associalisticpress.com� The AP Lie #2
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Written Statement of Louis D. Boccardi
(Marxist)
President and Chief Executive Officer
The Associated Press (Ministry of Propaganda)
before the
Committee on Energy and Commerce
U.S. House of Representatives (The People)
February 14, 2001 (Valentine's Day)
The Associated Press first wants to place on the record its deep concern about the nature and scope of the Committee�s inquiry into decisions made by journalists in the course of gathering and reporting the news.
(associalisticpress.com
first would like to present you with the part of the Bill of Rights that Mr.
Boccardi is about to misrepresent... Amendment I
- Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of
the press, or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the
Government for a redress of grievances. Let's get one thing straight Mr.
Boccardi, an inquiry into the AP's attempted journalistic coup on November 7th
is not Congress making a law abridging the freedom of the press. If you
expect "the people" of this great Republic to believe that you are
somehow above answering questions from "the people" because of the First
Amendment, then you have actually started believing your own propaganda.
The "Freedom of the Press", as authored by James Madison, was intended
to keep the political parties from controlling the "Free Press".
The DemocRATS are so clearly in control of the "Free Press" that it
pains me to have to give it copy! In this statement Mr. Boccardi will
assert that the AP, the mother of the "Free Press", should be applauded
as their web site states, for not calling the election for Bush in the wee hours
of the morning on the 8th of November, while shrugging off any criticism for
calling Florida for Algore, incorrectly, before the polls in the most
Conservative area of the state had even closed!. For weeks the AP and
their affiliates, EVERY PRESS OUTLET BUT associalisticpress.com, told "the
people" that Bush had to win Florida to win the election. Calling it
for Algore not only sent Conservative voters home in Florida, but it sent them
home all over America. I wrote about this FACT on the 9th of November,
check the archives. If you are in LA traffic and you are on your way to
vote and the radio (the "Free Press") tells you that Bush has lost his
brothers state, the state Bush had to win to win the election according the
"Free Press", are you going to fight traffic to go vote? Maybe,
but is it possible that some people decided to go home? The logical answer
is yes. If 1 in 100 people decided not to vote because of the FALSE call
of Florida for Algore, that would have been 1 million people who did not vote
while the Unions were busing hobo's and mentally handicap people into the polls
to vote for Algore. In the African-American areas in Florida, where people
like Jesse "the Bigot" Jackson asserted that blacks were kept from
voting, the records show that more people voted than were registered to vote in
some of those precincts. Where is the AP on that FACT! The AP's
affiliates in Florida are counting uncountable "pro-Algore" ballots in
4 of 67 "pro-Algore" counties as we speak trying to find enough votes
to claim that Algore actually won, that's where they are. If Microsoft is
a monopoly as the "Free Press" and their Attorney General, Janet
"Waco" Reno claim, then the Associated Press is a monopoly, and they
know it! I am currently violating a copyright law passed by Congress that
allows the AP to keep me from criticizing their tripe as I am doing right
now. That AP, sounds like Congress passing a law abridging the
"Freedom of the Press". The "Free Press" belongs to
"THE PEOPLE", it does not belong to you and the AP, Mr.
Boccardi! Whenever you want to discuss the the finer points of the Bill of
Rights and the Federalist Papers as they pertain to the "freedom of the
Press" in front of a Federal Court, give me a call! Just like YOUR
Voter News Service that you are blaming for DELIBERATELY FALSE election night
calls, I will be pointing the finger at tha malcontent for the TRUTH that is
found @ associalisticpress.com every weekday... unless I'm boardin'! - tha
malcontent)
Chairman Tauzin has stated in correspondence with executives of Voter News Service and the networks that there are �potential First Amendment issues raised by the nature of this inquiry.� We agree with the Chairman�s assessment. There certainly
are.
(The VNS is a
product of the AP... this is a simple FACT! - tha malcontent)
AP has serious doubts that the Committee and its staff, no matter how sensitive they may be, can avoid crossing the line between appropriate government concern with the electoral process itself and, on the other hand, inappropriate government involvement with the reporting on that process by a free
press.
