Monday, December 12, 2011

The PR "war of words" on #OWS (comedy)


Frank Luntz is visible on the sidebar at Wisdom Quarterly (courtesy of The Colbert Report) comically being skewered by Stephen Colbert. Luntz is a 1% PR man for sale to the highest bidder, waging war with words and spin. He sells himself to corporations and the politicians that serve them.

Luntz did the Occupy (Wall Street) Movement a great service last week: As the founder of right-wing messaging firm Luntz Global, he circulated advice to GOP strategists for how best to use specific phrases and terminology to hinder the efforts of the Occupy Wall Street movement. But word got out.

How the Occupy Movement (OM) presents itself, particularly before cameras, will play a critical role in determining whether it is successful at broadening its base of support. The US lost support for its invasion and illegal occupation of Vietnam exactly because the cameras were there. The US military now bans un-embedded cameras.

The whole world is watching. Spectators take their lead from how they identify with Occupiers they see on TV or meet in person.

This is a primer. It begins with some of the most subversive strategies being used against the OM. It finishes with general word-choice aimed at helping activists who wish to defend the movement.

  1. Never drop the "Wall Street."

Luntz: Tell them, "You shouldn't be occupying Wall Street; you should be occupying Washington. [Herman "Koch" Cain got the memo and frequently used this talking point.] You should occupy the White House because it's the policies over the past few years that have created this problem."

This is a very important diversion. Luntz is suggesting that the GOP work to deflect attention from banks toward DC bureaucrats. But bailouts, insider trading, and the derivatives market trading crashed the economy. Government bureaucrats simply fail to regulate these massive firms with their own armies (such as billionaire Mayor Bloomberg's seventh largest army in the world, as he referred to it, the NYPD).

Luntz has used these words: "This is your critical advantage. Washington's incompetence is the common ground on which you can build support."

The reason Washington is a problem is because representatives in Washington no longer pay any heed to the will of the people. This is because players on both sides of the traditional Right vs. Left “Washington” dynamic have been bought by special interest money. These special interests are the hands of the puppet master... More

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