E-mail received 1/25 From ABC NIGHTLINE Re: Jan. 19 Ohio Voting Segment

Thank you for taking the time to write to us here at Nightline, where we always try our best to produce an objective, balanced show that does not resort to exaggeration, spin or untruths.

We believe that the preservation of the democratic process is of the utmost importance. The goal of our January 19, 2005 broadcast was to be neither supportive, nor dismissive of the recent claims of election irregularities in Ohio, but to investigate and report them objectively. While our aim is neither to please nor to upset any particular constituency, we understand and respect the passions involved in politics and hope you will continue to watch Nightline as a source of objective information on political matters.


Sincerely,
ABC News Nightline



-----Original Message-----
From: (Me)
Posted At: Thursday, January 20, 2005 1:34 AM
Posted To: 1/19/05 Ohio
Conversation: NIGHTLINE
Subject: NIGHTLINE


Dear Mr. Koppel:

As a long-time pollworker, I know first hand the importance of our right to vote, and I also know how much that right means to the average person who enters my polling place. Watching people come in to vote over the years has taught me that the right to vote means more to the average person than most of us ever realize.

Therefore, as one of the nine Regional Coordinators who has been working for the last two and a half months on the Ohio recount, I was DISGUSTED by your dismissive report (1/19/05) of the serious problems in our 2004 election process. I am appalled to be called a "diehard" or "conspiracy theorist" when I have observed people give heart-wrenching emotional testimony about being viciously denied their civil right to vote.

In the recount itself, I first-hand observed pre-chosen and pre-sorted "random" recount samples, while I myself was under the watch of a sheriff deputy and was screamed at by an election official for exercising my own legal rights as a recount observer. Among other problems such as machine failures, unlocked ballot boxes, and more.

The issues facing our voting process are serious, and real. There were over 57,000 "glitches" reported in this election, not to mention the disenfranchised minority and low-income voters. 57,000 problems is not "OK" in this, or any, election. And obstruction of a fair election and recount by a highly partisan Secretary of State is not right, or normal.

It is even more saddening that you showed this wishy-washy report during the week of Martin Luther King day. There are, apparently, some who would like to take this country back to the days Jim Crow.

I would suggest that you read the report by Representative Conyers on the problems he found in the Ohio voting and recount process in 2004. This whole issue needs further in-depth investigation by governmental agencies AND by responsible journalists.


Sincerely,
(Me)

(My name)
XXX-XXX-XXXX (home)
XXX-XXX-XXXX (cell)
XXXXXXXXX@XXXXXXX.net

I never did.

got a lot of email that prompted it. I'll bet yours was one of the ones they paid attention to.

And ask for clarification, such as how they can consider such terms as "diehard" and "conspiracy theorists" to be "objective".

Usually, in journalism, in my limited experience, the way to be objective is to leave out most or all of the adjectives, and of course not to use judgmental labels.

That is just what American journalism has lost over the last decade or two.

What a pisser!

It smacks of a form letter.

Your letter was awesome!

Peace!

Good work by you. Sad for them.

issue of this report being far from objective and hardly complete.

(Here's my letter)....yeah I got carried away :)

Dear Mr. Koppel,


I watched you today on CSpan and listened to your question and answer session at the University in regards to your career as a journalist. My opinion of you has always been high and you were someone I listened to with respect. Your discussion about how a journalist’s job was to report the facts making sure to represent the story as it stood, not the ”fed angle given” struck me as a key piece of what the true purpose of journalism is.

Tonight, as usual I turned on Nightline and was rewarded by discovering that you, a journalist of the mainstream media that I held in high regards was going to do a story about the 2004 election and fraud. You made my day…until you started to speak.

First off, I am not one to jump on conspiracy bandwagons nor am I a poor loser. I’m a normal everyday American woman who upon studying the facts has decided that the 2004 election was corrupted. Whether the results would have made a difference in the outcome and to what degree in the absence of corruption is not the point as it stands now. Four years ago, many of us saw the same situation develop, Mr. Bush claimed the Presidency and we were told to relax and let it be for the good of the country. We were told it would be repaired. We were told Bush won. Well, we relaxed and it was NOT for the good of the country in my opinion. It was NOT repaired and GORE was the winner.

Four years later, here we are. I have to ask you, did you honestly look into the questions regarding Ohio? I was insulted to not even hear a mention of John Conyers and the members of the Judiciary Committee that have spent COUNTLESS hours investigating what went on in Ohio. During the forums he has held in both Washington and Ohio he collected over 1000 depositions. His website has a copy of the report he compiled and the letters between him and Mr. Blackwell who has chosen to do nothing but show contempt, lack of any professionalism and outright disrespect towards Representative Conyers’.

