The New and Alternative Media Bring the Conservative Movement to Power - Part 1

America’s Right Turn
by Richard Viguerie and David Franke (2004)

Part 3a: The New and Alternative Media Bring the Conservative Movement to Power

Chapter 8. Using Direct Mail to Build the Movement and Elect Reagan

“Direct mail remains the foremost communication tool for conservative activists.”

Why direct mail is so powerful for insurgents:

* direct mail gave conservatives a way to bypass the liberal “gatekeepers” at the liberal mass media
* direct mail greatly expanded the nation’s base of active citizenship and gave conservatives a voice in setting the nation’s political agenda.
* Thanks to direct mail, conservatives—and their candidates—were able to become an independent, vibrant force, free of the fetters imposed by the Republican political hierarchy and the liberal media.
* Direct mail freed conservatives from dependence on the big corporations that had traditionally financed GOP and Democratic politics (and which expected to be paid back with favors).
* Direct mail made fence-straddling Washington politicians more accountable to their conservative grassroots constituents.
* Direct mail can bring a conservative candidate over the tip to victory, by adding a critical 5 percent of the vote based on single-issue appeals.

Direct mail: more than fundraising

* It’s really mostly advertising—and often the most efficient form of advertising.
* It encourages reader involvement: “To encourage you to take action, a direct mailing will tell you about some to the compelling issues in the campaign and where the candidate (and his opponent) stands on those issues. That is advertising…”
* [It is targeted and therefore cost effective]
* It “is the form of advertising that is most effective at paying for itself.”

Two reasons why people “don’t get it” about direct mail:

1. 1. They don’t understand that direct mail is as much advertising as fundraising
2. They don’t understand …the lifetime value of a donor or customer.

The lifetime value of a donor or customer

In politics, as with business, of course, the more long term your outlook is, the more important lifetime value becomes. [see chapter 14]

The direct mail cycle:

* Prospect or acquisition mailings (which likely will lose money)
* Those names are added to your house list.
* When you mail to the house list, all of those recipients have had some contact with your organization
* You may make money from this mailing to run your campaign

Today, a 2-percent to 3-percent response rate may qualify a prospect mailing as a success, whereas a mailing to your house list can generate a 10-percent to 20-percent response, or even more.

Lessons from Phyllis Schlafly:

* “initially, we picked up on it [stop ERA] because it was the right thing to do”
* keeping on message—focusing on the issue, not partisan politics or ideology. “I let a person support my issue for the reason of his choice.” [i.e., ecumenical]

Chapter 9. Liberals Wake Up

[liberals] “have now leveled that particular playing field [direct mail]. In our considered opinion, they have probably even surpassed conservatives in the effective use of direct mail.”

Morris Dees:

* As long as they were going to send a letter out, they should raise money with it
* A longer letter would almost always draw better than a shorter one

Richard Viguerie: [in the beginning] the major problem on the Right was finding and accessing lists to mail to.

“…negotiating the use of mailing lists.” [see chapter 7]

Roger Craver: “It taught me to appreciate the power of a letter that connects directly with someone’s feelings. It taught me what passion is all about.”

Mal Warwick: “It’s much more difficult to raise money by direct mail for some issues than for others….many organizations have become so dependent on direct mail that ‘the tail wags the dog’—only those issues that appeal in the mail will raise them the funds they need to thrive. So they’re captive of their audience, rather than playing the role that some of them would prefer to play, of shaping the agenda through their own planning processes.” “It’s very difficult to raise money for international issues.” [See Mal Warwick & Associates]

High Tech Targeting: The Democrat’s Future?

Hal Malchow’s The New Political Targeting

* “there is a fundamental message difference between Democratic and Republican mail.”
* Republican mail has the words “liberal Democrats”
* Republican mail has a more negative tone; Democrat mail a more idealistic tone, positive message
* For liberal issue groups, what works is: bad news and harvesting the bad news
* Malchow: The perception is “a conservative is coming to politics because there’s something they have to stop. Democrats come to politics because there’s something they want to create. And I think in that distinction lies the fundamental difference in attitude and what they respond to.”

Training conservatives in media use:

Morton Blackwell: Leadership Institute

Chapter 10. The Talk Radio Revolution

New Technology shortens the time frame: talk radio and the fax machine

1. the emergence of a new medium brings great benefits to the political faction that first recognizes that medium’s capabilities and moves decisively to utilize those capabilities
2. a key value of the new medium is its role as an alternative to the old media, a way to bypass the gatekeepers of those old media
3. the flirtation between entertainment and politics is no new affair

Talkers [trade journal]

Turning Point for Radio: in 1987, the FCC then abolished the Fairness Doctrine [a 1949 “equal time” doctrine regulating speech over the broadcast airwaves. “radio stations could now air controversial commentaries without fear of being run out of business”]

Rush Limbaugh: “being a DJ teaches you the elements of broadcasting that are crucial, no matter what kind of show you’re doing—timing, brevity, quickness, get in and get out.”
“A turning point in my career came when I realized that the sole purpose for all of us in radio is to sell advertising. I used to think radio was for me to become a star and get my ego thrills. I wasn’t listener-oriented, I was me-oriented. As I got a little older, I realized the key to my success was making the audience want to listen to me.”
“You’ll have no problem as a talk show host being controversial and hosting a controversial show as long as the controversy comes from the substance of the discussion, not the behavior of the host.”
“My show is totally what’s on the front page of the newspaper first, and then whatever is interesting to me . . . Even if it’s not interesting to them [his audience], it’s up to me to make it interesting. If I’m passionate about something—there’s something magnetic about passion. You listen to a guy talking about how much he loves bowling. If it’s with passion, you listen. You’re fascinated by, not so much the content, but the emotion that gets involved. I have a lot of people say, ‘Well, Rush, when are you gonna tell us about the S&L scandal?’ I’ll tell you about the S&L scandal when it becomes interesting to me . . . I think the key is knowing when you shouldn’t talk about something . . . My philosophy is I’m here to acquire an audience. I’m not here to serve any public affairs requirements.”

