It has been an interesting few days for Forward Kentucky and yours truly.
After reading the national hot takes on voting in Louisville, with most people claiming we had one polling location for 600,000 people to vote, I decided to write a story to clear some things up (“Would everyone please get the Louisville voting story straight?“). I posted it on the site, and cross-posted it on Daily Kos.
Well, it blew up, becoming easily the most-read article on the site ever. (According to our analytics tracker, it’s at 47,000 views and climbing.) What also blew up were the comments, both on the site and in social media.
Some people thanked me for the clarification. Others, though, accused me of being part of some sort of cover-up, or of justifying voter suppression, or of just lying. I especially loved the one that said “And you call yourself a progressive!”
I then went out to the Expo Center yesterday and spent some time talking with people, observing the process, and taking pictures. I posted that last night, which you can also read on the site (and look at the great pictures 😊).
Didn’t matter. People saw the pictures of the size of the setup, the process running smoothly, people able to vote in a few minutes … and they still cried out “voter suppression!”
So, as I said, it’s been a learning experience. People on the left can sometimes be as quick to judge, and as quick to cry Foul, as people on the right. Taking offense and then not being able to admit you were wrong is not a partisan attribute.
But, all we can do is put out the facts as we know them, make sure we distinguish between news and opinion, and hope people read as objectively as we try to report.
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