The SAVE Act would “throw up obstacles for all voters, making it more difficult for them to access their rights,” FAIR media analyst Julie Hollar writes. She argues that many mainstream media outlets have failed to properly cover the dangers of the SAVE Act or to debunk Republicans’ false claims about voter fraud, instead falling back on “standard framing of ‘Republicans say X, Democrats say Y’––or, worse, of ‘Democrats vs. the public.’”
JULIE HOLLAR; [email protected]
Hollar is FAIR’s senior analyst and managing editor.
Hollar told the Institute for Public Accuracy: “The mainstream reports do try to debunk election fraud claims from Trump, but they also make this a ‘both-sides’ issue, presenting the polling in a skewed way and muddying the waters for the public. We need really clear and unequivocal reporting on the issue.
“This is a really important issue. Lots of other things are happening in the news to distract from it, but Trump was calling [voter fraud] his top issue. This is a clear policy issue; there are clear provisions in the SAVE Act that would do particular things. But when you look at the polling that news reports are citing, the public still knows very little about it. The public is still misinformed. The public is ill informed because of the years-long campaign by Donald Trump to misinform people about voter fraud. The SAVE Act is just the latest piece of that campaign.
“The polling often suggests that most people want [what the SAVE Act calls for] but the Democrats oppose it. But they leave out expert opinion and suggest that opposition to the SAVE Act is strictly a partisan issue. It suggests that opposition to the Act is actually antidemocratic because the public likes it. But when you look at those polls, [you see that respondents] may not have a strong feeling or belief about the issue, but they’re encouraged to say one thing or another because of the way the question is framed. One poll, for instance, introduced the SAVE Act and gave people suggestions of what the Act would do, because people don’t know what it is. But respondents were primed with a question that explains the SAVE Act as ‘ending sanctuary protections for criminal illegal immigrants.’ They’re priming respondents with false and inflammatory language.”
The SAVE Act is likely not going to get through Congress. But Hollar emphasizes that it will “no doubt accomplish its goal to sow further doubt about elections and make it seem like Democrats are trying to commit fraud. Some of the damage is already done––and that’s from irresponsible media coverage that isn’t making clear to people what the Act actually does.”