How to Stage a Controversy

The Weekly Standard ^ | March 22, 2004 | Matthew Continetti

[GeronL]

Before I read this..... can WE stage a controversy??? Sounds like fun!

[Paleo Conservative]

Neither is it anything new, of course, when a small group of people with excellent public relations skills and a political axe to grind are able to manipulate an unskeptical media.

That should be "'unskeptical' media". It's not like they're innocent bystanders.

[prognostigaator]

Arab Americans are now upset over the latest Bush ads...

Discussed at length on Hannity & Colmes and on Colmes radio talk show re: the sinister looking threatening male.....

[muawiyah]

So what went wrong here? Why the fuss over Bush's ads? How is it that so many journalists were willing to be led by the nose to write blatantly misleading stories, when the truth was so easy to ascertain? The simple answer is, well, they were being lazy and partisan. Plus, the straight story--"Peace Activists, Kerry Co-chair Criticize Bush Ads"--is a yawner.

The real answer is that the "newsies" tend to be stupid in the extreme. You really don't find your top scholars majoring in jurnalism ~ the propaganda to the contrary, you never did. There may be some exceptions, but for the most part these guys are easily led around by the nose.

[Paleo Conservative]

the sinister looking threatening male...

Are you sure? I thought the problem was caused by 80-year-old wheelchair bound grandmothers.

[expatpat]

He overlooked the fact that maybe the GOP wanted a controversy. Just as Gibson's box-office receipts were enhanced by all the furor, so are the ads getting more exposure than they otherwise would have had.

[RWR8189]

Look at all the controversey. These people are pathetic

[John Jorsett]

Michael Medved had Jim Zogby of the Arab American Institute on today. Zogby's upset with a Bush ad that supposedly shows a Middle Eastern-type face (in reality the actor is of Italian extraction) when it mentions the war on terror. What Medved pried out of Zogby was that his "outrage" didn't get started until some reporter called and asked him to react. In other words, the media are going around trolling to find (or generate) negative comments about Bush ads.

[Jeff Chandler]

This criticism caught the Bush campaign by surprise.

What, were these people born yesterday?! The most effective way of predicting the behavior of sociopaths is to reflect upon their previous behavior (I have used this method in my own life).

How can the Bush campaign be so naive? I'll bet there are hundreds of Freepers who could have predicted the rat's moves ahead of time. They could have saved themselves a lot of grief by just contacting Rush Limbaugh and asking him. Sheesh, it's not rocket surgery.

[doug from upland]

Now this is great reporting. As we knew right away, it was a media setup, and they went along for the ride willingly. The lefties were hoping that some initial bad publicity would get the GOP to back down like Bush did in 1992 with Clinton. Nope, Dubya will stay the course on this.

[Bonaparte]

Deceptive reporting by the NYT and its cohorts in the liberal media? Say it ain't so! I am so shocked!

[Reactionary]

Strange, the leftist piglets certainly didn't mind Clinton politicizing the Oklahoma City attacks, now did they?

No. They have no principles; they only care about power.

[Bernard Marx]

In other words, the media are going around trolling to find (or generate) negative comments about Bush ads.

Exactly. The press release was merely the "hook," as it's known in the business, and reporters were briefed and ready to follow up so as to make news. They're part of the conspiracy and happy to be of service. The thing that everlastingly amazes me is that conservatives are always ready to kick Lucy's football one more time. Any savvy press person could have seen this coming a mile away. Instead, they took another kick. Saps.

[Hon]

Devine's boss, John Kerry, told the New York Times, "There are plenty of ways to convey the threat of terror without usurping what I think is a very sensitive memory in the American consciousness." Paul Begala, the CNN pundit and former Clinton adviser, put it bluntly: "The president's use of footage from September 11 in a partisan political commercial has provoked outrage from victims' families and from firefighters who say their brothers and sisters did not sacrifice and suffer for a cheap, cheesy, campaign ad."

Please read:

Kerry Used Vietnam Wall As Backdrop For 1984 Campaign Ad

[jmstein7]

BUMP!

[NormsRevenge]

Bump

[nathanbedford]

Will someone let me know when I can panic without a lot of freepers accusing me of defeatism? How long has it been since Bush began slipping in the polls? Has the Rove team with four years to prepare done anything right?

Gollywompers, the Rats and their allies in the media have convinced a majority of the independents that Bush should not have used the images in the 9/11 ads. Gee whiz, the democrats and their media allies milked the AWOL non-story for weeks while the White House dithered. Holy cow, Kerry is out with a counter ad about taxes accusing Bush of being a liar and Bush is losing the talking head war. Gosh, most of the country thinks Bush lied about WMDs and precious few are aware that Kerry made statements revealing that he thought they were there too.

The entire reaction seems to be to wax indignant about the injustice of it all. Remember when Freepers were reassuring one another that things would be clarified when Bush’s ads showed Kerry’s record? That was about the time of Bush's fiasco on Meet The Press. Well, it isn’t happening. There is no coordination, no anticipation, and no follow through. The President is left unsupported to get creamed on every issue.

In sixty days this campaign can be over and right now Bush looks utterly inept.

[NYCVirago]

What, were these people born yesterday?! The most effective way of predicting the behavior of sociopaths is to reflect upon their previous behavior (I have used this method in my own life). How can the Bush campaign be so naive? I'll bet there are hundreds of Freepers who could have predicted the rat's moves ahead of time. They could have saved themselves a lot of grief by just contacting Rush Limbaugh and asking him. Sheesh, it's not rocket surgery.

Sometimes I think Bush should fire his campaign's execs and hire us freepers. I'm only half kidding on this. When the initial story broke about the 9/11 professional victims, freepers figured out almost immediately the backgrounds of these people. Ed Gillespie didn't get around to publicizing their axes to grind until five days later. Sheesh!

[texasflower]

The article says that the Bush campaign was caught by surprise. That is incorrect.

I saw Karen Hughes being interviewed that morning. She was smiling, gracious and perfectly calm, saying that they knew there would be controversy.

They discussed it and knew what they could expect, and felt that they had the right to promote the President's record.

I really don't understand all of the freepers who suddenly think the White House is full of morons.

They have been widely praised for years. The President is always misunderestimated.

Why have freepers been among the first to think they are losing it? We may not agree with the approach that they have taken, but they aren't stupid.

This will be like all of the other experiences that the world and this country have had with GWB.

Hold on. Be calm and he will prevail.