Guy Gushes

Guy Raz interviews Madeleine Albright, daughter of Josef Korbel and Korbel's "star pupil" at the University of Denver, Condoleezza Rice. However, to call this worshipful chat with Albright and Rice an interview is really too kind. Raz goes along with portraying both Albright and Rice as idealists consumed with a zeal for spreading democracy. There is a little space given to Albright's critique of Bush foreign policy--mainly that it has discredited the American image abroad, but he doesn't bring up any serious issues with either interviewee. He doesn't mention a peep about Albright's role in the sanctions on Iraq that are estimated to have killed 500,000 children ( a number she deemed as acceptable). He doesn't question Rice on the contradictions of believing in democracy while supporting the illegal invasion of Iraq, the dictatorship of Pakistan's Musharraf [ok, on June 29th it is reported that Rice did insist that Pakistan needs to hold elections], Israel's repressive occupation, Uzbekistan's Karimov, Putin's war on Chechnya, etc. Instead NPR gives this drivel nearly ten minutes of air time. I hope the State Department at least sends Guy Raz a thank you card--he earned it.