Insidious, under the radar, things that are happening in right-wing media today

[scheming daemons]

First:
- PPP poll of Louisiana residents that reportedly shows 54% think Bush did a better job with Katrina than Obama has done with BP.

1. BP is fresher in everyone's memory, Katrina was half a decade ago. Ask this question 5 years from now and the answer will be different.

2. The people most affected by Bush's Katrina response are either A) dead or B) displaced, and no longer in Louisiana to answer this poll.

3. The people most affected by the BP spill are small business owners and those who work in the oil industry. These people are A) still there and B) typically white and conservative.

4. The poll was of all of Louisiana, not just the New Orleans or coastal areas. The same poll taken of just New Orleans residents would likely be flipped. Conservative white guys in Shreveport were not affected by Katrina. Their opinion on this doesn't matter any more than the opinion of someone from Arkansas or Tennessee.


Second:
- Many news outlets, but specifically Morning Joe, keep reporting the attendance at Beck's rally at somewhere between 300,000 and 500,000. Scarborough, specifically, has used the 500,000 number a half dozen times this morning. I was disappointed in Howard Dean for not calling him on it when he had the chance.

1. According to aerial photos from unbiased organizations that do crowd estimating for a living, there were between 80,000 and 100,000 at the Beck event.

2. Reporting the event at nearly 5 times its actual size may seem harmless, but it is not. 80,000 is a typical Saturday or Sunday afternoon crowd at a football game. 500,000 is a movement. This is a typical tactic to spread the thought in people's minds that "gee, it seems that everyone else in the country thinks like this Beck guy. Maybe I ought to look into this some more. Maybe I'm wrong." People mock the "wisdom of crowds", but it is a real phenomenon. Anybody who went through high school knows it is real. If the majority is "into" something, others don't want to feel left out.

3. Anyone who calls Joe Scarborough on it will be labelled as a "nitpicker". But in this case, size really DOES matter. 500,000 legitimizes something in a way that 100,000 simply cannot. Any liberal who gets on his show needs to hammer away at this gross exaggeration. Howard Dean had a chance and blew it.



These are subtle attempts to have certain ideas gain traction that are not true in reality... A) that Obama is more incompetent in handling crisis than Bush and B) that the tea party movement is a larger force than it really is.

Goebbels would be proud.

[keith the dem]

1. Excellent, everyone should read this.

[NightWatcher]

2. Katrina - poor black people who were too dumb to get out of the way who then looted

BP - hard working white fishermen.......

This is how a lot of racists frame Katrina v. BP

[Froward69]

3. The "In crowd" factor

you want to be cool then come be with "the rest of us". is Definitely the ploy. problem is most conservatives are the ones who always wanted to be with the "in crowd" or in with the "cool kids" as teenagers. When the simple fact is that if you do what YOU prefer, coolness is no longer the goal. as you are "Cool" all on your own.

You are "Cool" just being strong enough to think for yourself.

by inflating the numbers not only do they bolster their OWN seance of worth. but also the conservatives are playing for those who desperately need to be included like they feel all the time.

when the simple fact of the matter is that being with the "IN crowd" is merely following the pack. anyone mature knows Coolness is a state of ones own mind. most often the Coolest are the ones doing their OWN thing or separate from the pack in some way.

thus it is a sad ploy to like minded insecure people, to join their pack.