Media coverage of Alberto Gonzales’ resignation has ignored evidence that the administration used the Department of Justice to pursue ‘voter fraud’ and suppress minority votes.

While the New York Times, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times alluded to the attorney general firing scandals in separate articles analyzing the embattled Attorney General’s scandal-ridden tenure, none mentioned the voting scandal. The media narrative focused on Gonzales‘ loyalty without ever explaining the substantive consequences of his cronyism.

As the PBS program NOW with David Brancaccio reported in July, the Republicans challenged hundreds of thousands of newly registered voters in 2004 by sending them test congratulations letters. “If a letter could not be delivered, the name was added to a list of people the Republicans planned to stop as they tried to vote.” The Republican Party has admitted to challenging voters, but has disputed charges that it illegally targeted minority voters and African American soldiers serving in Iraq. Congress is now investigating these allegations.

According to former New Mexcio Attorney General David Iglesias, the administration also used the Department of Justice to challenge voters. Iglesias alleges that he received emails “with memoranda attached to them in the fall of 2002, 2004 and then again in 2006…[which] admonished U.S. Attorneys to work closely with election officials to offer assistance and investigate and prosecute what appeared to be voter fraud cases.” Iglesias was fired after “his task force could not find a single case of voter fraud worth prosecuting.”

And while the 2004 Republican scheme to purge African Americans from the voter rolls in battle ground states was not directed by Gonzales, his resignation offers mainstream media outlets an important opportunity to re-examine previously underreported aspects of the Attorney General firing scandal.

But if early reports are any indication, mainstream media will rehash Gonzales’ background and well known allegiance to Bush in lue of critically reporting on the consequences of Gonzales’ tenure at the Department of Justice.

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