COMM 4020 Political Communication blog

In Chapter 6, many related topics were discussed. I will be focussing on agenda setting for a topic from MSNBC written by Alex Seitz-Ward titled “Hillary Clinton’s last paid speech“. The title of this speech leads you to think she will no longer be taking money for speeches, or something of the sort. This title may also lead you to believe they will be talking about her speech in the article. The first line of this speech says it is her “last scheduled paid speech”, which does not mean it’s her last over all. Also in this article they mention the up to $300,000 per speech, this would take the average American about 7 years to earn. So as the title of this article makes us think Hillary is making a big change, when in fact it is not much of a sacrifice. In this article they also do not discuss her speech it self but the person she “reached out to” during the speech. The article talked mainly about the person who has supported and helped fund her campaigns throughout the years. So while this article leads us to think about one thing(or multiple), it in fact discusses something very different. As a side note, if Hillary does in fact happen to become President of the United States, she will be getting paid for that job and I believe “speeches” would be listed under that job description.

In Chapter two we discussed different types of myths and rituals. In this article I read from huffing post, Senator Tom Cotton clearly used the myth of Us and Them.  He is a first term (freshman as they are called) senator from Texas who has been very outspoken in many areas like Obamacare and even wrote a controversial letter to Iran about how many of the GOP leaders have misgivings about the nuclear negations with Iran. This letter even contained 46 signatures of his GOP colleagues, all in favor of his beliefs. On Monday in front of the Senate he gave his first speech and within a minute he started off using Adolf Hitler as an example.

He went on to state that back in WWII Winston Churchill tried to warn everyone about Hitler and that he was a huge threat but no one really took this to seriously until it was too late. He made the statement quoted by Churchill “Tragically, Great Britain and the West didn’t heed this warning, when they might have strangled that monster in his crib. Rather they let the locust continue to eat away at the common defense.” He continued with the fact that today’s world is continually in dangerous situations and defense spending is being cut when every other nation is making theirs stronger our defense is getting weaker.

He clearly is stating that if we do not heed this warning the US could find itself in another war like WWII and we will not be prepared and our military will not be able to defend herself. He is clearly trying to make congress and the public feel that we need to get touch, beef up our military and find a way to cut spending someplace else like Obamacare and increase spending on defense and he was doing this at the onset of the Republican Blueprint budget.  Using someone like Hitler is defiantly a way to use a specific group like Nazi’s to enlist support from others who feel that the safety of the nation is in jeopardy.

In chapter 3 of our text book we discussed functions of political language. These included information dissemination, agenda setting, interpretation and linkage, reflecting on the past and projecting the future, and action stimulation. This article published on golf.com is a good example of a few of these, however I will only focus on reflecting on the past and projecting the future.

The article is very simple in that it introduces the new EA Sports video game, however the flagship namesake for the game has changed.  The game that was at one time only known as “Tiger Woods”, will now be called  EA Sports Rory McIlroy PGA Tour.  The author of the Article reflects on the great success that the game has had bearing the “Tiger Woods” name for nearly 2 decades, and how EA hopes that Rory McIlroy can keep the tide rolling. One of the reasons why the Tiger Woods game was so successful, was that Tiger crossed boundaries far beyond that of the golf course. Taking the place of someone who has been arguably the best of all time in his sport is no small task.  It appears that EA is putting all their eggs in the Rory McIlroy basket. Hoping that he can carry on his success on the course, which they hope will carry over to a successful video game franchise. 

In Politics and Communication in America, Denton and Kuypers discuss the five functions of political language theorized by Doris Graber in 1981. As Denton and Kuypers explain, in one of those functions, “a great deal of political rhetoric and language deals with reflecting on the past and predicting the future” (45).

When you click on the “About” link on the website for the Ohio Democratic Party, it takes you to a page that explicitly defines the party in terms of reflecting on the past and predicting the future. A section containing the first two paragraphs seeks to define the Democratic party as “the party of everyday people” and reflects on the past by providing a description of the ideals that the website claims provided the original basis for the Democratic party. In the next section, consisting of five paragraphs, the website continues to reflect on the past by providing a story of the development of the party throughout the 20th century. Following this section, the website further reflects on the past by offering a couple of paragraphs that narrate what has happened to the party over the last decade.

Finally, then, the website titles its last section, consisting of two paragraphs, “Looking Ahead: The Roadmap to Victory.” Here it clearly turns its attention to the future, as suggested by the “Looking Ahead” title. The website provides specific claims that it will deliver winning results by “building grassroots support in all 88 counties, energizing and empowering local communities, and developing a powerful infrastructure to deliver Democratic victories up and down the ticket.” These statements offer predictions for what the party will do in the future, building off its past.

As a side note, this portion of the website has apparently not been updated in at least 5 years, since it discusses 2010 elections as the future. (Perhaps this lack of updating exemplifies something that conveys why the Ohio Democratic Party has struggled recent elections.) Still, this example is useful because it demonstrates how a particular political entity — in this case a state branch of a political party — has explicitly used reflecting on the past and predicting the future to define itself.

