NPR’s ‘Recent Air’ Talks Up GOP Voter Suppression with New York Instances Reporter
On Thursday, NPR talk show Fresh Air, starring Terry Gross, devoted 36.5 minutes to beating Republicans for “politicizing” the elections as if the Democrats never would. Their guest was the New York Times reporter Nick Corasaniti, and the online headline read: “Voting restrictions politicize the US electoral system, the journalist says.”
TERRY GROSS: My guest, Nick Corasaniti, shares what he describes how the Republican Party has tried for years to secure political control by passing new laws to restrict access to voting and restrict electoral initiatives that meet the goals of the Republicans could undermine and increase penalties for election workers and officials who make even minor mistakes. At the same time, Republican lawmakers in at least eight states controlled by Republican lawmakers are trying to remove the powers of state secretaries, governors and bipartisan electoral bodies to conduct elections. He says these efforts could further undermine the country’s democratic norms.
Terry Gross, who accepted a medal from President Obama, asked Softballs about the evil Republicans: “In one of your articles you described Georgia’s new electoral law as a staggering assertion of partisan power in elections. What makes it breathtaking? “
Nowhere in this half hour was the Democratic Party’s 2020 machinations discussed to make the electoral environment as favorable as possible for its victory. Part of this system, of course, is to keep taxpayer-funded public television and radio running to cover the Democratic Party’s talking points.
When Corasaniti complained about Republicans disenfranchising state and local officials, they never discussed the Democrats promoting the For the People Act, in which … the federal government is disenfranchising state and local officials would.
That starts with the constant accusation of racism. They ignored the fact that voters of all races prefer to ask voters for ID:
GROSS: Opponents of new restrictive voting laws are saying that they should restrict voting in predominantly African-American communities. They target black voters. What are some of the things that critics point out as targeting black voters?
CORASANITI: Well there are some, and it varies from state to state. However, there have long been studies showing that certain additional laws to identify voters often have a disproportionate effect on color communities than, for example, white voters. I think it was a 2018 study – I know it was in the Atlantic – that found that black and Hispanic voters were three times more likely than white voters in polling stations to say that they lacked proper identification, which is why they were turned away don’t have the correct ID. So there has been a long history of using voter cards to block access to voting in color communities.
The interview ended with Gross announcing, as Corasaniti has argued, “these efforts to curb voting and electoral initiatives and to diminish the powers of state secretaries and to punish electoral officials that these efforts undermine our democracy and undermine the country’s democratic norms fairness is the bedrock of American democracy. And I wonder if you’ve gotten a setback from writing this by editors in the paper. “
Corasaniti praised his bosses: “I think we were pretty consistent in our coverage of efforts to restrict the vote even before the 2020 elections … that if there are these attacks on the vote, no matter where they are are located.” I’m from there, it’s really an attack on American democracy and little D’s democratic norms. And no, I didn’t get any backlash from my editors. “
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