COMM 4020 Political Communication blog

In a recent article from CBS News a little known Republican presidential candidate and former governor of Louisiana recently came up in a story about his backing of the Occupy Wall Street movement. Candidate Buddy Roemer is a rare example of republican politicians that are openly supportive of the OWS movement. In a statement Roemer was quoted as saying “It is Main Street that is being foreclosed on and it is Main Street that is suffering while the…greed of Wall Street continues to hurt the middle class.” He goes on to show his disapproval of how the government is heavily influenced, not by the average Americans, but instead wealthy special interest groups, and other corporations. As the author of the article Lucy Madison points out that along with Roemer’s Harvard education and long standing career as a politician gives him credibility when it comes to his opinions on this issue. For those who don’t follow government actions or other political news, aka the attentive public, Roemer is the third party that the inattentive public can look to in trying to form an opinion of the OWS movement.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503544_162-20118163-503544.html

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP0a63573850b943bc9d88eb81b62980e6.html
This article seemed to be warning Republican voters that the type of exchanges they witnessed in this latest debate is only a preview of what’s to come before Republicans decide who their presidential nominee will be.  It described the Republican primary race as entering a more “aggressive phase,” one that sheds some light on the campaign tactics and “likely attacks” Americans will witness in the final weeks before the primary voting begins.  The articled described the last debate as a “no-holds-barred contest over character.” It also spoke of Romney and Perry using “tough” language in their efforts to chip away at each other’s character and values.  Perry is attacking and questioning Romney’s core beliefs and emphasizing the fact that Romney seems to alter his position on important issues.  Romney is characterizing Perry as a “dimwitted” amateur who has very liberal ideas about immigration.   The article closes with touching on the concerns of Republican voters being worried about choosing a candidate that has a chance against the President.

The 2012 Republican primary debates are pseudo-events.  Debates are meant to inform the people where candidates stand on issues and policies and what alternatives and solutions
they may have.  Instead, they have turned these nationally televised debates into opportunities for character assignation.  They attack each other and the President, little else seems to be accomplished.  The primary purpose of these debates is to gain media attention, not to help determine who the best party representative will be in the 2012 Presidential race.

This story discusses how Rick Perry will reveal his simplified tax plan to the American people, on the campaign trail.  While Perry entered the presidential race with great popularity, he has faltered of late due to poor performances in the recent republican debates.  With Businessman Herman Cain’s 9-9-9 plan, and former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich’s 21^st Century Contract with America, Rick Perry came under pressure from his Republican counterparts to unveil some sort of economic plan for debate.  With his plan, Perry wishes to implement a flat tax, and simplify the current federal tax code stating, “I want to the make the tax code so simple that even Timothy Geithner can file his taxes on time.”  The flat tax idea may have come from one of Perry’s campaign advisors, businessman, and Forbes magazine editor, Steve Forbes.  With this plan, Perry hopes to revamp his conservative base that may have doubted him in recent weeks. Rick Perry’s decision to release his tax plan at this point in time is an example of kairos, which suggest that there is a proper moment in time for discourse on a given subject.  Whether or not Perry’s tax plan will help or hurt him is yet to be known, but by releasing it, it allows for more discourse in the debates to come.

This youtube video that I will discuss conveys the severe ignorance of Ron Paul’s existence in the 2012 presidential campaigns. Ron Paul is a Texas republican candidate in the presidential election and has made very great impacts but has continued to be ignored. For example he has broke records by declaring the presidential candidate who has raised the most money in one day for their campaign. You can assume that he has many followers if he has accomplished this goal.  He even raised more money than our current president Barack Obama. Ron Paul was second in the Iowa straw poll but is somehow still overlooked by the media. This story relates to the term agenda setting where it display how the media airs news that they believe to be important while not even acknowledging Ron Paul’s impact. However, the media frequently discusses Romney Mitt, Rick Perry, and Michele Bachman in the top tier even though Michele Bachman was actually behind Ron Paul at a point in time during this presidential race. Agenda setting is essentially harming Ron Paul’s campaign by completing ignoring his arguments as well as his followers because if he is not getting any media coverage than it will be very difficult for him to maintain his presence in the 2012 presidential campaign.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t0mnATGwCkY

