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Showing posts with label MSNBC. Show all posts
Showing posts with label MSNBC. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Monday, May 30, 2011
Down By the Old Rumor Mill Stream, Part Whatever
Devon Keester’s Hollywood Lowdown
“The dark, sweaty juncture where politics and show biz meet!”
[Note: Since Keester’s sources are shady and unreliable and usually found near a vinyl-covered barstool, his ramblings should be taken with a several grains of salt from the rim of his next margarita.]
-- Biden Over and Out: Obama will not be running with Biden as his Veep in 2012. Word is, Joe Biden is feeling every one of his 68 years and not anxious to enter another national campaign after finally facing the realization he’ll never be president. That’s okey-doke with Obama, as it gives him the opening to offer the VP slot to Hillary Clinton, further underwriting his re-election. Now that the sharp edges of the 2008 campaign have softened, and BHO and Sec-of-State Hill have a good working relationship, he would welcome her as a running mate, and the youthful 63-year-old Clinton would have a springboard for a presidential run in 2016. The only question that remains is if Hillary will sign on. She may not have the stomach for another national campaign herself, preferring, maybe, the governorship of a state to be named later instead. If not Clinton, Obama would like to make history, and notch his appeal to women voters, by naming someone of the female gender. Next on the list if Clinton doesn’t bite is supposedly Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, although US Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state are said to be strong possibilities as well.
-- The Story Behind the Story: Yup, Newt Gingrich had a suspicious interest-free revolving charge account at Tiffany’s for two years that racked up $500 grand in billings, but that’s not all. Ignoring for the moment that regular customers pay 21 percent interest on their charges, Newtie’s current wife Callista, when she was a lobbyist, had ties to the silver mining industry from which Tiffany’s fabricates its overpriced doodads, and Gingrich himself, while in the House, interceded to get the jewelry company a very sweet deal on use of public lands for mining. The Newtster may soon have more to worry about than his doomed SNL-skit presidential campaign -- the feds are taking notice of his involvement with the Tiff, and whether he actually paid down that half-mil himself or if some or all of it was written off by the grateful company as a lobbying fee. Whichever way it goes, Newt is going to end up in a courtroom somewhere, trying to stay out of the hoosegow, and probably still running for president in his fevered little brain. No wonder Newtie was reluctant to answer any questions about his $500K shopping spree at Tiffany’s -- it’s looking like a quid pro quo bribe.
-- The Story Behind the Story, Part Deux: Sure, it’s been all over the papers like a dog who got into the prune juice that pouty ex-Alaskan Ice Princess Sarah Palin is moving the whole-damn Wasillabilly brood to a luxurious $1.7 million 5-BR, 6.5-bath manse with a concrete swimmin’ hole in Scottsdale, AZ, near enough to America’s wackiest sheriff, Joe Arpaio, to be in the Red Zone if any of his pink-clad prisoners escape. But let’s just get this out of the way: the erstwhile Mama Grizzly is not running for president -- her ‘tragic bus’ tour of the Nor’east is just to revive national media interest in her fast-plummeting ‘brand,’ whatever her crackpot brand is these days. How could this be when all the big-time pundits are sure she’s running? Well, she hasn’t been kicked off Fox News, and she’s got a $1 mil-a-year contract there that runs through 2013. But she also allegedly has speaking contracts to read her palm to unfortunate victims through 2014; if she reneges on those contracts -- since she can’t legally take the money if she’s a candidate -- she’ll have to pay a stiff penalty. That would cost her a bundle out of pocket she can’t afford. Get your laughs now -- by 2015 she’ll be off Fox and consigned to introducing second-rate Branson, MO, acts with, “Hi there, remember me? I’m Sarah Palin!”
-- Ailes Out at Fox? Speaking of Fox Noose, head-major-domo-top-enchilada, first-among-inferiors Generalissimo Roger Ailes’ contract with king pinsetter Rupert Murdoch is up in 2013. Surely Uncle Rupe will renew it, you say. Not so fast: Murdoch’s recent wife Wendi likes Obama and loathes Ailes, and Rupe’s wives have considerable influence on him; plus, the whole fam damily who will be inheriting the business when Murdoch retires or ascends to Media Jesusland likewise has about as much affection for the former Nixon PR flack as they do for a case of the clap. Word is, James Murdoch, current deputy operating office at Fox parent News Corp, particularly has it in for Ailes after what Rog did to brother Lachlan, supposedly pushing James’ older sibling to the point of a nervous breakdown. The elder Murdoch is also said to not be pleased at the direction Ailes has dragged the GOP-propaganda cable channel; of course, he favors its conservative slant, but the hiring of palpable nitwits like Boom-Boom Palin and Man-On-Dog Ricky Santorum didn’t sit well with News Corps’ Bigga Boss. Look for a shake-up at Fox after the next election, unless the GOP wins Reagan-’84 big.
