NPR is one of the worse offenders:
Unfortunately, this is the “press” the country has to deal with:
Speaking a couple hours before congressional Republican leaders were due at the White House for a meeting on the matter, Carney said it remained to be seen whether the opposition would “put the matches and gasoline aside when it comes to threatening default.”
He also said the proposed short-term extension of the debt ceiling, which would the government would hit next week without congressional action, was a way for Republicans to keep the “nuclear weapon” of undermining the economy in their “back pocket.”
But it was “ransom” — a word Obama has used repeatedly to describe Republican negotiating tactics — that struck the last press corps nerve. The usual briefing room decorum, such as it is, broke down entirely when Carney said finally that Obama would sign a debt-ceiling extension but not if it meant “paying a ransom” to Republicans.
“The president will not pay ransom for … ” Carney began.
“You see it as a ransom, but it’s a metaphor that doesn’t serve our purposes … ” NPR correspondent Ari Shapiro shouted back with broad support from other confused reporters.
“You guys are just too literal then, right?” Carney said.
“We just want to accurately report,” Shapiro began before Carney interjected. “We’re trying to be accurate in our description of what’s going on.”
Ari Shapiro of the “liberal” NPR doesn’t think the ransom metaphor “serves his purposes.” Apparently the gaggle of reporters agrees.
Guess what? Bread and eggs are metaphors. Neighbors and lawsuits are metaphors. “Ransom” isn’t a metaphor. It’s an on-its-face accurate description of what is going on. Keep in mind that this wasn’t a GOP operative declaring that the ransom “metaphor” didn’t “serve his purposes.” It was a reporter, from a supposedly left-leaning outlet.
What purposes do the assembled press have in not telling the truth? No one would need to resort to the metaphors if the press would simply accurately relate the situation. Is it really so necessary to lie in the interest of “balance”?
Ari, Mr. “It doesn’t serve our purposes” Shapiro, should be FIRED!!!
Today.
Ari, take your massive ego and shove it up your ass, where your head is. You are there to report — not to manipulate quotes. You are there as a check and balance. So is the rest of the gaggle of idiot reporters who agreed with him. Can’t handle a metaphor? Can’t figure out what’s going on without resorting to whining about how hard it is – like figuring out the ransom metaphor?
You are so fired.
Ah Ari, the ransom metaphor was coined by Mitch McConnell as a description of what they were doing threatening a shutdown in 2011. The clip has been all over the nets. That is where Obama got it, dumass!
Good catch regarding NPR. I tune sometimes because the music stations are so bad, but then I hear nothing but “he said/she said” news stories and tepid pseudo-analysis. Who needs censorship when you have reporters and analysts who are so scared of criticism from right-wing loonies that they can’t even state the facts, or refrain from objecting when someone else (Carney) states a fact?