TODD GREGORY/Media Matters for America
Special Report guest host Shannon Bream falsely claimed that the Obama campaign is suing to prevent military voters in Ohio from having extra time to cast their ballots. In reality, the lawsuit seeks to allow all votersin Ohio to cast their ballots during the window open to military personnel and their families. The lawsuit does not seek to restrict voting by military families in any way.
Correspondent Ed Henry followed with a misleading report that included a clip of Mitt Romney saying that it would be a disservice to members of the military to try to impede them from voting. But Henry did not cite any evidence that the lawsuit is intended to impede military voting.
As The Cincinnati Enquirer reported on July 18, "Now, only uniformed military personnel, their spouses and their voting-age dependents [in Ohio] can vote through Monday, the day before the Nov. 6 election. Everyone else must vote by the Friday before Election Day. The campaign says that means all Ohio voters aren't being treated fairly and that's a violation of the U.S. Constitution's equal protection clause" (via Nexis).
From the August 3 edition of Special Report:
At the top of the show, Bream said that the Obama campaign is "suing to keep members of the military from having extra time to cast their ballots" in Ohio. That is simply false. Again, the lawsuit seeks to extend the amount of time all Ohio voters can cast their ballots -- not shorten the amount of time military families can vote.
Later, during a panel discussion, Bream and others added a small measure of clarity to the subject, but that does nothing to excuse the terrible reporting earlier in the show.
Just a couple of weeks ago, Fox personalities had dismissed the Ohio lawsuit as "frivolous."
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