-- One More Fox Tale: A deep, deep rumor says the Keith Olbermann ousting at MSNBC was part of a deal with Fox News’ Roger Ailes. Seems Keith, the former ratings king at MSNBC, was getting under Roger’s skin with his gloves-off jibes at Fox personalities, as well as cutting into Fox’s cable dominance as his ‘Countdown’ show numbers steadily increased. In a top secret meeting with Comcast, then poised to buy up MSNBC parent NBC-Universal, Ailes and unnamed execs from Comcast and NBC allegedly struck a deal to lessen the attacks on Fox and dump Olbermann once the Comcast buy-out was finalized; in return, Fox would go easier on NBC and provide some other goodies. Part of the bargain was that MSNBC would get rid of its top rater and Fox would reciprocate. So Ailes agreed to jettison Fox ratings leader Glenn Beck in return for Olbermann’s exit. Roger got the best of the deal -- he wanted to give loose-cannon Beck the heave-ho anyway while MSNBC is now struggling in Keith’s old primetime slot, and Olbermann is fixing to cut down those ‘Lean Forward’ numbers even further when he resurrects ‘Countdown’ June 20th on Al Gore’s Current TV network at his old 8e/7c berth.
-- He Won’t Be Baack: A big dime is about to drop (but not in the form of a ‘bag’) on former Kali-forn-yuh guff’nor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Seems the ex-bodybuilder and purported actor had more than one out-of-wedlock bambino while married to Kennedy-kin Maria Shriver -- mayhap as many as 6 or 7 -- and all of their mamas want more money or they are calling the media. Add to that the news that the California AG is about to prosecute the Teutonic Musclehead for using state troopers to deliver comely young ‘club’ females 18-to-25 to his Governator living quarters at the Hyatt hotel in Sacramento, a clear misuse of state funds. It’s been reported Schwarzy planned to resume his ‘achting’ career post-politics -- fat chance, since the word is the major studios now think he’s not ‘bankable’ at the box office anymore. (Perhaps he can nab the independent-film roles Casper Van Dien turns down, at Van Dien pay, natch.) Oh, and one more thing: all the years of stress on his bones and muscles from over-exercising and steroid use have taken their toll -- the 63-year-old Ah-nuld allegedly now has the physical mobility of a man 20 years older and can only function normally by taking prescription painkillers.
© 2011 RS Janes.
“The dark, sweaty juncture where politics and show biz meet!”
[Note: Since Keester’s sources are shady and unreliable and usually found near a vinyl-covered barstool, his ramblings should be taken with a several grains of salt from the rim of his next margarita.]
-- Biden Over and Out: Obama will not be running with Biden as his Veep in 2012. Word is, Joe Biden is feeling every one of his 68 years and not anxious to enter another national campaign after finally facing the realization he’ll never be president. That’s okey-doke with Obama, as it gives him the opening to offer the VP slot to Hillary Clinton, further underwriting his re-election. Now that the sharp edges of the 2008 campaign have softened, and BHO and Sec-of-State Hill have a good working relationship, he would welcome her as a running mate, and the youthful 63-year-old Clinton would have a springboard for a presidential run in 2016. The only question that remains is if Hillary will sign on. She may not have the stomach for another national campaign herself, preferring, maybe, the governorship of a state to be named later instead. If not Clinton, Obama would like to make history, and notch his appeal to women voters, by naming someone of the female gender. Next on the list if Clinton doesn’t bite is supposedly Jennifer Granholm, the former governor of Michigan, although US Rep. Loretta Sanchez of California, Sen. Claire McCaskill of Missouri and Sen. Patty Murray of Washington state are said to be strong possibilities as well.
-- The Story Behind the Story: Yup, Newt Gingrich had a suspicious interest-free revolving charge account at Tiffany’s for two years that racked up $500 grand in billings, but that’s not all. Ignoring for the moment that regular customers pay 21 percent interest on their charges, Newtie’s current wife Callista, when she was a lobbyist, had ties to the silver mining industry from which Tiffany’s fabricates its overpriced doodads, and Gingrich himself, while in the House, interceded to get the jewelry company a very sweet deal on use of public lands for mining. The Newtster may soon have more to worry about than his doomed SNL-skit presidential campaign -- the feds are taking notice of his involvement with the Tiff, and whether he actually paid down that half-mil himself or if some or all of it was written off by the grateful company as a lobbying fee. Whichever way it goes, Newt is going to end up in a courtroom somewhere, trying to stay out of the hoosegow, and probably still running for president in his fevered little brain. No wonder Newtie was reluctant to answer any questions about his $500K shopping spree at Tiffany’s -- it’s looking like a quid pro quo bribe.
-- The Story Behind the Story, Part Deux: Sure, it’s been all over the papers like a dog who got into the prune juice that pouty ex-Alaskan Ice Princess Sarah Palin is moving the whole-damn Wasillabilly brood to a luxurious $1.7 million 5-BR, 6.5-bath manse with a concrete swimmin’ hole in Scottsdale, AZ, near enough to America’s wackiest sheriff, Joe Arpaio, to be in the Red Zone if any of his pink-clad prisoners escape. But let’s just get this out of the way: the erstwhile Mama Grizzly is not running for president -- her ‘tragic bus’ tour of the Nor’east is just to revive national media interest in her fast-plummeting ‘brand,’ whatever her crackpot brand is these days. How could this be when all the big-time pundits are sure she’s running? Well, she hasn’t been kicked off Fox News, and she’s got a $1 mil-a-year contract there that runs through 2013. But she also allegedly has speaking contracts to read her palm to unfortunate victims through 2014; if she reneges on those contracts -- since she can’t legally take the money if she’s a candidate -- she’ll have to pay a stiff penalty. That would cost her a bundle out of pocket she can’t afford. Get your laughs now -- by 2015 she’ll be off Fox and consigned to introducing second-rate Branson, MO, acts with, “Hi there, remember me? I’m Sarah Palin!”
