Betsy Devine: Funny ha-ha and/or funny peculiar

Why didn’t I guess–this year’s last-minute deception is illegal phone-calls with a new twist on deception. Says Eric Moskowitz of the Concord Monitor: A letter-writer to the Monitor said she had been “bombarded by recorded election messages from [Democratic candidate] Paul Hodes.” Marilyn Jewell of Concord wrote that she would be sure to vote for [his Republican opponent Charlie] Bass, in part because “he doesn’t pester me to death.” What’s wrong with this picture? Hodes isn’t pummeling voters with repeated robocalls–Republicans are.

But it sure does sound that way, for the first ten seconds (“Hello, I’m calling with information about Paul Hodes…”) Hang up the phone? That’s fine with the robocallers, because they’ll call you back, again and again and again.

And NH isn’t the only place where this is happening.

• Here’s a recording from Illinois of three robocalls to the same answering machine: “Hello, I’m calling with information about Tammy Duckworth…”
• In Connecticut, these phone calls start coming as early as 5 a.m.
• At DailyKos, SB Woodside, tracking the national story, lists 15 races where this is going on.
• Also tracking the story, Talking Points Memo links to another robocall recording, this one from New York.

So where is our national media on this national story?

Too slow to catch up with this brand-new voter suppression tactic, at least until well after Tuesday’s election.

“The calls are designed to make you hang up right after the words ‘Paul Hodes,”‘ says Hodes campaign spokesman Reid Cherlin.

---

* OK, it’s a nasty trick, but is it illegal? Well, shouldn’t it be? FCC regulations provide that all prerecorded messages must “at the beginning of the message, state clearly the identity of the business, individual, or other entity that is responsible for initiating the call.” [47 C.F.R. § 64.1200(b)]

Hello, “real media”–could you please cover this story?

---

p.s. Many thanks to Dave Winer, David Weinberger, Jeff Jarvis, Frank Paynter, and Elaine of Kalilily for your support on the the last-minute-deception story!

---

Update: I just got recordings of two NH robocalls.

---