SWEET DEMON ALABAMA: This is the way false impressions get spread!

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 17, 2015

Part 6—Maddow falls for the third time:
We love the smell of misinformation in the evening.

Check that! We’re fascinated by the way a set of perfectly accurate claims can create a massively false impression. Citizens need to understand the way this process can work.

If you don’t care about the way citizens get misled, you don’t have to keep reading! If you think that topic is important, we have an ongoing case which is state-of-the-art.

How do false impressions get created? Rachel Maddow’s reports on Alabama are creating a perfect case study. Liberal viewers are being misled as Maddow keeps pushing a claim in a way which is ugly and, by now, almost surely dishonest.

Last evening, Maddow presented her third segment on driver’s license offices in Alabama. Ironically, the segment started with the cable star saying this:

“We’ve been getting a lot of feedback asking for an update on this story. It concerns the great red state of Alabama, Republicans in complete control in that state.”

We don’t know if Maddow was really getting calls for an update. But as she tells it, the story concerns Republicans in a red state way down South.

Presumably for that reason, her viewers keep hearing highly selective, misleading presentations. This is the way she framed the facts for last night's segment, which was fairly short:
MADDOW (10/16/15): Last month, Governor Bentley announced that Alabama would close the places where you get a driver’s license in most of the heavily black counties in the state of Alabama. This of course follows a new strict voter ID law in Alabama for which a driver’s license is the most common form of ID that people show in order to be allowed to vote in that state now.

Well, Governor Bentley has tried to defend that decision since it generated a lot of outrage but it really has been an unending embarrassment at home and around the country since word got out. I mean, all the counties where the population is at least three-quarters black, all those counties, losing their driver’s license offices.
That’s the way she framed the story for last night’s segment, the third she has done on this topic.

Everything said there is accurate. That said, the accurate statements are highly selective—and we’d rate them as grossly misleading.

This is customarily known as “cherry-picking.” Maddow has now engaged in the process three times concerning demon Bama.

Does Maddow know that she’s cherry-picking? We can’t quite answer that. But in her treatment of this important topic, she has created a state-of-the-art example of the way false impressions get spread.

Were Maddow’s basic statements accurate? Last night, these were her only statements concerning the counties which lost their driver’s license offices:

“Governor Bentley announced that Alabama would close the places where you get a driver’s license in most of the heavily black counties in the state of Alabama.”

“I mean, all the counties where the population is at least three-quarters black, all those counties, losing their driver’s license offices.”

That first statement is somewhat imprecise. Let’s start with the second statement, since it’s more precise.

It’s true! In every county in Alabama where the population is at least three-quarters black, the driver’s license office was closed.

That fact can create a damning impression. Unless you know how few such counties there are, and how small those counties are. Unless you know about other counties which also lost their offices.

Maddow keeps skipping that information. So you’ll know, these are the counties which fit her description as of the 2010 census:
Population of affected counties which were at least 75 percent black
Macon County: 21,452 (82.6% black)
Greene County: 9,045 (81.5% black)
Sumter County: 13,763 (75.0% black)
Those counties did lose their only driver’s license offices, as did twenty-five other counties around the state. Here’s the missing context:

As of 2010, the total population of those counties was 44,260. This was Alabama’s total population:

4,779,745!

In short, those are very small counties. Taken together, they contain less than one percent of the state’s population!

They’re a tiny part of Alabama’s population. They’re a very small part of the state’s black population, which stood at roughly 1.25 million in 2010.

(For information on Alabama’s counties, just start here.)

Maddow stated an accurate fact. To do so, she focused on a tiny part of a fairly large state. She failed to tell you about other counties which lost their offices—counties like these, for example:
Population of affected counties which were at least 75 percent white
Lauderdale County: 92,709 (86.4% white)
Clay County: 34,932 (81.7% white)
Lawrence County: 34,339 (77.6% white)
Franklin County: 31,704 (83.0% white)
Geneva County: 26,790 (86.3% white)
Cherokee County: 25,989 (92.7%)
Winston County: 24,843 (97.3% white)
Bibb County: 22,915 (75.8% white)
Fayette County: 17,241 (86.9% white)
Cleburne County: 14,972 (94.0% white)
Lamar County: 14,564 (86.7% white)
The total population of these counties was 340,998. Do you start to see the problem with Maddow’s selective facts?

