{"id":20174,"date":"2014-08-11T13:07:27","date_gmt":"2014-08-11T20:07:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20174"},"modified":"2014-08-11T16:05:31","modified_gmt":"2014-08-11T23:05:31","slug":"gop-word-doctor-inadvertantly-admits-and-praises-blatant-fox-news-bias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=20174","title":{"rendered":"GOP ‘Word Doctor’ Inadvertently Admits (And Praises) Blatant Fox News Bias"},"content":{"rendered":"

As one of Fox News’ favorite contributors J. Christ said: “Physician, heal thyself.”<\/em> That would be good advice for Dr. Frank Luntz, who has dubbed himself “The Word Doctor”<\/em> for his efforts to deceitfully manipulate language in order to peddle otherwise unpopular conservative policies.<\/p>\n

\"Fox<\/p>\n

Wanna see how Fox Nation “doctors” their news stories?
\nGet Fox Nation vs. Reality. Available now at Amazon.<\/a><\/p>\n

On Sunday’s episode of MediaBuzz, the Fox News media analysis program, host Howard Kurtz brought Luntz in to discuss the public’s low opinion of the media. The segment turned into a slobbering love fest of Fox News with Luntz heaping praise on the network with almost every answer. However, in one instance he may have provided a little too much information.<\/p>\n

Kurtz and Luntz were attempting to demonstrate how “fair and balanced”<\/em> the notoriously conservative network is with a clip from one of Luntz’s focus groups. Luntz began by asking the group if they trust Fox News. A distinct majority raised their hands to indicate that they did. One of the few dissenters who was asked to elaborate was a woman who said that “I really believe – I know no one wants to hear this, especially here – that Fox is an extension of the Republican Party.”<\/em> Seizing on that candid opinion, Luntz heralded Fox for being “willing to challenge itself,”<\/em> and took a swipe at MSNBC, who he said would not have allowed the question. Then he escalated his gushing adulation to say that…<\/p>\n

“In 2008, when I did focus groups with Obama and McCain, all three of my sessions during the debates had Obama winning. And Fox still devoted six, seven, eight minutes to those focus groups. They have nothing to fear, and I appreciate that about this network.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Imagine that. A Republican pollster holds focus groups that favor Obama but Fox aired the results anyway. That’s an open admission that Fox is exactly what the woman in the group said: “an extension of the Republican Party.”<\/em> Otherwise, why would Luntz regard it as so extraordinary that it deserved special recognition? Luntz was praising Fox for broadcasting the segment even though it was contrary to their Republican political leanings. And of course they have nothing to fear when the other 99.9% of their programming is solid GOP talking points straight from RNC press releases.<\/p>\n

But Luntz shouldn’t get so excited about this anomaly. Fox’s version of fairness and balance is anything but. Their oversampling of right-wing pundits and politicians has been well documented. They even provide a platform for Republican candidates to campaign while still employed by Fox as paid contributors. And just last week Bill O’Reilly did a segment that attempted to prove that Fox was ideologically evenhanded, but it backfired badly. His guest, Fox host Heather Nauert, noted that there were nineteen “liberals”<\/em> on Fox “out of quite a lot”<\/em> of conservatives, Nauert fumbled.<\/p>\n

[FYI: I counted only sixteen liberals (and some of those were questionable) facing off against 121 conservatives according to Fox’s website<\/a>. The <\/em>“liberals”<\/em> are Evan Bayh, Bob Beckel, James Carville, Alan Colmes, Susan Estrich, Santita Jackson, Dennis Kucinich, Mara Liasson, Leslie Marshall, Deroy Murdock, Kirsten Powers, Ellen Ratner, Geraldo Rivera, Julie Roginsky, Joe Trippi, and Juan Williams]<\/p>\n

Elsewhere in the MediaBuzz segment Kurtz posed this question to Luntz: “You are saying that the audience has gotten more partisan […] Aren’t people like you in part responsible for that?”<\/em> Good question, Howie. Here is Luntz’s ludicrous response which Kurtz left unchallanged:<\/p>\n

