May 29, 2014

So Frank "Love for Sale" Luntz goes on the teevee, attacks Harry Reid for criticizing the name of Washington's football team instead of helping the veterans Frank Luntz helped his previous clients create. Of course, he does not disclose that he is working for the team -- and no one from the "news" organizations bothered to bring it up:

ThinkProgress first reported Luntz’s involvement with the team in June 2013, when the Redskins hired him to hold a focus group on a number of issues facing the team ranging from its stadium to its name.

In January, ThinkProgress reported that Luntz was part of a cadre of prominent political communications officials whom the team was consulting for advice on how to defend its name. Tony Wyllie, the Redskins’ executive vice president of communications, later confirmed that the team was paying Luntz, former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer, and former Virginia Sen. and Gov. George Allen (R) for advice on the campaign to defend the name (it was already known that Lanny Davis, lobbyist and former Democratic White House press secretary, was working with the team as well).

Luntz’s response to Reid is similar to the public stance the team has taken when challenged by other Congressional leaders.

“With all the important issues Congress has to deal with, such as a war in Afghanistan to deficits to health care, don’t they have more important issues to worry about than a football team’s name?” Wyllie said in a statement responding to a February letter from Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK) that called for a name change. The team issued a similar statement when representatives from the Oneida Indian Nation of New York, which has led a campaign against the name, met with the United Nations Human Rights Committee.

Fox Sports 1 hired Luntz as an on-air personality in February. Requests made to the Washington Redskins and Luntz’s firm, Luntz Global, about whether he was still working with the team were not immediately returned.

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