Wednesday, April 27, 2005

It's not manipulation! It's explanation!

I can't believe the evil propagandist

Republican Pollster Frank Luntz agreed to do this piece. He reveals all the tricks. It just shows how arrogant these people are, and how they know that their base will go along with anything. You have to watch this video, it is filled with stuff that I've written about before (plus it is very funny). Control of the visuals, no dissent in the audience, no tough questions, Orwellian word selection. Luntz just comes right out and opens the kimono (I know, scary image).

Only the court Jester can say, "Look at what these jerks are doing!" because if the "so called liberal media" did it they would flooded with letters and screams they have a "liberal bias" if they pointed out the truth. These fake Town Halls are a mockery of free speech. They are so afraid of confrontation and they know the message and the message giver (the President) are so weak they will deny citizens who oppose a chance to speak out. They even kick out people who have tickets to see The President because they are afraid they might create a scene by disagreeing.

HOW TO FAKE YOUR OWN TOWN HALL

Once again, a parody news segment on Comedy Central's "The Daily Show" is offering better journalism than much of what you'll find coming from "real" newsrooms. CC's Samantha Bee interviews Republican media strategist Frank Luntz for advice on how to create her own fake town hall meetings, like the ones that President Bush has been using to promote his Social security privatization scheme.

"A real town hall can be very dangerous if it gets out of control," Luntz explains. "A town hall where the speaker cannot command the respect and the control of the audience can look very bad on television. ... To me the most important component of a successful town hall is the visual, is the backdrop." And the audience itself is part of the backdrop, Luntz explains as he reviews footage from an actual Bush town hall video: "There he's got an African-American, he's got an Asian, there's your female he's got. It's one of everybody. It's almost like the rainbow wedding line."

SOURCE: Comedy Central, April 19, 2005
For more information or to comment on this story, visit: http://www.prwatch.org/node/3614

9 Comments:

CmdrSue said...

I had to watch the segment a few times before I would believe that it was really, really real. I guess it's a good thing they re-run them so much. WTF? It's tantamount to coming out and saying, "Oh, by the way, we're evil, lying bastards. In case you missed it."

I do not wish for a values-neutral Yoda.

2:06 PM  
spocko said...

Yeah and they are all in on it (except maybe the president, they try and keep him as a true believer.)

It's the smart cynical ones that are the most evil. They use the Christians who are clueless they are being used. Also I wonder about the non-christians and truely ficsal conseratives who are in the party. They have to be hating themsleves but not willing to cross over and say, "Enough with the God Talk! Enough with the outragous spending and unsupportable tax cuts!" But they haven't spoken up because they want to stay in power.

2:35 PM  
coho said...

It is unfortunate that the Right (which, being in fact mostly wrong, makes them a bunch of (oxy)morons) has discovered the utility of a ValuesNeutralYoda(tm), because it can't really be countered with a ValuesYoda(tm). His message could only be "Use real people with real opinions and let them express them whatever they may be". This is, unfortunately, far too obvious and lacking in jingoism to make a catchy bumper sticker, or for apathetic underinformed folks to absorb. They think the stuff they're watching on ABNBCBSNN is all true already.

10:37 PM  
Anonymous said...

Are you trying to lead me to believe that somehow you actually thought that the network sponsored townhall shows were full of random people? At the 2000 Gore bush debate in St. Louis,(where Gore won 77% and Kerry 80%) Did you really think they imported conservatives or republicans? Did you think they didn't pre-screen the questions folks were going to ask? C'mon Spocko, you're brighter than that. News isn't about reporting facts, it's about making good television. Does anyone, that really wants to know where a candidate stands on an issue, watch a televised debate to find out?

11:02 PM  
coho said...

Unfortunately, Anonymous, the aforementioned apathetic underinformeds are doing just that.

12:03 AM  
Anonymous said...

To be a writer at Comedy Central must be the easiest job in America right now.

6:41 PM  
CmdrSue said...

To be a writer at Comedy Central must be the easiest job in America right now.

I'll invoke Will Rogers again.

"It's easy being a humorist when you've got the whole government working for you."

9:16 PM  
spocko said...

It's interesting, they actually asked a few comedians and cartooniest about this and I remember Tom Tomorrow saying something like it is actually hard to come up with stuff that is MORE outragous than what they really do.

Personally I wouldn't mind going back to a compentent person in the White House and jokes about sex than this incompentent person in the White House with jokes about how they are manipulating the American public to start an unneccessary war and run up huge deficits to pay off his cronies.

10:22 PM  
thehim said...

Spocko, I've ceased being surprised by this. They knew how dumb the populace is, and they've cornered the market. The people have been convinced that they want this, and nothing will convince them otherwise. It's beyond scary.

4:12 PM  

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