The deep divide between the American people versus the media and their content providers in academia provides yet another example why the old media models are dying. Nowhere is this more obvious than with the overwhelming public support for photo voter identification requirements compared with the media blitzkrieg against it. Reporters who are quick to swallow the hook offered up by places like the Brennan Center and Tova Wang at Demos should think twice before throwing their newspapers in front of a wave of public support for the policy. This is what is causing outlets like McClatchy to flirt with bankruptcy. A Wall Street Journal poll found that 81 percent of Americans support photo identification requirements. Other polls consistently back up this finding. The numbers transcend race, income and education. These are huge numbers. So how do you explain the daily drumbeat of media accounts adopting the wildly unpopular storyline that voter id is a bad thing? Either the newspaper writers are content to antagonize the sensibilities of their readers – a dangerous business model – or are gullible enough to accept the organized spin of a few activist groups and their fellow travelers in academia, or both. Here is a sample of today’s organized efforts against Voter ID, and the overwhelming support of the American people:
Voter ID a waste of time and money. The “money” part of the argument is a recent invention from the voter fraud deniers spin factory.
We don’t need voter exclusion act.
A short history of poll taxes to voter ID.
Disenfranchising the poor and religious.
One Voter ID critic results in TV news story.
Across country, GOP pushes voter ID! – (maybe they read the polls).
Restrictive Voter ID bills advance.
Voter ID is actually voter “suppression”!!
Local taxpayers may bear the cost of voter ID.
Voter ID comes in Texas at too high a cost. – complete with this falsehood: “Federal law states you can’t deny the person the right to vote,” said Ramirez.
Voter ID in North Carolina too costly.
Voter ID in North Carolina too costly, says a tv station that got the same talking points.
Voter ID in Minnesota too costly, says a tv station that got the same talking points, with the name of the state replaced.
Alas, here is a measured sensible viewpoint, at odds with the spin from the well funded organized opponents of the measures.