The “Luntzification” of the U.S. Health Care Debate

Abstract

Pollster Frank Luntz has built a substantial global business by shifting the terminology in public policy debates to a corporate and conservative perspective. He played a substantial role in the recent U.S. health care debate, and his approaches and terminology likely will be tried again regarding health care policy in other nations. This project searched the U.S. broadcast news transcripts to discover to what extent they reflected Luntz's list of words for opponents of health care reform. Sixteen Luntz terms were compared to a list of 16 more neutral terms describing the actual changes being considered. The Luntz words outnumbered the ''descriptor'' terms on Fox News, and made up a significant percentage of the terminology hits on CNN, MSNBC, and ABC, CBS, and NBC News. This content analysis adds to the growing body of work on framing, specifically how tactical use of terminology can turn a mediated debate.