Fox Focus Groups in Your Face

Frank Luntz's polling keeps getting weirder.

On Fox News this weekend, Bill Bradley addressed a focus group of undecided voters while Luntz collected their live reactions on his "Instant Response" dials. And the results were instantaneously graphed across Bradley's head as he spoke.

The absurd presentation was demeaning for Bradley, the thoughtful former senator, presidential candidate, author, Rhodes Scholar and hall-of-famer, and it captures all the vapidity of tactical spectator politics. Luntz hypes the spikes in audience feedback and questions Bradley without any pretense of interest in the issues -- it's all performance. The voters are asked to explain their reactions to Bradley's comments, but really they're scoring the show. It reminded me of a point Matt Bai made about the rise of "meta-voting" back in the 2004 presidential race:

Decades of trying to dissect and interpret the desires of the American voter -- for the purpose, ultimately, of undermining opponents and manipulating public opinion -- have changed the character of the voter himself. The popularizing of political strategy, on TV and in newspapers, has created a class of voter who sees politics more as a tactical pursuit than as a means to an end.

See if the video gets your dial going:

Ari Melber writes for The Nation, where this post first appeared.

Comments

[Bluedog12]

Frank Luntz the father of GOP pajorativism.

[arkgrfx61]

I wish he would burn that rug!!!

[realpolitic]

Frank Luntz is not even a real pollster. He is a Machiavellan, Republican operative whose sole purpose is identifying code words like the "Death Tax" that turns people away from a Democratic message and leads them toward a Republican one, even when it is outside their economic interests. As usually for someone on the far right, Luntz does not care for process, for honesty, for fairness, only for winning ideological conflicts and manipulating people. He is despicable!

[devadasi]

Frank Luntz is a despicable human being. He represents everything that is wrong with America.