-- Ailes Out at Fox? Speaking of Fox Noose, head-major-domo-top-enchilada, first-among-inferiors Generalissimo Roger Ailes’ contract with king pinsetter Rupert Murdoch is up in 2013. Surely Uncle Rupe will renew it, you say. Not so fast: Murdoch’s recent wife Wendi likes Obama and loathes Ailes, and Rupe’s wives have considerable influence on him; plus, the whole fam damily who will be inheriting the business when Murdoch retires or ascends to Media Jesusland likewise has about as much affection for the former Nixon PR flack as they do for a case of the clap. Word is, James Murdoch, current deputy operating office at Fox parent News Corp, particularly has it in for Ailes after what Rog did to brother Lachlan, supposedly pushing James’ older sibling to the point of a nervous breakdown. The elder Murdoch is also said to not be pleased at the direction Ailes has dragged the GOP-propaganda cable channel; of course, he favors its conservative slant, but the hiring of palpable nitwits like Boom-Boom Palin and Man-On-Dog Ricky Santorum didn’t sit well with News Corps’ Bigga Boss. Look for a shake-up at Fox after the next election, unless the GOP wins Reagan-’84 big.
-- One More Fox Tale: A deep, deep rumor says the Keith Olbermann ousting at MSNBC was part of a deal with Fox News’ Roger Ailes. Seems Keith, the former ratings king at MSNBC, was getting under Roger’s skin with his gloves-off jibes at Fox personalities, as well as cutting into Fox’s cable dominance as his ‘Countdown’ show numbers steadily increased. In a top secret meeting with Comcast, then poised to buy up MSNBC parent NBC-Universal, Ailes and unnamed execs from Comcast and NBC allegedly struck a deal to lessen the attacks on Fox and dump Olbermann once the Comcast buy-out was finalized; in return, Fox would go easier on NBC and provide some other goodies. Part of the bargain was that MSNBC would get rid of its top rater and Fox would reciprocate. So Ailes agreed to jettison Fox ratings leader Glenn Beck in return for Olbermann’s exit. Roger got the best of the deal -- he wanted to give loose-cannon Beck the heave-ho anyway while MSNBC is now struggling in Keith’s old primetime slot, and Olbermann is fixing to cut down those ‘Lean Forward’ numbers even further when he resurrects ‘Countdown’ June 20th on Al Gore’s Current TV network at his old 8e/7c berth.
-- He Won’t Be Baack: A big dime is about to drop (but not in the form of a ‘bag’) on former Kali-forn-yuh guff’nor Arnold Schwarzenegger. Seems the ex-bodybuilder and purported actor had more than one out-of-wedlock bambino while married to Kennedy-kin Maria Shriver -- mayhap as many as 6 or 7 -- and all of their mamas want more money or they are calling the media. Add to that the news that the California AG is about to prosecute the Teutonic Musclehead for using state troopers to deliver comely young ‘club’ females 18-to-25 to his Governator living quarters at the Hyatt hotel in Sacramento, a clear misuse of state funds. It’s been reported Schwarzy planned to resume his ‘achting’ career post-politics -- fat chance, since the word is the major studios now think he’s not ‘bankable’ at the box office anymore. (Perhaps he can nab the independent-film roles Casper Van Dien turns down, at Van Dien pay, natch.) Oh, and one more thing: all the years of stress on his bones and muscles from over-exercising and steroid use have taken their toll -- the 63-year-old Ah-nuld allegedly now has the physical mobility of a man 20 years older and can only function normally by taking prescription painkillers.
© 2011 RS Janes.
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Keith Olbermann's Final 'Countdown' at MSNBC Has the Stench of Comcast All Over It
Last night, Friday, January 21, in what I know must have been a surprise to much of his audience, Keith Olbermann announced this was the last "Countdown with Keith Olbermann," thanked his viewers and those who had helped put the show on the air over the years, and then calmly read a James Thurber story named "The Scotty Who Knew Too Much," the moral of which was: "It is better to ask some of the questions than to know all the answers." It was an odd, unsettling moment in the context of Keith's departure, and it's still not clear if Olbermann quit or MSNBC fired him, the only official announcement from MSNBC being an exercise in bland Corpospeak opacity:"MSNBC and Keith Olbermann have ended their contract. The last broadcast of Countdown with Keith Olbermann will be this evening. MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors."
Richard Adams, writing in The Guardian (UK), apparently believes Olbermann was fired:
"Keith Olbermann, the liberal, outspoken anchor of MSNBC's Countdown show, had his contract dramatically terminated by the US cable news network's parent company NBC on Friday night.
"Olbermann had two years of a four year contract remaining, worth an estimated $30m, and was the network's highest-rated personality, responsible in large part for MSNBC's orientation as a liberal, Democratic-leaning channel."
Although Comcast ferociously denies they had anything to do with this – and it is barely possible Keith simply refused to work for them and ended his contract by mutual agreement with MSNBC -- the juxtaposition of FCC approval to take over NBC/Universal and Olbermann's blink-quick departure reek with the stench of conservative mega-corporation Comcast sending a chilling message to the cable news network's employees – especially air personalities Rachel Maddow, Ed Schultz and Lawrence O'Donnell – that if they go too 'progressive' in their shows, if they pull back the curtain on corporate malfeasance and corruption with too much zeal and fact, they could find their contracts suddenly cancelled as well.
