When the narrative becomes reality

[Skeptic Ginger]

Once again, the Republicans have successfully changed reality just by saying so. And the rebuttal gets lost in the noise so no one hears it.

The BBC News tonight (the radio version) reported on the latest Congressional Bill to pass re the extended tax cut.

"The Republicans wanted the cuts to be extended for a year but they accepted a compromise to extend them for only 2 months," said the BBC reporter.

WTF? Does nobody care about the actual issues? Do reporters and the public just repeat Boner's narrative without any conscious processing? It's bad enough the Republicans keep repeating this distortion hiding the real thing they wanted and didn't get while pretending the disagreement was over extending the cuts for a year. But when reporters just repeat the narrative without question, reality for many people is simply re-written in their brain, including the reporters' brains.


And no one seems to hear Obama or anyone else for that matter when they say, "the Democrats also wanted the cuts to be extended for a year." Why not, you might ask?

It's simple. It's because Obama does not follow that sentence with the alternative reality, the real one. The Republicans wanted to extort a favorable decision on the pipeline in exchange for the extended tax cut. Obama wanted the two decisions to be independent of each other.

The listener (the public and the reporters) hear the rebuttal: "both sides wanted a year, that was not the dispute"; but without a replacement for what was the dispute, their neural networks have no choice but to recall the Republican narrative, they wanted a year but compromised and took 2 months.

This stuff drives me nuts.

 

[daenku32]

I expected better from BBC News.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I expected better from BBC News.

I don't think it is them. It's our fallible brains.

 

[Francesca R]

BBC reporting on the US fiscal SNAFU seems rather balanced to me.

On Thursday, the embattled House Speaker told members of his party they would make a U-turn, during a muted conference call where they could not ask questions.

Payroll tax deal passes Congress in rare win for Obama

In my experience people who complain that the BBC is biased or has not properly informed itself of the facts usually need to look closer to home

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

BBC reporting on the US fiscal SNAFU seems rather balanced to me.

In my experience people who complain that the BBC is biased or has not properly informed itself of the facts usually need to look closer to home

It boggles my mind how completely you missed the point of my post. This thread has absolutely ZERO to do with the BBC per se. It has NOTHING to do with balanced reporting.

It wouldn't matter. The correct story could have been given in 10% of all news casts, maybe even in 20%. It could be 70% in print media, whatever. What matters is hearing any reporter repeat a false or less than true talking point which was intentionally put out there in the public discourse for political reasons, (excluding those on Fox News who are paid to repeat the same talking points). This thread is about using language to change what people perceive about a political position.

Perhaps your response reflects a cultural divide and this gives me an opportunity to ask if the constant repeating of a political talking point by one or more political parties is the norm in the UK or in any other county others are familiar with besides in the US?

In this country, discovered by Nixon after his image didn't come off well in a televised debate with Kennedy whose image did, expanded upon immensely during the Reagan era and developed to the level of all out propaganda during the Karl Rove/Frank Luntz era of right wing political marketing, changing how people actually perceive reality has been taken to new heights.

So, in the recent political squabble over this latest Congressional standoff, the House Republican talking point, repeated incessantly by every Republican in the House in any interview, and repeated multiple times by Boner in televised interviews, was "We wanted the extension for a year," and "Let's just stay here and get this done and make the extension for a year." This talking point along with careful avoidance and for some reason a paucity of reporters challenging Boner asking directly, What's the disagreement over?, came from a calculated campaign tactic. It's not an accident. It's what I'm referring to by 'writing the narrative'. The narrative is then repeated it over and over all the while the narrative they don't want to be heard is carefully avoided.

Frank Luntz or his company likely came up with this particular narrative. But it is without question that the Republicans discussed the plan and everyone in the House was on board. Repeating that talking point was done with a coordinated conscious effort. It was not an accident.

Luntz conducted a focus group that came to light years ago during the Bush campaign. He found from the focus group that the words, Democrat Party, had a more negative connotation than the words, Democratic Party. Every right wing talking head then began purposefully renaming the Democratic Party, the Democrat Party, anytime they mentioned the name publicly. It wasn't long before the news media also began repeating the wrong name for the Democratic Party and the name with the more negative connotation is part of the political discourse to this day.


Oh, I'm so glad you brought this up Francesca. You reminded me of this wealth of reports on the matter. I had forgotten how much Gingrich was involved.

GOP strategists christen "Democrat [sic] Party" -- and the media comply

SUMMARY: Several media figures, including news reporters, echoed Republicans by employing the word "Democrat" as an adjective to refer to things or people of, or relating to, the Democratic Party.

'Language: A Key Mechanism of Control'

As you know, one of the key points in the GOPAC tapes is that "language matters." In the video "We Are a Majority," Langauage is listed as akey mechanism of control used by a majority party, along with Agenda, Rules, Attitude and Learning. As the tapes have been used in training sessions across the country and mailed to candidates, we have heard a plaintive plea: "I wish I could speak like Newt."

The article cites numerous specific tactics from the training video complete with quotes from Newt putting the training into practice.

Newt Gingrich's 1996 GOPAC memo

As you know, one of the key points in the GOPAC tapes is that "language matters." In the video "We are a Majority," Language is listed as a key mechanism of control used by a majority party, along with Agenda, Rules, Attitude and Learning. As the tapes have been used in training sessions across the country and mailed to candidates we have heard a plaintive plea: "I wish I could speak like Newt."

That takes years of practice. But, we believe that you could have a significant impact on your campaign and the way you communicate if we help a little. That is why we have created this list of words and phrases.

