{"id":1994306,"date":"2023-08-08T13:45:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-08T17:45:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-gin-up-lies-about-election-worker-safety-to-escape-ballot-box-accountability\/"},"modified":"2023-08-08T13:48:00","modified_gmt":"2023-08-08T17:48:00","slug":"media-gin-up-lies-about-election-worker-safety-to-escape-ballot-box-accountability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-gin-up-lies-about-election-worker-safety-to-escape-ballot-box-accountability\/","title":{"rendered":"Media spreads falsehoods about election worker safety to avoid being held accountable for election results."},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">30<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmedia-gin-up-lies-about-election-worker-safety-to-escape-ballot-box-accountability%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1994306&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div>\n<div>\n<figure>\n    <\/figure>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<h2>Legacy Media&#8217;s Manufactured Nonsense<\/h2>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Legacy media are once again parroting the <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/24\/corrupt-media-fight-election-accountability-with-democrat-manufactured-lies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">debunked\u200c lie<\/a> that there is a growing, widespread problem of Republicans threatening election workers.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>On Monday, Time \u2062Magazine published \u2063a <a href=\"https:\/\/time.com\/6302102\/election-security-congress-fiscal-year-voter-fraud\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">melodramatic article<\/a> about congressional Democrats\u2019 \u201cdesperate[] push[]\u201d\u200c to include provisions in \u200dthe next federal spending bill they \u200dclaim will protect state \u2062and \u200dlocal election workers. Of \u200bcourse, Time places \u2063the blame for this alleged problem on Donald Trump and his so-called \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/22\/the-election-denier-smear-is-the-dumbest-rhetorical-device-in-modern-politics\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">election denying<\/a>\u201d supporters, and warns \u2063that Congress\u2019s upcoming budget is \u201clikely the last chance\u201d Democrats have to \u201csafeguard\u201d the 2024\u2064 election.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt comes as election officials have \u200bfaced a\u00a0titanic upswing\u00a0in \u2062death threats, online intimidation,\u200d and abuse,\u201d the article \u2064reads.<\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s just one little problem \u200bwith Time\u2019s fantastical claim: It\u2019s manufactured nonsense.<\/p>\n<p>As\u200d I \u2062 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/24\/corrupt-media-fight-election-accountability-with-democrat-manufactured-lies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> in these pages in April, the left\u2019s insistence\u2062 that there is a\u2064 widespread conspiracy of Republican voters \u200cthreatening election officials is simply not true. But don\u2019t take my word for it. Ask Joe Biden\u2019s own Department of Justice (DOJ).<\/p>\n<p>During his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.judiciary.senate.gov\/imo\/media\/doc\/Testimony%20-%20Polite.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">August 2022 testimony<\/a> before the U.S. Senate, Kenneth\u200c A. Polite Jr., the\u200c <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/watch-live-rfk-jr-to-testify-at-a-house-subcommittee-hearing-on-the-weaponization-of-the-federal-government\/\" title=\"LIVE: RFK Jr testifies on 'weaponization of federal government' at House hearing.\">assistant attorney\u2063 general<\/a> for the criminal\u2063 division\u200c of the DOJ, claimed the agency\u2019s Election Threats Task Force \u2064\u2014 which was\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/blog\/justice-department-launches-task-force-combat-threats-against-election-workers-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">launched<\/a> in July 2021 to \u200baddress this alleged \u201crise\u200d in threats\u201d against \u200celection workers \u2014 had reviewed and\u200b assessed roughly 1,000 \u200ballegedly\u200d \u201cthreatening and harassing\u201d communications directed toward election officials. Two days before Polite\u2019s testimony, the \u200dDOJ issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.justice.gov\/opa\/pr\/readout-election-threats-task-force-briefing-election-officials-and-workers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">press release<\/a> disclosing only about 11 percent of those 1,000 communications \u201cmet \u2063the threshold for a federal criminal investigation\u201d \u2064and that\u200c the \u201cremaining reported contacts did not provide a predication\u201d\u200c for further investigation.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c[T]o recap: In a country of roughly 331 million people, \u200bthe\u2063 DOJ \u2014 in the \u200dspan of a year \u2014 \u200breceived roughly \u200b1,000 calls alleging threats toward\u200b election workers, in which only about 11 percent of cases warranted a federal investigation,\u201d I <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/04\/24\/corrupt-media-fight-election-accountability-with-democrat-manufactured-lies\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">wrote<\/a> at \u200bthe time.