(The new prime-time MSNBC line-up, BTW, is O'Donnell in Keith's slot at 8:00ET, with Ed Schultz moving into O'Donnell's current 10:00ET berth. Rachel will stay in her current time slot.)
Thankfully, Keith is still owed $14 million on his contract, so he will have a chance to take a breather, review his options, and make a comeback elsewhere, perhaps even at the struggling third-place CNN. As Rob Soto at etidbots.com speculates:
"As for our opinion on what’s next for the liberal anchor, don’t be surprised if Olbermann ends up on CNN sooner than later. Their ratings are in the tank, their new Parker/Spitzer series is a disaster (with Kathleen Parker reportedly not very happy being there) and is a poor lead-in to the new Piers Morgan Show. The entire evening lineup needs a makeover, and fast. Olbermann reportedly still has two years on his contract and will get paid his annual salary of about $7 million. However, what is not known at this point if he has a non-compete clause in his contract that would prohibit him from appearing on a rival station until his two-year contract is over."
VIDEO: Olbermann signs off on final Countdown
I've been a regular viewer and fan of Keith Olbermann's since he first started Countdown eight years ago and I hope he shows up on the TV machine again soon; to paraphrase his sign-off, and mix in some Dylan Thomas, I wish him good luck, and I know he won't go gently into that good night.
© 2011 RS Janes. LTSaloon.org.
Sunday, November 29, 2009
The Tattlesnake – Frank Luntz is a Scum-Sucking Pig Edition
With apologies to our porcine friends who also happen to suck scum, but don't have much influence on the electorate.
"[A]sk a question in the way that you get the right answer."
-- Frank Luntz on his 'fair and balanced' polling methods.
While some readers may chastise me for gross understatement in my title, and I take their point, I decided to keep this clean, or as clean as you can when describing the contents of the sole working Port-O-Potty on free chili and beer night at a baseball game.
What makes Republican word-whacker Frank Luntz my target is that he is an intentional and dedicated deceiver of the public, smart enough to know full well what he's doing, but blithely willing to trot out his wares -- borrowed from the misuse of modern psychological techniques to sell the gullible what they don't need joined with a carnival conman's shell game pitch -- for the temporary benefit of his bank account, while his country slides into a wreckage of divisiveness and debt. If you'd like to find the home base for the decimation of our public speech into ignorant, inflamed, fearful, flag-draped hatred; the revision of our history into a reeking bonanza of selfish suicidal capitalism, evangelical Christian crapola and nasty neoconservative warhawk bilge; and the reduction of our political discourse into so much overheated, oversimplified, covertly racist, sound-bite slag, you can point to three names: the late Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and the lesser-known, but every bit as important, Frank Luntz as the authors of the meltdown in progress.
"Luntz is glibly amoral, worrying only about whether language has the right effect, not whether it's true."
-- Steven Poole, commenting on Luntz's book "Words That Work" in The Guardian (UK), July 21, 2007.
It was Frank's notion to rename a bill allowing more pollution as the 'Clean Air Act'; it was Luntz who told the GOP to re-label estate taxes as 'death taxes' so that the wealthy paid less while the rest of us took up the slack; it was his demented mind that connected Iraq to 9/11 and instructed Republican pols to always preface any mention of the failed Iraq incursion with '9/11 changed everything'; behind nearly every current and past GOP talking point, endlessly repeated in the Right-Wing Echo Chamber, you'll find Frank's pasty round face, tirelessly choosing just the right words to convince a malleable faction of the American public to eat corporate Republican turds and think it's prime rib.
"While the televised Luntz often displays a disarming sense of humor, is reasonably affable and self-effacing, he is also self-righteous and an endless supplier of disingenuous blather. Watching him in action is to recognize a master of style over substance; emotion trumps fact."
-- Bill Berkowitz, "The Frank Luntz Effect: Spraying Perfume on Dog Turds," Smirking Chimp, Aug. 31, 2007.
Luntz was at it again a couple of weeks ago on C-Span, in a segment from a book fair where he was pushing his latest pile of literary trash. Assembling an audience of supposedly average Americans (by Frank's definition -- the first few rows were populated by disgruntled teabaggers), Luntz demonstrated his low talent for cheesy misdirection by lauding his current employer, Fox News, for being "fair and balanced" – yes, he used those words -- because they allowed him to show that Obama was polling ahead of McCain just prior to the 2008 election. "MSNBC wouldn't have done that," Frank pugnaciously added, omitting the pertinent information that MSNBC, after giving him his own show, had fired Luntz in 2004 when the cable network was alerted that his focus groups and poll results were tainted by his conservative ideology, all while he was lying to the public and MSNBC that his polls were impartial and unbiased.
"To be 'Orwellian' is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening … and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever."
-- Frank Luntz, redefining the word 'Orwellian' on Terry Gross' NPR 'Fresh Air' show, Jan. 9, 2007.
"Orwellian (ôr wel′ē ən) adjective: of or like the society portrayed by Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which a totalitarian state exercises almost total control over the public and private activities of the citizens."
-- From Webster's New World College Dictionary.
