The Devil's Advocate

For Frank Luntz, 'devil's advocate' isn't a figure of speech. It's probably what it says on his business card. This malignant greaseball is what the media call a spin doctor - the guy who invents rhetorical cattle prods to point the mooing public in his clients' preferred direction.

Luntz came up with 'climate change' instead of 'global warming' to make the public give less of a sh*t. He also advised wingnuts to excise the term 'public option' and go with the more scary 'government option' at the height of the healthcare reform debate.

Now Luntz admits he's "frightened to death" of OWS and its effects on the public's perception of capitalism. To help out the "capitalists", he's advising new spin terms. From now on, 'taxing the rich' will be called 'taking from hardworking Americans' and the fat bonuses the greedy pr*cks on Wall Street award themselves will be known as 'pay for performance'.

If Luntz gets his way and his retooled terms enter the mainstream, public sympathy for OWS may decline because we really aren't that smart. But are we really dumb enough to fall for this? really..?