The Language of Politics :: Why the Right's Winning

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The "making coffee" podcast that poses the question:

Why are progressives reluctant to fight linguistic fire with fire?

It's not because progressives are less intelligent or feisty than the right, but that progressives find fighting with fire - by definition - distasteful.

• Here's a link to a RealOne audio clip of Bob Garfield's March 3, 2006 "On the Media" (not "Media Matters") interview with Geoffrey Nunberg, a linguist at Stanford University and author of Talking Right: How Conservatives Turned Liberalism into a Tax-Raising, Latte-Drinking, Sushi-Eating, Volvo-Driving, New York Times-Reading, Body-Piercing, Hollywood-Loving, Left-Wing Freak Show.
  
  This interview changed something for me. Perhaps it will change something for you, too. Thanks, Bob. Love the show. (Here's the RSS feed for "On the Media")
  
  THIS is a link to the transcript of the interview.
  

• Here is Geoffrey Nunberg again, speaking to (mp3 download from WILL radio's 5/10/04 Afternoon Magazine with Celeste Quinn. FEED. ):
  
• Torture v. Abuse
• Tips and tricks for media analysis through language
• "Hearing the absence of words"
• Liberty --> Freedom --> "Freedom"
• The transformation of "Liberal" from political view to lifestyle
• Why 'Nucular' v Nuclear? Mistake, statement of indifference, or disarming fear.
• 'Terrorism' as the new 'Communism'
• Creating reality by repetition
  

• Here is Brooke Gladstone with Michael Tanner of the Libertarian Cato Institute, who "helped shape President Bush's plan to change the program and the language to sell it."
  
  
• Homeland Security v. War on Terror v. War in Iraq
• Social Security v. Economic Security
• Estate Tax v. Death Tax, Birth Tax
• Reform v. Overhaul.
  
  Here is the transcript.

TIPS:

• If you must watch television news, put a post-it note on the screen to remind yourself to be conscious of the language used.
• Listen to the other side with a critical ear.
• Listen to your side with a critical ear.
• Re-form questions.

MORE SHOW NOTES:

• Link to a piece in the Vlog Press Kit on Rocketboom's demographics mentioned in the podcast.
• Music: "Prisoner of Love" as sung by Billy Eckstine on his Love Songs album.
• Misquoting Jesus: The Story Behind Who Changed the Bible and Why
• The Silence We Keep: A Nun's View of the Catholic Priest Scandal

Tags: Faux Press