Overall, 28 counties lost their only driver’s license office. Three of those counties were at least three-quarters black—but eleven of those counties were at least three-quarters white.

Maddow keeps mentioning the first group of counties and she keeps forgetting to mention the second! Can you start to see the problem with her selective facts?

Don’t let us mislead you! Those lists might lead you to think that white Alabamians were disproportionately affected by the office closings.

The overall numbers don’t suggest or say that. In the 2010 census, Alabama was 26.2% black. By our count, the twenty-eight counties which lost their offices were 28.2% black.

(In this recent post, Kevin Drum assessed the thirty counties which lost an office. He thereby included two counties which lost an office but still have at least one. The population of those thirty counties was 23.2% black. Incomparably, we stuck with the more widely-referenced twenty-eight counties which lost their only office.)

Let’s quit for the day. As we do, let’s say this:

Race is our nation’s most important topic. In our judgment, people who clown, toy and posture with race should be consigned to a special circle in corporate cable news Hell.

Maddow has been toying with race as she pretends to discuss Alabama. In the process, she’s been pushing an ugly story—a story which pleases our tribe.

In our view, this is very bad politics, as we’ll explain next week. But make no mistake:

When you ride with Maddow, you’re frequently in a clown car. The other tribe understands this fact.

Do you think that’s good for our team?

Still coming: So much cherry-picking, so little time!

For the record: MSNBC hasn’t yet posted last night’s Maddow transcript. The Maddow site didn’t post the videotape of the Alabama segment.

They did post the videotape of last night’s “cocktail moment” segment. For a good time, click here.

63 comments:

  1. I disagree with Somerby -- I don't think race is our nation's most important topic. I think climate change is right now. Race is our nation's favored distraction. Just like abortion is the favored distraction in conservative politics.

    California, in the midst of a serious drought, is preparing for an El Nino that will drop massive amounts of rain on an area with poor water retention. Los Angeles is busily cleaning out storm drains and building bulwarks against mud slides and digging out clogged flood channels. They see what's coming and they understand what it will mean for residents. The Governor has created a budgeted emergency fund for that coming rainy day.

    What is our country doing about similar forecasts affecting other areas of the nation? We should be asking politicians what they have done and what they will do, both locally and nationally.

    We are wasting time when we call each other names and focus on policing and marijuana legalization. These issues are trivial compared to the life and death changes coming with climate change.

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  2. Xpara says: That Maddow, like almost all cable "personalities," is not, and never has been a reporter, is hardly news. She's been a student, a good one apparently, and a radio talking head before putting her face on TV, but she would have no idea how to report a news story, and very little idea, apparently, on even how to read one. Her staff, I imagine, is probably even younger, and, I would bet, has never been assigned to cover a parking ticket for an actual news outlet, much less rewrite a politician's press release. That said, the issue remains: Alabama Republicans, fraudulently claiming non-existent voter fraud as their motive, enacted a voter ID law, when, as anyone with a grain of sense knows, it was yet another attempt as voter suppression of potential voters of the other party, be they young people of any color or any black person of voting age. On paper, it seems like a fair enough deal. You can vote with a driver’s license, or a number of other state, federal, and student IDs without the need to do anything but go to the polls, But if you do not have them, you have to make a trip to a driver’s license office or the county court house to get the free non-driver voter ID as long as you bring a birth certificate, also free if it is an Alabama birth certificate, if you remember to send away for it, or other acceptable identification. You can get a free voter ID at the county seat or an open driver’s license bureau if you are a registered voter by filling out a form and bringing an acceptable ID, which could just be a utility bill with your name and address on it. But if you are not a registered voter, the voter ID will only be handed over with an acceptable document with name, address, and age. After wasting several works days (I imagine the court house and driver’s license bureau is closed on most weekends and holidays), you will finally get your voter ID and then you can use it to vote on election day or any early voting days the state still allows to accommodate working people. And you can vote absentee if you can figure out how to get a Xerox of your acceptable ID and include it with the ballot. Oh, and if you do not present the ID, you can vote, but will have to come back before the Friday after the election to show an ID and have your ballot counted. It is clearly voter suppression, and it is clearly outrageous. While I have little or no brief for the lame reporting going on about this issue, the fact remains that in a supposed democracy, it is astounding that this kind of crap still goes on. The Republicans of the solid red south, Democrats almost to the man who turned their coat two generations ago when LBJ handed Nixon the Southern Strategy with his civil rights laws, are more subtle now. No sheets or torches or nooses, not even a poll tax, which was the first dodge to go. But when terror becomes passé, the thug turns to legal obstruction. No, they do not make the would-be black voter recite a constitutional passage anymore. They just make sure they will lose a couple of hours or even days of work to register or remain registered. The result is the same. Imagine having to run a voter registration drive with this in place. What do you do for the elderly and infirm? What do you do with mothers who just do not have time to take their children with them to the courthouse? What do you do with job holders who work during court house hours? Closing some driver's license bureaus is nearly meaningless in the overall scheme, and probably really was motivated to save money, which means to keep the "job creators" paying as little taxes as possible. It is the voter ID law itself that is the crime.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Paragraph breaks can be your friend. Get acquainted with them.