Have you read the letters? The complaints? Have you looked into Mr. Blackwell’s behavior during the recount of the votes? His recent communication soliciting funds for his campaign to run for Governor? You need to. I challenge you to take 24 hours, by yourself to truly look at this issue. Talk to Representative Conyers, look into the voting machines and their owners, read the computer expert opinions, watch the film of what it was like in SOME areas in Ohio, why were there unused machines in a warehouse and less machines in some key Democratic areas then the two years prior…I could go on and on and on. . Imagine,,, what is we are right? Imagine the implications for our Democracy.

Mr. Blackwell spoke about the need for a large number of people to have conspired to have “fixed” the election and rationalizes that since the election boards consisted of both Democrat and Republican members it would be a ridiculous notion. It is a fact, not a theory, not a possibility but a fact that our Voting machines are such that just one person has the ability to decide what countless votes say. Did you know that?

The electronic voting systems used in the United States, both optical scan and DRE (Direct Recording Electronic), have well documented severe and unresolved security and accuracy flaws that are not being remedied by election procedures. The very machines that count MOST of our votes count votes in accordance to how they are told to count them. Machines are wonderful because the do whatever we as humans tell them to.

The problem is, we are not allowed to KNOW what and how each machine has been told to count. It could have been told to add 3 votes to the Democratic Presidential Candidate for every 1 Republican presidential candidate vote or any reversal and numerical variance you can imagine.

A major problem is that the source code (The form in which a computer program is written by the programmer.) is proprietary thus rendering the program (which is responsible for calculating national election results) immune to any formal auditing or any other scrutiny past that of an order by a Grand Jury. The lack of visibility into how the machines that tabulate our votes actually do that is worrisome to say the least. I don’t know about you but I would really like to know not only WHO programmed my machine to count but what method of mathematics its been programmed to count by!

Okay, lets say we solve this “secret code” problem. What happens when a machine communicates its results? What assures us that at this point, when the machine is “open” that our votes remain the same? I could tell it to do anything without any repercussions. No, I’m not paranoid. It is not my ignorance or superstition that brings me to this conclusion but rather my knowledge of how computers work.

Being a Democrat, I have an additional concern in regards to at least 80% of the votes counted in the United States being counted by machines owned by Republican Party supporters. A gentle example hoping to shake us in to awareness is: Walden O’Dell, chief executive of Diebold, In August 2003 announcing that he had been a top fund-raiser for President George W. Bush and had sent a get-out-the-funds letter to Ohio Republicans. I would think that this egregious example of blind allegiance to the Republican party (or any party for that matter) by the CEO of a company that is responsible for tabulation of a large portion of votes in this country would beleaguer the heart of any person, be they on the left or right side of the aisle who believes that this country's fate should be determined by the voice of the masses, and not the top one percent of the population. This is just one example of the many unethical relationships between the people controlling the voting machines and the people governing our nation. Look into the ownership, board of directors and PAC contributions of the machines that count our votes.

You report made light of and belittled my concerns. It showed a narrow opinion in regards to what happened in Ohio, which I have come to expect from most news programs and am able to chalk up to them being lazy or biased. I don’t bother to watch most of them any longer. It was because it was YOU that I was so saddened.

Sincerely,

xxxxxxx

by the producers/directors of Nighline.

Nightline DID NOT put on an objective program in my opinion. It was very biased.....They might as well have called us "losers".....

The goal of our January 19, 2005 broadcast was to be neither supportive, nor dismissive of the recent claims of election irregularities in Ohio, but to investigate and report them objectively.

If you saw the show, it sure the hell looked like a dismissal to me.

And I've seen this posted here before but I think
the response you received is worthy. At least they
acknowledged you... You weren't ignored.

"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, then you win." -Gandhi

Keep up the hope, and thanks for sending your
note to them.

