Jon Stewart Dismantles The GOP/Fox News Messaging Machine

It’s been three months since the Republican Party took a beating at the polls losing the White House as well as two Senate seats and seven in the House. Yet they are still immersed in a vicious debate over whether their policies are driving away majorities of the electorate or if it’s just a messaging problem.

Heavyweight GOP operatives like Karl Rove, Eric Canter, Jim DeMint, Rush Limbaugh and various Tea Party goons are polishing their finest bluster and throwing blame around like cream pies at a clown convention. What they seem to be missing is that their messaging has been the one part of their tactical campaign that has been working. Americans, for the most part, know exactly what Republicans stand for, they just don’t like it and voted against it in droves. So the the response from the GOP is to take another stab at obscuring their true intent by developing another phony facade behind which to campaign. That effort was mercilessly skewered last night by Jon Stewart on the Daily Show:

Stewart’s focus on the self-described “Word Doctor” Frank Luntz could not have been more appropriate. Luntz has positioned himself as the poster boy for political window dressing.

Frank LuntzIn the pre-2012 election warm-up he conducted a seminar for the Republican Governors Association to teach them how to practice more effective deception. He told his pupils that he was “so scared” of Occupy Wall Street and laid out a directive for them to refrain from using damaging phrases like “tax the rich,” “sacrifice,” and “capitalism,” and replace them with his equivalent of verbal comfort food.

While desperately dishonest, Luntz is actually closer to solving the GOP’s problems than most of his comrades in the communications arena who are Apocalypse vendors trying to outdo one another with tales of doom. They want to keep the right-wing sheep in state of constant and debilitating fear by insisting that America’s demise is imminent, freedom is hanging by a thread, and the foreign-born usurper in the White House is amassing his troops for a run at dictatorship. Compared to that, Luntz is as warm and fuzzy as you can get, albeit just as averse to the truth.

The Apocalyptists, however, are winning the internal GOP war. Their gloomy forecast has prevailed as happy-talkers like Luntz fade into the woodwork. Luntz even acknowledged the defeat in a post-election commentary about why “Fox News viewers ought to be outraged.” The doomsayers have a much higher wattage broadcast platform. And although they whine incessantly about what they imagine to be a liberal media, their own role in propagandizing the nation is far more aggressive. As Jon Stewart sarcastically put it…

“If only people knew what the Republicans were about. What the Republicans need is some kind of a 24 hour a day, 7 day a week perpetual messaging refinement and distribution resource. Preferably one cloaked in the trappings of journalistic authority but without any of its ethical constraints.”

Yeah, if only they had that. Then their message wouldn’t be getting suppressed by media titans like Current TV. Wait a minute – that doesn’t exist anymore. Well the leftists certainly have dominated the airwaves on talk radio for the last few decades. Oh wait, that isn’t true either.

I guess the fact remains that the only billionaire sponsored mouthpiece for extremist right-wing thought control is still Fox News. And despite their monopoly on media manipulation they still can’t stop whining about what victims they are.

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6 thoughts on “Jon Stewart Dismantles The GOP/Fox News Messaging Machine

  1. The republicans will never change, they would have to admit they were wrong and that is something they will never do. I especially like the insHannity clip, shows what a complete douche he is. Thanks for putting this out there, Stewart nailed it!

  2. Well, you’re not going to win much when you’re despised by the people in the party who actually cast votes – as is the case now. G.W. Bush really did more damage than just to the country and they’re trying to repeat it. Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…I won’t get fooled again.

  3. As you say, the republicans have been getting away with their “messaging” and right wing media has made it easy for them by not being journalist. The voters are starting to get it as this last election showed and are calling them out on their bullshit for what it is. The 2014 mid-terms will be an interesting test to see if more folks have had enough.

    “It’s not what you say, it’s what you do.”

    • Sounds like you’re really just more interested in the democrat party getting absolute power – if it was a choice between Obama with a democrat legislative branch or keeping a republican house to block absolute power, I’ll take the republican house. There are no good choices here, but there is one clear bad choice and that is our government run by the Obama party – no thanks. The republican party may be a mess, but it still serves a purpose. The people are getting a taste of a progressive agenda in gun control and the abuse of government power in an Imperial president, I expect things won’t change in 2014 and it will be no change except for a few dead american citizens that this president thinks are terrorists he can bomb with drones. Maybe it’s you that needs to open his eyes, mine are wide open.

      • Another utterly vacant comment that ignores the topic of this article and is jam-packed with GOP talking points instead. Thanks for continuing to demonstrate how empty-headed right-wingers like you are.

      • I’m not interested in anyone getting absolute power but I am interested in the progressive agenda because it addresses a wider range of issues and is better for most working citizens. History shows the country does better as a whole under progressive administrations.

        At the moment, the republican party serves no good purpose other than letting us know what not to emulate. This country needs an opposition party to keep the others from going too far in one direction or another. There are many different views of how the country should operate and opposition parties keep the others’ feet to the fire. It also forces the politicians to actually govern. That entails compromise because of the aforementioned differing views. The republican party, having been taken over by the far right wing of their party, will tell you compromise is bad. This last election tells us what the American people think about that.

        The republicans think they lost because of messaging. They have been getting away with their messaging (lies/deceptions/) for awhile but since we’ve seen what they actually stand for, citizens are calling them on their bullshit. The comment I made in quotations sums it up nicely.

        I read the article. My eyes are wide open. Perhaps you should read it again. Clarity may wash over you yet.

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