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    2. Considering the right to vote was the focus of a long and arduous campaign, is it really too much to ask that someone, white or black, spend a few hours getting registered? If this is all too much trouble, how much more trouble will someone be willing to invest in studying the issues and the candidates?

      Everyone agreed last week that the voter ID law was the problem. Glad you have caught up.

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    3. 3:59,
      "Considering the right to vote was the focus of a long and arduous campaign"...we really shouldn't just cede it back to the oligarchs due to the boogeyman of non-existent voter fraud.

      Delete
  3. Note that a picture ID is requested for many purposes, such as flying, entry into many buildings, medical care at hospitals and clinics, buying alconol and cigaretts, opening a bank account, applying for food stamps, welfare, Social Security and Medicare, renting a hotel room, buying a gun, purchasing certain medicines, etc., etc.

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    1. I do note that very little of what you just said is true. David, you really got to stop believing everything you read on your favored wingnut blogs and Web sites.

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    2. I just applied for Medicare and no ID was requested at all. I've only been asked for a credit card when I rent a hotel room. Ditto hospital care. When you want to enter "many" buildings, they give you a visitor badge (with any photo) and they never ask for ID of any other type. So, I agree with 3:21 -- this stuff isn't true in CA where I live.

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    3. Anon 4:02 perhaps you didn't need an ID for Medicare because you had previously provided one to the Social Security Administration when you applied for Social Security. The Social Security rules say
      As proof of your identity, you must provide a:
      ● U.S. driver's license; or
      ● U.S. State-issued non-driver identity card; or
      ● U.S. passport


      The rules go on to say that if you lack these documents, there may be other ways to prove your identity. But, it's most convenient if you have one of these three documents.

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    4. You can apply for both social security and medicare online at the ss.gov website. How do you show a photo ID when you are online?

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    5. David, you automatically get a Social Security card at birth these days. And no, newborn babies do not have to provide a photo ID to get one.

      You also only get "carded" for liquor and cigarette purchases if you look like you might be underage. And they don't care who you are. They are checking your birthdate.

      As far as the ease in getting even a driver's license, my state was one of those that all of a sudden require "proof of citizenship or legal residency" to obtain or renew a driver's license.

      Before I could get my license renewed, I had to contact the state I was born in, pay to receive a certified copy of my birth certificate, wait for it to arrive, then bring it to the DMV.

      That law, aimed at punishing "illegal immigrants" got repealed in a big hurry.


      Delete
  4. Hillary Clinton says the closings are a blast from the Jim Crow past.

    http://www.cnn.com/2015/10/17/politics/hillary-clinton-alabama-voter-id-laws/index.html

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    1. Oh no!!!!!!! Six posts and somebody finally noted that the person who beat Rachel Maddow to the story was Hillary Clinton. In fact, it may have been Hillary which drew Rachel's attention to the story. We just don't know.

