Shades of Joe McCarthy era. It's mighty suspicious that the Republican FBI director now sends tabloid-like innuendo to desperate Republican congressmen 11 days before a general election Republicans could be losing. It's about hacked/stolen e-mails and Anthony Weiner's private conversations, not state secrets. Bernie Sanders famously said, "Enough with the e-mails!"
What do FBI director, Trump and the GOP, stolen WikiLeaks/Snowden/Russian Connection and Karen Leatherwood's Oct. 31 trick have in common? They all want to alter the U.S. election outcome. The FBI investigation will only turn up e-mails that are old messages, benign personal notes. Harry Reid months ago asked for disclosure concerning Russian involvement/tampering. The FBI didn't respond to him. Yet they had time to suggest new pertinent e-mails concerning Clinton.
In Frank Batavick's Mass Media class, I learned about yellow journalism/tabloid press. Journalism /TV is supposed to be presentation of facts without interpretation but tabloid press is all about suggested scandal presented in sensational manner — thin on facts, generated to fool gullible people. In "The Wizard of Oz," the little man behind the curtain made it up. The book "The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven" isn't real. Evidence — at 16 the kid recants the whole story made up by his father. That's real. This truth got buried.
Karen Leatherwood and the voter fraud story — it has similarities to the FBI letter — no proof of criminal wrongdoing, only suggestion. At first the story appeared as current, but it was 12 years ago and she never proved someone voted in her name. Near the end, Leatherwood says probably not a problem now. For Halloween, she contrived story to trick people into voting for her candidates.
Twelve years ago, I think Leatherwood's problem was a data entry problem subject to human error, no devious intent. The Carroll County building permits misfiled my permit under Wilson, took three weeks to find it. Friend kept getting car non-payment notices from local bank. He had receipts. They kept promising to fix it; took three months. The existence of other Nancy Nelsons caused me problems at doctor's offices when the staff pulled wrong files. Errors happen.
In our digital world, private e-mail conversations aren't safe. Seems like a movie script, Russia influencing our election.
Nan Nelson
Westminster
