Frank Luntz: a one man wrecking crew, without a conscience

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Mr Luntz is at it again, doing what he does best:   Making Stuff Up for purely Politcal Gain!

Wall St Consultant Frank Luntz Pens Memo On

How To Channel Economic Anxiety Into Protecting Wall St Abuses

Lee Fang, ThinkProgress – 02/01/2010

[…] Luntz, who gained national recognition for his role in shaping the buzzword-heavy Contract for America with Newt Gingrich in 1994, has built a sizable business selling his messaging advice to both corporations and Republican campaigns.

The new memo instructs opponents of financial reform to simply lie about reform legislation, and to twist economic anxiety resulting from the recession into fear of any government effort to fix the underlying cause of the financial crisis. The most dishonest argument is that financial reform would “punish” taxpayers while rewarding “big banks and credit card companies.” In reality, top financial industry lobbyists are not only fighting proposed oversight regulations, but have said recently that they are opposed to “any regulation” at all.

http://thinkprogress.org/2010/…

How DOES this Man sleep at night?

Mr. Luntz is no stranger to deception. Facts have little currency in his domain, where Fear is the Coin of the Realm. Mr Luntz almost single-handedly derailed Health Insurance Reform last year, by doling out enough fear-laden Talking Points, that the GOP had little trouble, confusing the hell out of “average” people, simply by repeating the Luntz’ mantras.

Health Care reform was doomed before it started, because Fear always Trumps Facts — especially when the Journalists who used to defend those Facts, are mostly MIA, or asleep at the wheel. Here was Frank’s Number One, bit of advice, for the opponents of change:

How Republicans Should Talk About Health Care
by Randy James, Time — 05/07/2009

Luntz Tip No. 1: Scare people. Especially about their children. Luntz’s memo includes a road map to how to most effectively scare the bejeezus out of the American public when it comes to health care. Results show the phrase health care rationing frightened the most people, so …

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1896597,00.html

Once again, I ask: How DOES this Man sleep at night? … Especially when his words are NO idle game. The Consequences of his Fear Tactics are Life and Death;   heartache and pain;   bankruptcy and destitution.

120 people a day … dying without Health Insurance

I hope Mr. Luntz is being paid well — for all the Delay and Confusion (and suffering), he has enabled. Words are can be a Dangerous thing, when wielded, without a conscience …

It’s not that Frank Luntz is without a conscience, per say — it’s more like it’s for sale to the highest bidder. And once he’s paid, he’s free to back-pedal, and clear his own personal moral ledger.

The man has taken Rationalizations to a whole another level — to the Stratosphere! Listen to him back-pedal on his well-worn advice to the GOP, on how to stall any real action on Climate Change:

Frontline interviews Luntz on Climate Change



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v…

Deborah Amos: An entire group of ‘Science Skeptics’ grew up around that [Luntz memo], who have in some ways, moved the debate back to: ‘Scientists aren’t really sure [about Climate Change]’, when in fact, Scientists ARE sure.

Frank Luntz: My own beliefs have changed, from when I was tasked with that project. And so yeah, it is Unfair to take a Document that was written primarily, in 1997-98, and apply it to 2006.

Deborah Amos: Even though some people still are?

Frank Luntz: That’s their responsibility. They have to defend that.

The gall. The hypocrisy. … Oh the Humanity!

Where is Mr. Luntz’s “Public Retraction”, on how he nearly single-handedly gave the GOP all Fear Tactics they needed to muddy the waters, about what is otherwise firmly established Science?

Where are the Journalists who used to defend those Facts, that those Scientist’s crank out, for the betterment of Society?

Well PBS’ Frontline is still living its Jouralistic Responsibilty, as that previous clip illustrates. That clip was from the Frontline program that looked into Why and How, the Fearsome News about Climate Change, was (and still IS) being routinely “muted” into non-action. How it was “morphed” into a non-story — despite the dire warnings from a Global Panel of Scientists:

Frontline: Hot Politics

As more and more Americans look for a response to the realities of climate change, FRONTLINE correspondent Deborah Amos investigates the political decisions that have prevented the United States government from confronting one of the most serious problems facing humanity today.

[…]

In February 2007, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) concluded that the science on global warming is “unequivocal” and asserted with 90 percent confidence that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2) from human activities, primarily from the burning of fossil fuels, have been the main cause.

[…]

Hot Politics goes behind the scenes to examine the forces behind the inaction, including a well-financed energy industry campaign that challenged the broad scientific consensus on the human causes of climate change in an effort to stall federal regulation. Fossil fuel companies funneled millions of dollars to the institutes of global warming skeptics, including former President of the National Academy of Sciences Frederick Seitz, who cast doubt about the science in media reports on climate change.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/hotpolitics/view/

Despite, whatever change of heart Mr. Luntz may have had, his Tactics of Fear and Confusion — completed the Mission for which they were designed.  the planet’s Ice Caps continue to melt at accelerated rates while an endless parade of Status Quo leaders, continue to follow Luntz’s Marching Orders:

The Luntz Memo and the Framing of Climate Change

by Matthew C. Nisbet Framing Science

In a segment from the recent Frontline special “Hot Politics,” GOP pollster Frank Luntz explains his 1997/1998 memo that became the playbook for how conservatives like President Bush and Senator James Inhofe redefined climate change as really a matter of “scientific uncertainty” and “unfair economic burden.”

[…] Senator Inhofe’s appearance on Fox & Friends the week of the release of this year’s first IPCC report. Inhofe stays on message with the “scientific uncertainty” and “economic burden” frames adding that climate change is really a campaign driven by the “far left,” i.e. “Hollywood elitists and the United Nations.”

http://scienceblogs.com/framing-science/2007/05/the_luntz_memo_and_the_framing.php

James Inhofe couldn’t “frame” a logical debate, if his career depended on it — that is, NOT without the clever, deviously simple Talking Points from the Frame-master himself, Franks Luntz!

But Mr. Luntz would contend, that he has simply handed out “free ammunition” — BUT he is NOT Responsible, for how others may use that ammo.  Or even if that ammo Back-fires, and hurts everyone within a Million Mile radius! After all he only meant to help, he was only doing “his job”.

How DOES this Man sleep at night?

(probably next to piles, and piles of cash … that’s how!)