      Bob Somerby was going to tell us that. Really he was.

      In Part 7. We are sure his omission was, if intentional, strategic.

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    2. Yes, I am sure Bob will spend the next 16 years scorching Hillary for playing fast and loose with the truth.

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    3. ...because this blog's about politicians, not the press.

      Oh, wait.

      Delete
  5. Fleur Ting P'LagaristaOctober 17, 2015 at 4:51 PM

    In Alabama, without an ID, you can't vote. Yet Governor Bentley's administration announced plans this month to close 31 driver's license offices across the state, including in every single county where African Americans make up more than 75 percent of registered voters. The closings would make getting driver's licenses and personal identification cards much harder for many African Americans. That would make voting much harder, too. As many Alabamians have said in recent days, that's just dead wrong.

    Governor Bentley is insisting that the closings had nothing to do with race, but the facts tell a different story. Fifty years after Rosa Parks sat, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. marched, and John Lewis bled, it's hard to believe Americans are still forced to fight for their right to vote—especially in places where the civil rights movement fought so hard all those years ago. The parallels are inescapable: Alabama is living through a blast from the Jim Crow past.

    Governor Bentley has offered the same excuses we've always heard to justify laws that disproportionately affect people of color—or, for that matter, low-income people, women, young people, and seniors. It reminds me of that old saying: "You find a turtle on a fence post, it didn't get there on its own." Institutionalized racism doesn't just happen. People make it happen.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. What kind of person posts a comment on a website without reading the author's posts?

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    2. If you have a substantive objection to the comment @ 4:55, please state it.

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    3. @4:51 doesn't acknowledge any of the facts raised in the posts this past week about the situation in Alabama. He or she proceeds as if the media accounts were all the information available on this topic.

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    4. @ 4:51 is not a comment. It is a direct quote from Hillary Clinton speaking in Alabama.

      If I have to choose between Hillary Clinton and Bob Somerby, I'll take someone with her life accomplishments over his any day of the week.

      Somerby has not raised facts. He has arranged facts to suit his media hatred meme in exactly the same manner as he has accused others of doing. Repeatedly.

      Does Bob and his Bobfandom want to accuse the victim of a media jihad of falling for a media jihad?

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    5. You don't determine whether something is true by looking at who said it. That's argument from authority. If this is the way you reason, no wonder you're writing garbage.

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    6. Mordant chuckles muffled.

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    7. Hope you're feeling better soon. I've heard Dayquil helps.

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  6. Once again Bob is consumed by his hatred and jealousy for Rachel Maddow. Did you hit on her once and she turned you down?

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    1. No sex involved at all.

      Somerby simply demanded once in his blog in 2008 that she explain a statement attributed to her without direct quotation by a reporter. ("Let's be fair" he wrote, then. a phrase he used again in Part 5 of this series)

      When Maddow did not respond to his command and instead took a job with MSNBC, Somerby wrote:

      "Did Maddow run and lie about Matthews so she could land this big, brilliant plum? We don’t have any way of knowing—....In the particular case, we have no idea—although we’ll ask Maddow, one more time, to explain her peculiar comments. Until she does, we’ll assume the worst—that Maddow is the latest self-dealer to trade the truth for her own success. We’ll treat her with the contempt she has earned until she explains why she said what she did..."

      http://www.dailyhowler.com/dh012108.shtml

      Somerby had no idea, so she earned his contempt by not answering his demand in his very important blog.

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    2. How cute -- you're having a conversation with yourself.

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    3. @ 11:57 is is refreshing for a Howler late nighter to show such intelligence. Could you explain to me why, since Maddow's commentary on Alabama sounds so much like, and in fact was preceded by, similar observations from Hillary Clinton, a special place in politician hell shouldnt be reserved for her?

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    4. Clinton is not a journalist. Her statement illustrates why journalists need to get things right. People depend on them.

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    5. Does Maddow listen to Hillary? We have no idea. But just to see how such gong-shows proceed, let’s review her reports on this matter—including the grossly misleading segment she aired on October 2.

