Just a quick update

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Just a quick update on the media consortium’s comprehensive recount of last year’s presidential election in Florida. When I cited the Globe and Mail article which said the recount story had been spiked, I hadn’t yet seen Howie Kurtz’s article which said the recount analysis had only been delayed by the war, not canceled. Mickey Kaus makes a similar point, quoting the Wall Street Journal’s Alan Murray.

So consider this post a partial correction of yesterday’s.

But only partial.

Mickey’s evidence comes from a bureau chief of one of the news organizations. And Kurtz provides no quotations. The only quotes I’ve been able to find are in the Globe and Mail piece. And those seem at least ambiguous about the fate of the mega-recount analysis. A New York Times spokeswoman told the paper that the recount analysis had been “postponed indefinitely.”

I assume the recount probably will proceed at some later date. But considering the importance of the matter at hand, it still seems to me that the media outlets in question are being deliberately vague. I think they’re hedging. And bureau chiefs giving personal assurances to friends in the business (absent quotes) really doesn’t cut it.

As mentioned yesterday, a delay in the project seems entirely reasonable. But if it’s only a delay, the whole consortium should issue a press release stating that this is only a delay, and that the complete survey of disputed ballots will be completed and published as originally planned.

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