Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock<\/small><\/p>\n
Dear Democratic and Republican parties of Arkansas, and all the interest groups at sea:<\/p>\n
On behalf of the news media of the state — and independent blogs such as this, seeing that the corporate media don’t pay me to represent them but instead to shape text — I want to thank you in advance for keeping us solvent through fall.<\/p>\n
The primaries, now over with after Tuesday’s runoffs, show how generous you are. Every congressional seat is open, and incumbents in three of the four are moving on. That creates \u00a0a lot of confusion that will need advertising to clarify. Who is who and what will they do? Voters need to know each candidate intimately, now that the primaries winnowed them down after your slight introductions.<\/p>\n
The Senate race is the main one we expect will keep our wallets above water. National organized labor was reported to have spent roughly $10 million on Democratic Lt. Gov. Bill Halter, who lost yesterday. Imagine that, in this small and non-union state. Labor doesn’t have the kind of money corporations do, by definition, so we expect to see more accounts opening soon. Incumbent Sen. Blanche Lincoln is big in agriculture, for starters. Her\u00a0 opponent is the outgoing Republican congressman from Wal-Mart, rather, Northwest Arkansas. Surely John Boozman will need lots of promotion to propound the pro-business, pro-church policies he supports.<\/p>\n
It’s interesting how the candidate marketing world has changed. Every commercial Internet site I looked at in recent weeks sported campaign advertising — from Arkansas. How did you know not to show me South Carolina races online — wink wink?<\/p>\n
One thing though: Those robo-calls. They don’t work. They can backfire. Automatic, prerecorded phone calls are fake, annoying and incessant. You can’t seriously think they persuade, do you? If they’re from a candidate you support, you forgive them. If they’re from those you oppose, it makes hanging up within 2 seconds that much sweeter. It’s as satisfying as hitting mute when campaign video spots shout from the TV.<\/p>\n
Want to be more effective? Advertise your candidate — and corporate givers, advertise the attitude you want the candidate to pursue — in newspapers. Our reporters will still dig hard at everything political, and with luck even find juicy stuff on you, but real news is what attracts readers. Passion about what makes their world is what makes them paper subscribers — and voters.<\/p>\n
See? You can’t miss. Can’t lose.<\/p>\n
Can’t win, either, but that’s just life.<\/p>\n
-30-<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Copyright 2010 Ben S. Pollock Dear Democratic and Republican parties of Arkansas, and all the interest groups at sea: On behalf of the news media of the state — and independent blogs such as this, seeing that the corporate media don’t pay me to represent them but instead to shape text — I want to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2009","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-spin"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":6064,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2018\/05\/2020-vision-in-2018\/","url_meta":{"origin":2009,"position":0},"title":"2020 Vision in 2018","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"May 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember Conner Eldridge? He was the Democratic opponent to Republican Sen. John Boozman in the 2016 general election. Because Republicans are hot stuff these days and it\u2019s tough to tackle an incumbent he lost. He\u2019s back to lawyering. There\u2019s any number of good people like Eldridge who at least for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Body, Home, Street"","block_context":{"text":"Body, Home, Street","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/body-home-street\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Arkansas flag","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-content\/uploads\/68E60AA6-8967-4CE1-BED4-D7B3EF7BBCE2.gif?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":426,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/06\/hang-on-hilly\/","url_meta":{"origin":2009,"position":1},"title":"Hang On, Hilly","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"June 3, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Be like Huck, Sen. Clinton: Hang in until the delegate count passes the point of no returns, when the opponent has that crystal majority of pledged delegate votes. Oh, that's coming up soon, isn't it. Republican campaign underdog and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee said Thursday [May 8, 2008] that\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":708,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/11\/pleading-the-first\/","url_meta":{"origin":2009,"position":2},"title":"Pleading the First","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"November 2, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.\" Copyright 2008 Ben S. Pollock\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":655,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/08\/palin-comparison\/","url_meta":{"origin":2009,"position":3},"title":"Palin Comparison","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"August 29, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Sen. John McCain chose Gov. Sarah Palin of Alaska as the 2008 Republican vice presidential candidate. Details are a click away, but here's quick thoughts from the hour since the announcement. McCain just evened the Brick odds of winning. Once the primaries indicated the top candidates, I never saw him\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":340,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2007\/07\/yes-sir-thats-his-baby\/","url_meta":{"origin":2009,"position":4},"title":"Yes Sir, That’s His Baby","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"July 24, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Relaxation tip: Ignore the presidential campaigns because it's 15 months before November 2008. It's six months before any primaries that matter. Why get worked up? A good part of the chaff will be be blown away by either luck or strong campaigners so you won't get your hopes up for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":403,"url":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/2008\/02\/fake-off\/","url_meta":{"origin":2009,"position":5},"title":"Fake Off","author":"Ben S. Pollock","date":"February 11, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"When one goes for a hit of news, it's amazing how often it's been cut with spin. Not bias, not commentary, but flapdoodle. It's right after shipment where the purveyors can't help but allude to it so it stays. Example 1. Former President Clinton's tactics a few weeks ago while\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "News, Spin"","block_context":{"text":"News, Spin","link":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/category\/news-spin\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2009"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2015,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2009\/revisions\/2015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2009"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2009"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/benpollock.com\/brick\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2009"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}