Luntz, predicting he'll get "hit by Media Matters," claimed Clinton's voice "turns people off"
On the June 20 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, while discussing Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's (NY) recent campaign video, which parodies the series finale of HBO's The Sopranos, co-host Sean Hannity said to his guest, Republican pollster Frank Luntz: "I know this was to soften her image. Her negatives are very high," adding, "She doesn't have a likability factor." After Luntz agreed with both assertions, Hannity aired a video clip of a Clinton April 2003 speech at a Connecticut fundraising dinner, which he described as "[v]ery different than the Hollywood, manufactured, soft, phony smiles on the Sopranos act." Luntz cited the 2003 speech as evidence that Clinton's voice "turns people off" and went on to imitate her voice, saying: "It's all at the same level and ... she gets louder and louder, but her voice doesn't go up or down." After noting, "[W]e're gonna end up getting hit by Media Matters," Luntz cited his own "research" to claim that Clinton's voice "turns people off because they feel like they're being lectured." Luntz did not offer any further details regarding his purported research.
As Media Matters for America has documented, media figures regularly attack Clinton for the tone and volume of her voice:
- On the May 24 edition of MSNBC's Tucker, commenting on Clinton's decision to have the public choose her presidential campaign song, host Tucker Carlson said: "But this does nothing to make me like her. And it raises the question: Could you actually live in this country for eight years having to listen to her voice?" When former New York Gov. George Pataki (R) responded that "of course" he could live in the United States with Clinton as president, Carlson responded: "You're a man of steel."
- On the March 15 broadcast of his radio show, Glenn Beck asserted that "Clinton cannot be elected president because ... there's something about her vocal range." He went on to say, "There's something about her voice that just drives me -- it's not what she says, it's how she says it," adding, "[S]he's the stereotypical bitch, you know what I mean?" Beck also asked: "[A]fter four years, don't you think every man in America will go insane?"
- On the March 29 edition of his CNN Headline News show, Beck said that Clinton's voice "makes angels cry" and suggested that men in particular find Clinton's voice to be "grating."
- On March 24, Time.com Washington editor Ana Marie Cox wrote on Time.com's political weblog, Swampland, that Clinton was "eerily LOUD" and summarized Clinton's position as: "YOU CAN TELL I CARE ABOUT HEALTH CARE BECAUSE I AM SHOUTING ALL THE TIME."
- In her March 7 column about Clinton's speech marking a Selma, Alabama, civil rights march, Kathleen Parker, a syndicated columnist with the Washington Post Writers Group, wrote that "Clinton's voice sends mannequins into a fetal curl."
- On February 2, the National Journal's Hotline On Call review of Clinton's speech at the Democratic National Committee Winter Meeting suggested that her "[v]oice climbed into a yell five times," without noting any other candidates' yelling.
- On the August 10, 2006, edition of CNN Headline News' Glenn Beck, radio host Roe Conn said of Clinton's voice: "See, there's the thing about that sound -- there's sort of that shrill kind of thing," adding, "I don't think that America is ready for six or eight months of that on the campaign trail. ... [S]he's constantly yelling at us like we're 4-year-olds."
- On the February 10, 2006, edition of MSNBC's Hardball, Scarborough Country host Joe Scarborough asserted that "there is a shrillness in Hillary that comes out on TV whenever she gets excited about something." Referring to a speech Clinton gave a "year ago," Scarborough added: "[E]very time her voice goes up, she gets very shrill."
Further, during an appearance on the June 21 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends, Luntz was identified only as a "pollster." His political affiliation was not discussed during the segment.
Media Matters has noted other media outlets' repeated failure to disclose Luntz's Republican ties.
From the June 20 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes:
HANNITY: I know this was to soften her image. Her negatives are very high.
LUNTZ: Correct.
HANNITY: She doesn't have a likability factor.
LUNTZ: Correct.
HANNITY: Let's show the real Hillary with this tape.
CLINTON [video clip]: And I am sick and tired of people who say that if you debate and you disagree with this administration, somehow you're not patriotic. And we should stand up and say, "We are Americans and we have a right to debate and disagree with any administration."
HANNITY: Very different than the Hollywood, manufactured, soft, phony smiles on the Sopranos act.
