Dear Readers: I had the privilege of discussing the topic of “Managing Media” to a dynamic group of California citizen activists this weekend (click HERE for Mark Meckler’s great round-up). I promised my audience I would post my notes (so click HERE to download my presentation).
The most important lesson I taught was this: YOU NEVER HAVE TO ANSWER THE QUESTION ASKED. I repeated this message several times, and gave some examples. My mission is to teach my fellow tax revolt rebels the magic of MEME TRANSMOGRIFICATION.
As an example, I asked my audience: Would you be willing to take a question on the contraception issue? They all answered with a resounding “NO”. I shocked them by informing them that they were wrong. I then gave a quick example of the brief response, with a detailed follow-up on the real matters of the day (e.g., gas prices, real employment numbers, Fast & Furious).
Providentially, the next day, Newt Gingrich had an interview with David Gregory, which was that exercise transformed into reality:
(Note: While I am no fan of David Gregory, I agree with the Anchoress: No, David Gregory is not a Hack; I am grateful Gregory provided Gingrich a platform to go into great detail about the true issues that we should all focus on).
Last night, I had the pleasure of listening to the Kira Davis BlogTalk Radio show: The Dark Side (Tuesday/Sunday – 7 pm PST). Like me, Kira recognizes that we Tea Partiers must learn the magic of redirecting the media meme of the day to serve the message we would like to get out. In fact, she writes about that very subject today: This is Not A Post About Rush…
You see, the Democrats know what we have been so very slow to learn – the freedoms that Americans fight so hard to protect are directly related to the narrative used to describe those freedoms. … The narrative is key.
I am hoping to get more opportunities to help citizen activists “transmogrify” the message of the moment and divert it to something meaningful to our movement. She spent much of her wonderful program highlighting this point.
I would also like to thank Kira for kindly taking my phone call, even though I disagreed with her a bit. We were discussing the Rush Limbaugh joke that involved the term “SLUT”. She didn’t think he should apologize. However, as I noted in my seminar: JOKE WITH CARE — if you have to explain the joke, then you have just distracted from your message. I see this matter the same was as Tammy Bruce: Rush had so much fodder to use (i.e., like the fact she is a 30-year old leftist activist), that the “Nuts and Sluts” approach often used to smear conservative women shouldn’t have even been a consideration, even as a retort to an inane liberal gender feminist. It gave our opponents a sound bite they can and will use against us. It seems Rush eventually saw it my way.
And it seems Fluke accepted the apology with the graciousness one would expect from a prevaricating statist.
Related to this, I was appalled that Carbonite, a Rush sponsor I once considered using, dropped Rush. Meanwhile, the company is all aces about keeping on liberal flame-thrower Ed Schultz after he apologized for calling conservative pundit Laura Ingraham a “SLUT”. I detest such blatant double-standards, and am delighted that Legal Insurrection’s Professor Jacobson intends to hold Carbonite’s feet to the fire. In fact, courtesy of Legal Insurrection fan jasond, I offer you alternatives who dropped Rush over this Kabuki-theater of elite moral outrage:
Below is a list of 7 advertisers that abandoned the Rush Limbaugh Show followed by a list of some of that company’s competitors. This is not an endorsement.
…………………….1.Citrix (streaming visualization technology )- Competitors
http://www.vmware.com/
http://www.f5.com/
http://www.riverbed.com
http://www.cisco.com/
http://www.microsoft.com(source – http://www.wikinvest.com/stock/Citrix_Systems_%28CTXS%29#Competition )
……………………….2. Quicken Loans (Home Loans, Mortgage Refinance, Mortgages) – Competitors
http://www.amerisave.com
http://www.lendingtree.com
http://www.agfinance.com
http://www.smartquote.com
http://www.firstamericacredit.com(source – http://www.keywordtrak.com/DomainSearch/Competitors/quickenloans.com#axzz1oCXMyafv )
………………………..3 and 4. Sleep Train and Sleep Number (mattress retailers ) – Competitors
http://www.dreamnumberbeds.com/..inflatable beds, direct competitor
http://www.sealy.com/
http://www.tempurpedic.com/
http://www.mattressfirm.com/(source Bing http://www.bing.com/search?q=Sleep%20Better%20Store&pc=Z192&form=ZGAFNT&install_date=20110906 )
….
5. Carbonite (online backup) – Competitors
http://mozy.com/
http://www.mypcbackup.com/
http://www.justcloud.com/
http://www.livedrive.com(source http://www.thetop10bestonlinebackup.com/ )
…
6. LegalZoom (online legal document services) – Competitorshttp://www.legalace.com/
http://www.legalarrow.com/
http://services.uslegal.com/
http://www.mylawyer.com/(source – Google search term – online legal document services )
………7. ProFlowers (order flowers online) – Competetiors
http://www.ftd.com/
http://ww10.1800flowers.com/
http://www.teleflora.com/
http://www.virtualflowers.com/
*************************************************************************************
SLOB STORIES
- Beers with Demo: Eye-popping video of over-regulation – Video clip of the day
- Word Warrior: CAPITALISM vs SOCIALISM
- W.C. Varones: You can’t cheat an honest man? Michael Imbesi loses millions in alleged Ponzi scheme
- K-T Cat: Limousine Libertines; And a pick thanks, as he honored me with Link Of The Day
- B-Daddy: Failure of the Stimulus
- Shane Atwell: Altruism Versus Honest
- Lipstick Underground: Team Brunette Takes a Blow
Finally, Caesar Charles had an awesome account of a Carl DeMaio for Mayor event to which he as invited. It seems Team Filner crashed the event, which looks to be an escalation of one of Alinksy’s favorite tactics that is being implemented to many groups opposed to the interests of average American taxpayers.
Upon arriving, a firetruck was parked out front and a group of mayoral candidate Bob Filner (D) supporters were gathered around with protest signs. The Filner supporters attempted to break up the DeMaio fundraiser by calling in the fire department. They claimed that the room was beyond capacity. This was not true, but the point of the dirty trick was to punish anyone who hosts a Republican fundraiser. When we arrived, the firemen were lecturing the Democrats that the response to their complaint was a waste of tax money and may have cost lives in an emergency. I am pretty sure the part about wasting tax money went right over their heads, but they were dispersed and sent on their merry ways by the fire department.
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Excellent clip from Newt.
Never fear the media…it is always an opportinity to state your case, regardless of the host or topic. Excellent work, Goddess!
Great work, Leslie. Thanks for the link.
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