Before the past few Thanksgivings, some media outlets have run pieces advising readers or viewers on how to respond to right-wing, Fox-concocted talking points that one or more relatives might regurgitate at the dinner table. As the above video from this past November 23 indicates, Ed Schultz invited Occupy Wall Street hero Jesse LaGreca on MSNBC’s “Ed Show” to do just that. Jesse does a good job using logic, facts, and figures to respond to the right-wing talking points raised by Ed. However, if you’re simply being reactive rather than proactive in these situations, you’ve already lost the political argument.
Daily Kos blogger Jesse LaGrecarecently became Occupy Wall Street‘s first bona fide media star when he gave a scathing interview to Fox “News” (see video above). Note how Jesse takes the loaded, biased questions from Fox’s Griff Jenkins and reframes them to answer the questions by listing almost all major Progressive talking points. Jesse was so effective that Fox reportedly has not even aired the interview.
This is an important lesson for Progressives and Democrats, which goes back to the Messaging Manifesto For Democrats: rather than reacting within the Right’s biased framing of issues and questions, which occur whenever they appear on Fox for an interview, Democrats and Progressives must “create and repeat their own powerful frames through which to characterize the issues and their solutions.” And that’s exactly what Jesse LaGreca does.
Based on this interview and subsequent television appearances, Jesse LaGreca certainly has a future in activism, political communications, and, if he wants, politics too.
