I seem to be well known and highly regarded among those who get their news from the internet.Those who rely upon television & newspapers do not even know my name.I stand by my work.And I could defend my work,& elaborate upon it,if the "mainstream"- media would only give me the opportunity."Mainstream" media makes much of "the public's right to know." But only the "alternative" media recognizes that our elections are rigged.

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The Silence of the Mainstream Media,

Part 4 of Exclusive Series with Richard Hayes Phillips, Author of Witness to a Crime: A Citizens’ Audit of an American Election

By Joan Brunwasser, Voting Integrity Editor, OpEdNews

June 24, 2008

My fascination with this author is but a sidebar to the real story – how this important volume came this close to not getting published at all. And how, once again, the mainstream media has failed to do its traditional duty to the American people, to educate and inform. A free press is a critical element in maintaining a healthy democracy. Our founding fathers knew it. That’s why the press enjoyed unique constitutional protection. One of the major functions of an emerging postal service was to distribute a myriad of newspapers and gazettes to American citizens. Thomas Jefferson wrote: “If it were left to me to decide whether we should have a government without a free press or a free press without a government, I would prefer the latter.” He and his cronies would be pulling out their hair over how the press has been so emasculated and co-opted, becoming little more than a mouthpiece for governmental policy and Big Business.

What happened to Phillips is hardly an isolated example. University of Pennsylvania’s Steven Freeman experienced this phenomenon regarding his findings on Election Night, which ultimately became Was the 2004 presidential election stolen? exit polls, election fraud, and the official count. Mark Crispin Miller faced a similar media blackout with Fooled Again. The book got no reviews in any magazines or national newspapers, nor would any network radio or TV program have him on to talk about it--not even those on NPR or PBS, although he had appeared on many of their national shows, and more than once. (WHYY-FM, the NPR affiliate in Philadelphia, even refused to run paid ads for Fooled Again.)

Ten-second take away:
It’s important that we keep this in mind every time we hear or read something. The story behind the story, what isn’t heard, what’s left out, tells as much about the state of the corporate media as anything else. Make efforts to become an informed consumer. And don’t let Phillips’ book fall into obscurity. Buy a copy for yourself and one for your local library. Read it and pass it around. We can get the word out; we just have to get a bit more creative and stop depending on traditional ways of doing it. Do your part. Order a copy of Phillips’s book, which is not available in any bookstore*.
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What Richard Hayes Phillips has to say on "The Silence of the Mainstream Media"

“How do you feel about the mainstream media not covering the story?” asked a reporter from the Cleveland Plain Dealer, referring to evidence of fraud and suppression in the 2004 presidential election in Ohio. It was a bit late to ask this question. It was sixty-six days after the election. The Ohio electors had already been challenged, unsuccessfully, the day before, in the United States Congress.

“Every day we gave you leads which, if properly investigated, could have led to a Pulitzer Prize,” I replied. Four times during the interview my words made her cry. And still, none of my words made the paper.

Why the silence of the mainstream media? Was it because John Kerry conceded too soon? Or because they don’t like to run stories that have already broken on the internet? Or because they are controlled by the corporations that own them, or the government that regulates them?

A rigged presidential election is a major story, possibly the crime of the century. Already we had proof of voter suppression in Cleveland and Toledo; withholding of voting machines in Columbus; vote switching in Cleveland, Columbus, and Youngstown; and high percentages of uncounted ballots in Democratic strongholds in most of the major cities of Ohio. And we knew about the twelve southwestern counties where Kerry was awarded fewer votes than down-ticket candidates, coincident with false tabulation in Miami County, ballot alteration in Clermont County, and a phony “homeland security” lockdown in Warren County.

During this period I had been interviewed five times, always by affiliates of the Pacifica radio network. No mainstream radio station, and no television or newspaper reporter, had done so. The New York Times and the Washington Post editorialized, without looking at the evidence, that there was no fraud in the Ohio election. Those who questioned the official results were viewed as spreadsheet-wielding internet conspiracy theorists.

Note that the “mainstream” media, calling themselves “experts,” were dealing in conjecture, speculating that there was no fraud, while dismissing as “theorists” those who actually examined the evidence. Indeed, if not for the internet, the story might never have gotten out.

