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Trying to bill itself as a ’24 hour sports news network’ that dedicates a disproportionate share of airtime to NASCAR and classing up cockfighting tournaments, FOX Sports 1 enlisted the help of bottom-feeding pollster Frank Luntz to polarize the wide, wide, world of sports even further.
Fox Sports 1, the upstart 24-7 sports network hellbent on challenging ESPN’s throne in the sports world, announced Thursday evening that it had hired veteran Republican communications strategist Frank Luntz as an on-air personality. Luntz, according to the network, will serve as FS1′s “exclusive sports communications analyst,” a role that will have him contributing to the network’s nightly news show, Fox Sports Live.
Luntz will anchor a segment called “Sound Off,” in which he’ll host pre-recorded focus groups polling fans on issues in the sports world. The panels seem to be an offshoot of the political focus groups Luntz conducted on Fox News as part of that network’s coverage of the 2012 elections (those segments were regular features after Republican primary debates). Fox Sports 1 sounds excited. Executive Vice President Scott Ackerman cited Luntz’s expertise “in reading between the lines and assessing the validity and sincerity of what people say,” which the network says he’ll use to measure America’s “sports pulse.”
“It may surprise people, but sports are my passion, and I love the excitement and intensity on and off the field,” Luntz said in the release. “There is a right way and a wrong way to communicate to viewers, fans and players, and I plan to bring analysis and accountability to the language of sports and those who play them.”
The soul-searching appears to be over, and Frank Luntz has found his passion again.
Stepping back out into the uninformed world he knows– a world where your opinions on busting labor unions, discriminating against gays and why the Washington Redskins should keep their culture and heritage in tact, or how it all ties in to the destruction of America– will now be beamed directly into the marketing strategies and public relations offices of Executive America for their next multi-million dollar stab at overthrowing elections and public opinion.
Red team/Blue team America gets its second wind now that free agent Frank Luntz has signed on to bat clean-up for the New York Yankees of divisiveness. The business of buying and selling human beings was lacking an official mascot.
Swing away, Frank.