(I have
serious doubts that the "Free Press" has been "free from
influence" for about three decades. Tim Russert (D), Chris Mattews
(D), George Geffin-opolis (D)... These are just a few of the KNOWN
DemocRAT employees turned "journalists"! Anyone ever read
"commentary" by the likes of Dan Rather (D) or Cokie Roberts (D)? The
"Free Press" was intended to be "the peoples" outlet for
"redress of grievances" against the government. The "Free
Press" is currently controlled by DemocRATS and Socialists who use Republicans
as punching bags on a daily basis in their AP propaganda! - tha malcontent)
To put it more plainly, we believe that such an official government inquiry into essentially editorial matters is inconsistent with the First Amendment values that are fundamental to our society. That is said with conviction, but without disrespect to the important role -- important but critically different from that of the media -- played by both legislative and executive branches of government.
I respect you. As a citizen, I benefit from what you do. But your job is different from mine, and a hearing such as this one confuses the two.
(Mr Boccardi,
what you and the AP did on the 7th of November confuses the entire
Constitutional system that we live in. Your rewriting of the language in
the effort to protect DemocRAT after DemocRAT has now led you into a state of
megalomania that is teetering this Republic on the brink of another
Revolution. Half of America is ignorant to the truth because of what you
in the "Free Press" have been doing for the last 30 years. This
is why you are able to make these ludicrous assertions in defense of your
attempted subversion of the United States Constitution, and our Electoral process
on the 7th of November 2000! - tha malcontent)
We agree that there were serious shortcomings -- call them terrible mistakes -- in the election reporting of November 7 and 8 and that these mistakes cannot be allowed to happen again.
But fixing them is a job for the nation�s editors and news directors, not its
legislators.
(Mr.
Boccardi, this is as absurd as asking a rapist to be responsible for fixing
their "mistake" after raping someone... YES, what the AP/VNS did is much
more serious than RAPE! A rapist rapes only one person at a time, the
"Free Press" raped every voter in America on November 7th! - tha malcontent)
What we report and when we report it are matters between us and the audience we try to serve, not matters between us and our
Congressmen.
(Mr.
Boccardi, we are a Representative Republic. Our Congressmen are sent by
us, "the people" to do exactly what it is they are doing. They
are asking you questions as to get to the bottom of what happened on election
night, THEY ARE NOT PASSING LAWS ABRIDGING YOUR RIGHTS! They should pass a
few laws pertaining to elections. First, the nation's polls should close simultaneously,
and the "Free Press" should not be allowed to report on any area in
America until the LAST VOTE HAS BEEN CAST! This is common sense, not the
abridging of the "freedom of the press"! - tha malcontent)
The statement that follows reflects what we believe to be the limits of an appropriate public account to a government body of how AP did its work last November 7 and through the morning of November 8. It is an account we have given in stories, speeches and interviews.
The Associated Press is a mutual news cooperative that collects and distributes reports to its member news organizations to be incorporated into the news products disseminated by AP�s members to their readers, viewers and listeners. Like newspapers, AP is free of government
licensing.
(And
apparently free from accountability if Mr. Boccardi has his way! - tha
malcontent)
AP traces its origins to 1848 when a group of New York newspaper publishers agreed to share the cost of collecting overseas dispatches as they arrived at Halifax, Nova Scotia, at that time the first landfall for transatlantic shipping. The plan worked well and almost immediately developed into a news service in which reports on major events were delivered to all members.
Newspapers of the 19th Century were often fiercely partisan in their editorial policies. The only way for their cooperative news service to satisfy all of them was to provide reports that were strictly factual and impartial. That was the core of AP�s mission at the outset, and remains so to this
day.
(This is as
BIG a lie as I have ever heard! - tha malcontent)
Article I of AP�s by laws reads in substantial part as follows:
�The union for a common aim and purpose of representatives of all shades of thought and opinion � political, social, economic, religious � is assurance the news gathered and distributed by The Associated Press shall be as objective and complete as human endeavor can make it.�
("and if
anyone ever uses our material to comment on our "objectiveness" or
LACK THEREOF, we have a law that was passed by Congress to protect us from fulfilling
our Constitutional mandate! It's called the copyright law." - tha
malcontent)
AP member editors and publishers continue to hold their cooperative strictly accountable for honoring that bedrock policy, and for vigorously defending the rights of the media to collect and report the news free of outside interference, both in the United States and overseas. Overseas, some have paid the ultimate price for this commitment � their
lives.