In the summer of 2008, around the time of the RNC convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, in an event also shown on C-Span, Frank exposed his grubby game during a session with a Minnesota focus group using his little handheld 'dial-testing' boxes that provide moment-by-moment reaction to the words in a speech. Luntz was plainly beside himself that so many in this crowd were reacting well to Obama's words and, exhibiting obvious irritation, singled out various independents and former Republicans in the audience to interrogate on why they planned to vote for Obama. A side note here: As anyone in the polling business knows, professional pollsters who want a clean, unprejudiced outcome never show emotion to their focus groups. It's well known that such a demonstration can influence the result as many people, politely and without thinking, desire to please the authority figure – in this case, the pollster who assembled the group. Yet here was Luntz figuratively wearing his Red-State armband, his voice tinged with anger and frustration at those who didn't care to vote Republican in 2008. It's to the credit of these sturdy Minnesotans that few were cajoled by Luntz's sweaty performance into changing their vote – the feeling against the GOP was that strong. It's no surprise Luntz was reprimanded in 1997 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research – he refused to provide raw data, allegedly due to 'client confidentiality,' for his claim that the 1994 Republican 'Contract with America' was supported by 60 percent of the American public.
"In 2000 he was censured by the National Council on Public Polls 'for allegedly mischaracterizing on MSNBC the results of focus groups he conducted during the [2000] Republican Convention.' In September 2004, MSNBC dropped Luntz from its planned coverage of that year's presidential debate, following a letter from Media Matters that outlined Luntz's GOP ties and questionable polling methodology … In the wake of the 2008 Presidential election, fellow Republican and prominent pollster Bill McInturff criticized Luntz before journalists at a National Journal Breakfast, insisting that Luntz is 'a moron'…"
-- From "Frank Luntz," Wikipedia entry.
"No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11."
-- Frank Luntz's advice to Bush's White House on tying Iraq to 9/11.
But why is Luntz more loathsome and despicable than any other marketing huckster? It's this: The 'rebranding' Frank does for a living may be relatively harmless when selling frozen peas or microwave ovens, but when carried over into the arena of public debate and inserting itself into the affairs of a democratic republic, it is like putting a smiley face on a bottle of cyanide. Well-informed voters, the 'elitists' who still have their skeptical faculties intact, may reject Luntz's catchy but devious phrases and duplicitous words, but the growing number of gullible low-information voters, especially those independents who waver with the slightest breeze, are Frank's real aim. These are the people who don't have the time or inclination to double-check some bit of pleasant-sounding Clean Air Act deceit or demonizing stretch of free word association, such as using 'Iraq,' 9/11' and 'Saddam Hussein' in close proximity to promote a needless war, or the current right-wing trope of continually connecting Obama's name with Hitler, Stalin, fascism, socialism and communism. To the under-informed, where there's smoke there's fire; anything heard repeatedly must have some truth to it, and the bigger the lie the better. In this, Luntz is the ideological descendant of Joseph Goebbels and every bit as dangerous to a free nation.
"…[A] Salon.com article described Luntz as 'possibly the best example of what we could call the pollster pundit: someone who both purports to scientifically poll the opinions of the public, and then also interpret that data to support his own -- in Luntz's case, conservative -- point of view.' Luntz has explained his own methodology as follows: 'Say you poll on an environmental issue, and on eight of the 10 questions the numbers are in your favor. Why release the other two? It's like being a lawyer.'"
-- Media Matters, Sept. 3, 2004.
But Frank has done us an unintentional service by inadvertently revealing that what he's really peddling – miserable wage-slave serfdom in a country under the unregulated corporate dominion of a right-wing Republican plutocracy – is so offensive, damaging and awful that it requires his slick political lexicography and fork-tongued euphemisms to be considered politically acceptable.
And it's encouraging that, even with all of his well-paid efforts over the years, his agenda has still been proven a failure by the indomitable persuasion of daily reality.
It's possible the America of Jefferson, Paine, Franklin and Madison will survive the scourge of Luntzism yet, in spite of all he has done to try and bury it under a trash heap of calculated lies.
© 2009 RS Janes. LTSaloon.org.
"[A]sk a question in the way that you get the right answer."
-- Frank Luntz on his 'fair and balanced' polling methods.
While some readers may chastise me for gross understatement in my title, and I take their point, I decided to keep this clean, or as clean as you can when describing the contents of the sole working Port-O-Potty on free chili and beer night at a baseball game.
What makes Republican word-whacker Frank Luntz my target is that he is an intentional and dedicated deceiver of the public, smart enough to know full well what he's doing, but blithely willing to trot out his wares -- borrowed from the misuse of modern psychological techniques to sell the gullible what they don't need joined with a carnival conman's shell game pitch -- for the temporary benefit of his bank account, while his country slides into a wreckage of divisiveness and debt. If you'd like to find the home base for the decimation of our public speech into ignorant, inflamed, fearful, flag-draped hatred; the revision of our history into a reeking bonanza of selfish suicidal capitalism, evangelical Christian crapola and nasty neoconservative warhawk bilge; and the reduction of our political discourse into so much overheated, oversimplified, covertly racist, sound-bite slag, you can point to three names: the late Lee Atwater, Karl Rove, and the lesser-known, but every bit as important, Frank Luntz as the authors of the meltdown in progress.
"Luntz is glibly amoral, worrying only about whether language has the right effect, not whether it's true."
