Join Our Media Blitz

However, to a large extent, the corporate-controlled media has been silent and passive during the unfolding events of the past few weeks, unwilling to investigate widespread reports of irregularities, particularly in poor and minority communities. What little recount coverage appears tends to belittling and ridiculing our efforts to defend and expand democracy in Ohio and by extension in the rest of our nation as well. And it's not only the recount that gets ignored. This week we noticed an Associated Press article on the recount that mentioned the Greens and quoted Cobb Spokesperson, Blair Bobier, but when the same AP article was published in various newspapers, mention of Greens was reduced or removed altogether, even in cases where the article was lengthened in other ways.

We need your help to insist on "fair and balanced" reporting of the recount and the Greens. We encourage everyone who supports the recount to participate in our ongoing Media Blitz. Start by sending a letter to the editor or a guest op-ed explaining why it is important and demnding that the publication in question cover this issue.

We want to blitz the media with as many letters, column submissions, and articles as possible about the Ohio recount, the Green Party's role in it, and our principled defense of democracy.

Here's what we're asking you to do:

• Write a letter to the editor, a guest op-ed column, an article, or an essay about the Ohio recount. Send it to your local daily newspaper, weekly community periodical, or monthly magazine. See below for suggested "talking points" about the Ohio recount, a sample letter, and advice about writing.
• Post your letter, column, etc. on e-mail discussion lists for others to read. Let us know if your submission gets published, so we can circulate and archive it.
• If you don't have time to write a letter or column, please consider making a donation to our recount efforts.
• Please join this Blitz, and help our campaign, either through your creativity or your generosity! The more letters, columns, and articles that get published, the more people will see the Green Party and our multi-partisan Democracy Movement as a beacon of hope in the next four years. Thanks!

Talking Points

Some suggestions for what to write about the Ohio recount and Green dedication to democracy:

• Two presidential candidates, David Cobb (Green Party) and Michael Badnarik (Libertarian Party) have formally demanded a recount of the presidential ballots in Ohio. The Ohio Green Party and the Green Party of the United States are cooperating with Mr. Cobb.
• The Ohio recount is necessary because of documented voting irregularities: numerous press and independent reports of voter intimidation, mismarked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines, and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters.
• Cobb and Badnarik are demanding that Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell, a Republican who chaired the Ohio Bush campaign, recuse himself from the recount process.
• Greens are demanding auditable paper ballot trails to verify all votes cast on computer voting machines. If the result of the Ohio recount movement is the implementation of auditable paper ballots, it will be a huge victory for democracy.
• Most of the malfunctions allegedly favored Bush; the exit polls gave accurate results for Senate candidates, but not for the presidential candidates.
• We aren't pushing for a recount because it'll change the outcome of the election. (It probably won't.) We're not fighting for John Kerry. (He could do that on his own). Greens are pursuing a recount because it's the best way to ensure fair elections and accurate vote counts now and in the future. The integrity of the voting process is at stake: we won't know what other problems there might be with the election unless we recount.
• The Cobb and Badnarik campaigns have raised the required recount fee for the recount, and are now collecting money and volunteers for the monitoring effort.
• For the Democratic Party's leadership, the lesson of the 2000 Florida scandal was that controversy should be avoided, even if votes were obstructed or uncounted. For the Green Party, the lesson of 2000 is that we need to fight for fair elections, the right to vote, accurate vote counts, and the future of our democracy.
• The Green Party has consistently spoken out for the right to vote and the right of every vote to be counted, for investigation of obstructed votes, and for auditable paper ballot trails to verify all votes cast on computer voting machines. Greens are also campaigning for clean election options, Instant Runoff Voting, abolition of the Electoral College, enforcement of the 14th Amendment's guarantee of voting rights.
• YOUR IDEA HERE

Sample "Letter to the Editor"

Tips on Communicating with the Media

• The talking above points are suggestions — use as many or as few of them as you like. Rewrite them using your own words if you prefer.
• The Ohio recount is necessary because of documented voting irregularities: numerous press and independent reports of voter intimidation, mismarked and discarded ballots, problems with electronic voting machines, and the targeted disenfranchisement of African American voters.
• Be concise! Newspaper editors usually have a 500 to 750 word limit on columns, and a 250 word limit on letters. (Look it up on line before you start writing, and make sure you follow all the requirements.) A letter to the editor that's four sentences long is a lot more likely to get printed than one that's four paragraphs.
• Don't incorporate all the recommended talking points. In a letter to the editor, it's best to make one or two strong points. A column can include a lot more information, but should still focus on one or two points. Delete all unnecessary words, especially phrases like "In my opinion..." and "I think that...." Don't repeat yourself.
• Be extremely clear and punchy in the way you express yourself. Also, a letter or column that includes a little humor or irony or says something in a novel way is more likely to get published.
• If you can personalize the letter or column, you'll increase your chances of getting published. For example: "My nephew was sent to Iraq" or "I'm one of 45 million Americans without health insurance."
• It often helps to reference an already published article in the newspaper to which your letter is addressed.
• Be specific; avoid abstractions. For instance, "Greens support working people" and "Greens support economic justice" are meaningless, Dems & Repubs say the same thing. Instead say something like "Greens support living wages and repeal of Taft-Hartley restrictions on workplace organizing" or "Greens support the efforts of UAW Local 27 to win better wages."
• Be sure to mention the Green Party somewhere in your piece, or mention that you're a Green Party member, or mention a Green candidate or officeholder.