Shortening the Time Frame:

* “The difference [in the new medium of talk radio] was timing. While it takes weeks to get a mail campaign going, radio [and fax machines] could do the job in a matter of hours or days.”
* Bill Kristol used the fax machine “sending faxes to thousands of conservative leaders, providing talking points against Hillarycare as well as practical advice on defeating the measure in Congress and in the court of public opinion. Each new fax would be on opinion molder’s desks the very first thing in the morning.”

Under the Radar:

A combination of direct mail, talk radio, and Bill Kristol.
“Most of the administration’s defense [of Hillarycare] was carried on in newspapers and on television…”
Mrs. Clinton said, “if you don’t rebut it in the forum in which the message is delivered, it goes unrebutted. So, that means if you don’t have a radio campaign and a TV campaign and if you don’t even know about the direct mail campaign, the people who are being influenced by that kind of opposition are going to remain influenced..” [Direct mail works under the radar]

“Front-runners and incumbents prefer a more stage-managed environment.” [they fear the risks of the talk radio environment]

Today, radio is the first choice of listeners for:

1. Lively exchange of opinions on issues
2. Weather updates
3. Breaking events
4. Sports scores and recaps

“…one of the greatest ‘unseen’ impacts on radio is the growth of religious broadcasting.”

“The most effective communication on either side of the political spectrum is black and white.” [Good vs bad.]

NPR is “what happens when you rely on federal subsidies rather than the marketplace for your support…” “…the NPR folks have to maintain some semblance of objectivity."

Neal Boortz: “why do liberals thrive—even dominate—in these areas [as editorialists, columnists, reporters, TV anchors and reporters] while they just can’t make the grade on talk radio? The answer? One word. Insulation. They are protected and isolated from the readers, viewers, and listeners.” “Liberals thrive when the communication of ideas goes only one way. Open a dialogue and they wither.”

Chapter 11. The TV Revolution in News and Talk

C-SPAN (debut 1979) “In early 1984, Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-GA) and his merry band of conservatives began using these “special orders” [time at the end of the day when members of the House of Representatives can take turns speaking on any topic] to talk methodically about conservative issues. . . . Sometimes Mr. Gingrich wasn’t aiming for Mr. John Q. Public in Podunk, Wisconsin, but for a very special citizen—President Ronald Reagan, sitting in the White House. . . C-SPAN gave Gingrich a way to sometimes bypass those [Presidential staff] gatekeepers.”

Television: “the network talk shows were an evolutionary rather than revolutionary phenomenon in our tale of the impact of alternative media on American politics. The growing presence of conservatives on talk shows was a reflection of growing conservative dominance in print journalism [mostly through alternative distribution channels], not the result of a revolutionary jump in technology. . . .grassroots conservatives didn’t turn to them [TV talk] as an alternative news outlet.”

Viguerie: “you should never place your bet on a corporate bureaucracy in a battle with a brilliant entrepreneur.”

“there is no such creature as objective reporting. Reporting, after all, starts as an act of discrimination. . . . [the reporter] decides what’s important. And all your criteria of selection will reflect your biases. More acts of discrimination and internal bias follow, as you connect the dots—the pieces of raw information you’ve selected—to create a story. About the best you can do, to still be honest about it, it to be fair and admit that other possibilities exist, even as you present our own ‘take’ on the news.”

“…most liberal newscasters claim to be objective—but you’ll notice they don’t have someone across the desk from them contesting their take on the news. You have to take their word for it. . . . one of Fox’s hallmarks is that it does have people of differing viewpoints on most of its programs. . . .there’s an admission that different viewpoints are possible, which is a step far above the pretense of ‘objective’ liberal reporting.”

Roger Ailes: “Bias has to do with the elimination of points of view, not presenting a point of view.”

There is a relationship between viability in the economic market place and viability in the ideological market place: Create a commercial venture: “If you want to ‘do our own thing,’ you can now start your own blog on the Internet. But you’ll have to figure out how you’re going to pay the bills.”

Wayne LaPierre and the NRA Prevail on the Gun Issue:

* Paid-for TV new documentaries
* Confrontational TV Spots (buying airtime)
* Talk radio (media consultants spent weeks doing nothing but lining up talk radio appearances)
* Reaching NASCAR dads—and moms (through paid advertising, sponsorships, etc.)
* Guns, crime, and freedom (a book sold initially through independent bookstores & publicity)
* Mobilizing the Second Amendment Militia (the NRA membership) through fax alerts, membership mailings, marketing solicitations, legislative updates, webcasts, website, NRA magazines, direct mail—members may receive between 55-60 pieces of direct mail each year)
* “these days you’re dead if you’re running an organization and you can’t communicate,” says LaPierre. “. . . A big challenge . . . is to keep out there, keep on the cutting edge, and keep the message out there in front of people.”