As they say in the South, a hit dog will holler. So it was this past weekend when the right wing blogosphere turned some attention to our publisher, the Applied Research Center, in order to protest Colorlines.com’s aggressive [coverage of attacks on voting rights](http://colorlines.com/brentin-mock/) over the past year. The conservative watchdog group Media Trackers Ohio spelled out for its readers all the work we’re quite proud to have done this year. Beginning as early as February, we worked aggressively to follow the tea-party led movement to roll back access to voting. We sent reporters to their conferences and meetings to find out what they were saying and planning. We asked them, time and again, to square their assertions that voter fraud is a problem with overwhelming evidence to the contrary. In the end, the most direct answer we received came in the form of a poll watcher in Aurora, Colorado, who offered some unique candor. [Watch the explanation for yourself](http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/11/watch_a_colorado_gop_poll_watcher_report_a_high_concentration_of_people_of_color.html). The Media Watch Ohio article, which got some shine on the rightwing site Daily Caller as well, professes to uncover our ties to various foundations and publications that support racial justice. Presumably, they believe these associations call our journalism into question. To the contrary, we believe they lend us credibility. That’s why, when we put together our Voting Rights Watch project, we decided to make space for the voices of folks who were working in targeted communities to defend their own rights. We r[ecruited more than a dozen community journalists](http://colorlines.com/archives/2012/09/voting_rights_watch_community_journalists.html), many of whom were part of local movements and campaigns, and asked them to chime in with both perspectives and leads. Their contribution added invaluable texture, such as this testimony from Tayna Fogle, a Kentucky woman who fought for years to have her rights restored after serving time for a felony.
Breaking News: Colorlines Believes in Racial Justice (Or, Why the Right’s Scared of Us)
Our voting rights coverage has prompted some right wing muckraking on our publisher. We'll save them the effort: We're proud to be part of a racial justice movement.
By Kai Wright Dec 05, 2012