[EL] this needs to stop: inaccurate reporting on inaccurate reports

[Doug Hess]

The trend of news outlets covering without question inaccurate reports
issued by election chiefs--perhaps issued by officials to drum up
attention to the "good work" they are doing--has got to stop.

Consider this article from the Times-Dispatch in VA:
http://www.timesdispatch.com/news/state-regional/government-politics/thousands-of-va-voters-on-the-rolls-in-other-states/article_3ce0c700-9ac9-53c1-8bfa-54619d917feb.html

Often the headlines mistakenly characterize the evidence in the
article. In this case, the headline is somewhat appropriately vague
and it is the opening paragraph that contradicts the information in
the article. But the headline still jumps the gun a bit. [I know
writers will point out that headlines are set by somebody above them,
but from the readers' point of view a headline and the article
following it (sometimes also the first paragraph or two) are one
thing, even if contradictory.]

The opening sentence is "As many as 308,000 Virginia voters — with
97,000 of them on active rolls — may also be registered to cast their
ballot in other states." This statement is DIRECTLY contradicted by
later statements in the article!

Indeed, the smallest number in the article is likely too big based on
what the article says. I think a responsible journalistic reaction to
these attempts to get attention on what has become a very politicized
topic would be to say "hey, call us back when you have a number that
is more certain (i.e., sustained by high-quality evidence)."
Otherwise, the news are contributing to the public being misinformed
about the state of voter registration rolls.

Douglas R. Hess, PhD
Washington, DC
ph. 202-277-6400
douglasrhess at gmail.com

Starting Aug. 2013:

Assistant Professor
Department of Political Science
Grinnell College
1210 Park Street
Grinnell, IA 50112-1670