Thursday, May 04, 2006

The Media is the Massage


Flag by Scout over at Harper Valley
Great, isn't it?

Would be a good backdrop for the magic act appearing in the (I kid you not!) 'Grand Scheme Ballroom' tomorrow.
American NeoCon funnyman Frank Luntz will be up in Canada teaching a select group of Canadian Con polis and Con media how to perform his Newspeak dog and phony show, aptly titled
"Massaging the Conservative Message For Voters".

Some highlights from his previous shows down south :

"September 11 changed everything. So start with 9/11….Without the context of 9/11, you will be blamed for the deficit….The trick is then to contextualize the deficit inside of 9/11."
"No speech about homeland security or Iraq should begin without a reference to 9/11"

and who could forget : "Never say 'drilling for oil', say 'exploring for energy'."

"Hotter Than Hell" quasher Rona Ambrose is already retelling her own version of this one :
"Instead of using the term "global warming," substitute "climate change" because while global warming has catastrophic communications attached to it, climate change sounds a more controllable and less emotional challenge."

Some of his older stuff, like "Contract With America" which he co-authored with Newt Gingrich, has gotten more than a little stale, but tomorrow the Cons will be learning how to retell those old jokes in their own inimitable comic style.
I can hardly wait. I'm sure I won't have to.

More reviews at Public Eye Online, The Galloping Beaver, and The Gazetteer

7 comments:

scout said...

thanks for the flag post alison. i actually got the idea when i accidently channeled rush limbaugh.

whoa wait, now i'm challeling david fromme....yes....hang on the reception needs adjustment.....here we go.....

"right. so i formed the original part of the term 'axis of evil' and the bigger guys turned it into that. they are so god-like. i'd like to suggest to my american neo-con compatriots that we now refer to the impending economic crash as 'pecuniary correction'. "

RossK said...

Me I figure what Barbara's son actually said at first was 'Axis of Boweevils' but, luckily for the constantly conning cabal crony capitalists, Richard Perled didn't have his hearing aid on at the time.

.

Unknown said...

Did you hear this guy on CBC's "The House" yesterday morning?? It was horrifying.

I blogged about it myself, and wrote to the CBC program about it:

http://c-eh-n-eh-d-eh.blogspot.com/2006/05/neo-con-spinners-invading-canada.html

Alison said...

Phyl:
No and I'm friggin furious I missed it. Heard about it afterwards.
Thanks for letting me know where to find it.

Unknown said...

Alison, I think you'll be able to hear the program itself in a few days, posted on their site:

http://www.cbc.ca/thehouse/audio.html

Unknown said...

And Canadian Cynic has a good writeup today on the Globe and Mail article about the meeting.

Anonymous said...

Luntz-spin and what to expect from Harper's New Tories:

The significance of the Frank Luntz advice goes beyond the comments he made at this session. Luntz is infamous for his advice to Republicans to lie and distort as part of the Republican "framing" of issues, and election tactics.

Luntz has a handbook – over 100 pages – which is available on the Internet and which each Republican candidate gets and is expected to work through. That handbook is an education in dirty politics, use of half truths, Orwellian newspeak and other tactics, which the Republicans regularly practice in the USA.

Want to bet that handbook is being distributed to New Tory candidates?

If you want to be ahead of the curve in Canadian politics during the next 12 months, read Frank Luntz, and then compare his advice to the public pronouncements of Harper et al. From "universal child care" to "corruption", you will find examples cropping up time after time over the next short while.

The only way to combat this kind of deceptive politicking, is to read Don't Think of an Elephant, an to reframe the issues immediately, before the New Tory newspeak framing takes root in public discourse.

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