My father said that a man he knows predicted Lott‘s demise very precisely. His method? The “two Sundays rule.”

Here’s how it works: if a hot-button topic is discussed on one of the Sunday morning news shows (e.g. “Meet the Press,” “Sunday Morning,” or Cheney favorite “Fox News Sunday”) but fades by the next weekend, that means the corrective action was effective.

For Trent, that didn’t happen. Five apologies and one week later, he was still on the news. His spinning wasn’t working, so he had no hope of making the story go away. Bye-bye, majority leadership.

Aside I: Weasel apologies are to be crushed. Trent on Dec. 11 (Fox News, of course): “I am sorry for my words; they were poorly chosen and insensitive and I regret the way it has been interpreted.” Sorry for the interpretation? Somebody needs a refresher course. (Great link.)

Aside II: Those who suffer under the ridiculous delusion that Fox News is anything but a propaganda arm of the GOP need only look at their latest poll on Lott’s decision to step down. First choice: “Yes, it is better for the Republican party.” Even if you don’t add anything about the fact that it was an evil comment, a simple yes/no would do. Fox’s true concern is how it affects the Party.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 22nd, 2002 at 1:46 am and is filed under Law & Politics, Media & Press.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.