I can't leave for Washington DC until I address the Frank Luntz uproar.

If you have not been following the latest (in a littany of) outrage in the lefty blogosphere, PBS had announced that tonight's Presidential Forum with Tavis Smiley was going to have as the sole broadcast commentator the infamous Frank Luntz. This is the notorious "pollster" of the GOP who publishes a "rule book" for republican candidates that teaches them how to attack their opponents as angry liberals.

Jeffrey Feldman --who ought to be the DNC's top communications strategist-- has this to say about Luntz :

In fact, the truth behind Luntz is that all his work is in the interest of those who pay for his services: the radical wing of the Republican Party. Any commentary Luntz offers on PBS after the Democratic candidate forum will not be in the interest of PBS viewers, but in the interest of the radical wing of the Republican Party.

Not only will Luntz offer deceptive commentary framed by a radical GOP agenda, but he will alienate the vast majority of PBS viewers--Americans of all political leanings who are tired of turning on their televisions to engage the civic debate, only to be slapped in the face by cynical consultants masquerading as impartial analysts.

When I first heard of this asshat's gig, all I could think of was "Who the hell is inside PBS pushing for his confederalist and supremacist worldview."

Well, guess what? After Media Matters picked up on the case, bloggers everywhere protested this backward and Tavis Smiley's legitimacy was questioned, PBS and the Tavis Smiley show have gone into damage control.

This is the email Media Matters got from one of Tavis' producers:

---------- Forwarded message ----------

From: Laurel Lambert <llambert@xxxxx>

Date: Jun 27, 2007 10:24 AM

Subject: Producer's statement on Frank Luntz on Tavis Smiley

To: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

The following statement has been issued by Neal Kendall, executive producer of Tavis Smiley, regarding the appearance of Frank Luntz on Friday's Tavis Smiley latenight program:

The "All American Presidential Forum on PBS" moderated by Tavis Smiley, airing this Thursday, is an unprecedented watershed event for millions of Americans who will be seeing and hearing the candidates respond to specific issues that directly affect their quality of life.

To correct some erroneous information, please note that Dr. Frank Luntz is NOT appearing on Thursday night's Presidential forum.

Dr. Frank Luntz is a guest the following-night, Friday, June 29th on Tavis' regular late-night PBS program. He will be joined by a focus group of 30 people who watched the forum the night before. This group dialed in their instant responses to the candidates' positions, using people meter technology. The primary goal of our Friday program is for Tavis to take the opportunity to converse with these 30 people and hear directly from them their thoughts and opinions on what the candidates had to say. Dr. Luntz, a consultant for many major broadcast news organizations, has appeared on our show in the past. He will discuss some of the data from the forum as part of Tavis' conversation with the focus group.

Neal Kendall

Executive Producer

"Tavis Smiley" on PBS

"The All American Presidential Forums on PBS" moderated by Tavis Smiley

Press contact: Laurel Lambert KCET 323 376 7985

Laurel Lambert

Director, Advertising and Promotion

llambert@kcet.org

323 953 5246

Here's the thing : Why go with this guy? Why is it that when it comes to polling it's either Zogby or this douchebag? Hasn't anybody heard of Sergio Bendixen & Associates?

I love Sergio's work for New America Media --check out his polls on immigration. His company is the only one in the country that strives to poll across all demographic groups in their native languages. That includes Americans of all colors as well --and yes, even the English speaking ones. And Sergio has 30+ years of experience as a political commentator. Oh, and for the monolingual morons --Yes, his English is impeccable.

But, as Earl said over at Prometheus6, when people like Luntz get to be front and center in mainstream media, you just have to wonder how these people got there in the first place. What would possess Tavis Smiley's production company to hire that hack in the first place. Is it money? Is it access?

What did Tavis Smiley get in order to legitimize an extremist GOP hack like Luntz? That's what I want to know. Because there's Republicans and then there's GOP extremists like Frank Luntz.