This list is prepared so that you might have a directory of words to use in writing literature and mail, in preparing speeches, and in producing electronic media. The words and phrases are powerful. Read them. Memorize as many as possible. And remember that like any tool, these words will not help if they are not used.

And yet with all that publicity, the tactic continues to be successful and some skeptics don't get what I'm talking about or don't think it matters.

 

[Francesca R]

Yikes .

Happy Christmas!

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Thanks, you too.

 

[Beerina]

So...politicians are eternally getting better and better at evolving their political narratives, engendering successful reproduction by getting people to adopt them?

Welcome to the wonderful world of memes!

 

[Alt+F4]

Once again, the Republicans have successfully changed reality just by saying so.

They have done no such thing. My perception of what happened with the tax cut struggle didn't change at all. People aren't as stupid or gullible as you think they are.

 

[case#46cw39]

Their narrative says they are supporters, lovers and believers in "the land of the free" but they are conducting a massive Drug War and stealing American's freedom. They say they are for small government but in the last 10 months they spent 40 Billion Dollars to jail 10,000 Innocent Free Americans (LEAP.CC). They say they believe in State Rights, Individual Liberty yet they conduct a massive federal drug war, stealing and stepping on the people's right to make their own state laws.

And as been shown, the irony is they are alco-drug users who get their drugs from drug dealers and are constantly having drug parties, while crying about drugs. And their drug is one of the most dangerous, destructive, and addictive drugs of all.

That's pretty gullible. And both Dems and Reps do it.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

I see the people who buy the Fox News narrative of reality have joined the discussion. Good. It serves to illustrate the problem.

@Beerina: This is not about political rhetoric. It's not about typical political speak and dodging answers a politician doesn't want to give by repeating canned answers whether the canned answer fits the question or not. That's actually a different issue. But if you cannot perceive the difference, even when pointed out, that's interesting.

Perhaps an example would help.

An example of what you are describing would be Mitt Romney saying he's against 'Obamacare' because it's a federal program. It is OK if the states want that solution therefore Massachusetts' 'Romneycare' is different.

What I'm talking about is a sophisticated effort to change thought. It's all on a continuum of sorts. Framing is an example of a step down from where things are today. It's tax relief, not a tax cut. It's a death tax not an estate tax. The Republicans were much more aggressive about framing but the Democrats have caught on.

Next on the continuum is falsely associating beliefs with certain terms. It's Obamacare, not health insurance reform. Any kind of social safety net becomes socialism. (But police and fire services, not so much. ) This goes beyond framing but the difference is subtle. The changes also have come about insidiously. Things do not have clear cut dates when manipulation of thought through language went from one level to the next.

Over the last decade this manipulation of thought through language has become much more omnipresent. Trying to make a debate about the Tar Sands oil pipeline into a false claim that the debate was over Obama wanting a 2 month tax cut extension while the Republicans wanted a 12 month extension is an example of a step further (one of many BTW, this is not the first but rather it is a trend). It's not about framing the Tar Sands oil pipeline as either good for us or bad for the environment. It is about completely falsifying what the debate was about. And then one hears the falsified debate subject repeated as it if were the actual debate subject in the public sphere signifying the success of rewriting reality.

It's not that the oil pipeline is completely out of the news. But it is almost completely removed from the tax cut extension debate news.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

They have done no such thing. My perception of what happened with the tax cut struggle didn't change at all. People aren't as stupid or gullible as you think they are.

And yet the news media reporters continue to repeat the narrative that the debate was about the time frame of the tax cut extension without mentioning that was not the debate issue at all. I heard it again this morning on CNN. And when the left wing pundit asked the other to stop repeating the talking point, the right wing pundit repeated the talking point that the debate was about the length of the tax cut extension.

 

[thaiboxerken]

Alt+4 has this weird idea that since he's not "stupid or gullible" that people aren't "stupid or gullible."

I think the ratings of Fox News prove otherwise.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Their narrative says they are supporters, lovers and believers in "the land of the free" but they are conducting a massive Drug War and stealing American's freedom. They say they are for small government but in the last 10 months they spent 40 Billion Dollars to jail 10,000 Innocent Free Americans (LEAP.CC). They say they believe in State Rights, Individual Liberty yet they conduct a massive federal drug war, stealing and stepping on the people's right to make their own state laws.

And as been shown, the irony is they are alco-drug users who get their drugs from drug dealers and are constantly having drug parties, while crying about drugs. And their drug is one of the most dangerous, destructive, and addictive drugs of all.

That's pretty gullible. And both Dems and Reps do it.

And this has to do with the oil pipeline legislation tied to the tax cut extension legislation, how?

You are demonstrating an example of triggering neural networks with key hot words. That's a different discussion.

 

[tyr_13]

Even with the less than accurate reporting, most people I've heard mention this have been critical of the Republicans, and describe it as the Republicans 'taking a beating'. While I do believe reporting should be more accurate, I don't think people are fooled into thinking the Republicans were in the right when the were not.

 

[Skeptic Ginger]

Even with the less than accurate reporting, most people I've heard mention this have been critical of the Republicans, and describe it as the Republicans 'taking a beating'. While I do believe reporting should be more accurate, I don't think people are fooled into thinking the Republicans were in the right when the were not.

No, in this case it's not about who wins. Lately the changed narrative is being overwritten by reality.

I wouldn't get too comfortable though. These guys have a history of learning from their mistakes and adjusting the narrative accordingly.