6
6
4
The five-member Federal Communications Commission regulating the nation's news media has always had since 2001, curiously enough, at least one member, and usually two members, drawn from the small Bush-Cheney Florida vote recount team created post-election to ensure the GOP victory.
Kevin Martin, commission
chairman from 2005 to 2008 after leading the Florida team and serving as an FCC commissioner, benefited
from an especially close relationship with the Bush White House. Martin's wife was communications director for the vice president and then for the
president. In essence: her job was to influence the media, and his was to regulate it.
Furthermore, politics is a way of life for all concerned.
Many of the top political reporters have spouses who are campaign consultants
or office-seekers. Todd's wife, for instance, co-founded Maverick Strategies and Mail, a political consultancy.
Rove is the ultimate example of DC cross-pollination between the media, campaigns, and elected officials. He receives press passes as a journalist. Also, he dispenses hundreds of millions of dollars to political causes, thereby creating vast loyalties and dependencies for years ahead.
Think about it: Most of that spending is ultimately going to media organizations, especially broadcasters.
Cleaning Up
Washington
For the secretaries of state, Todd waived his usual speaking fee as a goodwill gesture.
"I owe you a 'thank you,'" Todd told the officials at the
beginning of his remarks. "The more complicated elections are
state-by-state," he joked, "the harder it is for NBC/Universal to get
rid of me."
The officials and their vendors obviously welcomed the presence of a media celebrity, and sought to leverage it even in small ways.
Ohio's Husted, an executive committee member of the secretary of state association, boasted on
Twitter afterward, "Enjoyed having lunch today with NBCs @chucktodd -- he
and I agree Redistricting reform needs to happen in OH and across the US."
This, then, is your Washington.
Officials and the media seem to be getting along quite well.
And, as always when one hand washes the other, everyone looks clean.
Research Appendix
In 2011, OpEd News published my column, Cutting Through Vote Fraud Claims, Hypocrisy, about the release in an Ohio court of testimony by the controversial GOP IT expert Mike Connell following his death in an airplane crash. To assist other researchers, the Justice Integrity Project compiled also a comprehensive overview (Ed. note: this broken link has been updated) with hotlinks to dozens of major books and other commentaries about electronic elections fraud.
Shortly before the 2012 election, a half dozen authors
published additional books documenting various aspects of the kind of
electronic election fraud derided by Todd. The books included Greg Palast's New
York Times best-seller Billionaires and
Ballot Bandits, and Boss
Rove by Vanity Fair columnist Craig Unger, documenting how Rove achieved a
political comeback by 2012.
