Blue Mass Group

Reality-based commentary on politics.

Breaking! Ogo blew off UMass-Lowell students to talk to Fox News

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BMG News has learned that Jim Ogonowski was scheduled to talk to students in a UMass-Lowell class yesterday morning.  But he cancelled literally at the last minute — because Fox News called.

Boy, talk about your misplaced priorities!  Ogo could have spent an hour engaging directly with a class full of students — you know, the future, and all that — many of whom are probably MA-05 voters.  Instead, he chose to talk to a right-wing “news” outlet.

The correct response to the Fox News producer, Jim, was “gosh, I’d love to talk to you guys, but I have a prior commitment at that time that is more important, since it’s in the district.  I’m available later in the day.”  But, apparently, what Fox News heard was more along the lines of “really?  You betcha!  Name the time and I’ll be there!”

We report, you decide.

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  1. …Ogo blew off people who “COME FROM the EFFING DISTRICT“? Good move, Ogo. Because, of course, “regular guys” are always appearing on Fox News instead of engaging working class people from Massachusetts.

  2. You don’t vote. 

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    I don’t mean to be contrarian here, but I totally understant the campaign choice by the Ogmeister.  To the extent there was a percentage of FOX news viewers in his district that vote, by going on FOX, he’s actually talking to people who might go vote for him.

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    By going to UMass (to a single class?), he’d be talking to: 1. People who typically don’t vote; and 2. people who typically wouldn’t vote for him.

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    I’m just guessing, but I think that was probably his rational.

    • …by going on Faux News instead, he’d be talking primarily to people outside the district, who couldn’t vote for him anyway.

      • Even if only a very small percentage of Fox’s audience is in his district there’s a good chance there’s more people in the district watching Fox than sitting in that class, no?

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        I’m still not sure it’s good form to cancel at the last minute unless there’s breaking news he’s involved with. But I disagree with your math.

        • Even if only a very small percentage of Fox’s audience is in his district there’s a good chance there’s more people in the district watching Fox than sitting in that class, no?

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          Doubtful.  It seems to me that most of the Faux viewers would be at work at the time.

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          Irrespective of that, it strikes me that Faux could have sent out a crew to the classroom to broadcast his appearance.  If they had done that, they would have avoided the issue.

          • Some people work nights. Or second shift. Or have weekdays off rather than Saturday/Sunday.

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            Some people are on vacation and just getting their day going. Some people are retired or on disability.

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            Some students at UM-L and other schools might not have class and be watching in their dorms.

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            Restaurants, barber shops, convenience stores, Dunkin Donuts and tons of other places in the district would commonly have a tv on, maybe even tuned to Fox news.

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            I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt that the UM-L class had as many as 200 students in it. And I’ll even conceede they were ALL registered voters in the 5th District.

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            I still think there were more people in the district watching Fox news at the time.

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            It doesn’t matter what MOST of the Fox news viewers are doing that at time. It doesn’t take even a small minority of Fox viewers to easily outnumber the students in that class.

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            And then the campaign or some Rebulican blogger might grab a clip of the thing from YouTube and email it to a bunch of undecideds.

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            As for sending a crew out. Huh? The guy got a last minute invite probably because someone cancelled. They don’t have the time to put together the logistics to do a remote. And if they did have the time, they wouldn’t do it with Ogo. Someone important enough to get a live remote is too important to be a last minute invite.

    • I voted.  In fact, I never missed an election (still don’t).  And I was a biology major, not in poli. sci.

    • people from the ages of 18-25 or so vote at much higher percentages than those 30-40. In ’06, about half of the former bracket voted… and that was a midterm year. But feel free to continue the wacky stereotypes that young people don’t vote and don’t care. I gaurantee politicians who think like that (ex. Oganowski) won’t be winning too many elections anytime soon.

      • But feel free to continue the wacky stereotypes that young people don’t vote and don’t care.

