Echo Chamber on North Korea

Steve Inskeep interviews Christopher Hill this morning on NPR. Hill, assistant Sec. of State for East Asia, is the State Department's negotiator at the six party talks regarding North Korea. Inskeep's interview followed an unquestioned/unexamined rebroadcast of Sec. of State Rice's stern warnings to N. Korea about a possible launch of an unarmed ICBM. Inskeep's interview is remarkable for its absolute one-sidedness and adherence to Bush administration policy. Inskeep doesn't ask any of the hard questions of Hill that one might expect: Did the Bush administration's first term refusal to negotiate with N. Korea actually make the situation worse? Did the aggressive invasion of Iraq prompt N. Korea to step up its desire for nukes as a deterrent to being next on the US invasion list? How does the US anger over the missile test square with its own missile defense plans or its recent threats to use "smaller" nukes against Iran? Instead Inskeep even outpaces the Bush folks by asking if N. Korea has helped with furthering Iran's nuclear weapon's program. I think Inskeep is sometimes confused that he's supposed to be an independent journalist, and not a PR man for the Department of Defense or Department of State.