LUNTZ: But listen to the way she -- now, forget the words. Listen to the way she communicated. It's all at the same level and I don't want to make your control room go nuts --
HANNITY: Angry.
LUNTZ: -- but she gets louder and louder, but her voice doesn't go up or down. The most powerful communication -- Ronald Reagan -- could get loud and he could get soft. Sometimes he'd be up here --
HANNITY: Right.
LUNTZ: -- and sometimes he'd be down here.
HANNITY: That's a good point.
LUNTZ: Her voice is -- and we're gonna end up getting hit by Media Matters -- but it's true. And the research that I have done --
HANNITY: What is that?
LUNTZ: Her voice -- Media Matters --
HANNITY: Well, go ahead. Come on, make your point.
LUNTZ: Her voice turns people off because they feel like they're being lectured.
Medfia Matters just doing their job as outlined by thye constitutional powers afforded them. The first ammendment allows both brilliant things to be said as well as the dumbest things. You choose.
How a particular pundit "feels" about the "sound" of a voice could not be more irrelevant.
To begin with, it is purely subjective, which means the pundit has to know nothing at all of substance other than how a "voice" makes him "feel". And of course, political BIAS affects every perception.
Most hilarious is Beck's admission that he doesn't CARE what is being said. That he focuses instead on the sound of the voice. By this guide, we should have DOGS do our punditry, because THEY ARE TRAINED in tone of voice, and cannot possibly understand what is being said. Say "arf", Beck!
BIAS other than partisan can also affect how these pundits perceive "a voice". Their upbringing of sexism would lead them to notice and recoil from any female voice that is assertive, knowledgeable, and confident; this violates their ideal stereotype of women who know their place, who speak softly if at all, and never "worry their pretty little heads" about matters more complicated than baking cookies. To venture outside this stereotype is to be a "bitch", and to present a great threat to White Male Dominance.
Go, Hillary. Keep talking, and let these candy-assed momsers (and their sycophantic female fellow travellers) whine and snipe about how uncomfortable you are making them.
They should (and probably DO) just let it out, and cry, "I want my MOMMY!" Then they wet their drawers. Good.
We finally agree on something Tex. It couldn't be less important and it's just his opinion.
Can opinion be misinformation?
So if I said some people don't like Juliani's voice that would be liberal misinformation?
Must be more work from an MMFA intern.
Yes this is misinformation because it's being presented on a "news" channel by a so-called "expert" in order to sway public/viewer opinion in one direction....against Hillary Rodham Clinton. Get it?
"Can opinion be misinformation?"
If it fits MMFA's own definition of 'conservative misinformation':
"news or commentary that is not accurate, reliable, or credible and that forwards the conservative agenda"
It's not just opinion. Luntz isn't just speaking for himself, but for other people based on some "research."
I thought we were to be the blogsite that will not be named?
but here again, another lecture from the right about looks over substance, about how you speak to someone versus what you say. Why do we tell our kids that anyone can grow up to be president when the right tells us you can't if you don't look or sound right?
Crazy! Hillary did not modulate much on the clip faucks nieuz kept showing on hantywaste and Combs. She was articulate unlike bush. The right has little amunition except attacks like these. I believe the right is scared to death of Hillary in particular. Is it possible she forgot about what they did to Bill for having sex in the White House. )yea, I know! It was really because he had SEX in the WHITE HOUSE)
They can't attack her on her stance on the issues....it's pure right-wing just like them. So they go after superficialities.
I don't hear the problem with Clinton's voice. I think it is something repeated by the anti -Clinton faction so often that it is accepted as truth. Also the anti-Clintonites also mute out the audience in order to make her raised voice seem out of place. I have heard the same clips used to show how "shrill" she is without the muted audience and she is raising her voice in conjunction with the crowd cheering and clapping.
I don't think you can deny she doesn't have great pipes. Neither does Bill. Both of them, to my ear, have better voices than Chris Matthews, and he makes his living with his voice.
What is going on is a concerted effort to increase her negatives and predispose the electorate to shut her off without listening to her. It's also clear to me that she's improved over the last few months. I suspect she's working with a vocal coach, which is, or would be, a good idea.