      Clinton burned the time with all sorts of extraneous information about Alabama’s “Black Belt"and half century old history. Then she dropped the ultimate "R" bomb---Jim Crow, at the feet of The Other. Then she did it again.

      This doesn’t mean that someone, somewhere, might not end up failing to vote because of the office closings, which may or may not be rescinded. It does mean that people like Maddow might have gotten a massively false impression from the various things a candidate has said..

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    6. Maddow attemped to make the argument that the office closings were racially motivated. A full, closer look at the facts tends to reveal that is not the case. It is not "hatred", but merely pointing out slanted and dishonest reporting.

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    7. Interesting, 12:29.

      In Bob's World, journalists are under a special obligation to get things right. People running for president of the United States are exempt.

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    8. @ 8:03

      In Bob's World, journalists Bob doesn't like are under special observation to prove they didn't get things right. People running for President of the United States and Bob are exempt.

      FTFY

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    9. You pretend Hillary invented this story. It was those two Alabama reporters who said it first, not Clinton. Maddow could have picked it up from anywhere. She hasn't been repeating much else that Clinton has said -- why start with this?

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    10. Oh dear, at 10:05 AM. Alas! Don't tell me you are one of those Bob Somerby readers who skips the links.

      Don't tell me you are blaming the Alabama reporters. Why Bob himself, astute observer of the press, did not pick up on this story until October 12, a full ten days after Maddow first broadcast her segment. And then he wasted a fourth of his post on the history of the gatekeeper before he focused on an article in the New York Times two days earlier.

      And he never told you that Maddow, when she broke this story quoted one Alabama reporter. Instead he alleged she had plagiarized him.

      But the key thing he left out was that she quoted Clinton.

      She quoted her "it's a blast from the Jim Crow past line.". Which is a memorable quote from the leading Democratic candidate for President. Which was issued the morning before Maddow covered the story. Maddow, TPM, Slate, and others Bob has attacked did not pick up this sotry until after Clinton issued her statement October 2.

      In fact, Bob alluded to the statement in his very first post:

      "A few paragraphs later, Robertson even quoted one such pol. She was calling the action “Jim Crow.”."

      Rachel said:

      "Hillary Clinton put out a statement on this today calling it a blast from the Jim Crow past. Whether Alabama Republicans meant to do this with as much racial specificity as it seems they did, that I cannot say."

      Bob Somerby, of course, he who demands people "name names" somehow managed not to name the pol. Six posts on the topic and he still has not. And he forgot to include Rachel using a Bob-like disclaimer saying the Republicans may not have meant this to be racial. Because he is Bob.
      He is what he deplores.

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    11. "musings on the mainstream "press corps" and the american discourse"

      When did Hillary Clinton become a member of the mainstream press corps?

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    12. When do the statements made by polticians which prompt coverage by the mainstream press corps get left out of the equation in the musings?

      "Maddow attemped to make the argument that the office closings were racially motivated." wrote one commenter defending Somerby.

      "Hillary Clinton put out a statement on this today calling it a blast from the Jim Crowe past. Whether Alabama Republicans meant to do this with as much racial specificity as it seems they did, that I cannot say." Maddow said that. That is what Somerby, musing on the press, chose to leave out, making it seem Maddow was "attempting to make" an argument she was hedging her bets on like Somerby so often does himself. This mislead his readers on the true inspiration for Madddow's coverage, which after all followed Clionton's statement, not the columns by Alabama reporters. It also followed coverage by other online publications, which likewise picked up the story after Clinton elevated it into a national issue.

      Does Hillary Clinton deserve a special place in poltician hell?

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    13. "Hillary Clinton put out a statement on this today calling it a blast from the Jim Crowe past. Whether Alabama Republicans meant to do this with as much racial specificity as it seems they did, that I cannot say." Maddow said that.

      Those words were spoken by Maddow. She was not directly quoting Hillary Clinton. Here is Hillary Clinton's statement.