(The DNC was
in every news room around the country on election night, Tom, Dan, Cokie, Sam,
Tim, George, Bernard! All are ACTIVE members of the DemocRAT party and
some where even employees before their careers changed to
"journalism". Mr. Boccardi, the inability of "the
people" to question you and the AP in any form is evidence that you are no
longer "free"! - tha malcontent)
AP has covered every presidential campaign since 1848, the year of its founding. AP editors staffed their newly opened office in New York around the clock for the first time to report that Zachary Taylor had defeated Lewis Cass and Martin Van Buren to become the nation�s 12th president. We concern ourselves today with the election of the nation�s 43rd.
Reporting the names of election winners promptly has always required substantial effort on AP�s part, because as the Committee members know, the official vote canvass takes days, sometimes weeks, to complete and
announce.
(Notice the
lack of the word "accurately" when referring to calling the election!
- tha malcontent)
To produce unofficial but accurate results so that the public can promptly know who won, AP collects returns at the local level, tabulates them with the greatest care, and reports the totals. To do this, we hire and train special data reporters and post them at county election offices where officials assemble the totals reported from each precinct.
(Read this
again, the AP wants us to accept that "the people" can
"know" who won by their "unofficial but accurate
results". The AP called Florida INACCURATELY for Algore an hour before the polls
in the most conservative part of that state had closed! This is Newspeak
in all of it's Socialist glory! - tha malcontent)
As county totals are updated throughout the night with additional precinct reports, the AP data reporters -- about 5,000 of them altogether -- are instructed to relay those totals to AP, where they are added to the growing collection of results from across the state and nation.
In this way, AP is able to provide timely results not only of national and statewide election contests but also of state legislative races and a limited number of high-interest local elections. Altogether, AP collects totals for about 6,000 elections in a biennial or quadrennial year. That number includes the approximately 500 elections for which the Voter News Service, and before VNS the News Election Service (�NES�), have also tabulated results. In terms of races covered, AP is the largest and, we believe, most reliable collector of returns in the
country.
(Again, the
AP created the VNS, it is a shadow organization designed to take the fall for
what the AP did by calling Florida early and deliberately wrong! In 2004
it will have a new name and the VNS will be tossed onto the journalistic heap
along with the responsibility, morality and objectivity! - tha malcontent)
NES was a consortium formed by AP, UPI, NBC, CBS and ABC in 1964 to share the cost of tabulating national and statewide votes. NES created a collection network much like AP�s, and AP�s separate network served as a backup to NES, as it now does to VNS, in addition to producing results for the more than 5,000 races not covered by NES and VNS.
Neither NES nor AP conducted exit polls. AP does not do them now. The broadcast networks have used them for many years, however, and in 1990 they combined their exit polling operations into an organization known as Voter Research Service (�VRS�). In 1993, NES and VRS merged into the present Voter News Service, of which AP is a one-sixth
partner.
(The AP is
part of every single news outlet in America from NBC to the New York Times to
your local paper, television and radio news. The AP is All Press! - tha
malcontent)
VNS conducts exit polls at selected precincts on election day, tabulates actual votes after the polls close, and through computerized statistical analysis of both sets of data produces running forecasts throughout election night of the final results in each race.
It is the quality and impact of those forecasts, of course, which have become a principal focus since the night of November
7.
(THE
understatement of this entire piece of propaganda! - tha malcontent)
AP�s procedures for deciding when to declare a projected election winner have not changed substantially in decades. They are not secret. We have recited them publicly before. Statewide returns from VNS and from AP�s own vote collection network are monitored in each state bureau by individuals well versed in state political demographics and in the dynamics of individual contests. In the case of federal elections, analysts in Washington become engaged.
As already noted, AP has never conducted exit polling on its own, and exit poll results only became available to the AP staff as a resource with the formation of
VNS.
(The AP and
VNS are one in the same Mr. Boccardi, and no matter how many times you state
otherwise, it doesn't change this FACT! - tha malcontent)
Exit polls have proven useful to AP reporters and editors in that they may provide advance notice either that the actual results appear to be consistent with expectations from pre-election polls and our own evaluation, or that a surprise may be in store. We consider exit polls a highly valuable part of our understanding, and our audience�s understanding, of what the voters are saying.
Valuable, though as we know, not infallible.
(Then don't
call states until the last vote is cast in all of the states! - tha malcontent)
We have given a public explanation several times of our work last November. I restate that widely available account here.
