Thursday, November 16, 2006

Mitt Romney's Two-Pronged Media Strategy

Outgoing Governor Mitt Romney seems to be adopting a two step media strategy as he runs for President in 2008.

Step 1) Denigrate the local media as hopelessly partisan.

Romney has added a new laugh line to his stump speech recently:

We have two factions of media in Boston. On the one hand, we have the Hillary-loving, Ted Kennedy apologists. And on the other, we have the liberals.
Seth Gitell, former spokesman for Boston Mayor Tom Menino, thinks there's more to it than just another 'cattle rancher in a vegetarian convention' joke. Here's what he had to say:
The governor is getting worried that Deval Patrick will soon takeover the keys of the State House and Patrick's Democratic staffers will have access to all the executive agencies and all their files. This is, in short, a treasure trove for a Democratic opposition research operative. I forsee some of the above mentioned reporters getting those tough, national stories, and Romney is trying to proactively discredit that.
(via Universal Hub)

Step 2) Get together with your buddies and buy a media outlet.

MyDD noted today that Romney's Bain Capital just bought radio giant Clearchannel Communications along with Thomas H Lee Partners. Remember that Romney's business partners at Bain have already been seeding early primary states for Mitt through his Commonwealth PAC. Are they now buying over 1100 radio stations for him?