      **************
      “I strongly oppose Alabama's decision to close driver's license offices across the state, especially in counties that have a significant majority of African Americans. Just a few years ago, Alabama passed a law requiring citizens to have a photo ID to vote. Now they’re shutting down places where people get those photo IDs. This is only going to make it harder for people to vote. It's a blast from the Jim Crow past.
      ***************

      As you can see, Hillary Clinton was much more careful in what she said. She did not imply that the DMV closings were limited only to counties with majority AA populations.

      you're trying very hard to turn this into an attack on Hillary Clinton and it's laughable.

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    14. Clinton said: "This is only going to make it harder for people to vote."

      Hard to argue with that.

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    15. Clinton was picking and choosing her facts to create a preferred impression. Having said that, how about the overall population of those 28 counties—the 28 counties which are losing their driver’s license locations?

      In the 2010 census, Alabama’s statewide population was 67.0% white, 26.2% black. And uh-oh! In that same census, the population of those 28 inconvenienced counties was, according to our best arithmetic, 28.2% black!

      Given those numbers, does it still look like black Alabamians were targeted in these closings? Should Clinton have mentioned those numbers as she stirred our souls with allusions to old Jim Crow?

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    16. mm's comment is so absurd it suggest that if Bob Somerby jumped up on the breakfast table naked, ranting and raving, and took a dump on mm's pancakes, mm would accuse those asking if she/he were going to eat those pancakes of spreading Gorilla dust around the room.

      Nobody attacked Clinton. People pointed out Bob disappeared Clinton from his six part series when it is pretty obvious to anyone that the "mainstream" press outside of Alabama did not pick up this story until Hillary Clinton chose to issue her "blast from the Jim Crow past" statement.

      Bob has attacked Maddow. Bob has criticized Slate and TPM. Bob has attacked the New York Times. All of them referenced the statement of Hillary Clinton. Bob Somerby managed not to even mention her name.

      mm says "blast from the Jim Crow past" is a careful phrase compared to "Whether Alabama Republicans meant to do this with as much racial specificity as it seems they did, that I cannot say."

      Can I haz more syrup, pleez?

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    17. "Bob Somerby, of course, he who demands people "name names" somehow managed not to name the pol. Six posts on the topic and he still has not. And he forgot to include Rachel using a Bob-like disclaimer saying the Republicans may not have meant this to be racial. Because he is Bob.
      He is what he deplores"

      Well said! The problem is the that BS is not driven by the truth. He is driven by his hatred for Maddow. It's sad really.

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    18. Hillary Clinton isn't responsible for this mess. The mainstream press, whether they picked this up from Clinton or not, is responsible for checking the facts of any story they print. That means they needed to go back to the Alabama sources and back to look at all the details Somerby picked apart in his posts. Clinton is not a journalist. For all we know, she made her statement in response to a question which raised the topic. She hedges her statement appropriately. The mainstream press ran with it whole hog and embarrassed itself. There are different standards for press reporting and candidates. If the mainstream press had been as cautious as Clinton, they wouldn't have given Somerby cause to single them out for discussion.

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    19. "If the mainstream press had been as cautious as Clinton, they wouldn't have given Somerby cause to single them out for discussion."

      Yes, using the phraseology of a 60's AM rock and roll DJ to invoke memories of legal segregation over a policy decision which has nothing to do with separate facilities based on race. That is cautious.

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    20. Jim Crow isn't only about segregation. It refers to the whole range of efforts to subjugate African Americans, including poll taxes and civics tests to qualify to vote. Her remarks were about voter suppression, which was most definitely part of Jim Crow. If you knew more about what happened in the American South during the Jim Crow era, maybe you wouldn't be such a Republican.

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    21. "And he forgot to include Rachel using a Bob-like disclaimer saying the Republicans may not have meant this to be racial. "

      Actually, this was included in one of his first posts -- it was quoted in one of Maddow's statements.

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    22. Let's see what @ 6:48 could possibly refer to:

      Oh, does he mean the quote he predeeded by writing:

      "That said, Maddow also made a sweeping statement which was flatly false."

      And that he followed the quote by saying:

      "That statement was manifestly false, though Maddow may have believed it. At times like these, the saints quite frequently do.

