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December 11, 2004


A Special BuzzFlash New Analysis
From Author and Professor Mark Crispin Miller


Dear BuzzFlash Readers and Americans Concerned About the Preservation of Democracy:

As you know (and way too many others don't), Rep. John Conyers recently held open hearings in the US Congress, on the all-important subject of the voting in Ohio on November 2nd. There was a lot of harrowing testimony on the tricks and tactics used there by Bush/Cheney to suppress as many Democratic votes as possible, and to exaggerate Ohio's electoral support for the regime.

It was a public inquiry of towering importance, and not only because it was (allegedly) Ohio that gave Bush just enough electoral votes to win. Ohio matters more than anyone can say, because what went down there went down not only in Ohio. There is in fact abundant evidence--strong evidence--suggesting that Team Bush pursued that crooked twofold strategy throughout the nation. In other words, they used a broad variety of means to trash the Kerry vote and to exaggerate the Bush vote, and did so everywhere they could.

Now, this being a democratic republic (or so we've all been taught), you'd think that that the Conyers'charges -- and the hearing -- would get a lot of coverage in the press.

And yet the New York Times, our nation's "newspaper of record," did not even mention it, much less cover it. The hearings were on Wednesday. There was no word of it in Thursday's paper, nor any word, belatedly, in Friday's. (Thursday's Times did run a couple of long stories on the electoral situation in Ukraine, but none on the quite similar, and -- to Americans -- vastly more important story here at home.)

Such silence is bizarre. It's deeply wrong. In fact, it's un-American. For what public issue could there be that matters quite as much as the integrity of our elections? What, then, could possibly explain, or excuse, the Times's failure even to note Conyers' hearings? For that matter, what explains the Times's thorough indifference to this crucial subject? Like all American news outlets, the Times is obligated, by the First Amendment, to attempt to keep its readership informed about the government, so that the government is answerable to us, its ultimate custodians. Rather than deal squarely with the ever-mounting evidence of massive fraud by the Republicans, the Times instead has merely ridiculed those raising questions, as if such patriotic citizens were laughably insane.

Soon after Election Day, several other US papers likewise tried to laugh off the innumerable glitches and anomalies that mainly favored the Republicans. For instance, the Baltimore Sun and Boston Globe at first derided the whole issue -- and then recanted, in effect, by running serious articles about the growing likelihood of systematic fraud. And yet the Times has never come around. Except for one stern editorial, our leading national daily has all but ignored the controversy raging everywhere; and as the Times has gone, of course, so has the TV news, which also downplayed the Conyers' hearings, or tuned them out entirely. (The hearings did run, uninterrupted, on C-SPAN.)

Let's not let them get away with it. We should do all we can to get the Times's attention, so that it will cover this enormous story thoroughly, upfront and every day. Let them hear from you, right now.

Contact them by phone, by fax, by email; by mail, or, if you're in New York, just drop in briefly to express your views about the paper's shocking irresponsibility. If you're a subscriber, do consider canceling that subscription--and be sure to tell them why.

Let them know how much you care about American democracy, which they have put at risk, because they haven't done their job.

Sincerely,

Mark Crispin Miller

Mark Crispin Miller is author of many books, including "The Bush Dyslexicon" and "Cruel and Unusual: Bush/Cheney's New World Order." He is the writer and star of "A Patriot Act" [LINK]

Contact:

Executive Editor Bill Keller at 212/556-7799
Fax to News Department at 212/556-7614
E-mail News Department at national@nytimes.com

If these numbers don't work, the general number is 212/556-1234

Write the New York Times at:

Bill Keller
Executive Editor
New York Times
229 W. 43rd St., NY, NY, 10036-3959

The public editor is Daniel Okrent, at public@nytimes.com


BuzzFlash Afternote: After reading Mark Crispin Miller's letter of outrage about the lack of the New York Times coverage of the Conyers' hearings, we searched Nexis, which includes an online archive of New York Times articles. Using the keyword "Conyers," we found no items in the last week and only two in the last 30 days. The two pieces in the last 30 days are quite telling. One was a letter from a reader who lambasted the New York Times for its story: "[Your articles,]'Vote Fraud Theories, Spread by Blogs, Are Quickly Buried' (front page, Nov. 12) and ''Mostly Good Reviews for Electronic Voting'' (news article, Nov. 12) rush to judgment prematurely." The reader admonished the Times: "It is essential that Congress heed Representative John Conyers' call to investigate."

And the other item mentioning Conyers in the last 30 days of the NYT? Why it was the November 12th article the reader was complaining about: "Vote Fraud Theories, Spread By Blogs, Are Quickly Buried."

Now, it's your turn to let the old media know that you value democracy and you wish that they did to.