Try to find the right saying anyting about Bush and his inability to make sense. There are about seven books on actual statements by Bush that doesn't make any sense.
"I think anybody who doesn't think I'm smart enough to handle the job is underestimating." Bush as quoted in U.S. News & World Report; April 3, 2000
speaking of not making any sense check out the following little tidbit
President Bush has talked with British Prime Minister Tony Blair about taking a role as a Middle East peace envoy after he leaves office next week.
this brit has combat troops in situ.
Waitaminnit...I thought MMFA was just an insignificant gnat with only a handful of readers. Why do these troglodytes keep mentioning it?
Luntz is a hasbeen
Klutz: Boo Hoo! A media watchdog site is going to show this clip of me being a douche!! Cry with me, boyfriend Sean.
Hasbeenity: Libarels suck...
Wow, I could care less what they think about Hillary's voice. I guess that's how they see the president's job, looking presidential (BillO), and having a "likable" voice (these 2 clowns).
I just might go see Hillary Clinton speak if she comes to town and note if her voice on TV is actually digitally doctored to satisfy an agenda or a point.
Hillary's voice is at least as pleasing as either Hannity's or Luntz's. This is right-wing spin, pure and simple.
Sean is truly obsessed with Sen. Hillary Clinton. He always talks about her everyday. This is not normal, and it’s troubling. Just listen for yourself and keep track the number of times he talks about her on his radio show, Hannity and Colmes, and Hannity’s America.
Frank Luntz, on the other hand, is only interested in pimping his so-called book, which is not worth reading in my opinion. He’s a lousy guest and not entertaining. What a waste of air time.
No wonder Fox News employees head to the bars after the show.
The notion of a woman, any woman, becoming President scares the **** out of idiots like Hannity.
Obsessed? Maybe if Hillary was the only candidate he ever talks about, which I doubt.
Luntz has a point here.
It's subjective, of course, but sometimes hearing a particular voice can nearly push you into convulsions. There's just something, deep down, that hits you like a feater being stroked against the back of your throat. As soon as they start to speak, you find yourself whinsing & grimacing & nearly losing your lunch.
The irony here is that it is Frank Luntz' voice that has that affect on me. It's not so much the TONE of his voice that causes this instinctive revulsion in me... nor is it really the timbre. It's really more the WORDS that he utters that hit me like the sound of cardboard on concrete, & make me want to rip his smug little face off.
But that's just me.
Funny. You just summed up the feelings I get whenever Dubya opens his gumhole.
It's likely that Luntz himself developed the talking point about her voice. He knows that you cannot attack a woman based on obvious sexist rhetoric so he uses "her voice" as being "shrill" etc. sexism sort of disguised.
It's not her voice, it's her intellect that makes these neocon pundits wet their pants. The conservatives of passt (think William F. Buckley, for example) would have relished taking Hillary on in an intellectual debate. These newbies apparently must resort to playground "analysis". Feeble, really feeble.
Isn't it a shame that these two bozos are using someones voice to attack them. Luntz throws in "Her negatives are very high" and "she doesn't have a likeability factor". Obviously, this plays well to their sleep-walking audience.
I hope that someone saves those quotes for after the 2008 election. They will be coming up with more if Sen. Clinton isn't the nominee. Sorry...they already have...Haircuts and Islam.
These men of the Republican Party have all become wimps(they always were) and are DEFINITELY afraid of women...If Annie "Baby" Coulter were your friend, you'd be afraid too.
Boortz even has cute names for Sen. Clinton,when he think's he's being cute, he uses names like;Thunderthighs,Shillary, Hildabeast!
You would think that a 62 year old man would spend his time babbling about something important,but with just a high school education, his thought process is stuck with the mind of a 7th grader,who is repeating the 7th grade!
Media Matters has no real credibility with thinking liberals. It was so clearly a front organization for Clinton and democrats.
Funny, there's not coverage here of us booing Hillary's latest hypocritical soundbites...
mediamatters is hardly progressive, and deserves the partisan shots it takes from the radical right.
OKAY...
What? And point out that Hillary is a right-wing murderer of women and children who has voted to fund war crimes and torture chambers during her 7 years in the Senate? They might lose any DLC funding they get.