As I sat in my cubicle this afternoon reading some headlines in Google News, I came across a few concerning the Supreme Court ruling on an Arizona immigration law. Several of the headlines celebrated the ruling and read something like, "High Court's Immigration Ruling Shines Light On E-Verify" (KGTV San Diego) while others were a bit more reserved, reading "Supreme Court Upholds AZ Law to Go After Businesses" (abc7news.com). Either one of these headlines can be taken as a positive, negative or fairly neutral depending on how you read them. But the disparity in tone between some of the headlines got me thinking.
One of the biggest problems that liberal politicians have in the political arena today is their ability to form a message and deliver it effectively. Despite all of the criticism of the "liberal media" being too far left, the second biggest factor contributing to the success of the Republican message machine, close behind the loyalty to party over all else, is conservative talk radio and Fox News. Politicians develop and deliver a message, never deviating from the message for fear of being outcast from the party, then the talk radio and Fox News guys put that message on repeat for the next few days. They ram it down our throats until we learn to like it. Much like Obama, Pelosi and Reid rammed healthcare down our throats. Wait, where have I heard that before?
The left should learn from this model of message delivery. If something happens that doesn't jive with your perspective and with the narrative you want to build, just make it work! It looks something like this - "Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Immigration Bill." It doesn't have to be 100% true and it really doesn't have to focus on the issue you're covering. By combining a deferral of blame on the "Conservative Court" with a reference to the negative impact on businesses, you can effectively convince your reader that the right wing is killing jobs, without ever addressing that those jobs are held by illegal immigrants and that eliminating them opens capacity for legal residents to step into those jobs. Then you have to stick to the message. Put yourself on every channel and news outlet and repeat those 6 words over and over and over again.
Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill. Gee I'm starting to believe it myself.
Now this all brings me to what I really wanted to point out. Here is the headline from foxnews.com
George W. Bush -- Father of the Modern Electric Car?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/26/george-w-bush-father-modern-electric-car/
The article talks about how the electric car subsidies in place today are not the result of the Obama administration but in fact were put in place by George W. Bush. Now, while this may be true, it is quite a leap to suggest that Bush is the "Father of the Modern Electric Car". But it doesn't matter. It advances the agenda, inciting support for the party on the right and disbelief on the left. Those of us in the middle simply find it to be hilarious at this point the extent that media outlets, both left and right, will distort fact to support their narrative. It also doesn't matter to those on the right that those subsidies reflect an increase in "footprint of government" under the watch of an alleged small government proponent. Nor does it matter to those on the left that at least a significant amount of credit should go to Bush for pushing an energy agenda in 2007.
One of the biggest problems that liberal politicians have in the political arena today is their ability to form a message and deliver it effectively. Despite all of the criticism of the "liberal media" being too far left, the second biggest factor contributing to the success of the Republican message machine, close behind the loyalty to party over all else, is conservative talk radio and Fox News. Politicians develop and deliver a message, never deviating from the message for fear of being outcast from the party, then the talk radio and Fox News guys put that message on repeat for the next few days. They ram it down our throats until we learn to like it. Much like Obama, Pelosi and Reid rammed healthcare down our throats. Wait, where have I heard that before?
The left should learn from this model of message delivery. If something happens that doesn't jive with your perspective and with the narrative you want to build, just make it work! It looks something like this - "Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Immigration Bill." It doesn't have to be 100% true and it really doesn't have to focus on the issue you're covering. By combining a deferral of blame on the "Conservative Court" with a reference to the negative impact on businesses, you can effectively convince your reader that the right wing is killing jobs, without ever addressing that those jobs are held by illegal immigrants and that eliminating them opens capacity for legal residents to step into those jobs. Then you have to stick to the message. Put yourself on every channel and news outlet and repeat those 6 words over and over and over again.
Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill, Conservative Court Upholds Job Killing Bill. Gee I'm starting to believe it myself.
Now this all brings me to what I really wanted to point out. Here is the headline from foxnews.com
George W. Bush -- Father of the Modern Electric Car?
http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2011/05/26/george-w-bush-father-modern-electric-car/
The article talks about how the electric car subsidies in place today are not the result of the Obama administration but in fact were put in place by George W. Bush. Now, while this may be true, it is quite a leap to suggest that Bush is the "Father of the Modern Electric Car". But it doesn't matter. It advances the agenda, inciting support for the party on the right and disbelief on the left. Those of us in the middle simply find it to be hilarious at this point the extent that media outlets, both left and right, will distort fact to support their narrative. It also doesn't matter to those on the right that those subsidies reflect an increase in "footprint of government" under the watch of an alleged small government proponent. Nor does it matter to those on the left that at least a significant amount of credit should go to Bush for pushing an energy agenda in 2007.
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