Tag Archive: narrative

Congresswoman Ilan Omar’s Israel foul-up shows dangers of Twitter

Written on February 12, 2019 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Media Watch, Messaging Maxims

Twitter, source of trouble for some politicians

Democratic U.S. Congresswoman Ilan Omar of Minnesota got herself into hot water this week after she sent the following tweets regarding Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy‘s call for her and another Democratic Congresswoman to be admonished over their criticism of Israel:

https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1094747501578633216

https://twitter.com/IlhanMN/status/1094761790595088384

Omar’s tersely expressed view that U.S. support of Israel is only a result of money, and her mention of lobbying group AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) in response to the query “who thinks is paying American politicians to be pro-Israel,” angered a number of Americans. Many of those who were upset (including members of Congress) accused Omar of raising age-old anti-Semitic tropes regarding Jewish money as an instrument of global domination. On Monday, Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders called on Omar to apologize for her tweets. Within hours, Omar issued an apology which mentioned “colleagues who are educating me on the painful history of anti-Semitic tropes.”

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The allure of the phony Republican anecdote

Written on March 17, 2017 by in Democratic Messaging, Democratic vs. Republican Presidents, Good Government, Messaging Maxims, Republican Messaging
Surf and Turf, a staple of food stamp recipients' diets according to GOP.

Surf and Turf, a staple of food stamp recipients’ diets according to GOP.

Humans are a storytelling species. Thus, it’s no surprise that narratives — essentially, ongoing story lines — are an important part of successful political communication. In Messaging Maxim #4: Feed the Narrative, we mentioned that it is valuable to:

craft a true but negative story about your opponents’ ideas, actions or positions, and then look for statements or actions by them that you can point to as furthering that narrative.

Republicans are very good at constructing narratives (for example, “Scary Brown People”); however, many Republican narratives are false. That’s why you will see the GOP using anecdotes, i.e., possibly false or possibly true stories involving as few as one person, to further their phony narratives, rather than citing any meaningful facts, evidence or accurate math.

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The one-sentence key to great political messaging

Written on November 18, 2013 by in Democratic Messaging, Messaging Maxims

Remember Messaging Maxim #4: Feed the Narrative? Well, before you feed the narrative in your political communications, you have to have a narrative. And sometimes you have to remind your listeners — and yourself — that you have a narrative. In this video, award-winning journalist Tom Junod (Esquire, GQ, etc.) gives a simple, one-sentence trick for journalists that is perfectly adaptable to political communicators of all kinds:

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