Tag Archives: manipulation

Cliché Day is Over

I’m relieved that international cliché day has now passed.

I don’t want to hear anymore “I remember where I was when JFK was killed” style stories.

No more using people’s deaths as an excuse to kill.

People who are close to us and people we don’t ever think about are dying everyday, and on most of those occasions… it is also unnecessary.

In previous years I tell stories and record podcasts related to how I remember that day and how our community took action and how things looked from my house.

But I’m tired of the cliché. Especially from the mouth of allegedly qualified political leaders. Tired of pointless war and torture and violence in the name of another cliché.

Even writing these words becomes redundant and fake-sounding. So I’ll stop. I’m just relieved that date has again passed.

I yield my time to the gentleman from the city of Angels.

Weekend Thought On Media

Watching the French news channels all weekend, I have but one simple statement… more of a rhetorical question. It came to me as I watched the Bin Laden video, followed by a security analyst, a beard analyst, a nothing analyst, and a guy who wrote two books with the world security in the title.

If the TV news didn’t air the Bin Laden video… would it really matter?

Or does the Bin Laden video matter, because the TV news airs it.

Reality Based Language

Greetings from Berlin. As I sat down for breakfast with Tim this morning, the term faith-based community some how came up. Naturally, this was followed by the term reality-based community. He loved the both and laughed through much of the meal.

As he read through the wikipedia entries for both these terms, I started talking about Frank Luntz.. do you know that name? Well you should, because he is and was a key figure in manipulating YOU. (by you im talking mostly to Americans right now)

Yes all those terms you think nothing of these days… insurgent, death tax, culture of life… these are the types of terms this man helped make part of the public conversation on issues. His specialty is taking something, especially a government policy or a proposed policy that would normally upset you and changing it into a name that makes you feel safe and comfortable. Examples: Logging = Healthy Forests Iniative, Drilling for Oil = Responsible Energy Exploration, and apparently Global Warming = Climate Change.

As I sat there going over the art of manipulating the truth and people, that familiar frustration came back. Did this really happen? Did this guy, working for the government, really take words that describe bad practices and policies and twist them into something more acceptable? Even now, it is hard to believe, but he did.

Here’s a link to a video illustrating some of his work.

Many have praised Luntz for his ability to do this. I consider him an accessory to mass murder and various other crimes.

bm191 Flashback – Roots of Public Relations and Manipulation

Packing my bags and leaving for the US and A in a few hours. Therefore, Im reusing and revisiting a show from 2005. A topic that I wish to see in every school and in every history book. Enjoy and I’ll speak to you from New Jersey.

You can search for the entire documentary on archive.org, search for the name Century of the Self.

Thats all, time to travel.

Bradley Whitford for President

Combination of lots of time on the boat and working on boat related creations involving wood and hammer, visitors from different parts of Northern Europe, and Second Life, have made me fall very behind on all things blog.

Photo Hosted at Buzznet.comI could tell you about my upcoming podcast focusing on crazy or not so crazy charles taylor of Liberia, as Pauline sent me a great email, having just returned from Liberia, that inspired me to ask her back on the show ASAP. But I’ll save the rest for when the show is ready.

What I would like to bring up relates to the show the West Wing, which if you don’t watch it, you may recall me occasionally mentioning it as a program I very much enjoy and secretly wish the American government was really like.

But I’m not here to discuss specifics of who did what and why. Instead I want to discuss the appearance of the actor who plays Josh, Bradley Whitford, on Bill Maar’s show recently.

It was stellar. It was inspiring. It was just – the epitome of articulate and passionate and intellegent. Maybe years of playing a character that works for the whitehouse requires you to do alot of research and you come to understand how the government should work and why it doesn’t. He seems to have a fantastic sense of what is the truth, what is manipulation, and what is wrong with the US. Among my favorite moments of the show, Whitford turns to the former Virginia govorner to his right and asks “you’re a christian, right? — And you’re for the death penalty? But the bible says not to kill? So doesn’t that strike you as a problem?” (something to that effect.)

Of course the guy defended himself with some catch-all about the “right time” to kill someone who “deserves” to die. But Whitford was excellent, no hollywood fakeness, he came right out and spoke his opinion and observation. Especially when he got into how terrible the government has helped make the image of the flag and americans around the world. He spoke about the classic move we all know about, attaching a Canadian flag to your bags when you travel. The former Canadian prime minister lady was sitting next to him, and said it was – unfortunately – a good idea. She was good too. But it was Bradley Whitford who completely won me over. Any show he’s ever involved in from here on in, I’m going to pay extra attention to. And if he gets into politics, as so many actors love to do, I’ll have my eye on him.

Go find this episode, use bittorent, if you don’t know what bittorent is, read about it, then join the millions of people, try mininova.