<\/p>\n<p>So\u200d how exactly\u2064 does Time\u2063 justify\u2063 its claim that there\u2019s been \u2064a \u2063\u201ctitanic upswing\u201d\u00a0in \u2063threats directed toward election workers since the 2020 contest? The\u2062 first is \u200dby \u200dlinking to a survey from the \u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.influencewatch.org\/non-profit\/william-j-brennan-center-for-justice\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Brennan Center for Justice<\/a> \u2014 a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/media-gin-up-lies-about-election-worker-safety-to-escape-ballot-box-accountability\/\" title=\"Media spreads falsehoods about election worker safety to avoid being held accountable for election results.\">highly\u200c partisan \u2062organization engaged<\/a> in left-wing \u2063activism \u2014 \u200bclaiming to show persistent fear among election workers\u200d for \u201ctheir \u2062colleagues\u2019 safety.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The second is by linking to a November 2022 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/technology\/2022\/11\/08\/election-workers-online-threats\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Washington Post article<\/a> that includes grandiose\u200b statements from Democrat election officials pushing the same sky-is-falling narrative. Among those who commented to the Post was Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold, whose office proclaimed it had \u201cidentified hundreds more threats against her since 2020.\u201d The Post, of course, didn\u2019t\u200c bother to \u200bmention whether it vetted\u200d her assertion to determine its truthfulness.<\/p>\n<p>What\u2019s equally remarkable about \u200bthe article\u2064 is the Post\u2019s willingness to bury \u2064the truth from its \u2062readers. Not until the \u200carticle\u2019s 22nd paragraph are readers given the\u200c <strong>actual<\/strong> data\u200d from the DOJ on which I previously reported. Even then, the Post attempts to downplay the\u2063 truth by \u2063regurgitating claims from unnamed election \u200bofficials\u2063 who say the DOJ and states\u2019 limited number of prosecutions are \u201cjust a \u200bfraction of the threats\u2062 they receive.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Yes,\u2063 there are verifiable \u200bthreats made against election\u2064 workers, however rare. But it also rarely rains in Death Valley, California. That doesn\u2019t mean we should start building\u200c Noah\u2019s Ark 2.0 to prepare for a catastrophic flood there.<\/p>\n<p>What we\u2019re seeing is a media-wide effort to take anecdotal incidents of\u200b threats and blow them out of proportion to give the appearance\u2063 that election workers are under constant \u200bsiege \u2064from \u2064so-called \u201celection denying\u201d MAGA Republicans. It\u2019s a \u200cDemocrat strategy designed to both cast their political opponents \u2064as extremists and dissuade conservatives who have legitimate concerns about election integrity \u2064from\u2063 partaking in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/corrupt-media-fight-election-accountability-with-democrat-manufactured-lies\/\" title=\"Media Corruption: Democrats Use Lies to Avoid Election Accountability\">completely legal forms<\/a> of electoral oversight (such as poll\u200d watching).<\/p>\n<p>Democracy does indeed die in darkness \u2014 just not in \u2063the\u2064 way <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/doj-strategically-timed-political-arrest-to-coincide-with-press-conference-detailing-evidence-of-biden-corruption\/\" title=\"DOJ timed political arrest to coincide with Biden corruption evidence press conference.\">regime-approved media<\/a> want you \u2062to believe.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<h3>About the Author<\/h3>\n<p>Shawn Fleetwood is a staff writer for The Federalist\u200d and a graduate of the University \u2062of Mary Washington. He previously served as a\u2064 state content writer for Convention of States Action and his work \u2064has been featured in numerous outlets, including RealClearPolitics, \u2063RealClearHealth, and Conservative Review. \u200dFollow him on\u2064 Twitter <strong>@ShawnFleetwood<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Magazine&#8217;s recent article falsely amplifies the notion that Republicans are posing a significant threat to election workers. Congressional Democrats are attempting to include provisions in the upcoming federal spending bill to safeguard state and local election workers. However, this narrative has been debunked, yet legacy media continues to propagate it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1994307,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1994306","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994306","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1994306"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1994306\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1994307"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1994306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1994306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1994306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}