FOX's Strategy to Destroy Obama

[optimal-tomato]

I was skimming the ole' Wikipedia and came across the article of the Overton Window. I had heard of the idea before, but something struck me as I was reading it. FOX (and by extension the Rupublican Party) is trying to shift the Overton window on every liberal idea, policy, or politician. I'll quote the article with some snips.

The Overton window describes a "window" in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on an issue. Overton described a method for moving that window, thereby including previously excluded ideas, while excluding previously acceptable ideas. The technique relies on people promoting ideas even less acceptable than the previous "outer fringe" ideas. That makes those old fringe ideas look less extreme, and thereby acceptable. The idea is that priming the public with fringe ideas intended to be and remain unacceptable, will make the real target ideas seem more acceptable by comparison.

Emphasis mine.

The basic idea is that if you want to make polygamy acceptable, you should campaign to promote child rape. While those highly-visible child-rape advocates will be ostracized, polygamy looks less radical.

FOX is trying to do this in reverse. They are taking sensible policies and claiming they are unthinkable. And while no one will ever take Beck or Hannity seriously (because they are so extreme), they make the fringe policies of the mainstream GOP look less insane. They are trying to narrow the Overton window on the left by making any liberal politician or idea equal to Soviet Communism, while expanding it to the right. This is why they focus so much on the extremes, and over-reacting to even the most reasonable ideas: because if something is popular, but Republicans say it is unacceptable, then the public (including establishment journalists) are going to split the difference, and think it's just not a good idea.

So... I guess we need to start advocating something FAR FAR to the left, just to bring back the balance... Right?

[StreetKnowledge]

1. So, in other words, we need to campign for far left ideas?

Don't some of us here already do that? ;)

[optimal-tomato]

2. Then go LEFTER!

If you're in favor of nationalizing the banks, then campaign in favor of putting all investment bankers in prison.

If you're in favor of single-payer, then campaign in favor of making that single-payer Rupert Murdock.

Get creative. The more outrageous, the better. :evilgrin:

[zeos3]

5. That's exactly what the right does.

They don't "go lefter" but they work both ends. They go more and more extreme to the right with their crazy ideas and they call centrist ideas "far left." They shift both borders to the right this way. Pay attention to O'Lieley and Hannity (ugh) etc. They never talk about Democrats or their ideas without prefacing them as "far left" or "extreme left."

In my opinion, progressives don't seem to really use this technique because it seems sneaky or coercive. We prefer a straightforward honest debate.

[optimal-tomato]

6. ...

Progressives prefer a straightforward honest debate.

I'm afraid that's why they're still moving this country to the right, even from the minority.

[zeos3]

8. Don't get me wrong

I don't mean to imply that it's not a very effective technique or that we shouldn't be doing it ourselves. Maybe it's just me being sick of marketing and sales pitchy persuasiveness. If you know what they're doing, it's easy to see through.


An informative read on this is "State of Confusion - Political Manipulation and the Assault on the American Mind" by Dr. Bryant Welch. The author talks about the 1944 movie "Gaslight" in which a husband drives his wife to the brink of insanity by playing games with her sense of reality. He then compares this to our modern day gaslighters (Coulter, Limbaugh, etc) and how they create their own simple reality that is far different from the complex reality of our world. This is like changing the reality of a fringe idea by making it seem more mainstream than an even more extreme fringe idea.

[fasttense]

3. Which is why it was so absolutely stupid of Dems to have taken Single-Payer health care

off the table.

[INdemo]

11. Single-Payer healthcare is what I thought Obama was talking about during the

campaign.But that was before he found out just how powerful the insurance companies are and the number of Democrats that are owned by the those companies.

[zeos3]

4. It's the same idea as "working the ref"

Let's say you coach a young kids basketball team (or soccer, or whatever). You should start complaining and yelling from the first call the ref makes. Over the course of the game, this will make the referee think twice about the calls he/she makes and could influence things in your favor. (I have a friend who is a master of this technique. He's also a wingnut. Coincidence? I don't think so!)

Chomsky talks about a related issue all the time. He says a vigorous debate is allowed within a small range of ideas. This gives the illusion of a healthy open discussion while regulating "unacceptable" ideas to the extreme or fringe.

[SoCalDem]

7. It's a common business technique..FOUR DOLLAR GAS??

WTF.. People are THRILLED to only have to pay $3.00 when 8 or 9 months earlier, they were complaining about $2.25 gas..

[Delphinus]

9. Thanks for the feedback, everyone.

This is giving me lots of food for thought.

[PeaceNikki]

10. Um... so they're destroying Obama's credibility with who exactly?

Their viewers? The GOP?

Let's be honest, that's just more preaching to the choir and the net result is likely nothing.

[Postman]

13. They're playing the refs - meaning....

the mainstream media who influence the viewing public.

[DailyGrind51]

12. "We" need a major media counterpoint to FOX!

Where is Ted Turner when you need him?

[optimal-tomato]

14. Turner's cable news is nothing but...

...vacuous spokesmodels who read a prompter and take Fox News talking points at face value.

The problem is that there isn't a significant amount of liberals who like listening to someone echo their own ideas back at them.

[mopinko]

16. turner is long gone. i have often wondered

:tinfoilhat: if he really wanted to sell cnn, or if he got an offer he couldn't refuse. just sayin'.

[tosh]

17. Ted chastised CNN for what it has become at a conference

a couple of years ago.

I wonder what kind of Non-Compete terms were in the contract.

[tabasco]

15. Goebbels called it "the big lie."

Sadly, propaganda works.