Nice Polite Republicans
Mar 28th, 2008 at 6:44 am by Susie
I stopped listening to NPR shortly after the war started for these reasons:
In sharp contrast, what happened during the All Things Considered discussion on March 24 was a conversation of shared sensibilities. The retired U.S. Army general discussed the war effort in terms notably similar to those of the ostensibly independent journalist — who, along the way, made the phrase “the enemy” his own in a followup question.
It wouldn’t be fair to judge an entire news program on the basis of a couple of segments. But I’m a frequent listener of All Things Considered and Morning Edition. Such cozy proximity of world views, blanketing the war maker and the war reporter, is symptomatic of what ails NPR’s war coverage — especially from Washington.
Of course there are exceptions. Occasional news reports stray from the narrow baseline. But the essence of the propaganda function is repetition, and the exceptional does not undermine that function.
To add insult to injury, NPR calls itself public radio. It’s supposed to be willing to go where commercial networks fear to tread. But overall, when it comes to politics and war, the range of perspectives on National Public Radio isn’t any wider than what we encounter on the avowedly commercial networks.
I used to donate annually to NPR, but since Rethugs staffed it with propagandists they haven’t received a dime. ‘Public’ radio my ass.
absolutely correct susie. I’ve been disappointed with NPR for soem time now. When I donate, i earmark my money for “you bet your garden” here in pHiladelphia.
Some shows are OK: “news and notes” for example is usually a worthwhile listen. But “ATC” and “ME”? too much right wing spin…
I’m always conflicted by NPR. On one hand, they do some excellent reporting that you won’t find anywhere else. NPR’s reporting from Iraq yesterday was picking up things that no other mainstream news outlet was touching. On the other hand, their right wing spin (particularly by some of the hosts) can be absolutely maddening at times. They forgot how to do true “balance” a long time ago.
I quit donating to NPR about the time that they canned Bob Edwards from ME back in ought-4. Still listen, though, almost every day.
I can’t remember if it was on ATC or Morning Edition that the male newsreader referred to “Democrat leaders” in Congress a few weeks ago.
He had a nice, neutral voice, though, so I’m sure it was unbiased. Maybe even liberal; after all, NPR is part of the Liberal Media.
Yesterday, NPR provided a classic - we got to hear O’Hanlon as the voice of reasoned, non-Administration spin re Iraq. It was simply awful, and there is no way the newsreader did not fully comprehend how misleading it was.
Nice Polite Republicans.
yesterday’s npr informed me that a survey of obama and clinton supporters showed that clinton supporters were more likely to think that “fairness” had gone too far and so on. i waited for the other shoe to drop, that the obama supporters were more likely to think that women should shut up, but after the big build up about the size and power of the survey instrument, it was only used to objectify one candidate’s base of support.
the reportage is at the level of juicyfruit vs doublemint gum ad campaigns.
Salmo: I heard that interview and switched over to Sean Hannity. If I want right-wing spin, I’d rather get it unfiltered by NPR’s niceties.
Interestingly, Sean and O’Hanlon agree 100% on the war. Go figure…
To be fair, I learned from NPR’s All Things Considered that the aluminum tubes, according to scientists familiar with what the maladministration said the purpose of the tubes was. could not be used for that purpose, that it would require incredibly finely tuned remilling to be remotely effective. Also, most likely they could not be remilled for the purporse BushCo saw.
There was good reporting, on NPR and in the Big Papers who were so wrong in much of their reporting. Unfortunately, many of the big name reporters did not seem to read their cohorts reporting, did not pay attention to foreign reporting, did not vary–or did not dare vary–from what BushCo wanted said.
Alas.
And to be fair, I learned from NPR’s All Things Considered (or Morning Edition, no longer sure which) that billions upon billions of dollars simply disappeared over in Iraq while being watched over by Bootsie Bremer’s CPA … bales of hundred-dollar bills, air-freighted over on pallets, then tossed around from one player to another like footballs until they vanished.
(In this case “CPA” did not mean anything to do with accounting, because there weren’t none.)
I heard this on NPR only about two years after an actual reporter first broke the story.