In this story it talks about the new Herman Cain sex scandal.
It talks about how the first sex scandal that came out about him has already had
a devastating effect on his campaign for president. The most recent sex scandal
was brought up by Ginger White. She claims that Cain and her had a relationship
since the late 1990s that just recently ended due to him running for president.
Cain denied this relationship and said that he thought Mrs. White was his friend.
Cain stated that he expected stuff like this to occur to him but that his wife
and family is his number one concern.  A third
woman has also come out accusing Cain of sexual harassment. The other woman who
filed sexual harassment charges against Cain received settlements from Cain’s attorney.
Throughout
Cain’s campaign the media has been showing a whole bunch about alleged sex
scandals involving Herman Cain. I feel that the media covering this issue is an
example of agenda setting. I feel that this is an example of agenda setting
because the media is not saying he is guilty or innocent, however they are
making American voters think about it. I also feel that these scandals are
going to cost Cain the election.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-1129-cain-20111129,0,6109690.story

Over the last few weeks we have spoken a great deal and even blogged about current perspective Republican candidate Hermain Cain. Some of our main talks focused on his accusations of sexual malice with several women, which is still ongoing. In this clip however, we see Cain discuss his views on one of if not the most important political issues of this generation, occupy wall street. Lately this issue has been given alot of attention from celebrities such as Russel Simmons, Kanye West, and Jay Z. When asked about his views on the current protest against wall street. He responded by saying he felt that it was a ploy from the Obama administration to move attention away from what he describes. He then goes into how he was raised and basically says that its not the people on wall streets fault that they have “succeeded” in life. Which makes me believe that he feels that those persons protesting everywhere are just unhappy with their personal situations in life and therefore are out to get those on wall street such as banks and such. My feelings about Cain before seeing this clip toward Cain were mixed, but after seeing his insensitive opinions toward those fighting for rights really has made me dislike and lose respect for him. Beyond that, I really found it very upsetting to see him speak so negatively about our President, regardless of his political position to say someone has created something such as a fake protest is unbelievable.

http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/11/21/8932192-romney-assails-obama-for-super-committees-failure

In this story Republican presidential primary candidate Mitt Romney is repeatedly quoted blaming the Super Committee’s failure to reach agreement on a lack of leadership by President Obama.  The bipartisan Super Committee was created to make the budget cuts that would significantly reduce the national debt.  The Committee was meant to reach an agreement on exactly what would get cut. The Super Committee’s failure would trigger automatic cuts to military and domestic spending that would begin with the new year. Republicans do not want any cuts in military spending, putting more pressure on those in the Super Committee to come to an agreement with the Democrats
of the committee.  Mr. Romney claimed the President should have done more to help the Super Committee succeed.  This is a good example of the media acting as a lapdog.  This article made no mention of the fact that the President presented a plan to the Super Committee that would reach the committee’s $1.3 million in required cuts that would keep the automatic cuts from happening.  Nor did this article point out that the President was asked to “stay away” from Super Committee negotiations by committee members of both parties.  Democrats did not want Republicans rejecting
a potential agreement simply because the President was for it; something that seems to have become business as usual for the President’s opposition.  Republican’s did not want him around because they didn’t want to be seen as supporting any of the President’s ideas.  Romney would surely know these things if I do,
and the press is also aware and failed to call Romney out; they just let him say what he said without ever mentioning that the President was asked to stay away from the committee.  The media reported what Romney said as fact and what’s worse they knew it to be false.

Forget about the bickering in the Republican primaries, because there is another interesting political battle brewing.  Attack ads are now flying back and forth between President Obama, and Republican Presidential hopeful Mitt Romney.  The first article listed below discusses the attack ads that Mitt Romney, and also Texas Governor Rick Perry released last week.  In Romney’s attack ad, all of the stereotypical images occur that we have learned about in attack ads.  The article states, we see “intentionally grainy, hazy images of Barack Obama on the campaign trail, followed by crisp, clear images of Romney accusing him of failing to meet his pledges.”  Rick Perry’s ad however criticizes President Obama for recently calling America “lazy.”  Well the White House/Democratic Party is not backing down, releasing their own response attack ad against Mitt Romney, highlighting his flip flops on key issues in American politics.  The second article listed shows how they have even created a website and are calling their campaign against Romney, Mitt v. Mitt, possibly preparing for a future election battle between him and Obama.  On the Republican side of this, although I think it is important to challenge the President on issues, I think the candidates should first focus on winning the nomination and deciding how they are going to turn the country in the right direction.

http://watching-tv.ew.com/2011/11/22/mitt-romney-ad-obama-rick-perry/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/28/dnc-launches-six-state-ad_n_1115612.html

This article discusses the incident that happened with Oscar Ortega. He attempted to assassinate the president by firing shots at the white house with an AK-47. Barack Obama was currently traveling to Hawaii.  Oscar Ortega is being accused of assassinating the president; if he is convicted he can face life in prison.  Jake Chapman, the man Oscar purchased the weapon from agrees to testify in court next Tuesday. He claims that he was unaware of Mr. Ortega’s intentions with the gun. However, he seemed very pleased when he was in possession of the weapon. Mr. Chapman has history with drugs and warrants in the law, he was currently on probation.  He says that he ran into money issues that forced him into selling the Ak-47 to Ortega.  The media Is following every single detail about this story. Details in this story express that Ortega is guilty and is absolutely capable of persuading people into believing that Ortega is guilty before court even takes progress. The media is playing the role of priming individuals to accept that he will be guilty in court before it is proven. Priming takes place often in the media and can make society view situations differently.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/22/us/suspect-in-white-house-shooting-appears-in-court.html?_r=1