We Do Not Consent - Open Letter To The Media

A current list of this letter's signers can be found (Updated as of 10/27/08) at usacoup.scoop.co.nz/unprovable. If you would like to add your name, please use the form on that page or submit your name and affiliation via e-mail to: unprovable@scoop.co.nz.

Dear Media Colleagues,

You are receiving this message because you are known to American progressives as a truth-teller. In this presidential campaign, despite the typical horse-race coverage, we also see the overall corporate media narrative influenced by daily debunking efforts from candidates' rapid response teams, the blogosphere, and the reality-based coverage and reporting that you provide.

We need to take this to the next level.

There are three very simple basic facts about the way US federal elections are conducted now, and we think they lead to an inescapable conclusion that must be addressed.

See if you agree:

1. We have secret corporate vote counting computers counting more than 95% of the votes cast in the United States;

2. The absence of paper ballots, and in some cases state's law, prevents meaningful re-counts throughout much of the country;

3. These electronic voting machines frequently produce results impossible in a legitimate election, such as John Kerry's negative 25 million votes in Youngstown, OH (Nov. 2004), or Palm Beach County's 12,000 votes in excess of the number of voters (Aug. 2008).

To us this suggests the conclusion that federal election results are unprovable, even though the media reports them as fact.

Can you draw any other conclusion?

It will surprise nobody this November when the outcome is a spoiled mess, riddled with controversy. In fact, we can already say the results--based on the conditions--are guaranteed to be inconclusive, unknowable and unprovable.

We must challenge our industry to refuse to report as fact what can't be proven and hasn't been independently verified, particularly when the only source of the information is the government itself.

The reality is that the media should be the greatest advocates of hand counting paper ballots because this method of counting allows media greatest access to observing and documenting the process, affording the reported results the greatest credibility.

Transparent coverage of a transparent counting process would create a basis for confidence in the reported results where none currently exists.

As we all know, there is a vibrant community of engaged citizens across the US who collectively self-identify as the "election integrity community." They are asking us truth-tellers to challenge our industry, essentially reframing the debate.

Many of them have appeared on our shows and in our columns over the past few years, and they are eager to be sources for us now. But they are also counting on us to take this message forward and we don't see how we can be truth-tellers without doing that.

Please join us in this concerted effort to use truth-telling yet again to change the corporate media narrative of this presidential campaign.

Respectfully yours,

Dave Berman, WeDoNotConsent.blogspot.com; Voter Confidence Committee of Humboldt, CA

Mark Crispin Miller, Author, www.markcrispinmiller.blogspot.com

Alastair Thompson, Co-Editor/General Manager, www.Scoop.co.nz

Michael Collins, "The Money Party," usacoupscoop.co.nz/?tag=michael-collins;
electionfraudnews.com/MichaelCollins.htm

Ernest Partridge, Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers www.crisispapers.org/

Bernard Weiner, Co-Editor, The Crisis Papers www.crisispapers.org/

Rob Kall, Executive Editor & Publisher, www.OpEdNews.com

David Swanson, Co-Founder, www.AfterDowningStreet.org

Joan Brunwasser, Election Integrity Editor, www.OpEdNews.com

Rady Ananda, Senior Editor, www.OpEdNews.com

Lynn Landes, freelance journalist, www.thelandesreport.com

Tom Courbat, Founder, SAVE R VOTE, www.savervote.com

Dan Ashby, Co-Founder and Director, www.ElectionDefenseAlliance.org

Linda Milazzo, OpedNews Senior Editor; HuffingtonPost blogger, www.OpEdNews.com

Jan Baumgartner, Managing Editor, www.OpEdNews.com

Cheryl Biren-Wright, Managing Editor, www.OpEdNews.com

Amanda Lang, OEN Managing Editor, www.opednews.com

Re-Media Election Transparency Coalition, www.re-mediaetc.org

Joanne Lukacher, Communications Director,
Andi Novick, Legal Counsel

John Gideon, Co-Executive Director, VotersUnite.Org

Ellen Theisen, Co-Executive Director, VotersUnite.Org

Bev Harris, founder and director,Black Box Voting (Web site http://www.blackboxvoting.org)

John Chuckman, Columnist & Cartoonist (Scoop) Uncommonthought - Smirking Chimp: More Websites: Postcards, Trading Cards, Places

A current list of this letter's signers can be found (as of 10/27/08) at usacoup.scoop.co.nz/unprovable. If you would like to add your name, please use the form on that page or submit your name and affiliation via e-mail to: unprovable@scoop.co.nz.

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