AP reported at 7:53 p.m. on November 7 that we had concluded from exit poll and early reports of actual returns from some Florida counties that Vice President Gore would be the winner in Florida. It was the only erroneous projection AP made that night.
(And the
single biggest "erroneous projection" in political and journalistic
history Mr. Boccardi, because you know that every little mom and pop
television and radio station in America waits for your lead on these matters and
that FALSE call sent Republicans home nationwide, this is FACT! - tha
malcontent)
From their familiarity with the campaign in Florida and with pre-election poll results made public by the candidates and others, AP editors expected a very close election. They were therefore surprised and skeptical shortly after 7 p.m. Eastern time when the VNS exit polling data were indicating that Mr. Gore could win by a margin of more than 6 percent.
Ordinarily, that wide a projected lead would suggest a sure outcome, but because it ran counter to expectations no projection was made. As the exit poll data were supplemented in the VNS system with the first actual returns from sample precincts, however, the Gore margin held up. That is why AP made the decision to report its conclusion that Florida would end the night in the Gore
column.
(Any thinking
journalist who was not letting their hopes that Algore would win Florida blur the
lines, would have concluded that the exit polling at that point was coming from
predominately Liberal counties! You know this to be the truth Mr
Boccardi, stop repeating the lie! - tha malcontent)
There has been widespread discussion of the wisdom of projecting a winner at a time when 5 percent of Florida�s polling places would still be open for several more minutes. AP�s policy has been to comply with the 1985 agreement between Congress and the networks that projections would be withheld for any state until a substantial majority of polling places for that state
closed.
(STOP THE
PRESSES!, the AP had an "agreement" with Congress!?! Mr
Boccardi, I believe you stated earlier in this Newspeak that the Congress had no
place interfering with your "journalism". What does this
"agreement" in 1985 say to that? Smells like Marxism to me
SHEEP! -
tha malcontent)
In future elections AP will forecast no final results for any state until all its polling places in all time zones are closed. I believe the networks have taken a similar stance.
(Common sense
dictates that this would have already been the policy! - tha malcontent)
It would be wrong not to add at this point, however, that if voters were actually discouraged by media projections from casting ballots on November 7 -- and we have seen no credible evidence to show that many were -- their number is eclipsed by the tens of thousands of voters in Florida and the millions nationwide who were disenfranchised by voting machine breakdowns, confusing ballots, lost votes, and a host of other consequences of official error, disorganization and incompetence in administration of the elections.
(PAH-LEEEEEEASE!,
Mr. Boccardi admits in this EXCUSE, that some people were discouraged by FALSE
media projections, but then pulls out this thinly veiled race card played by
bigots like Jesse Jackson just after the election! Mr. Boccardi, there is
proof that in some black precincts, more people voted than were registered to
vote! DO YOUR JOB and get to the bottom of that and stop counting
uncountable votes in 4 of 67 counties that are LIBERAL! - tha malcontent)
In fact, problems in Florida�s official vote counting apparatus were a part of the media�s troubles on election night. AP�s projection of a Gore victory in Florida was withdrawn a little over two hours later at 10 p.m. It might have been retracted sooner, but for a keypunch error by officials in Florida�s Duval County that inflated the Gore Florida total by 40,000 votes. Until that error was found and fixed, the Gore victory projections continued to flow from the VNS
computer.
(THERE WILL
ALWAYS BE ERRORS! If this is going to be your excuse Mr. Boccardi, stop
calling elections until all of the votes have been counted! - tha malcontent)
The Committee already knows from its review of several publicly released studies by VNS and its members and from its conversations with managers of VNS that the search for the origins of the erroneous early Florida projection is focused on certain statistical assumptions about the makeup and behavior of Florida voters that turned out to be incorrect. AP�s knowledge of the details comes from the same studies to which the Committee has access, so it would serve no purpose to repeat them here.
The owners of VNS are determining what must be done to eliminate the technical and organizational weaknesses that made the early misdirection in Florida
possible.
(Mr. Boccardi
referring to the VNS as some other entity is like Bush referring to himself in
the third person during a press conference... it's making my head hurt! - tha
malcontent)
As the Committee is aware, AP did not join in the early morning projection of a Bush victory.
