Friday Questions for Diane, May 16, 2008

On Monday the NYTimes quoted Thor Hearne from the American Center for Voting Rights as a "strong advocate for voter ID laws". Hearne is well known amongst voting integrity activists as the Bush/Cheney2004 General Counsel who suddenly appeared as the spokesman for this 1-day-old organization to testify before Congressman Bob Ney's committee in April 2005 and then participate in the Baker Carter panel the next week -- protesting "voter fraud" -- all to distract from the real problems of the 2004 election - as was proven by the investigative work of Brad Friedman of Bradblog. The website of the ACVR disappeared overnight last year when Hearne's name was tied to the U.S. Attorney firing scandal.

After readers contacted the NYTimes about Hearne and his organization, the paper edited the online article -- but instead of acknowledging what they'd learned about Hearne, they simply removed the reference to the American Center for Voting Rights and kept him as a source.
How can we expect a fair election in November when even the often gutsy NYTimes is hiding important information on Republican operatives pretending to be nonpartisan voting integrity experts?