(Photo by stevosdisposable on Unsplash)
My friend and I sometimes argue about media outlets like CNN and MSNBC. Why do they spread misinformation?
A. Are they grossly uninformed?
B. Do they know the truth but tell falsehoods anyway?
C. Do they think we are stupid or naïve?
My buddy feels that the media outlets know the truth but lie about it. To me, it is more complicated. I think the journalists who read the teleprompters are genuinely ignorant. On the other hand, I think the news producers probably know the truth, but spread misinformation anyway. Producers are the ones who select the topics, construct the programs, and hire the special analysts. Let’s consider this real example from last weekend.
Some time ago, Fani Willis, the Fulton County (GA) prosecutor, convened a special grand jury to investigate allegations that Trump tried to corruptly influence the Georgia Secretary of State to alter 2020 election results. Part of the grand jury report has just been released, and CNN described the results.
CNN Spreads misinformation
During the 6AM EST block, Kaitlan Collins made this statement: “And so clearly, [the grand jury report] shows you know, once and for all that ... there was no election fraud here.”
The statement by Collins was misinformation because of what she left out. A grand jury is a one-sided affair, and it hears only what the prosecutor lets it hear. Collins should have reminded her viewers of that fact. A grand jury decides absolutely nothing . . . “once and for all.”
If this statement came only from Kaitlan Collins, I would assume that the omission was unintentional. But similar words (and omissions) were repeated throughout the day (Saturday, February 17). To me, that suggests that CNN producers were deliberately spreading misinformation. Here is the timeline:
1. At around 7:30AM, Collins repeated her 6:00AM statement.
2. At around 11:40AM, CNN’s Katelyn Polantz proclaimed that the jury found “no widespread fraud in Georgia in 2020.”
3. At around 2:45PM, CNN correspondents Kim Brunhuber and Sara Murray made similar statements. Brunhuber then introduced Legal Commentator Areva Marin, who said, “[t]here is no doubt that there was no widespread voter fraud . . .”
4. The Brunhuber/Murray statements were replayed at 3:40 PM
5. At around 4:30PM CNN anchor, Max Foster, noted that the grand jury’s vote “should put to rest any questions” about fraud in the election.
6. Sara Murray’s statement was replayed by Christine Romans in the 5PM hour. Romans then introduced attorney Dave Aronberg, who said the grand jury found that “. . . there was no widespread fraud in the election.”
Amazing! All of those experienced CNN anchors, lawyers, and analysts eagerly cited the grand jury findings, and not one mentioned the severe limitation of those findings. Were the statements coordinated?
The infamous call
Let’s now move from the misleading nature of the statements to the actual substance of the statements. Is it true, in fact, that “...there was no widespread fraud in the election”? And, what about Trump’s telephone call? Were his demands illegal? What was the purpose of his call?
Trump started the phone call by itemizing a long list of things he and his team felt were fraudulent:
· “. . . 250–300,000 ballots [that] were dropped mysteriously into the rolls.”
· “A tremendous number” of people were told they had already voted.
· “. . . 4,502 voters who voted . . . weren’t on the voter registration list.”
· “You had 18,325 vacant address voters.”
· “[Y]ou had 904 who only voted where they had just a P.O., a Post Office box number.”
· “We had at least 18,000 . . . having to do with Ruby Freeman. She’s a vote scammer, a professional vote scammer and hustler.”
· “You had out-of-state voters . . . 4,925.”
· “You had . . . absentee ballots sent to vacant addresses 2,326.”
· “So dead people voted . . . the number is close to 5,000 people.”
CNN ignored that context, and simply reported this short quotation: “I just want to find 11,780 votes which is one more that we have because we won the state” (sic). Without the context, it appears that Trump was asking the Georgia Secretary to fabricate votes. With the context, it is clear that Trump truly believed (correctly or not) that he had the winning votes— in spades.
Trump’s team asks for information
Trump hoped for the 11,780 votes, but he and his team made it clear that they were prepared to settle for an information-sharing meeting. Brad Raffensperger refused. He effectively said, if you want to see our official data sources, meet us in court.
Cleta Mitchell, a Trump attorney who listened in on the phone call, addressed the information sharing issue during an interview with Natalie Harp (OAN News on January 23, 2022). Said Mitchell: “That phone call was for the purpose of trying to reach a settlement . . . . We said, well, why don’t you bring your evidence and we’ll bring our evidence, and let’s see who is right. And we had been trying to get them to do that for a couple of weeks.”
A similar sentiment was expressed by Bryan Geels, a CPA who assisted the Trump legal team with regard to Georgia election issues. In February, 2022, Geels spoke at an event sponsored by VoterGA.org (a Georgia nonprofit organization), and he discussed some of his election findings and the treatment he received from the Georgia Secretary of State. See video @45:00.
· “Mr. Raffensperger . . . a quality auditor would not have been comfortable expressing any opinion affirming the results with so many unexplained irregularities in the data.”
· There are “over 97,000 votes that I believe shouldn’t have been counted.”
· “I flew out to Georgia to finally sit down with the Secretary of State and collaborate on the issues . . .”
· “Instead of following through on his agreement to sit down with the president’s expert, Team Raffensperger leaked the phone call to the Washington Post. I am still left to wonder why.”
The meeting was scuttled by the leaking of that call, and since that time, the office of Brad Raffensperger has relentlessly fought every effort to gain access to information and/or ballots. Despite this, important evidence has been uncovered.
Despite resistance, evidence is found
In March 2022, VoterGA.org issued a damning report on 15 categories of “impossible” and/or unsupported votes that are 45 times more numerous than Biden’s winning margin. See video @ 27:00. Here are just 5 of the categories. I wonder if the grand jury— the one that decided “there was no widespread fraud in the election”— was given this information by Fani Willis.
1. Although it takes at least one second to scan a ballot, there are over 4,000 ballots with precisely the same timestamp— to the split second. Not possible.
2. 16,034 mail-in ballot authentication (sha) files were added several days after scanning. This is also impossible because the system creates the authentication files simultaneously with the image files.
3. There are no scanned images (tif files) for 17,724 final certified recount presidential votes. This appears to be another impossibility because the image file is needed to create a “cast vote record,” which is needed to tabulate the vote.
4. There are no images (tif files) to support 374,128 “certified” in-person votes, which is a violation of both federal and Georgia law.
5. Regarding mail-in votes, 132,284 ballot images cannot be authenticated. (They have no sha files.)
For over two years, VoterGA.org has been attempting to get access to the actual paper ballots, but they have been blocked in court by Mr. Raffensperger. The organization is still trying, and it appears they may finally get that access to paper ballots or high-resolution imagery in the next few months. That will be most interesting.
Summation
Evidence suggests that...
1. CNN spread misinformation concerning the grand jury findings.
2. CNN misled by not providing context regarding Trump’s statement requesting 11,780 votes.
3. Access to information has been restricted by the Georgia Secretary of State.
4. Very serious election irregularities have been found in Georgia.