-- Steven Poole, commenting on Luntz's book "Words That Work" in The Guardian (UK), July 21, 2007.
It was Frank's notion to rename a bill allowing more pollution as the 'Clean Air Act'; it was Luntz who told the GOP to re-label estate taxes as 'death taxes' so that the wealthy paid less while the rest of us took up the slack; it was his demented mind that connected Iraq to 9/11 and instructed Republican pols to always preface any mention of the failed Iraq incursion with '9/11 changed everything'; behind nearly every current and past GOP talking point, endlessly repeated in the Right-Wing Echo Chamber, you'll find Frank's pasty round face, tirelessly choosing just the right words to convince a malleable faction of the American public to eat corporate Republican turds and think it's prime rib.
"While the televised Luntz often displays a disarming sense of humor, is reasonably affable and self-effacing, he is also self-righteous and an endless supplier of disingenuous blather. Watching him in action is to recognize a master of style over substance; emotion trumps fact."
-- Bill Berkowitz, "The Frank Luntz Effect: Spraying Perfume on Dog Turds," Smirking Chimp, Aug. 31, 2007.
Luntz was at it again a couple of weeks ago on C-Span, in a segment from a book fair where he was pushing his latest pile of literary trash. Assembling an audience of supposedly average Americans (by Frank's definition -- the first few rows were populated by disgruntled teabaggers), Luntz demonstrated his low talent for cheesy misdirection by lauding his current employer, Fox News, for being "fair and balanced" – yes, he used those words -- because they allowed him to show that Obama was polling ahead of McCain just prior to the 2008 election. "MSNBC wouldn't have done that," Frank pugnaciously added, omitting the pertinent information that MSNBC, after giving him his own show, had fired Luntz in 2004 when the cable network was alerted that his focus groups and poll results were tainted by his conservative ideology, all while he was lying to the public and MSNBC that his polls were impartial and unbiased.
"To be 'Orwellian' is to speak with absolute clarity, to be succinct, to explain what the event is, to talk about what triggers something happening … and to do so without any pejorative whatsoever."
-- Frank Luntz, redefining the word 'Orwellian' on Terry Gross' NPR 'Fresh Air' show, Jan. 9, 2007.
"Orwellian (ôr wel′ē ən) adjective: of or like the society portrayed by Orwell in his novel Nineteen Eighty-Four, in which a totalitarian state exercises almost total control over the public and private activities of the citizens."
-- From Webster's New World College Dictionary.
In the summer of 2008, around the time of the RNC convention in Minneapolis-St. Paul, in an event also shown on C-Span, Frank exposed his grubby game during a session with a Minnesota focus group using his little handheld 'dial-testing' boxes that provide moment-by-moment reaction to the words in a speech. Luntz was plainly beside himself that so many in this crowd were reacting well to Obama's words and, exhibiting obvious irritation, singled out various independents and former Republicans in the audience to interrogate on why they planned to vote for Obama. A side note here: As anyone in the polling business knows, professional pollsters who want a clean, unprejudiced outcome never show emotion to their focus groups. It's well known that such a demonstration can influence the result as many people, politely and without thinking, desire to please the authority figure – in this case, the pollster who assembled the group. Yet here was Luntz figuratively wearing his Red-State armband, his voice tinged with anger and frustration at those who didn't care to vote Republican in 2008. It's to the credit of these sturdy Minnesotans that few were cajoled by Luntz's sweaty performance into changing their vote – the feeling against the GOP was that strong. It's no surprise Luntz was reprimanded in 1997 by the American Association for Public Opinion Research – he refused to provide raw data, allegedly due to 'client confidentiality,' for his claim that the 1994 Republican 'Contract with America' was supported by 60 percent of the American public.
"In 2000 he was censured by the National Council on Public Polls 'for allegedly mischaracterizing on MSNBC the results of focus groups he conducted during the [2000] Republican Convention.' In September 2004, MSNBC dropped Luntz from its planned coverage of that year's presidential debate, following a letter from Media Matters that outlined Luntz's GOP ties and questionable polling methodology … In the wake of the 2008 Presidential election, fellow Republican and prominent pollster Bill McInturff criticized Luntz before journalists at a National Journal Breakfast, insisting that Luntz is 'a moron'…"
-- From "Frank Luntz," Wikipedia entry.
"No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11."
-- Frank Luntz's advice to Bush's White House on tying Iraq to 9/11.
But why is Luntz more loathsome and despicable than any other marketing huckster? It's this: The 'rebranding' Frank does for a living may be relatively harmless when selling frozen peas or microwave ovens, but when carried over into the arena of public debate and inserting itself into the affairs of a democratic republic, it is like putting a smiley face on a bottle of cyanide. Well-informed voters, the 'elitists' who still have their skeptical faculties intact, may reject Luntz's catchy but devious phrases and duplicitous words, but the growing number of gullible low-information voters, especially those independents who waver with the slightest breeze, are Frank's real aim. These are the people who don't have the time or inclination to double-check some bit of pleasant-sounding Clean Air Act deceit or demonizing stretch of free word association, such as using 'Iraq,' 9/11' and 'Saddam Hussein' in close proximity to promote a needless war, or the current right-wing trope of continually connecting Obama's name with Hitler, Stalin, fascism, socialism and communism. To the under-informed, where there's smoke there's fire; anything heard repeatedly must have some truth to it, and the bigger the lie the better. In this, Luntz is the ideological descendant of Joseph Goebbels and every bit as dangerous to a free nation.