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        Thanks, Ryan.  I’d almost forgotten how much I appreciate your overly-snarky responses to comments you disagree with.  I’m not here to put Generation Y down, just pointing out I don’t completely disagree with a campaign tactic.

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        I didn’t look at the 2006 stats.  But, stats from 2004 and prior do confirm that voters 18-24 are less often registered, and those registered less often vote, than their peers.  Take it for what it’s worth. http://www.census.go…

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        The .pdf report under “1. Voting” is helpful,.  Everything else I’m reading says that only 24% of eligible voters aged 18-29 actually turn out to vote.

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        But hey, the college kids are more than welcomed to prove me wrong this time around.

        • because young voters are much more likely to be registered in more than one location — and not illegally, I’d point out.

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          Register while a senior in high school at home.
          Register while in college in another state.
          Register when you move to the city for your first job in a third state.

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          You’re now registered three times, and likely to stay on the rolls in all places for a while.  Even if 100% of these people voted, it’d show their turnout as 33%.

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          Sure, not everybody registers, goes out of state, moves twice, etc.  But, enough do that it skews the data.  Young people are more mobile, and therefore more likely to be on two or more voter-reg lists.

      • people from the ages of 18-25 or so vote at much higher percentages than those 30-40. In ’06, about half of the former bracket voted…

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        If you’ve got a link to those stats, I’d love to see it.  Is that half of all eligible voters?

  4. …may or may not vote, but they do go home and talk to their families, friends, and co-workers and say, “Hey, guess what? Jim Ogonowski was supposed to speak to my class but he blew us off.” Even if the student might not vote, her parents might and they might carry the image of No Show-gonowski into the voting booth.

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    Now, compare the negative impact of No Show-gonowski vs the random tree-falling-in-the-woods appearance on daytime Fox News. I’m betting that even if Jim did reach people in the EFFING DISTRICT** via Fox News, they were people who are going to vote for Ogo anyway. If Jim showed up to UML, even if he didn’t get new voters, his appearance would have been at least neutral and cost him fewer votes than a no-show. Indifference of opinion is better than a negative opinion.

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    That’s my guess, anyway.

  6. I have to support Ogo on this one. The opportunity to get air time on a national affiliate (that is totally in the bag with you politically) trumps a class at the local college. Just plain political reality.

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    First, Ogo doesn’t have the money to buy media access like this. You never turn down free media as an underdog / underfunded camapign.

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    Second, it’s not a one tine live shot early in the morning. It videotape that will play all day on Faux News. And given the phony news network’s political bend, they will be playing it again and again into tonight and on the political shows this weekend.

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    There are plenty of good knocks you can use on Ogo. Certainly his political judgement on SCHIPs has been poor (won’t even begin to slam his policy judgement – everyone has done that very well) but he made the right political call on this one.

    • …the likelihood that he would not have wanted to have been humiliated before a potentially hostile audience at UML, and his invitation from Faux gave him an out.

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      I still wonder.  Has anyone posted a response to me on a comment thread here below about how much he might be receiving in ag-business federal welfare for his grass farm?

    • Niki was in it as well with an interview.  It was a piece on both major party candidates.  Sorry to steal your thunder David.

    • Understandable Political Decision (5.00 / 1)

      I have to support Ogo on this one. The opportunity to get air time on a national affiliate (that is totally in the bag with you politically) trumps a class at the local college. Just plain political reality.

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      There are several things wrong with this analysis:

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      A)Ogo’s not a national candidate; and 2) there’s no math anywhere that says the amount of people he’ll reach, never mind persuade, is even close to the amount of people he could see face to face, and probably a good deal more he could almost definately persuade; and iii) and even that number is potentially dwarfed by the amount of people who might be exposed to the bad press that could stink off of this.

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      In fact, I’d say this is as close to an admission of defeat you’ll get before election night…

        1. Right now the Tsongas/Ogo race is the only game in town and it is being played as the national media watches and reports. Network media coverage plays on local affiliates and any air time is good time for a candidate. Especially good for a candidate who doesn’t have the funds to match Niki on TV. If TV time were only a national candidate concern – then Niki wasted her time going on the same Faux News as well.

