ABC News – Steve Osunsami for GMA
We have ABC News delivering a report on a threat that is rather hysterical – both in the “outlandish” and “hilarious” definition. In an earnest dose of coverage, Steve Osunsami reports from Georgia that election officials fear for their safety – from uninformed MAGA voters.
In a segment on Good Morning America, what we get is a report rooted entirely in one official’s emotion and speculation. Osunsami speaks with Dierdre Holden, director of the local Board of Elections. She insists that the voters in her area are “overwhelmed with misinformation.” This, we are promised, leads to a threatening environment for the election.
This is a precinct that President Donald Trump won in the past three elections by nearly a 2/3 margin, but there are said to be problems looming from the electorate. Once more, we are served the insistence that Republican voters are nothing more than a mob of dupes falling prey to fake news – and then this report turns hilariously hyperbolic.
Trump is accused of driving these suspicions in Pauling County. Then watch as the segment cuts abruptly to a scene of a woman raging at workers, in a dramatic dose of editing.
They are said to be preparing for “violent voters, and active shooters.” Not to suggest that taking safety precautions in the workplace is a wrongheaded decision, but that kind of preparation does not justify reporting on assured activity. To explain, most businesses have evacuation procedures and other safety protocols they enact in the event a fire might break out. But that does not justify a news report on the imminent threat of a conflagration at a place of business.
Yet this is precisely what ABC News is doing in this case. Preparation is being regarded as proof. In cartoonish fashion, a woman is playing the role of one such enraged voter, as she shrieks and points at precinct workers. Later, she continues her tirade and at one point flops on the ground dramatically, taking a table down with her. (Her co-workers then applauding her performance is a sweet touch.)
This is a portrayal being done by people who behave like they have never met a Trump voter before and are acting in a fashion they are sure that MAGA devotees behave. It is such a histrionic display, and Ms. Holden’s maudlin explanation of what they face has you almost feeling offended by how this woman heading the elections views her neighbors.
This insistence that things will certainly turn violent is pure wishcasting, and it is rooted in nothing but projection. They all know how MAGA behaves, so they feel certain that things will become unhinged at the polls. Yet this is all based on nothing substantive, and we can show this is the case.
Currently, early voting has been taking place, and there have not been any reports of violence erupting. This was also the case in the last election. And in Georgia, which had been the focus of much scorn from Joe Biden, Democrats, and the media over voting integrity laws passed in recent years, voter turnout has hit record numbers, and still no violence has been reported.
And yet, Osunsami is insisting this is going to take place, yet we can detect that ABC News is certain this is reality. As Holden describes the locals who are ignorantly swayed by Trump’s comments, Osunsami makes dramatic faces at the outlandishness of their thinking. But we then see how his melodramatic reactions are pure theater. Osunsami has heard these very claims before.
He has been at it for some time; we can show. There was the same Osunsami during the 2024 general election, reporting from the same Pauling County and speaking with the same gaudily bespectacled Dierdre Holden, fretting over the violence they were sure was to erupt.
At that time, he even provided the same clip of the histrionics seen in their training sessions, with the same footage of how they think violent MAGA voters will behave.
In another ABC News piece in its Protecting Your Vote series in 2024, there was Ms. Holden again being quoted on the fears she and her staff face. It shows the desperation behind this that, while in the entire state, Osunsami had to go to the same small enclave to get these carbon-copy claims over something that is not happening. The promise of Trump voter violence is so assured that ABC News is recycling the promises, despite those darned MAGA nutters failing to provide the hoped-for violence.
But hey, these are MAGA people they are talking about. At ABC News, they just KNOW they are going to act up some day, so reporting on what has yet to happen – but will – is perfectly sound journalism.
This is an opinion piece. The views expressed in this article are those of just the author.
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