"…[A] Salon.com article described Luntz as 'possibly the best example of what we could call the pollster pundit: someone who both purports to scientifically poll the opinions of the public, and then also interpret that data to support his own -- in Luntz's case, conservative -- point of view.' Luntz has explained his own methodology as follows: 'Say you poll on an environmental issue, and on eight of the 10 questions the numbers are in your favor. Why release the other two? It's like being a lawyer.'"
-- Media Matters, Sept. 3, 2004.
But Frank has done us an unintentional service by inadvertently revealing that what he's really peddling – miserable wage-slave serfdom in a country under the unregulated corporate dominion of a right-wing Republican plutocracy – is so offensive, damaging and awful that it requires his slick political lexicography and fork-tongued euphemisms to be considered politically acceptable.
And it's encouraging that, even with all of his well-paid efforts over the years, his agenda has still been proven a failure by the indomitable persuasion of daily reality.
It's possible the America of Jefferson, Paine, Franklin and Madison will survive the scourge of Luntzism yet, in spite of all he has done to try and bury it under a trash heap of calculated lies.
© 2009 RS Janes. LTSaloon.org.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Random Opinionating on the Half Shell Edition
"You can observe a lot by just watching."
-- Yogi Berra
-- Is homosexuality immoral? Hillary Clinton dithered over an answer, finally telling ABC it was for someone else to conclude whether homosexuality is immoral. WTF?! Dems, how about this for an answer: In a free country, it's not the business of a politician nor the government to make judgments about what consenting adults do in the bedroom -- PERIOD. It is also not the business of the military to examine the sex lives of its personnel unless it is affecting their conduct while on duty. If you personally have a problem with someone else's sexual preference, perhaps you need professional help because it's your problem, not theirs, you miserable busybody.
-- Speaking of New York's junior Senator, somebody from her campaign tell her to stop with the accents already. Ever since the campaign days of Gennifer Flowers and 'stand by your man,' Hillary seems addicted to embarrassing herself by occasionally dropping into Norma Rae mode in her speeches. Listen, Mrs. Clinton, you're a bright middle-class white girl from Park Ridge, Illinois, with a very good education who grew up to be a wealthy white woman currently residing in the upper-crust suburbs of New York City when you're not in Washington. Your stint as First Lady of Arkansas notwithstanding, you're just not the Target/Wal-Mart shopper type; your tastes are more chicken Cordon Bleu than chicken-fried steak, and I'll bet you eat ribs with a knife and fork in private, if you ever eat ribs in private at all. This is nothing to be ashamed of, it's just who you are. No one believes it when you start spouting with a Trailer Trash Queen drawl: real Southerners wince at your pandering; everyone else ponders your mental condition. It's even worse when you try to get down and funky -- it's akin to Pee Wee Herman trying to win a Soul Train dance contest. Just be yourself and stop trying so hard to appeal to every ethnicity and region.
-- Good for Mark Green, new co-owner with his brother Steve of Air America Radio, responding to the flap over the Dems refusing to participate in debates hosted by Ailes' neocon Fox News, for brilliantly proposing that liberal AAR host a debate for the Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire. He assured the GOP that "we too can be fair and balanced." Question: Why hasn't this story received the media play the Fox News ploy did?
-- Boo and hiss to the bland blonde GOP robot on MSNBC recently, advertised as a 'Republican Strategist' (I didn't bother to catch her name, but she's a new face), who compared Alberto Gonzales firing eight prosecutors for doing their jobs to the BS 'Travelgate' nothingburger during the Clinton years. Like most would-be Mary Matalin's, she apparently can't discern the difference between the Clinton's hiring new staff for the White House travel office and federal prosecutors sending politicians to jail for bribery and corruption. Here's a hint, Chuckles: 'Travelgate' did not affect the Republic in any way, nor cost the taxpayer a cent; political corruption and bribery, on the other hand, gets us into needless wars, pollutes our atmosphere, wastes our money on weapons and projects we don't need, and rots the foundation of our democracy. As Smiley O'Reilly would say, "Get it?"
-- "Mistakes were made" aren't words you use to accept responsibility -- that would be "I made mistakes" -- rather, it's a phrase to avoid or diffuse responsibility. As the your ol' Tattler has said before, if the average person says "I'm responsible" for a botched job at work, co-signing a loan, or committing a crime, they get fired, pay money or go to jail. Only in the twisted Bizarro World of official Washington can someone like Alberto Gonzales, or his boss George W. Bush, accept responsibility and keep his job. Gee, what message is this sending to all those children out there that Republicans say they want to inject with good moral values?
-- Seen those reprehensible TV ads touting Bush's complicated and overly expensive Medicare prescription drug plan? The message of this ad is confusingly bifurcated: it tells the consumer to support the plan because 'it's working' while it also says 'let's give the plan a chance to work!' What Big Pharma front group put together this hash? If 'it's working' it doesn't need 'a chance to work' because it's already working; only things that aren't working need a chance to work, which this plan isn't. Sweet Jesus.
------------------------------------------
The Dirty Work of Empire
I wonder how many of our troops in Iraq feel exactly the same way as Orwell did.
