We are privileged, because of the internet and some intrepid independent reports, to be watching the development of a new propaganda vehicle for the Republican Party, FoxNews, and the spinwits Hannity-Coulter-Limbaugh and their ilk.

The new propaganda vehicle started up a few days ago, and is a new organization called “American Center for Voting Rights” (ACVR).

The ACVR has published a report purporting to detail many instances of voter intimidation by the Democrats and their allies.

The ACVR organization is actually a mail drop at a UPS store. Cite: Brad Blog - Mystery Solved! Location of ‘American Center for Voting Rights’ Found! Exclusive Photographs!.

And just look who is behind the ACVR ! ———
“The ACVR is anything but ‘non-partisan’ and their so-far known ringleaders are actually Mark F. (Thor) Hearne, the National Counsel for Bush/Cheney ‘04 Inc. and his partner-in-crime Jim Dyke, the RNC’s Communications Director.” Cite: Brad Blog report - RNC Political Director Cites Report by RNC ‘Voting Rights’ Front Group to RNC Email List!.

Ok, so based on the above, reasonable people might be somewhat skeptical of the scholarly credentials and legitimacy of this so-called non-partisan voting rights group.

HOWEVER — the world of propaganda and politics is NOT reasonable. The ACVR will be construed by the right wing as THOROUGHLY legitimate and undeniably completely truthful in whatever it proclaims. That’s how the spin and propaganda game works these days.

The mere existence of the ACVR gives the right wing spinwits and politicos enough COVER to start to CITE THE ACVR as their source for “proof” about widespread voter intimidation by Democrats.

And so let’s look at the next step in the development of the ACVR as a usable propaganda tool:

1) A news organizaion called CNS ran a piece which portrayed the ACVR as a legitimate non-partisan group. The Brad Blog takes CNS to task for perpetrating this propaganda (see excerpt below).

2) The Political Director of the Republican National Committee mentioned the ACVR in an email newsletter March 30, 2005: The Brad Blog discovered that in an email newsletter on 3-30-05, The political director of the Republican National Committee picked up the ball and discussed the “work” of the ACVR.

3) Congress held some hearings and invited the ACVR, but not more mainstream and long-standing and legitimate voting rights groups. During the hearing, ACVR people DID NOT MENTION their ties to the Republican Party, so the ACVR appears to be legitimately non-partisan in the official public record of the United States — More cover for the propaganda scheme. CITE: Brad Blog - ‘Voting Rights’ Group Leader Withholds Bush/Cheney/RNC Ties During Congressional Testimony!
Describes Himself as ‘Advocate of Voter Rights’ But Not as Bush/Cheney ‘04 General Counsel!.

And so we can see how the scheme to legitimize the ACVR has taken several steps forward. The stage is now set for the ACVR to EXPLODE on the media scene in the same way as the Swift Boat Veterns exploded. What happens NEXT?

Next, we will see FoxNews do stories citing the ACVR, and FoxNews will brag about how the ACVR report has been reported on by the CNS news service and has to be circulated by the Republican Party “because the liberal media refuse to report on it”.

Then spinwits Hannity-Coulter-Limbaugh will demagague how the liberal media does not want anyone to know about the ACVR investigative report, because they want to “cover up for Democratic misconduct”.

As you can see from the citations above, the Brad Blog has been all over this story. Brad Freidman has written a fairly comprehensive letter to the editor of the CNS new organization protesting the presentation of the ACVR propaganda as news. I have excerpted the letter below:

(Oh, By the way: WHY did the Republicans feel the need to form this questionable organization called the ACVR and then foist it on the world as if it were a legitimate non-partisan scholarly research group? —– The answer is simple: There have been hundreds or even thousands of reports of Republican tricks and misconduct involving voters throughout the country — BS or not — and the Republicans needed a way to strike back. But there are not a large number of credible reports of Democrats trying to purge Republicans from the voter roles, or ensuring that Republican precincts have too few voting booths, or throwing away boxes of ballots from Republican precincts, or Democrats sending around unsigned literature that scares Republicans away from the polls, or Democrats challenging the eligibility of Republican voters waiting in line at the polls, etc, etc, etc.)

Now on to the excerpt from the Brad Blog’s protest letter to the CNS news organization:

Excerpt from the Brad Blog’s letter to CNS denouncing the legitimization of a transparently political ploy

It’s simply astounding that you would publish an article by Kathleen Rhodes (”Liberal Bloggers Pounce on Voting Fraud Watchdog Group”) apologizing for the bogus and insulting “American Center for Voting Rights” (ACVR) by describing the ring-leaders of the group as “non-partisan”, having “Past GOP connections” and being “formerly involved in Republican politics”.

Both of the known ACVR participants are anything but non-partisan as they are current and active high-level RNC operatives.

Thor Hearne, who gave testimony for the group before congress, representing the only “voting rights” group called to testified at last week’s U.S. House Administration Committee hearings on the 2004 Election in Ohio, is currently slated as the key-note speaker at the RNC-funded Republican National Lawyers Association reception next month in Florida. He is still an active member of that organization.

As well, hard-right partisan ACVR spokesperson Jim Dyke continues his work with the RNC and serves as a “GOP News Analyst” for Fox “News”.

Hardly “former”. Hardly “past”. Hardly “non-partisan”.

Your article also fails to mention that this group of snake-oil salesmen appeared on the Internet on Thursday, March 17th and gave testimony as experts on the issue of “Voting Rights” to Congress just three days later on Monday, March 21.

In the meantime, real “Voting Rights” organizations, who have been working on these issues for months and years were not even notified of these hearings. It’s also more than notable that Hearne never bothered to mention his active affiliation with Bush/Cheney ‘04 Inc. and other Republican organizations during his congressional testimony. He referred to himself deceptively as simply “a longtime advocate of voter rights.”

Furthermore, you advance the notion that this “non-partisan”, tax-exempt 501(c)3 group, actually has filed the paper work to receive the privileges granted with that status, yet fail — as they did — to produce any documentation to demonstrate that in fact they have the access they claim on their website. A website, mind you, that gives no way to donate to the company, and was claimed to be registered by some unnamed company in Dallas, the name of which nobody at this front group seems to be able to remember despite having built the website just days ago. (The address, by the way, is a post office box in a Dallas, TX UPS store, yet none of the known operatives for this bunch actually lives or works in Dallas!)

This front group, set up solely to counter the hundreds and thousands of credible and verifiable claims of voter disenfranchisement, and miscounted and uncounted votes of the American people in the 2004 election is an insult to the Americans who have died both in this country and overseas fighting for the right to a free and fair vote. On the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965, signed by President Lyndon Johnson after American were killed and beaten fighting for the right to vote in Selma, Alabama, such a phony organization is all the more insulting and outrageous.

For you to support and feed in to their fiction displays the hard-right bias of “news” organizations such as yours claiming to offer “balance” to what you see as a “Liberal” media bias.