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        2. “there’s no math anywhere that says the amount of people he’ll reach, never mind persuade, is even close to the amount of people he could see face to face, and probably a good deal more he could almost definately persuade;”

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        uhmmm – the amount of people who would see him at a ULowell class vs the amount of people who will see him over and over again on Fox. It’s been a while since I took a math class but I think TV wins.

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        Bad press? Bad press is Ogo debate performance reviews. This isn’t even a blip.

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        And this close to E Day it’s about visibility not convincing undecided.

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        We do agree that Ogo is losing but sorry, blowing off the ULowell class isn’t an admission of defeat. It politics 101 

  7. I agree that talking to voters under 30 (including me) is largely a waste of a candidate’s time given there voting record.

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    But FoxNews?  He’s going to find his additional voters by going on FoxNews, the greatest indicator of Republican voting trends that exists?  Any soul in Massachusetts-05 watching FoxNews is voting for Ogonowski already, so I’m not sure why he’s talking to them.  Had it been NECN, CNN, or MSNBC, I woulda known.  He may as well have held a press conference in his living room with his dogs and sofa in attendance.

    • and small as that base may be it is still better to talk to your base and try to get them excited and voting. Much better then 50 students with no media insight.

  8. as the lefties call it “faux” news yet the Repubs have no problem with Wolf Blitzer or the worlds most obnoxious liberal bully , Chris Mathews being  the moderator of the Republican debates???? Hmmmm? If Hilary, Barack or John Edwards  can’t handle a question from Bill O’reilly, how will they handle Vladimir Putin???…Kim Jong? Achmadshitbagan?
    Whoa..and these people call themselves “leaders”? and want to be President of the United States? Please…

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    PS.. cute question from the Mathews bully eh? Who is the prime minister of Canada?
    I would have loved to seen that trick ( try to make the repub look like a moron) question asked of Hilary or Obama… I think we would have heard a der, ah , emm can I choose another catagory Alex?…  LMAO!

    • Niki appeared on the same program as Ogo.

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      Chris Mathews is a bully?  Compared to O’Reilly?  Get a grip. 

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      What makes you think he wouldn’t have asked that of a Democrat, anyway?

  9. will at least appear, let alone debate, on Fox? After all Fox IS the #1 cable news network in America… What’s the problem Dems?  Pathetic.

          • Is that for propaganda reasons too? Fox ratings (# people watching) are larger than CNN, MSNBC and CNBC  COMBINED on a given night. One would think that politicians would jump at the chance of getting in front of the maximum # of voters .
            Dem refusal to appear on the Nations # 1 cable news network sends a clear message and it’s not a good one. Repubs have debated on CNN and been interogated by hostile liberal inquisitioners Wolf Blitzer and Chris Mathews. What are the Dems afraid of? If they’re afraid of O’Reilly, what happens when Vladmir Putin gets in their face? At least I’ll give credit to Sharpton and Jackson for appearing….more than can be said for Hilary and the rest of them.

                1. It’s not a “news” channel despite that’s what it is called and listed as.
                2. It’s completely a right wing biased channel ( don’t forget to tell that to Alan Combes).
                3. Only right wing nut jobs appear ( don’t forget to remind Al Sharpton and Jesse J).

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                Maybe Ogo was hoping that a Fox national appearance might garner him some out of State contributions from out of State special interests like  Nicki is awash in? Better bet on that than going to UML to be bashed by brainwashed kids.

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                Does this answer the question or is it too complicated to grasp?

                • but do you really think fox broadcasts MA-05 stuff in other states?  how many local non-MA races do you hear about on your local fox affiliate? 

                • is “compartmentalized’ into ‘local” venue.. I honestly don’t know. It would be interesting to see what’s on Fox chan x in Indiana at the same time Fox  chan 69 is on here?

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                  Anybody out there know?

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