-- Yogi Berra
-- Is homosexuality immoral? Hillary Clinton dithered over an answer, finally telling ABC it was for someone else to conclude whether homosexuality is immoral. WTF?! Dems, how about this for an answer: In a free country, it's not the business of a politician nor the government to make judgments about what consenting adults do in the bedroom -- PERIOD. It is also not the business of the military to examine the sex lives of its personnel unless it is affecting their conduct while on duty. If you personally have a problem with someone else's sexual preference, perhaps you need professional help because it's your problem, not theirs, you miserable busybody.
-- Speaking of New York's junior Senator, somebody from her campaign tell her to stop with the accents already. Ever since the campaign days of Gennifer Flowers and 'stand by your man,' Hillary seems addicted to embarrassing herself by occasionally dropping into Norma Rae mode in her speeches. Listen, Mrs. Clinton, you're a bright middle-class white girl from Park Ridge, Illinois, with a very good education who grew up to be a wealthy white woman currently residing in the upper-crust suburbs of New York City when you're not in Washington. Your stint as First Lady of Arkansas notwithstanding, you're just not the Target/Wal-Mart shopper type; your tastes are more chicken Cordon Bleu than chicken-fried steak, and I'll bet you eat ribs with a knife and fork in private, if you ever eat ribs in private at all. This is nothing to be ashamed of, it's just who you are. No one believes it when you start spouting with a Trailer Trash Queen drawl: real Southerners wince at your pandering; everyone else ponders your mental condition. It's even worse when you try to get down and funky -- it's akin to Pee Wee Herman trying to win a Soul Train dance contest. Just be yourself and stop trying so hard to appeal to every ethnicity and region.
-- Good for Mark Green, new co-owner with his brother Steve of Air America Radio, responding to the flap over the Dems refusing to participate in debates hosted by Ailes' neocon Fox News, for brilliantly proposing that liberal AAR host a debate for the Republican presidential candidates in New Hampshire. He assured the GOP that "we too can be fair and balanced." Question: Why hasn't this story received the media play the Fox News ploy did?
-- Boo and hiss to the bland blonde GOP robot on MSNBC recently, advertised as a 'Republican Strategist' (I didn't bother to catch her name, but she's a new face), who compared Alberto Gonzales firing eight prosecutors for doing their jobs to the BS 'Travelgate' nothingburger during the Clinton years. Like most would-be Mary Matalin's, she apparently can't discern the difference between the Clinton's hiring new staff for the White House travel office and federal prosecutors sending politicians to jail for bribery and corruption. Here's a hint, Chuckles: 'Travelgate' did not affect the Republic in any way, nor cost the taxpayer a cent; political corruption and bribery, on the other hand, gets us into needless wars, pollutes our atmosphere, wastes our money on weapons and projects we don't need, and rots the foundation of our democracy. As Smiley O'Reilly would say, "Get it?"
-- "Mistakes were made" aren't words you use to accept responsibility -- that would be "I made mistakes" -- rather, it's a phrase to avoid or diffuse responsibility. As the your ol' Tattler has said before, if the average person says "I'm responsible" for a botched job at work, co-signing a loan, or committing a crime, they get fired, pay money or go to jail. Only in the twisted Bizarro World of official Washington can someone like Alberto Gonzales, or his boss George W. Bush, accept responsibility and keep his job. Gee, what message is this sending to all those children out there that Republicans say they want to inject with good moral values?
-- Seen those reprehensible TV ads touting Bush's complicated and overly expensive Medicare prescription drug plan? The message of this ad is confusingly bifurcated: it tells the consumer to support the plan because 'it's working' while it also says 'let's give the plan a chance to work!' What Big Pharma front group put together this hash? If 'it's working' it doesn't need 'a chance to work' because it's already working; only things that aren't working need a chance to work, which this plan isn't. Sweet Jesus.
------------------------------------------
The Dirty Work of Empire
I wonder how many of our troops in Iraq feel exactly the same way as Orwell did.
"All this was perplexing and upsetting. For at that time I had already made up my mind that imperialism was an evil thing and the sooner I chucked up my job and got out of it the better. Theoretically -- and secretly, of course -- I was all for the Burmese and all against their oppressors, the British. As for the job I was doing, I hated it more bitterly than I can perhaps make clear. In a job like that you see the dirty work of Empire at close quarters. The wretched prisoners huddling in the stinking cages of the lock-ups, the grey, cowed faces of the long-term convicts, the scarred buttocks of the men who had been Bogged with bamboos -- all these oppressed me with an intolerable sense of guilt. But I could get nothing into perspective. I was young and ill-educated and I had had to think out my problems in the utter silence that is imposed on every Englishman in the East. I did not even know that the British Empire is dying, still less did I know that it is a great deal better than the younger empires that are going to supplant it. All I knew was that I was stuck between my hatred of the empire I served and my rage against the evil-spirited little beasts who tried to make my job impossible. With one part of my mind I thought of the British Raj as an unbreakable tyranny, as something clamped down, in saecula saeculorum, upon the will of prostrate peoples; with another part I thought that the greatest joy in the world would be to drive a bayonet into a Buddhist priest's guts. Feelings like these are the normal by-products of imperialism; ask any Anglo-Indian official, if you can catch him off duty."
-- George Orwell, excerpted from "Shooting an Elephant," an essay on his short-lived career as a British police officer in Burma.
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