“Well, it’s a simple question. Is the death tax an accurate description of being taxed when you die? Isn’t exploring for energy what oil companies do? Is it opportunity in education, in terms of vouchers or school choice? If you believe that the words that I’m using aren’t accurate, then you’ve got a legitimate point. I believe that these are accurate descriptions, which is why the American people seem to support it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Quite clearly these are not accurate descriptions. They are deliberate deceptions that Luntz carefully tested to assure that they would elicit predetermined reactions from voters. The “Death Tax”<\/em> that Luntz coined is not a tax on dying. It is tax on property that is being transferred from one party to another, which is exactly what would happen if it were being done between two living persons. His “exploring for energy”<\/em> dodge is meant to disguise the fact that it refers to environmentally risky off-shore drilling that the public opposes. As for “opportunity in education,”<\/em> that is so vague as to be meaningless, and it dispenses with the truly descriptive phrasing of vouchers, which is what the program is all about.<\/p>\n

Luntz is a professional deception specialist. Republicans rely on him for ways to package unpopular GOP policies so that citizens are persuaded to vote against their own best interests. In other words, he constructs lies that he sells to desperate right-wing politicos, and he supports a luxurious lifestyle by doing so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As one of Fox News’ favorite contributors J. Christ said: “Physician, heal thyself.” That would be good advice for Dr. Frank Luntz, who has dubbed himself “The Word Doctor” for his efforts to deceitfully manipulate language in order to peddle otherwise unpopular conservative policies. Wanna see how Fox Nation “doctors” their news stories? Get Fox […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":20175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"GOP 'Word Doctor' Inadvertantly Admits (And Praises) Blatant Fox News Bias","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1,684,8,16],"tags":[33,188,297],"class_list":["post-20174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","category-media-bias","category-propaganda","category-wankery","tag-fox-news","tag-frank-luntz","tag-howard-kurtz"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/foxnews-luntz-bias.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-5fo","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3395,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3395","url_meta":{"origin":20174,"position":0},"title":"BUSTED: Fox News Memo Reveals Coordinated Bias","author":"Mark NC","date":"12\/9\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"In August of 2009, while the debate over health insurance reform was in full swing, GOP pollster Frank Luntz appeared on Sean Hannity's program and advised Hannity and other Republican operatives to stop using the term \"public option.\" As a result of his own polling Luntz discovered that... \"...if you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3785,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3785","url_meta":{"origin":20174,"position":1},"title":"Fox News Pollster Spills The Truth About Fox News","author":"Mark NC","date":"1\/31\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Frank Luntz is a fixture on Fox News. His polling and focus groups are regularly featured on the network and, by some weird coincidence, always seem to reflect poorly on President Obama and Democratic policies. Luntz was called upon again to survey opinions of the President's State of the Union\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3893,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=3893","url_meta":{"origin":20174,"position":2},"title":"Fox News Spin Doctor Frank Luntz Insults Wisconsin (And American) Workers","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/18\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Republican pollster and \"Word Doctor,\" Frank Luntz, was interviewed today on Fox News' Your World to discuss the effect of the Wisconsin protests on America's perception of unions. What transpired was one of the most vigorous attempts at spin I've seen since at least the last time I saw Frank\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":7505,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=7505","url_meta":{"origin":20174,"position":3},"title":"The Fox News Un-American 4th Of July Election Special","author":"Mark NC","date":"7\/5\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Demonstrating their blatant hostility to fairly representing the American people, Fox News broadcast an election special on the Fourth of July that consisted of almost exclusively conservative Republicans. Out of eleven political guests there was only one Democrat (Rep. Rob Andrews of New Jersey). Balancing out that lone voice was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":8424,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=8424","url_meta":{"origin":20174,"position":4},"title":"Fox Flunky Frank Luntz Says “Fox News Viewers Ought To Be Outraged”","author":"Mark NC","date":"11\/11\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"If you were to look for a political pollster or analyst who spent more time manufacturing a false narrative about the presidential election than Frank Luntz, you would probably give up in despair. Luntz is a Fox News fixture who appears on numerous programs flaunting his phony focus groups that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Election"","block_context":{"text":"Election","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=152"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":9016,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=9016","url_meta":{"origin":20174,"position":5},"title":"Jon Stewart Dismantles The GOP\/Fox News Messaging Machine","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/6\/2013","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "General"","block_context":{"text":"General","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=1"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=20174"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20186,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20174\/revisions\/20186"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/20175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=20174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=20174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=20174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}