Am sure I won't get any further response. But I still think it's important to give them feedback. One of the best qualities of Liberals--tolerance, has been severely abused. Time to show some INtolerance. Normally I try to avoid sarcasm, but I'm so angry at the corporate media. Am from a family of newspaper journalists and have a coupla TV news and production people in the family and I speak for all of them, too:

Ted Koppel and Nightline:
Your form letter response serves to underline your problem--you have no genuine understanding or interest in this matter that affects so many Americans. Your letter, like your show, is an attempt to squelch any honest feedback. There was absolutely NO objective information presented on your Jan 19 Nightline show. None. A one-sided viewpoint. Calculated to present the most favorable picture-- how the "system worked" and the "majority of Democrats don't think there were problems with the count"... minimizing voting irregularities and featuring Warren Mitofsky's unforgiveable spin on the exit polling. And then the perpetuation of the "conspiracy theory" lie, and Cokie Roberts, that renowned computer security expert, telling us that the auditless easily hackable voting machines are so improved...and all the rest of it. GET A COMPUTER SECURITY EXPERT ON YOUR SHOW TO TALK ABOUT THE PERILS OF E-VOTING. Then I might watch.

Until then you can be absolutely sure that I will never turn on Nightline again in my house, and my family agrees. Nightline is now on my media blacklist, as a prime offender for biased TV journalism--or whatever you call this kind of "report." I am so disappointed in Ted Koppel, who I did have a lot of respect for. This is a new low in media misrepresentation. Thanks for the Nightmares.
Proud Diehard

-----------------

Subject: RE: NIGHTLINE via ABCNEWS.com

Thank you for taking the time to write to us here at Nightline, where we always try our best to produce an objective, balanced show that does not resort to exaggeration, spin or untruths.

We believe that the preservation of the democratic process is of the utmost importance. The goal of our January 19, 2005 broadcast was to be neither supportive, nor dismissive of the recent claims of election irregularities in Ohio, but to investigate and report them objectively. While our aim is neither to please nor to upset any particular constituency, we understand and respect the passions involved in politics and hope you will continue to watch Nightline as a source of objective information on political matters.
>
> Sincerely,
> ABC News Nightline

Maybe we can send of some more letters saying
we were disappointed with the show also.

Dear Sir/Madam,
Your report last night concerning the recent election was very disappointing. While I have watched your show often and always considered it to be a program of journalistic quality I’m afraid like many other news outlets you have slipped into the abyss. To begin with your introduction was so highly editorial that it would be better not to mis-represent yourselves as objective or even all that informative for that matter. To band the serious election problems encountered with the “internet conspiracy crowd” is not only inaccurate but insulting. To take such a serious and complex issue in a commercial riddled three segment hack attack is a public dis-service.
The problem with the exit polling has been largely hidden and with serious concerns arising information has been scant. Instead of pre-ordaining people conspiracy theorists why don’t you stop opining and start reporting.
Your middle segment created more questions than it answered and included only a minuscule amount of the information that is out there. It undermined your initial assertion given that you could not explain serious machine allotment issues. By the way ever heard of John Conyers? Hello! His staff prepared a meticulous and well documented report that is over 100 pages long! The reason the internet is so vibrant with people trying to piece things together is because you have done such a pathetic job following the story.
O.K. so you do a fluffy piece and sell some advertising but then you have to truly offend. What was the segment with Haynes and Cokie suppose to do? Make it seem O.K.? I had a lot of respect for them both until now. Many on the internet don’t approve of anybody pulling any funny business including the Kennedys. Oh, so if a black is discriminated against today should they get over it because there once was slavery? Should women give up the notion of equality in this culture? Back in the early 1900's they couldn’t even vote!
Many in this country right now feel this President has not been honest. Lack of honesty leads to a lack of credibility, and distrust. With partisanship rampant and transparency at an all time low we need a media that questions this lack of transparency (viewing of electoral records, polling data, etc. on a timely basis ) not adds to it. Perhaps the three of you are uninformed as to the serious problems with a limited number of voting machine companies and their close ties to this administration having a stranglehold on the process. Could any of you make sense of an audit log from a tabulator now in use with your infinite wisdom about this subject? I doubt it. I guess the many complex issues affecting us and perhaps swaying the balance of power, equality and justice in this country in the wrong direction will be explained by the simple notion “boys will be boys” (sorry cokie). At least on the internet one gets many sides, pro and con, crazy and sane, and one must think for themselves and decide (remember critical thinking) instead of a farce of trivialized factually deficient opinion masquerading as journalism. By the way thanks for all the Iraqi and Ukrainian updates. You covered those like a glove. Thanks also for the updates on H.A.V.A. implementation and on the rapid progress in the Congress of other electoral reform. People on the internet are pretty kookie especially the ones who think it is not right to be sending troops to die in foreign lands for the cause of democracy when we apparently are having trouble counting on our own.

Good goin!