GOP strategist advises NPR... on NPR!

He may be Satan's pool-guy, but flack-wise, the Republicans' Frank Luntz can make some sense.

Here's what he said on NPR station WAMU's Diane Rehm Show recently about how to fight the defunding attempts by right-wingers in Congress, and salvage public radio's good name.

There are five different types of people for you to reach out to. Rejecters, Disagreeables, Neutrals, Accepters and Embracers. Each one of those terms means something. You need to forget the Rejecters because there's nothing you can do to influence them.

"The truth is the Disagreeables won't help you. Your job, the most important role for someone who supports public broadcasting is to take the Embracers and energize them to speak up and do something and move the Accepters to become Embracers. And in terms of the best possible language, it is possible to communicate across politics and across ideology.

"Number one, you provide listeners with content that they can't get any other place. Number two, you take emails, you take Twitter, you take phone calls. That means there's a greater degree of interactivity which is what listeners want. Number three, is that there's a geographic component. We believe that whether you live in the most rural area of Georgia or the most urban area of New York City you should have the right to quality programming. And number four, if not this, where? Ending with that question. If not us, who? If we lose NPR, where are you going to get this kind of content? Those four steps and that targeting delivers you greater support if that's what you are trying to do.

Comments

[joanie]

I guess we'll know if that works if NPR tries it all tied up in that neat little package.

That's what I thought they were doing. Providing content you can't get elsewhere: isn't it the content that the right doesn't like?

Not sure about Twitter and emails . . . Do the hosts on KUOW take them. I think they do. Also, phone calls.

Rural areas? What would that take? You can't force an area to start a station can you? Rural areas think they're getting quality programming with Limbaugh. Just ask chux. And he lives in the city.

And I've heard the "if not here, where" meme already on public radio. They're preaching to the choir.

What am I missing?

[sparky]

It occurs to me that topography enters in at some point. I know that when I lived in Snohomish county, KUOW would not come in at all on my radio in the house. Once when I worked a fundraiser Sunday for them, they admitted that their signal misses a lot of places just because of hills, canyons, etc. I know that wont tap in another huge piece of listners, but I wonder who might listen if they could hear the damn station.

Rejecters, Disagreeables, Neutrals, Accepters and Embracers...that is a very interesting insight into people...I can think of other ways to apply it when it comes to supporting education.

[Monson's turds are far more perfect since he started eating Purina 1]

Frank Luntz' little black book of whores:

Rejecters: $2500/hr
Disagreeables: $100/hr
Neutrals: dinner
Accepters: $2600/hr
Embracers: Free at airport john

Luntz looks like something Rove shit out on a recent camping trip. Strange there are only 3 gigantic O'Reilly logos in the image.

How long 'til this guy gets caught being 'naughty'. I'm sure he can come up with the 2500 bucks. His wife will be releived.

[Pete]

The geographic component is particularly important because a number of states have statewide radio networks, covering their rural areas, that are all NPR affiliates. (Oregon has such a system, called Oregon Public Broadcasting; WA doesn't.) Some of those states (NJ and I believe Mississippi) are defunding their public networks, that in rural areas provide alternatives to Rush and jukeboxes in areas with very few other alternatives. That's what Luntz is speaking to.

[The Anti-Dori]

Interesting. What do the numbers look like in those rural areas which have statewide networks and where NPR is available? Anybody know?