(For personal
reasons obviously! - tha malcontent)
As AP has publicly reconstructed events with the help of the reports the Committee has seen, the VNS computer system was indicating at about 2 a.m. November 8 that only 180,000 votes remained to be counted. In fact, because turnout had been higher than the VNS forecast, there were still twice that many votes outstanding. Since we knew a high proportion of the uncounted ballots were in heavily Democratic precincts, Vice President Gore still had a much better chance of overtaking President Bush than it appeared from the VNS reports, despite an apparent margin of 50,000 votes.
It wasn�t really 50,000 votes, however. As the Committee is also aware, there had been another official error. Because of a defect in a data storage device in a Volusia County election computer, President Bush�s statewide lead was overstated by 20,000 votes, further bolstering the impression that Mr. Gore had no chance to catch up.
(Hours
earlier you INACCURATELY called Florida for Algore Mr. Boccardi... what are smoking,
besides the cigarettes you rail against with your propaganda machine known as
the AP? - tha
malcontent)
The correction of the Volusia County error did not appear in either the AP or the VNS tabulations until after the networks had committed themselves, declaring President Bush the winner at about 2:15 a.m.
AP was not yet ready to follow suit. Even before the Volusia County correction was made, and even allowing for the inaccurate VNS estimate of the number of remaining votes, AP believed Mr. Gore retained a slim chance of overtaking President Bush. That judgment was based on the collective wisdom of AP reporters and editors in both Miami and Washington.
("the collective wisdom of AP reporters and editors"
this is a textbook case of Marxist megalomania! We think quite highly of
ourselves, don't we Mr. Boccardi! - tha malcontent)
The margin separating the two candidates had descended in the AP tabulation from over 100,000 at 1 a.m. on November 8 to about 45,000 shortly after 2 a.m. In the next 15 minutes, it plummeted to less than 16,000. AP continued to report that it was too close to call.
Because the hour was late, already past the deadlines of many newspapers, and because the networks were reporting that President Bush had won, editors around the country wondered why they had received no such declaration from AP. Many of them called our bureaus or our general editing desk in New York to demand an
explanation.
(Because the
AP had planned on Algore winning all along... it was by design and they just
couldn't admit that they had failed to present their candidate with a victory
like they promised, that's why! Even to this day, I am surprised the AP refers to Bush as the President
- tha malcontent
As another hour passed and the pressure increased, however, President Bush�s lead continued to shrink. Shortly after 3 a.m., it stood at just over 6,300. At 3:11 a.m. AP transmitted a note to editors and broadcasters on its news wires advising them that with 6,000 votes separating the candidates� totals and with votes outstanding in heavily Democratic Broward and Palm Beach, the outcome remained
uncertain.
(Had the AP
not called Florida for Algore before the Conservative panhandle was done voting,
we would not be having this discussion today, that is a FACT! - tha malcontent)
Just minutes later, the gap closed to roughly 2,000, and there it remained.
AP is proud of its century and a half of election result tabulation and political reporting. We believe our experience and our commitment to accuracy and fairness have produced an extremely valuable service for our membership and for the American
public.
(The only
service you provide Mr. Boccardi, is a thinly veiled propaganda outlet for the DemocRATS
and their agenda. That's why you don't want people like me doing what I am
doing right now. This is Marxism and Stalinism with a touch of Hitlerism that
has never been seen at this level before in man's history. Welcome to Orwellian living
SHEEP! I hope your chains lay lightly on you!! Read the
"Copyright" below for some laughs and then read my "copyrightwing"
below it! Information is "FREE" in this Republic Mr. Boccardi,
that's what was intended by the founders, but your blind support of the
Government Schools gives me a better understanding of why you do not understand
the "intent" of the founders. Instead, you and your Comrades at
the DNC and the NEA are attempting to redefine their intent through a constant
flow of lies and propaganda. The great Socialists of our time practiced
this same religion, quite effectively for a short period of time, and Mr.
Boccardi, your AP's time has about run it's course! - tha malcontent)
� Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
(That depends on what the meaning of "may" is...
tha malcontent)
This web site is designed, maintained and edited by tha malcontent...
"what have you done for Liberty today?"
associalisticpress.com� is protected speech pursuant to the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States and is faithfully enforced by tha malcontent via the Second Amendment to that same Constitution. Any reproduction or redistribution of this article will be seen as an awakening of a Patriot in this Great Republic by tha malcontent, and subsequently applauded! (copyrightwing 2001)
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