Last week, TBogg reported that Lanny Davis had shown up to defend “embattled overpaid NFL head and penny-counting situational ethicist Roger Goodell”. Now Deadspin investigates “The Political-Messaging Huckster Behind Roger Goodell’s Awful Presser“:
Roger Goodell was talking, but the words weren’t his alone. “That speech was all Frank,” says an associate of pollster Frank Luntz, lord of the dark arts of political messaging, who frequently works with Goodell and the NFL. “As soon as I heard Goodell’s intro, I was laughing.”
The part that got him giggling was the line “We will get our house in order first.” The NFL commissioner used that same phrase minutes later, in response to a question from a New York Post reporter about whether he would resign. “That’s textbook stuff that Frank uses all the time,” says the source…
As it happened, Luntz himself was watching the press conference, in his capacity as a Fox Sports 1 talking head (he moonlights as a Fox News commentator and analyst). Not long after the commissioner left the podium, Luntz gave his review.
“This,” he puffered, “was language perfection.”...
As a consultant, Luntz is probably most famous for having framed the GOP’s message on the estate tax (or “death tax”) and global warming (or “climate change”). His first noteworthy communications job came as a pollster for Pat Buchanan during a 1992 run at the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. That campaign was one long open appeal to the racist, nativist, homophobic fringe of the right…
In recent years Luntz has begun to move his dial-turning focus groups into the realm of sports. The source, who says that away from work Luntz is “the nicest, most generous man you’ll ever meet,” claims the consultant would never work another campaign if he could get away with it.
So what does it look like when Luntz mixes his passion and his profession? He helped NHL owners craft their propaganda during the 2012 lockout… More recently, Luntz has done some focus-grouping on behalf of Dan Snyder during the owner’s disaster of a campaign to save the Redskins nickname…
It’s likely not a coincidence that three owners with whom Luntz has worked very closely—Washington’s Snyder, Carolina’s Jerry Richardson, and the Bears’ George McCaskey, for whom Luntz emceed a 2012 Veterans Day event in which ex-Bears and military veterans discussed concussions and brain trauma—were among the first and few owners to publicly support Goodell after TMZ released the second Ray Rice video and put the NFL in its current state of crisis…
So… any bets on the next Grima Wormtongue to speak professionally in Goodell’s defense? Karl Rove? Grover Norquist?
Edward Scissorhandles
“You do not hire Lanny Davis for any reason other than you have done something very, very bad.” – Jonathan Chait
Joel Hanes
> Grima
Pity poor Grima, a tiny soul blinded by Saruman’s glamour.
Wormtongue :: Saruman
Noonan :: Reagan
ThresherK
Karl Rove will be busy. At least fot one night, he’ll be at the Connecticut Forum as a panelist “Debating Our Broken Political System”.
Charles Blow and Doris Kearns Goodwin are the other two papnelists. Anyone up for a good comment bomb?
If you are anywhere near the media footprint of CT public radio/TV, (or just want to anyway), submit a question for the Oct. 9th “debate” at CTFORUM.org.
Ct public radio usually knows better than this. Their local shows are much better than the NPR pablum.
leeleeFL
Possibly Goebbels. Or Satan. Hard choices so early in the AM.
glocksman
There’s a reason why so many on the right prefer history books to be published in a loose-leaf binder, and it’s not to correct errata.
Hawes
Fascinating that athletes, fans and sports journalists alike all panned Goodell’s speech as meaningless and vapid.
Or, to put another way, sports fans and journalists have more critical reasoning skills than voters and political journalists.
KithKanan
@Hawes: Well, remember the difference between sports and politics: one involves most people choosing a team for completely arbitrary reasons like which team their parents prefer or where they’re born/raised/live, while the other is something a huge mass of people know they have money riding on the outcome of and have an interest in accurate reporting. ;)
khead
Language perfection? People have been laughing at that press conference since the second it ended.
khead
@Hawes:
One can’t really spin the result of choosing the Jets -2.5 over the Bears.
rikyrah
Luntz?
LOL
Gian
it’s blindingly obvious that the same Roger who pitched a holier than thou “ignorance is no excuse” fit with the Saints coach over bounties to knock other player out of games decided to try and play the “I didn’t know” card
when he either damn straight knew, or went all ostrich on the issue so as to not know on purpose.
the raven’s coach wanted to cut rice because HE knew, the owner didn’t want to cut him.
the coach and Roger work for ownership and do as they’re told.
anyone who thinks the self-serving load of pablum coming from roger who is trying to save his 40 million a year job is anything more than that is nuts. the owners may keep him on for a while to make it look like something else, but his ability to protect them from their immoral decisions with a credible face is gone. He will be too.
...now I try to be amused
How does such a nice, generous man consistently choose to be on the wrong side of history?
@Hawes:
It’s no accident that Charles Pierce, one of our best political pundits, is a sportswriter. Sportswriters know they can’t get away with writing bullshit because they will get called on it.
I imagine that in the past when politics was America’s favorite sport, standards for political journalists were as at least as high as they are for sportswriters today.
montanareddog
Dick Morris next on the payroll.
Mike in NC
@rikyrah: Yup. Hard to believe anybody, anywhere would pay that clown to run his mouth these days.
The Other Chuck
So, Karl Rove has the math and Frank Luntz has the words … remind me, how did we ever lose to these people?