Imus and Frank Luntz Got Along Famously. For Real.

It took a few minutes for Imus to be alerted that Frank Luntz was neither in studio nor on the phone this morning, but was instead appearing via satellite from Washington, DC. As a result, and maybe for the first time ever, Imus apologized to Luntz for the confusion, and “for everything else I’ve ever done to you.”
 
Capitalizing on the I-Man’s conciliatory attitude, Luntz, the well-known pollster, reported his firsthand knowledge of the high tensions in Arizona, where a 22-year old man shot and wounded Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and 13 other people, and killed six people, among them Federal Judge John Roll.
 
“We were in Arizona for Fox News about six months ago, and it was one of the most contentious focus groups I’ve ever done,” Luntz said. “We could not stop the people from yelling at each other. The anger and the frustration with what’s happening at the border, and the feeling that their safety and security were slipping away—you could hear it.”
 
Imus believes it will be difficult to remove, or even to modify, the “inflammatory, aggressive, or at least militaristic verbiage” that is woven into the fabric of American life, particularly politics and sports. Luntz concurred, and pointed to the Star-Spangled Banner’s lyrics as proof of this country’s inherently violent culture.
 
“It’s always been a part of who we are, from the American Revolution to the Civil War,” Luntz said. “But that said, when push came to shove in politics, as tough as it always was, we found a way to cooperate. We always found a way to get things done when times were toughest.”
 
The current climate, however, among the most polarizing Luntz can recall. As an example, he pointed to the comments people make, often anonymously, on political websites. “Every third or fourth comment…is vicious, and not just personal, but kind of plays to this tension, and this anger out there,” he said.
 
Imus himself is guilty of suggestions of violence, specifically toward country-singer-turned-political-pundit Larry Gatlin, about whom a parody was recently performed on this show suggesting Mr. Gatlin’s imminent demise, a joke for which Imus apologized this morning. Other public figures, like Sarah Palin, have been less willing to cop to their own similarly evocative words.
 
“It would be helpful if she didn’t try to tell us…that those were surveyor symbols,” Imus said, referring to a graphic Palin posted last year on her website that highlighted vulnerable Democratic candidates on a U.S. map by placing crosshairs over their congressional district. By horrible coincidence, one of those targeted was Gabrielle Giffords.
 
Luntz observed, “It’s okay to be funny, it’s okay to be ironic, it’s okay to disagree. But you have to be willing to draw the line and take personal responsibility for what you say and how you say it.”
 
And Imus wasted no time in that regard. “I’m sorry we’re mean to you all the time,” he told Luntz. “I don’t know why we do it. It’s just fun. I don’t want anything bad to happen to you.”
 
Today.
 
-Julie Kanfer