Who could ever forget diabolical Jack Nicholson, in the film "The Shining," saying "Wendy! Darling... LIGHT of my LIFE!" through the axed-in door? Creep city! It's my favorite moment in Stanley Kubrick's 1980 film rendition of the Stephen King novel.
Now comes this incredible ditty, offering a powerful lesson in marketing and the framing of images -- call it 'imageering' -- the blood of our political media culture.
Take a look... It just goes to show the power of editing and music in crafting our perceptions.
If someone can make "The Shining" look like Disney, think how easy it might be to market clearcut public lands as "Healthy Forests" or sell more air pollution as "Clear Skies"... Or think how easy it might be to turn the honorable military service of a Max Cleland or a John Kerry into weakness and traitorous collaboration and call it "Swift Boat Truth."
Like the mysterious message REDRUM in "The Shining," spell out these messaging frames in reverse and you see a political hatchet job, an assault on both truth and the public interest, a violent crime against informed discourse, the bedrock of democracy.
Should we ask Karl Rove how easy it might be to manipulate images until murder looks like redrum? Should we ask the Democrats why they don't challenge such manipulation head-on? (Hint on the Dems' answer: they wish they could spin as well.)