FCC Complaints?

Would it be a giant waste of my time to try and file a complaint with the FCC? Yeah, I already know the answer.

This wasn't an error, this was an outright lie to deceive their viewers. Why aren't they held to at least some journalistic standards?

[beac]

36. Because they went to court to win their "right to lie"

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/07/31/364678/-Fox-News-wins-in-court

I think they should have been forced to replace "News" in their name with "BS" but the judges in Florida didn't see it that way.

[Coyotl]

14. Indeed, they are not going to change their lies just because the story has a new chapter.

Don't you mean "deliberate propaganda lies"?

[Rosa Luxemburg]

26. They should be fined for relaying incorrect Supreme Court information

[Jackpine Radical]

2. Botched?

Is that a synonym for lied their asses off?

Trying to deal with all Fox's lies one at a time is a little like trying to protect a wheatfield from a hailstorm by catching the falling hailstones in a teacup.

[Angry Dragon]

7. +34,296 ........ HE LIED

LIES

[fleur-de-lisa]

3. I guess we shouldn't be expecting a retraction?

Do those assholes ever apologize?

[AFD]

11. I guess we shouldn't be expecting a retraction?

You made me laugh. I needed that. Thanks!

[dipsydoodle]

4. Shortly afterwards Scott said

[goclark]

9. That is a Straight Jacket -right?

That is exactly what he needs

[hrmjustin]

5. Bet there will be no correction.

[EC]

10. They didn't botch it.

That's how they wanted it reported.

[hue]

12. There is rarely a correction or apology. They really don't care about accuracy & never have.

They are paid to feed their sheeple with kool-aide!

[patricia92243]

13. This was a hatchet job - not a mistake (botch).

[young_at_heart]

15. They have no right to call themselves a news organization!

What they air is anything BUT the news.

[kpete]

16. but

this is what we are up against...

peace, kp

[DHelix]

17. This kind of crap is exactly how their lies spread

They've done this with the birther thing.
They've done this with GM making cars in China (It's an international company producing cars for the Chinese market).
They've done this with the Bangazi story.

There has to be some accountability here. It's no wonder so many Americans are up in arms... They're being force fed lies directly from a TV station so they take them as fact.

[ProfessionalLeftist]

18. That's putting it nicely.

They flat-out LIED. Not that this is any different than what they usually do.

[Monk06]

19. It's the same lie about early voting in Ohio that they have been repeating all along. In spite of

multiple corrections. They'll keep repeating it until Nov. 5, even though the result is everyone in Ohio gets to vote early. Which is exactly what the RW did not want.

Notice no mention that this is Roberts, 'conservative' court that made the final decision.

It's the same old fascist trick. Keep repeating the lie until it sticks.

[sinkingfeeling]

20. That's SOP for Fox.

[DHelix]

21. What bothers me the most is that our "liberal" media overcompensates to the Right now

What bothers me the most is that our supposed "liberal" media overcompensates to the Right now based on them constantly saying that they're so hard done by and that none of their voices are being heard while they're full allowed to operate as a full on Propaganda and lies network for the Republicans. For every Democratic voice there now has to be the Republican counterpoint on all of the big networks and CNN. Meanwhile, on FOX do they ever... honestly... have the liberal counterpoint? I honestly don't know because I can't even watch their roundtable discussions for more than 20 seconds before I feel like throwing my remote through my TV screen.

So, our politicians and positions have to stand up to "balanced' criticism on all of the big networks and CNN while being ripped apart on Fox while they get "balanced" criticism from the big networks on CNN while being completely supported 100% by Fox. It gives them a huge unfair advantage.

And what's worse is that a lot of the stuff coming from the Right is pure hypocritical, hateful, selfish, flies in the face of science and reason nonsense and yet the networks still have to give them a chance to share it and spread it while our message gets completely shredded on their networks. It's a serious issue, IMO, and one that's given the rise to the Tea Party and conservatism in general.

And now with Yahoo searches veering further and further to the right (Seriously, their results seem more conservative than Google's) I fear that search engines will soon start looking to be more and more niche to serve political interests.

[SCVDem]

22. When exactly are they called

Un-American Activities?

[BainsBane]

23. That's been the right wing line for a while

That's how they spin this whole Ohio thing. They've been lying about it since the start. Fox doesn't see this as botching the story. This is party of their daily GOP propaganda that pretends to be news.

[musiclawyer]

24. For the life of me. why do Dem elected officials and surrogates go on that channnel?

It should be boycotted. And reasons made clear. This is a great example.
The concept that we need to have the other side hear our side is ridiculous. They are there because they DON'T want to hear us. They are a lost and fading minority demographic that we don't need.

We dont want to provide FOX with legitimacy. Quite the opposite.

[Raster]

25. In summation: Bullshit Mountain spews bullshit.

[sakabatou]

27. Botches is too nice a word. How about, FLAT OUT LIED?!

[99th_Monkey]

28. "Extra-early"? The subject is "early voting"

extra-early makes it sound like, excessively-early, or weirdly-early, or some such nonsense.

What a bunch of idiots.

[Uncle Joe]

29. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, kpete.

[Pakid]

31. That wasn't botched it was done on purpose

My wife got to listen to a right wing nut in a local store a few days ago who when on and on about how Obama was trying to stop the military from voting( Lucky for the nut I wasn't there or she would have gotten told off) I don't play nice with nuts what can I say. . So Fox lied in order to help perpetuate this BS!

[Spitfire of ATJ]

32. Next up on FOX "News": How Democrats are stealing the election with electronic voting machines.

[lindysalsagal]

33. I heard this crap on Dennis Miller today and wondered what the *&&%%$ it was about.

How do they get away with making crap up?

[geckosfeet]

35. Clearly you meant "FOX lied" to distort the decision making process

[marble falls]

37. What Fox says on thier site:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2012/10/16/high-court-allows-early-voting-on-weekend-before-election-in-ohio/

They're schizophrenic over there.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

39. Funny how they've dropped their whole comments section.....

Their fans used to be quite a read....

[marble falls]

41. Funny ha-ha or .....

funny running scared shitless?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

43. I miss it. It was Morans on parade.

[ladjf]

38. The report was not "botched". It was altered on purpose. nt

[Ms. Toad]

40. It isn't botched - that is essentially the argument

which was made to the court both by the Husted administration and by the amici briefs to the court by the military.

Uniform voting (legal argument that underpins the Obama case) can be achieved two ways:
1. By expanding voting the last three days to everyone
2. By denying the military the special option of voting those three days.

Obama was, of course, really seeking the former - but achieving uniformity could just as easily have been accomplished by the latter (taking away the military's early voting right).

It was a strange argument, but it is not botched reporting of the outcome.

[LisaL]

42. But Obama didn't ask to deny the military the special option of voting in the last three days.

[Ms. Toad]

44. The legal argument was for all individuals to have equal access to the polls

There are two ways to do that - one is to enforce the bar against voting those three days against everyone (i.e. taking the three days away from the militart). I know that solution isn't what he asked for to resolve the lack of parity, but it is one of two ways to address the parity he was seeking - and the Republicans have been consistent in presenting that argument to the court.

It was not botched reporting; it was the essence of their argument.

[kelliekat44]

45. At some point in the next debate, Obama has to set this story straight.