      Did Rachel know her statement was false?"

      The inclusion of a quote he calls false three times? Blatantly false? Manifestly false?

      Because if that is the one you refer to, you need to remember Maddow quoted Alabama columnist John Archibald saying " Maybe it`s not racial at all, right? Maybe it`s just political. And let`s face it, it may not be either. But no matter the intent, the consequence is the same." That was how she led into the quote Bob called false, but Bob deleted that quote.

      Immediately after the quote Bob included, Maddow went on to say:"Hillary Clinton put out a statement on this today calling it a blast from the Jim Crowe past. Whether Alabama Republicans meant to do this with as much racial specificity as it seems they did, that I cannot say." That was how she followed the quote Bob called false. He deleted that too.

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    ReplyDelete
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    ReplyDelete
  9. Rachel Maddow has covered this story three times. The second and third time the focus of her coverage was on efforts by Governor Bentley to rescind the closures.

    Do you know how many times Bop Somerby has mentioned that was the focus of the second and third Maddow segments was on efforts of the Republican Governor to reopen these driver's license offices.

    Zero.

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    1. That's because Bob has let his soul be consumed by his envy of Maddow.

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    2. Why is it important that Bentley was forced to reopen the offices if the facts about the original closure were wrong?

      Do you still not understand that the point of this is that Maddow and others were operating with inaccurate information and that they are journalists and should have done better?

      Somerby probably left out all sorts of information that was IRRELEVANT to his point that the media should get its facts straight, including Rachel Maddow.

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    3. 1. Somerby doesn't envy Maddow. Neither do most of us here.
      2. Somerby is musing on the press, not on voter suppression in the South or Alabama politics.
      3. Since Maddow has covered this story so many times, she has had ample opportunity to correct her mistaken facts. Why hasn't she done so?
      4. If closing the offices didn't selectively disadvantage black voters, how will opening them again benefit them, above and beyond the welcome convenience to all Alabamans seeking driver's licenses? (In other words, why is this worth covering three times, when it wasn't worth covering once?)

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    4. BS has a history of trashing Maddow. His constant remarks about her salary show that he is very jealous that she's on TV and he isn't.

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    5. "Do you still not understand that the point of this is that Maddow and others were operating with inaccurate information."

      Do you still not understand Bob said the information was inaccurate on only two occasions.

      One was a column by a former speechwriter for subcabinet officers in the Clinton administration who now writes a part time column for the Boston Globe. That is kind of like Bob. A former comedian who wrote part time op-ed pieces for a Baltimore paper.

      One was a claim Maddow told a lie which Bob created by leaving out things Maddow said.

      "Somerby probably left out all sorts of information that was IRRELEVANT to his point."

      Somerby left out information that contradicted his meme. Something he always does while accusing others of doing the same.

      Bobfans believe any information left out by Bob is wortheless. Bobfans believe any information Bob complains was left out by others is the key to the missing strawberries.

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    6. You left out the important fact that we think you're worthless too. Get lost.

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    7. Commenters there thought Hillary Clinton's statement on Alabama was worthless too, until they found out it was her statement.

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  10. "(In other words, why is this worth covering three times, when it wasn't worth covering once?)"

    Excellent question! Now go ask Somerby why he covered it SIX times!

    Yep, folks. For six straight days, we've learned the population of selected counties in Alabama.

    And not much else.

    Or was it news to anyone that Bob doesn't like Maddow very much?

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    Replies
    1. Somerby is not "covering" this. He is not a journalist. He is teaching critical thinking when reading the mainstream media. Some people are slow learners. Some people are not here every day.

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    2. And a few more of those who remain leave every day.

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    3. Why don't all you Somerby haters follow them?

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    4. Yes, critical thinking lessons from the master require only admiring voices.

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    5. I kinda feel sorry for those poor people who didn't learn critical thinking skills before they read Bob's vanity blog.

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  11. Comments TL; DR?

    The media coverage of this issue, by Maddow in particular, and by others, has been atrocious.

    That said, the worse problem, by far, is that awful Maddow-trasher Somerby mentioning it, repeatedly. How unspeakably awful of him!

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