Plant that Negativity about Kerry in That Viewer's Head!
Reported by Melanie - July 5, 2004 -
Three times today (July 5, 2004) on Your World w/Neil Cavuto, Cavuto brought up John Kerry in a negative light.
At 4:20 p.m. ET on the way to a break, Cavuto asks, "Is John Kerry trying to have it both ways? Something he said this weekend is sparking concerns" that he's waffling again. We'll have a "fair and balanced" debate, coming up.
At 4:27 p.m. ET, again on the way to a break, after announcing another upcoming topic, Cavuto said, "We'll have more on this, and John Kerry's in a little controversy...."
Then, at 4:32 p.m. ET a discussion begins with Cavuto and conservative pundit KellyAnne Conway and Douglas Schoen, Democratic strategist. Turns out, Kerry said he believes life begins at conception. The only thing that's new is that Kerry revealed his personal opinion about when he feels life begins. Otherwise his position on abortion itself remains consistent.
Kerry was good to say his opinions are his own but don't spill over into an attempt to force those views on others.
Conway said it's "worse than waffling;" Schoen said it's between a woman and her doctor. You get the point. It was the usual back and forth we're all so tired of.
COMMENT: I believe Fox purposely delays certain segments if doing so permits them to tout an important message. In this case, they wanted to be sure the casual viewer heard, "Kerry...both ways...waffle...concerns...controversy." Whether or not a vewer paid attention to the actual discussion, they'd heard those words twice earlier in the pre-break promos, and voila, negative news about Kerry is planted by the repetition. If the Kerry segment had aired early on, those opportunities would have been lost.
