Are Slate.com, Mickey Kaus and Joshua Micah Marshall Stealing BlackElectorate.com's Thunder?

Some of you have been asking me to do this for over a year. Well, I think I will defer to your judgment and begin to challenge some of these journalists who come to BlackElectorate.com read our work and then write articles as if they came up with what they did on their own. We have privately checked a few writers and websites who we know do this without mentioning our website. With your help we will look to expose these individuals and the institutions they work for from now on. On Monday, one of our outstanding viewers, Greg Foltz, e-mailed us to inform us that a couple of writers and Slate.com were positioning their most recent writing on the Florida 2000 elections as if they unearthed something by recognizing that Al Gore blew it by ignoring overvotes. Now, those of you who have been with us for nearly a year know of the extensive work we devoted to that subject last year. I privately received e-mails from a few reporters who write for mainstream publications and websites who told me that we were first and the best with what we wrote on the subject. We received the same praise from some staffers for Congressional Black Caucus members - during the controversy.

Here is what Greg wrote:

Date: Mon, 12 Nov 2001 22:23:30 -0600

TO: Editors of blackelectorate. com

Of all the commentary and analysis in the wake of the 2000 Florida Presidential election I heard or read, perhaps the most thoughtful was an article that appeared in blackelectorate.com entitled "A Deeper Look" by Cedric Muhammad. It described just how misguided the Gore legal strategy for recounts was in that it ignored the so called 'over-vote' particularly in Duval county. Well, a year later the big-time consortium of major news media outlets goes public with its findings that Gore should have pursued recounts of over-votes, and that if he did he might have prevailed. Slate magazine's political writer said in an article published today "you heard it here first" - Gore blew it by ignoring the over-votes in his post-election strategy. Amazing. It took a year, a year! for the "convential wisdom" to finally arrive at the spot Mr. Muhammad and this page staked out a
year ago.

How does it feel to be so far ahead of your time?

Greg Foltz
Political junkie
Memphis, Tenn

p.s. I am going to write to that Slate pundit and tell him that I most certainly did not "hear it here first." I heard it first on blackelectorate.com.

So, Greg, on his job, alerted us to how Slate, Mickey Kaus, and Joshua Michah Marshall -a year after the fact- look as if they want us all to believe that they have a scoop by pointing out what we helped to make obvious last winter. I do not know for a fact that the suspected "biters" are guilty of what Greg suspects. I tend to believe that they are. Of course, we know for a fact that Slate writers and publications that Joshua Micah Marshall (I actually think Mr. Marshall is an excellent writer) writes for do monitor and visit our site.

So today I ask all of my BlackElectorate.com viewers to review the circumstantial evidence and make a judgement as to whether or not someone(s) are attempting to obtain glory from an argument we advanced over a year ago.

Here is what Slate wrote a few days ago:
Did Gore Blow It?

Here is what Joshua Micah Marshall wrote a few days ago:

Talking Points Memo Nov. 10th

Here is what BlackELectorate.com wrote nearly 1 year ago:

12/07/00 Why Is Al Gore Ignoring Black Voters In Duval County?

12/11/00 As Long As Gore Leaves Out Overvotes, Scalia And Bush Have The Better Argument

12/12/00 The Supreme Court Asks The Question That Black Leaders Won't

12/13/00 How Leaving Blacks Out Of Legal Arguments Hurt Gore's Case

1/29/01 President-Select Or President-Donate? A Final Word On Overvotes

You be the judge!

Let us and the suspected "biters" know what your verdict is?

Cedric Muhammad

Wednesday, November 14, 2001

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The views and opinions expressed herein by the author do not necessarily represent the opinions or position of BlackElectorate.com or Black Electorate Communications.