This morning’s WaPo reports on four fascinating days it spent with Media Matters, the hard edged left wing media operation which had just completed “a partisan boot camp where rebel forces were trained for combat on Fox News.”
The effort is part of an MM booking and training program called the “Progressive Talent Initiative,” which claims to have trained nearly 100 talking heads who have appeared 800 times on radio and TV.
The four day session in Washington in mid-March featured Harvard-trained media trainers to create a new cadre of ultra-left pundits. The WaPo Style writer Jason Horowitz was given an exclusive inside look into the Media Matters program.
First, WaPo says the Media Matters theme is that “they are just too smart for their own good.” This form of elitism apparently runs throughout the four days of training. The mantra is they are losing the war over ideas because progressives are “too smart” and conservatives just rely on dumb bromides.
The three instructors are founders of KNP Communications. All were communication strategists on John Kerry’s presidential campaign. As Horowitz explains, “After John Kerry’s 2004 presidential campaign, the three Democrats decided to use their gifts for communication to rescue their ailing party.”
Apparently, the training had little to do with truth, facts or substance. It was all on style. The participants studied “strength and warmth inventory” material, learned to “avoid licking lips, tilting heads and rubbing one hand against the other.” Non-verbal body language was emphasized. According to the partisans, they emphasized “heart, persona, presence,” and that “feeling wins.”
At the end, a Media Matters assistant exuded to the group, “We’re really working to get you guys booked” on talk shows “because America needs you.”
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