Normally, I do not concern myself with what the openly left-wing Huffington Post does. I actually respect the fact that the outlet doesn’t hide its biases (if the rest of the media did this, I would be out of a job). What the Huffington Post is not entitled to do, though, is to write wildly misleading articles that ignore crucial context while accusing others of racism.
In a noxious article, co-written by Saki Knafo and Ryan J. Reilly, readers are asked outright: Are North Carolina “Republican lawmakers racist?” This is in reaction to a number of news laws recently passed in my beloved state that will require voters to show ID and limit the time-frame for early voting. There will also be an effort to clean-up the voter rolls — removing the dead, etc.
Rather than applaud this common sense legislation that preserves voter integrity, instead, Knafo and Reilly pepper readers with racial hyperbole and innuendo. Here is just one example:
That could be tough. “There isn’t usually the kind of traditional ‘we don’t like those people’ kinds of language in the record these days,” said Kareem Crayton, a law professor at the University of North Carolina School of Law. “Legislatures are mostly too smart for that, unless they get caught on tape — which does happen.”
Knafo and Reilly actually come off as though they are writing a legal brief meant to persuade President Obama to sic his Justice Department on the Tarheel state. Attorney General Eric Holder is already giving the state of Texas a hard time.
But like much of the rest of the mainstream media, when it comes to discussing the issue of voter ID, here is what the Huffington Post’s Knafo and Reilly choose not to disclose: Voter ID laws are wildly popular with the American people. This is not a 51% – 49% issue, it is an 83% – 17% issue.
A recent poll not only shows that a full 72% of DEMOCRATS see Voter ID as “good thing,” but so do 65% of those who see themselves as “very liberal.”
If Knafo and Reilly searched their own site they would find that 71% of the minorities they claim to want to protect disagree with them on the issue of voter ID.
Maybe the question the Huffington Post really needs to ask is: “Are 72% of Huffington Post readers racist?”
You need identification to do almost anything in America these days: buy cigarettes or alcohol, fly, apply for food stamps, rent or drive a car; even to pick up movie tickets. Requiring the same in order to ensure that an honest vote is not disenfranchised by a dishonest one is only common sense.
While the mainstream media and left-wing outlets like the Huffington Post will beat Republican lawmakers over the head all day long with the frantic waving of polls that show a slim majority agree with them on some left-wing issue, like gay marriage; they hardly ever do with same with an 80/20 issue they disagree with, like voter ID.
The reason the media don’t report on the popularity of voter ID is part of a psychological ploy meant to fabricate a reality where the majority are made to feel like they are in the minority, or all alone. In general, people don’t like to feel that they are not in the mainstream, and withholding these inconvenient voter ID numbers is way to create a false impression that might change minds.
The media play this game with abortion, as well.
The idea is to angle the reporting in a way that says everyone agrees with us!, even though that is the furthest thing from the truth.
Yes, this tactic is dishonest and immoral, but it is also effective.
Follow John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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