It was an unsolicited e-mail from a mountaintop in Pennsylvania that first brought to my attention the rigged election results from Cleveland. The Columbus Free Press, an internet journal, was the first to publish my works; and this brought them to the attention of Pacifica radio. My works began appearing on websites as far away as New Zealand. At last count, a search of my name turned up 126,000 web pages. The very article you are reading was first published by OpEdNews, on the internet.

I seem to be well known and highly regarded among those who get their news from the internet. Those who rely upon television and newspapers do not even know my name.

The internet represents free speech with no quality control. Any computer-savvy web designer can create a website that looks thoroughly professional from an artistic viewpoint, and then post unsubstantiated or scurrilous information and call it “news.” Even so, I find this a fair price to pay for the last bastion of free speech. The alternative would be yet another news outlet under government or corporate control.

Readers are well advised to view with skepticism anything on the internet. Blogs, rants, and phony “reporting” create so much noise that it difficult for reliable voices to be heard. Four things gave my work traction: I wrote in plain English; I used simple arithmetic; I presented the raw data; and, most importantly, I gave my real name, my address, and my phone number. I do not need to hide behind a user ID or an e-mail handle.

I stand by my work. And I could defend my work, and elaborate upon it, if the “mainstream” media would only give me the opportunity. I can take on all challengers because my knowledge of what happened in Ohio is far deeper than what is set forth in my book.

The “mainstream” media makes much of “the public’s right to know.” They chant this mantra in defense of even the most inappropriate invasions of privacy. But only the “alternative” media recognizes the public’s right to know that our elections are rigged.

To this day, the most comprehensive and well-documented article on the stolen 2004 election in Ohio, written by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., was published in Rolling Stone magazine. My own voice has been heard on National Public Radio, but only once, when we filed in federal court to protect the ballots from destruction. The story made the Yahoo home page, and some of the major newspapers. That is as close as we have gotten to the mainstream.

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To order a copy of Richard Hayes Phillips’s book, use this link.
*Update: This book is now available in bookstores in Canton, Ithaca, and Columbus, only. They are, sadly, the exceptions that prove the rule.

Series Archives:

Part One: Why I was able to become an Election Fraud Investigator

Part Two: Being Multi-faceted in a Two-Dimensional Society

Part Three: The Broken Contract Lies Upon My Office Floor

Authors Website: http://www.opednews.com/author/author79.html

Authors Bio:

Joan Brunwasser is a co-founder of Citizens for Election Reform (CER) which since 2005 existed for the sole purpose of raising the public awareness of the critical need for election reform. Our goal: to restore fair, accurate, transparent, secure elections where votes are cast in private and counted in public. Because the problems with electronic (computerized) voting systems include a lack of transparency and the ability to accurately check and authenticate the vote cast, these systems can alter election results and therefore are simply antithetical to democratic principles and functioning.



Since the pivotal 2004 Presidential election, Joan has come to see the connection between a broken election system, a dysfunctional, corporate media and a total lack of campaign finance reform. This has led her to enlarge the parameters of her writing to include interviews with whistle-blowers and articulate others who give a view quite different from that presented by the mainstream media. She also turns the spotlight on activists and ordinary folks who are striving to make a difference, to clean up and improve their corner of the world. By focusing on these intrepid individuals, she gives hope and inspiration to those who might otherwise be turned off and alienated. She also interviews people in the arts in all their variations - authors, journalists, filmmakers, actors, playwrights, and artists. Why? The bottom line: without art and inspiration, we lose one of the best parts of ourselves. And we're all in this together. If Joan can keep even one of her fellow citizens going another day, she considers her job well done.


When Joan hit one million page views, OEN Managing Editor, Meryl Ann Butler interviewed her, turning interviewer briefly into interviewee. Read the interview here.

While the news is often quite depressing, Joan nevertheless strives to maintain her mantra: "Grab life now in an exuberant embrace!"


Joan has been Election Integrity Editor for OpEdNews since December, 2005. Her articles also appear at Huffington Post, RepublicMedia.TV and Scoop.co.nz.