ePluribus Media has been following the caging story closely. In Voter Caging: Is this Tool still in the RNC Arsenal? standingup examines the new RNC roster and the training camps they came from. In his article Voter Suppression Mark Johnston takes a harder look at the data found in this article.

Now, in Palast, Progressives and Investigative Journalism, ePluribus Media Staffwriters, Mark Johnston, Standingup and Aaron Barlow open a dialogue on Greg Palast, Armed Madhouse and investigative journalism ...

from the article ...

[Palast] tried to open up a conversation critical to the future of voting rights in America. "Caging" may be just one way of manipulating the voting roles, but it is used for keeping a percentage of the poorer, less stable potential voters from exercising their rights.

... and from later in the article:

The claims of caging in 2004 have been repeated by Greg Palast in books and interviews since 2004 and have been often cited as evidence of voter suppression — and, certainly, his charges should be taken seriously. Unfortunately, no one has followed up on Palast's work. Not, that is, until we did. Though our investigation found there were no poll challenges in Duval County in 2004, which would be the most likely way of using the "caging" information, that does not mean that there was no preparation to use "caging," should the need arise. [more]...

As "consumers" of "news" we need to be aware -- or maybe that's "beware." There has been too little attention to this issue, and even Palast's reporting has been flawed. As American citizens and voters (as Palast makes clear), we again need to be aware -- or maybe that's "beware." Our voting rights may be under threat. But we don't know -- and won't, not until our representatives begin to take the threat seriously and start looking into what happened in 2004 (and not merely with caging) with an eye towards 2008.

Read the rest of the article on the Journal and come back here to discuss.

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