Planned Parenthood Becomes the ACORN Bogeyman of Linda McMahon’s Dying Campaign
October 22, 2010Bad Week for Vince McMahon Ends Badly – Brock Lesnar Loses UFC Title and His Staged Staredown with the Undertaker Is Meaningless
October 24, 2010
1. The race is over.
Richard Blumenthal has won. Linda McMahon has lost.
2. World Wrestling Entertainment’s “Stand Up for WWE” campaign is just a kooky vanity production of Linda McMahon’s husband Vince.
Since Linda’s campaign is desperate, she has nothing to lose by hitching her wagon to the McMahon company’s propaganda machine. But the net effect is zero. For every new Vince video stirring up class resentment against critics, or featuring robotic employees extolling what a wonderful place to work WWE is, “Stand Up for WWE” puts the source of Linda’s wealth and $50 million self-funded campaign at the center of the conversation. That is not a good thing for her.
3. DUMB: Brouhaha over Planned Parenthood’s work with the Blumenthal campaign to gather depictions of WWE misogyny.
Blumenthal didn’t need this and shouldn’t have done it. That said, the McMahon camp’s complaints about it do them no good.
4. AND DUMBER: Brouhaha over Secretary of State Susan Bysiewicz’s directive about poll workers and voters wearing clothes with the WWE logo.
Bysiewicz shouldn’t have done it. That said, the McMahon camp’s rhetoric in screaming First Amendment bloody murder is far more entertaining than biting. At its own shows, WWE security personnel confiscate fans’ signs unfriendly to its message and T-shirts bearing pictures of wrestlers with other promotions.
5. What matters now is the attitude of the general public toward the McMahon family business after November 2.
WWE is under investigation by the state for independent contractor abuse. Events during the Senate campaign, such as the deaths of wrestlers Eddie Fatu and Lance McNaught, further highlighted the need to pursue federal investigations of WWE occupational health and safety that began after the 2007 double murder/suicide of Chris Benoit but mysteriously petered out just before Linda launched her short and unmeritorious career in public service. What remains to be seen is whether the losing McMahons will be allowed to continue on their merry way post Election Day, or whether their arrogant and unsuccessful grab for political power will finally mobilize public officials to examine and regulate this out-of-control industry.
Irv Muchnick
1 Comment
Hi Irvin,
I enjoyed reading your comments in this post. This week I was especially surprised about to hear about Bysiewicz’s directive about WWE apparel at the polls. I’m glad that you talked about the WWE confiscating apparel & signs at their own shows, that’s really interesting. I definitely think that her directive will do more harm than good, I could see at least a few people showing up to vote in WWE apparel just to make a point. It’ll be interesting to see what happens on election day.
I have a video that I thought you might find interesting: http://www.newsy.com/videos/connecticut-polls-to-put-the-smackdown-on-wwe-gear. I hope that you’ll consider linking to or embedding it in your post. The video highlights reactions the directive by combining clips & quotes from a few different news sources, and I thought it might be a nice additional resource for your readers.
Newsy.com gathers information from various news outlets, and puts it together to provide multiple views of news stories. Newsy.com analyzes the information, with the goal of providing a diverse perspective of the story to those that might normally receive their news from a single source.
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me.
Thanks,
Brittany McIntyre
brittanym@newsy.com