The theory of agenda setting is alive in well in the media. Right now the media has a focus on the republican presidential primaries. Herman Cain is now the frontrunner in the polls and has been taking flak from the media for it. His every move or word is scrutinized in order to lower his polling numbers. MNSBC has a story on their website that identifies this concept of attacking the rising candidate. The article is called, “Was Cain’s Electric Fence Comment Really a Joke”. This article attempts to draw controversy to Cain, by conveying that Cain is a radical person that does not care about human life. This goes along with how most conservative candidates are viewed. Taken that this article is from MSNBC it is taken into account that they are slanted left, however it begs the question, why do they care about the republican primary. My answer to this is that they do not want Cain to win because they perceive him as a real threat to President Obama. Instead, this left leaning media would prefer to see the moderate candidate Mitt Romney to win the nomination. This is where the agenda setting comes into play, because they would prefer to have a more favorable candidate so they attack the ones they do not want.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/10/17/8367671-was-cains-electric-fence-comment-really-a-joke

Agenda setting is lining your mind or views to go a specific
way, like covering certain stories to make you agree with the media or the
general idea that something is bad or good.
The issue I want to focus on is the AAA grading of the US while Obama is
president.  This is the first  down grade of the triple A rate of the united
states.  The article said that a company
named S&P downgraded the united states because of the lack of trust and
disagreement with congress on some issues.
So, the company downgraded the United States form a triple A
country.  I think this is relevant because the United States has a lot of business overseas and the country needs to reassure those contracts and companies that America is strong money wise.  In addition, this is the first
ever down grade, and this is the first ever known biracial president.  I think this company is using this
disagreement with congress ability to reduce long term debts to say that Obama
is a bad president and congress is not doing its job.

“S&P officials dropped the
government’s rating to AA+ from the top rating, AAA, based on a lack of
confidence that Congress and the president will be able to shake their
political gridlock and make more serious reductions in the long-term debt. The
agency was dissatisfied with the deal lawmakers reached last week just in time
to prevent a government default”.

http://news.yahoo.com/obama-calls-us-aaa-nation-despite-aa-rating-180828644.html

In this article it discusses how the California Gov. Jerry Brown recently vetoed a bill that would make it illegal for police officers to be able to obtain a person’s cell-phone while being arrested. The main reason that the bill was introduced is that many policy makers feel that the fourth amendment should protect people’s personal property when being arrested when there is no warrant during the arrest. Gov. Brown explained that the lack of the policy makers to not be able to clearly define the fourth amendment involving cell phones is the reason that he could not allow the bill to pass. The author explains that obtaining a cell phone in today’s wi-fi, wireless internet technological period allows law enforcement to gain access to peoples texts, emails, financial statements, and many other personal information cell phones are capable of possessing. This article, I believe, can fall under a few other theories, but I believe that because it is not an actual law that it would be difficult to view this article as being watchdog journalism. It does a better job of priming the reader, or more specifically, allowing them to think about what their personal views on the situation are. http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2011/10/warrantless-phone-searches/

In this advertisement for the 2012 presidential campaign Rick Perry bashes our current president Barack Obama repeatedly by calling him a zero. In the long drawn out commercial it constantly throws Obama under the bus by saying he has not made any changes to our nation and that our economy is still suffering terribly. The commercial also points out that Obama has not made any real contributions to creating jobs and boosting the economy for the satisfaction of our citizens. This commercial displays Barack Obama in a dark light while at the end of the commercial Rick Perry appears with much positive attention and discuss how he will do a better job at gaining jobs for our people and how he will be boosting the economy. This is an example of an attack ad because it shows Obama not utilizing his presidential position while also attempting associate positive pieces of politics with Rick Perry. This advertisement was set up to be very dramatic and somewhat longer than other ad campaigns which categorizes it as political entertainment. In some reviews for this ad, feedback said that it reminded people of a movie trailer. Political entertainment is good to catch the inattentive publics’ eye but could also distract them from what is the essential content of the ad.

http://www.mediaite.com/online/movie-trailer-or-campaign-ad-rick-perrys-proven-leadership-ad-will-freak-you-out/

In this story, readers learn about Congresswoman Michele Bachmann and 2012 Presidential candidates attempt to use celebrity billionaire Donald Trump to help her in her tele-town hall. According to the article Bachmann had planned for Trump to be the guest of honor, only problem is he had no idea the event even existed. As you may know by now earlier this year Trump too had plans on running for Republican candidate. He was very vocal in his opinions against current President Barack Obama. Some of his most memorable moments was when he mentioned that he would use his celebrity to get votes and believed that he had a strong chance of actually getting America’s votes. Congresswoman Bachmann now trying to get a jump start on her competition has decided to use the controversial money maker to help boost her votes. Not only will he be great for raising money for her campaign but he will also help with his connections to many popular celebrities. We briefly discussed this concept of Presidential candidates using celebrities to help with their votes. This is a great technique as celebrities are looked up to by not only young voters but also adults who look to these celebrities for entertainment and such. We saw this play out in the Obama’s campaign which was highly boosted from Oprah’s following.

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2011/10/trump-didnt-know-hes-headlining-bachmann-tele-town-hall-tonight/