Where do they get the talking points?

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Watching the threads regarding blamestorming over the numerous Katrina-related gaffes, I notice that within a very short period of time, certain right-wing posters enter the thread and echo talking points in perfect lockstep with PR efforts headed up by Karl Rove. I don’t want to debate who those posters are, nor do I want to get into who is to blame for the poor response before/during/after Katrina.

What I’m most interested in is how many of my right-wing friends seem to use identical phrases and talking points when it comes to arguing the Republican point of view in the thread du jour. It is uncanny - almost as if some secret Republican memo was disseminated behind the scenes and it immediately self-destructed after talking points were digested, but before any pesky liberals could get their mitts on it.

If there is something I admire about the Republicans, it is their ability to manipulate the media and keep their base moving in lockstep. I’d like to know how it’s done. This many people cannot be on Karl Rove’s secret “eat this memo after you’re done reading it” e-mail list.

So what gives? I’m not trying to be inflammatory here, nor am I saying that all Republicans are robots reiterating the same points over and over again. (I’d save that one for the Pit.) I’m legitimately interested in knowing how this amazing communications feat is achieved nearly every day.

2

If you’re smart, and you’re trying to solve the same problem as someone else–spin the Katrina mess, in this case–It’s not unlikely that you’ll come up with the same solution.

3

If you look, not any more closely, you can see talking points from the left as well.

4

You just need to get on the distribution list.

5

Sure, but not with the frequency or rapidity that you typically see it from the right.

How long did it take for “blame game” and “after-action report” to become phrases you’re already sick of hearing? Hours? Minutes?

6

But how likely is it that you come up with the same solution nearly simultaneously, and use almost identical language to describe it?

7

It’s not. Which is why I’d like to see some examples of this. Preferably several since you claim the phenomenon is repeated.

8

When individuals look to a select few media outlets and talking head for their talking points, and those media outlets report whorishly (im making no distinction between liberal, conservative, or whatever) the talking points presented by their government official of choice.

Well…

As an ex-professor of mine put it: When you have a group of people that all think the same way, you don’t need a conspiracy.

9

Well, let’s start with the one at hand.

First, read this article in The New York Times (registration required) concerning how the White House is dealing with political fallout from the perceived poor handling of the Katrina situation.

Next, do a hamster-throttling search for “blame game” and/or “after-action report” here on the SDMB. You’ll find that most of the references to “blame game” occurred right around the time the White House launched this PR effort, and were most often brought up by those who typically champion Republican causes here on the SDMB. (No, I’m not going to call out specific posters. I don’t want somebody getting on my case for what would essentially be an accusation of mindlessly parroting talking points.)

While you’re at it, check Google News and other news aggregation sites for “blame game” + New Orleans and sort the results by date. You’ll see the evolution of this talking point in action. Basically, it gets used by Governor Blanco on CBS once, then President Bush latches on to it, and it’s suddenly the subject of many editorials and news articles about how atrocious it is to point fingers while a crisis is still going on.

The quote from the article in the Times shows that Karl Rove and the administration wanted to deflect comments concerning the lack of response to Katrina and instead focus on what the federal government was acting on at the time. So it’s obvious this notion of “Don’t play the blame game” came from the administration. Your Google searches should attest to the popularity of that particular phrase in recent days.

So how did it get conveyed to the Republican masses? And how did so many Republicans come to use similar (if not identical) phrases and concepts to hammer it home?

10

As a level 2 member (charter, lifetime) of the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy, each day I get an email with an IP address. I put that into my browser and it brings up a page with the talking points. Every day it’s different, and once I’ve brought up the page, attempting to re-display the page later get an unrelated, innocuous page. No two level 2 members get the same IP address. I then use my special encrypted phone line and conference call the level 1 members who report to me (such as my hair stylist, a middle-class married woman with a family).

Here are some other ways we communicate. I don’t know all the details. I also know there are more ways, but I have no idea what they are.

We have codes in common greetings equally common responses, and other everyday language, such as “hello”, “Hi, how are you?”, “Nice weather we’re having.” A determined person such as yourself can pick them up if they listen carefully for long hours. Recording them and replaying them many times will help. Backmasking and other tricks are used. We’re also trained in using our voices to produce otherwise inaudible subsonic and supersonic signals, and we can hear these signals because our hearing has been altered with a secret drug.

There are even messages in media such as NPR, CNN and Air America. Bill Clinton’s defense of Bush was one of these. Vital messages have been in everything Michael Moore has written and filmed, some deliberately and consciously placed by him, some unconsciously, others by his editors.

Print media are also used. For example, there’s actually an important message in the linked article. You can try to work it out for yourself.

Of course, if an unauthorized person such as you are discovered, you will be “disappeared”. A note which perfectly matches your handwriting and language style will be composed with a plausible explanation and left behind.

Actually, I may be in a bit of trouble for revealing this. If I’m “disappeared”, suspect the CIA.

There is another way, but I’m not quite sure what it is. There’s a scar above my right ear I don’t remember getting. All I know is that at some point I find myself typing these phrases seemingly without prompting, almost automatically, so it must be instantaneous. These phrases seem natural and obvious to me and bring me great inner peace and joy.

11

If Karl Rove wears a particular tie, it’s a signal to me that he’s thinking about me.

12

I wonder what tie he’ll wear on the fifth Tuesday of November.

13

Percentage of blogs using the phrase “blame game” in the recent past.

14

After-action report

15

If people, in general, are looking to assign responsibility for a screw up, and others wish to reject that view, there’s only so many phrases that can be used to mock the suggestion. “Blame game,” “scapegoating,” “fingerpointing,” and “who shot John” are the ones that come to mind. The fact that one gets used repeatedly probably says more about the tendency of people to try to put things in the simplest way possible, rather than a conspiracy of some sort.

Of course, I’m just talking about the way the Republican rank-and-file use buzzwords. Bush has the benefit of the bulge under his jacket to tell him what to say.

16

Recent past? The chart I see stops in September of 2004.

17

That would be September the 4th, not September 2004.

18

Oh. I’m certain that is not a typo, UncleBeer. Especially since it spikes on, let’s see, hmmm, August 30th.

19

THespos got it.

20

The display is messed up. You’re getting a trend from the past two months.