Well, I guess you’ve got to give the Globe’s Andrea Estes a little credit for getting her hands on some hot fresh talking points memos from the Patrick committee, intended for gullible groupies like yours truly.
Mass. Liberal says yawn. I say, “Where’s my copy??” I don’t know what to talk about if I don’t hear from Deval’s flacks. I wander around confused and listless, not knowing what to say to make people really, really like Deval again.
According to campaign aides, the technique was used during last year’s campaign to blunt negative media coverage. Volunteers quoted talking points when responding to voters’ concerns about issues that threatened to derail the campaign.
Seriously — I never got those diabolical talking points memos (“out of the Karl Rove playbook”, no less — YOWZA!) in last year’s campaign. Are we not on the mailing list? David, you get anything?
You know it’s a slow news day when it’s front-page news that a politician wants his supporters to say nice things about him.
UPDATE: By the way, the communication between Patrick and the grassroots is by no means going to be a one-way street. What we saw of the soon-to-be-retooled DevalPatrick.com website will amply show that. As his tech guru Charles SteelFisher said, “He really believes this civic engagement stuff.”
One came with my last paycheck from George Soros.
Your copy of the talking points is probably in the same place as my copy of the Homosexual Agenda. They claim I have it; I have yet to see it.
This is not silliness, Charley. Estes shows great intelligence in writing a piece on talkingpoints without mentioning a single example. Estes managed to repeatedly mention her talking points on drapes, etc., without once mentioning the improvements to the healthcare deal that Patrick has worked for.
Nor did she mention other things in the talkingpoints memos like where to send “Get Well” cards to Diane, nor details on the business tax loopholes. I guess Estes’ doesn’t think political reporting encompasses issues like healthcare and tax loopholes. But I joined the Democrats and Deval Patrick’s campaign because I want our state’s politics to be about improving healthcare and the other issues Estes carefully avoids even mentioning.
<
p>
I got some talking points in my email. Of course, I’m Chair of my local Democratic Ward Committee, and since Deval Patrick leads my organization, and I think it’s normal for him to communicate with the lower level people like me. Somehow, I think the idea of a leader communicating with people in the field was invented before Karl Rove came along.
<
p>
But, Charley, can’t you see it from Estes’ point of view? It’s not fair for Patrick to communicate with people directly via the internet. He is only supposed to talk to Estes, and then Estes is supposed to tell the rest of us riff raff what to talk about.
<
p>
in fairness, it was mentioned in paragraph 4.
she pointedly did include the substance of the points–the sort of details, which, while true, might make Patrick look like he’s doing his job. And that doesn’t fit her preconceived notion.
typo
no news day. Yawn is right. It’s the Anna Nicole Smith reporter’s playbook.
I do think today’s story was slightly disturbing for one reason – it’s reporting about reporting. It evidences a condition where a reporter creates a story where there wasn’t one before, and then follows up on the condition she helped create.
<
p>
To wit: The media makes an issue out of the purchase of some decidedly expensive drapes to spruce up a decidedly unimpressive and drab office of the Governor of Massachusetts. Then, to counter-act negative press and spin from the right, the Patrick Administration gets organized. Then the rub: getting organized to fight the original story becomes the story!
<
p>
It’s sad, and it’s not real journalism. In a post-9/11 world, is there really any need for manufacturing a story like that? Aren’t we at war? Isn’t there a housing crisis?
<
p>
I’d actually be interested in Dan Kennedy’s take on this.
And, if she does not file a story a day, she gets laid off?
<
p>
What I do not understand is why EVERYTHING she files is so negative, both in the denotative and connotative meanings of the words she chooses. Was she turned down for a job with the administration?
There were no talking points. There was a small (very optional) script for introducing the campaign, but insofar as anyone asked questions, each individual caller was expected to have a large enough command of the issues that they could answer the Qs – or ask other phone bankers.
<
p>
So, if I didn’t see this mysterious Talking Points Memo as a phone banker, I seriously doubt one EVER existed.
Seriously dude.
how can you mock this story?
wait until tomorrow when they report the Washingtn Post story with deval’s rediculous quotes.
<
p>
The Estes story is no big deal. Unlike you Chatley, I have been reading the Boston papers since the 1960s. deval is being treated fairly.
<
p>
You however, continue to lose creibility and through you BMG when you micro analyze these stories.
<
p>
Bob, when are you in town next, so we can schedule this intervention?
Glad you’re so, so concerned with my/our “credibility”.
<
p>
I like Deval’s stubbornness. It’s served him well in the past, and he’s going to need it. If it comes down to Deval vs. Estes, I know who I take.
You personify deval’s huge slide in Estes little article?
<
p>
Deval’s stubborness you say.
<
p>
This guy is stubborn too
ROTFLMAO! Ernie, that was priceless. A Monty Python and a Mel Brooks reference all in two days. đŸ˜‰