FOIA Drop Reveals Gretchen Whitmer Used Frank Luntz to Sell Covid Compliance to Republicans

Judicial Watch has mastered the art of getting the information the American people need to know. They generally go through legal channels, particularly the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests that they send on a regular basis. Occasionally, they strike gold, and oftentimes that gold comes in a form that was not anticipated by those making the original FOIA request.

Article from The Liberty Daily.

Case-in-point: Today’s release of information about Michigan’s responses throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The goal of the FOIA was to get the skinny on former Michigan Department of Health and Human Service Director Robert Gordon and his unceremonious removal, including a $155,506 severance package with strict confidentiality attached. There were multiple bombshells that came with the treasure trove of documents Judicial Watch received, and one of those bombshells caught our eye.

As it turns out, “conservative” pollster Frank Luntz was brought in to consult and to help Governor Gretchen Whitmer convince Republicans to social distance, wear face masks, and stay in lockdown mode until she deemed appropriate for the lesser people to come out of hiding.

From the article:

On December 1, 2020, Gordon forwarded to Whitmer’s chief of staff a PowerPoint summary on COVID political messaging, “Changing the COVID Conversation,” put together by pollster Frank Luntz working with a company called de Beaumont Foundation, based on a survey of 1,100 Americans. They “tested specific words, sentences, phrases, and attributes Americans need to hear to change their behavior and stop the spread of the coronavirus.” A significant part of the report analyzed Democrat-vs.-Republican responses. For example, one of several “warnings” Luntz emphasized, “Many Republicans refuse to follow guidelines because they argue the science keeps changing. It’s up to you to communicate – at the outset – that the science is settled.”

Much of the Luntz Report deals with wordsmithing. A table in the report categorizes words as “Words to Use” and “Words to Lose.” For example, use “protocols” and lose “orders & decrees;” use “social distancing” and lose “physical distancing.” Another Luntz recommendation is to “Call It the Pandemic,” based on his surveys that found the word “pandemic” is “more significant, serious, and scary” than the alternatives “COVID-19” and “The Coronavirus.”

The survey of 1,100 people, which included an “oversample of 300 African Americans,” found that there was a “chasm” between Republicans and Democrats on Covid, and “In every possible way, Democrats and Republicans think differently and act differently.” Luntz said they “tested specific words, sentences, phrases, and attributes Americans need to hear to change their behavior and stop the spread of the coronavirus.” When asked the survey question, “Which is more important to you regarding Covid-19?” survey respondents outranked “Health” to “Liberty” by 48% to 13%. Among African Americans, 54% responded “Health” and 6% said “Liberty.”

Based on his findings, Luntz had a series of “insights” he offered:

• Nothing scares GOPers more than an IRS audit‚ except testing positive for COVID.
• Despite vocal criticism from President Trump, President-elect Joe Biden was rewarded, not punished for “staying in his basement” for two months.
• There are only two trusted organizations and people – the CDC and Dr. Anthony Fauci. No one else is close. And don’t forget to utilize survivors of Covid as well. Congress also lacks credibility.
• If you want Republican buy-in, you must make the case that the science is settled and that everyone now agrees.
• “Say “Public,” Not “Government”

Controversy has been following Luntz for weeks. As Missy Crane at Wayne Dupree noted:

…the final nail has just been driven into Frank Dunce’s career, thanks to an employee whistleblower who just blew the lid off of Frank and called out everything he’s doing as a total “fraud.”

The story appeared in Salon – which is a left-leaning site, but don’t let that deter you – it’s being widely reported everywhere. Salon reported that Republican pollster and Kevin McCarthy’s friend-slash-roommate Frank Luntz isn’t afraid of boasting about his personal achievements. “Dr. Frank I. Luntz is one of the most honored communication professionals in America today,” reads a biography on his website. But some of his former employees tell a remarkably different story.

Chris Ingram, a former senior vice president at the Luntz Research Company who worked at the company from 1997 through the early 2000s, told Salon that Luntz’s claim to deliver objective data is a “total shtick and a scam.”

The takeaway is this: Frank Luntz was hired to engage in what can only be described as a “psy-op” against Republicans in Michigan. They were more reluctant to bend to Whitmer’s will, so Luntz came in to help with the bending.

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‘The Purge’ by Big Tech targets conservatives, including us

Just when we thought the Covid-19 lockdowns were ending and our ability to stay afloat was improving, censorship reared its ugly head.

For the last few months, NOQ Report, Conservative Playbook, and the American Conservative Movement have appealed to our readers for assistance in staying afloat through Covid-19 lockdowns. The downturn in the economy has limited our ability to generate proper ad revenue just as our traffic was skyrocketing. We had our first sustained stretch of three months with over a million visitors in November, December, and January, but February saw a dip.

It wasn’t just the shortened month. We expected that. We also expected the continuation of dropping traffic from “woke” Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook, and Twitter, but it has actually been much worse than anticipated. Our Twitter account was banned. Both of our YouTube accounts were banned. Facebook “fact-checks” everything we post. Spotify canceled us. Medium canceled us. Apple canceled us. Why? Because we believe in the truth prevailing, and that means we will continue to discuss “taboo” topics.

The 2020 presidential election was stolen. You can’t say that on Big Tech platforms without risking cancellation, but we’d rather get cancelled for telling the truth rather than staying around to repeat mainstream media’s lies. They have been covering it up since before the election and they’ve convinced the vast majority of conservative news outlets that they will be harmed if they continue to discuss voter fraud. We refuse to back down. The truth is the truth.

The lies associated with Covid-19 are only slightly more prevalent than the suppression of valid scientific information that runs counter to the prescribed narrative. We should be allowed to ask questions about the vaccines, for example, as there is ample evidence for concern. One does not have to be an “anti-vaxxer” in order to want answers about vaccines that are still considered experimental and that have a track record in a short period of time of having side-effects, including death. One of our stories about the Johnson & Johnson “vaccine” causing blood clots was “fact-checked” and removed one day before the government hit the brakes on it. These questions and news items are not allowed on Big Tech which is just another reason we are getting canceled.

There are more topics that they refuse to allow. In turn, we refuse to stop discussing them. This is why we desperately need your help. The best way NOQ, CP, and ACM readers can help is to donate. Our Giving Fuel page makes it easy to donate one-time or monthly. Alternatively, you can donate through PayPal as well. We are pacing to be short by about $3700 per month in order to maintain operations.

The second way to help is to become a partner. We’ve strongly considered seeking angel investors in the past but because we were paying the bills, it didn’t seem necessary. Now, we’re struggling to pay the bills. We had 5,657,724 sessions on our website from November, 2020, through February, 2021. Our intention is to elevate that to higher levels this year by focusing on a strategy that relies on free speech rather than being beholden to progressive Big Tech companies.

During that four-month stretch, Twitter and Facebook accounted for about 20% of our traffic. We are actively working on operating as if that traffic is zero, replacing it with platforms that operate more freely such as Gab, Parler, and others. While we were never as dependent on Big Tech as most conservative sites, we’d like to be completely free from them. That doesn’t mean we will block them, but we refuse to be beholden to companies that absolutely despise us simply because of our political ideology.

We’re heading in the right direction and we believe we’re ready talk to patriotic investors who want to not only “get in on the action” but more importantly who want to help America hear the truth. Interested investors should contact me directly with the contact button above.

As the world spirals towards radical progressivism, the need for truthful journalism has never been greater. But in these times, we need as many conservative media voices as possible. Please help keep NOQ Report going.

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