New York, Ohio candidates accuse news outlets of election interference

Candidates running in the 2024 elections in New York and Ohio accused news outlets of election interference in separate incidents in late October.

Rep. Elise Stefanik, in a post on the social media platform X, accused North Country Public Radio of “election interference” on Oct. 30, after one of its journalists posted an inaccurate report on X about the location in upstate New York where Stefanik voted early.

Stefanik, a Republican, included a screenshot of NCPR reporter Emily Russell’s post stating that the New York representative had cast her early ballot in the state’s 20th District, even though she is running for reelection in the 21st District.

Stefanik noted that the location where she cast her ballot was open to all voters in Saratoga County, and alleged that NCPR “sent out false information and spread misinformation about early voting locations in my district to suppress the vote.”

Stefanik added, “We have received calls into our office of confused voters due to this desperate election interference by an NPR affiliate.”

Stefanik also vowed, “And I will DEFUND NPR!”

NPR is partly funded by the federal government through grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Republican legislators have previously threatened to introduce legislation to cut the broadcaster’s funding due to what they described as its left-wing bias.

Russell later that day deleted the post due to what she called “a misunderstanding about the details of a polling location,” adding, “I apologize for the error.”

Stefanik and NCPR did not respond to requests for comment.

In the Ohio incident, Dawn Zinni, a candidate for recorder in Trumbull County, sued reporter David Skolnick and the Tribune Chronicle on Oct. 31, alleging that “The Tribune is a liberal Democrat publication that, with malicious intent, publicizes conservative Trump supporters like Zinni in a ‘false light,’” according to court documents reviewed by the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker.

The lawsuit described Zinni as “a Republican, a devout Christian, and a supporter of Donald J. Trump.” It accused Skolnick of “biased, discriminatory, and unbalanced” reporting on business-related lawsuits that Zinni faced, of failing to cover similar litigation faced by incumbent male Democratic officials and of openly criticizing Zinni’s Christian faith.

The suit seeks $1 million in punitive damages and $25,000 in compensatory damages.

Zinni’s attorney, Sean Logue, and the Tribune Chronicle did not reply to requests for comment.