Here's Mara Liasson (of NPR and Fox News) and Robert Siegel keeping the John Kerry story going for yet another night:Siegel: "Senator Kerry says that is not at all what he meant."
Liasson: [sarcastically sing song] "Nooo, Senator Kerry says—he's actually provided the text of his speech—what he meant to say, what was written for him [added emphasis] was 'if you don’t study, if you aren't smart, if you're intellectually lazy, you end up getting us stuck in a war in Iraq, just ask President Bush.’ Ha, ha, ha [delivered with utter disdain], but in any event [almost laughing at her own cleverness] today Senator Kerry performed one of the time honored rituals of political damage control and he went on the Imus show to explain himself."
Then later in the show.
Siegel: "The Republicans think they're on to something here with John Kerry."
Liasson: [with enthusiasm], "Oh, of course they do! This is something that could help them fire up the base, even at the expense of reminding voters about the Iraq War, and this is a bit of déjà vu, after all 'that windsurfing flip-flopper' has once again provided the Republicans with a bunch of ammunition just like he did in 2004 and Vice President Dick Cheney was on the campaign trail saying 'Kerry was for the joke before he was against the joke.'"
She really said all this. Go back and listen to it--Karl Rove couldn't do better! When I heard her say "'windsurfing flip-flopper'" I almost couldn't believe it. And then to quote the joke in full from Cheney was a fine coup-de-grace. Such slur and bias is remarkable; I look forward to NPR correcting its imbalance by referring to Karl Rove as Turd Blossom and Bush as AWOL Bush or the Decider.
Finally the piece included (without any comment) a sound bite of Bush on the Rush Limbaugh show saying, "Anybody who is in a position to serve this country ought to understand the consequences of words...." NPR made no mention of such words as "Mission Accomplished," "Bring 'em on!" or even the fact that Bush recently lied about his "stay the course" rhetoric. And NPR made no comment on the unseemliness of a sitting president going on air with his "good friend"-- hate-monger, torture promoter, and liar -- Rush Limbaugh.
7 comments:
NPR has practically soiled itself in its attempt to gin up a last-minute "controversy" on this issue. Anyone who wishes ever to be taken seriously as a journalist had better get off that sinking ship.
Glad you're listening for us! I can only stand it in tiny doses any longer.
Is it time to start advocating cutting NPR's funding for news? We'd be much better off simply having NPR rebroadcast the BBC world service news.
Cackling skulls watching Rome burn...this is NPR.
I agree with steve. Under its current management I don't think NPR's problems can be fixed. Most of their reporters have become too cosy with the power brokers they cover, or just too lazy to really count as reporters or analysts anymore (Cokie, for instance). Until there is new management, and a lot of new correspondents (Dan Schorr needs to be put to pasture), I will listen to the BBC World Service and support my local public radio station for their continued purchase of this program.
I read this summary with delight. Why? Because it confirms my feelings that Mara and Bob have been waiting years for the freedom to project their REAL personalities and opinions, shamelessly, and on the air. In this era of shamelessness, the egotism of media 'personalities' (including the 'thinking' ones of NPR) apes the egotism of the political figures they are covering, and the result is a self-absorbed miasma that defies description. In my own shameless opinion, Mara has always been puke-making. Funny that she could continue to outdo herself.
Excellent points, steve and bluetaco. I'm afraid things are that dire. I support my NPR only for the music, On Point, and BBC. I'm one of those that has chosen internet resources as my principal source for news. My frustration with NPR's view of the world was getting out of control, and something had to be done! Fortunately, at least for the present, the solid offerings on the net stand to increase one's sense of critical thinking, rather than settling for the whole hog of NPR-ism.
Wonder if NPR will ever cover this:
But there are a number of things that are quite disturbing. For instance, you were just talking briefly about religion, which is obviously an issue in every election, but since the Republicans have taken charge under George W. Bush, it’s been a hugely significant issue. And it turns out that Karl Rove, the man who is the architect behind evangelical voters and their turnout and a voter delivery system of the Christian right, is agnostic. He doesn’t have any deeply held faith.
What people do not realize about this man is that everything about him is political utility. When he looked at what was going on with the megachurches, and when he did the polling and he saw how gay marriage was animating the Christian right, Karl decided he was going to take these gigantic churches on the Christian right and to turn them into a gigantic vote delivery system. And that’s precisely what he has done. This is not a man who has deeply held religious faith. It’s a man who believes that faith can be used to drive voters to the polls. In fact, his own president, in an interview with -- or an offhand unguarded moment aboard the press plane with my co-author, Wayne Slater, had referred to the Christian right and the fundamentalists north of Austin as “whackos.” They hold these people in more disdain than these individuals are aware of.
Oh, in the same piece there's there's also this:
But Karl’s senior year in high school, his father landed a big job with Getty Oil in Los Angeles, and he was to come home on Christmas Eve and tell the family about the big plans to move down to Los Angeles, and happily ever after, moving from Salt Lake City. But there was an argument that ensued behind closed doors, and Louis Rove left, and he was not there for Christmas Day, which also happens to be Karl's birthday. And it turned out many years later that Louis -- not many years later. Many years later I found out about it. But Louis Rove went to Los Angeles and decided to live openly as a gay man. He had been gay all of his life, but had repressed it and had tried to live as a heterosexual, but he decided to live the second half of his life openly as a gay man.
He retired to Palm Springs, California. And when he passed away, there was no -- his friends, many retired gay men there who were close friends with Louis Rove, were unaware of any memorial service. Karl has taken exception with what my book says, that there was no public memorial service. Karl indicates I’m trying to claim that there was no service at all whatsoever. That's not the case. However, it seems as though Karl was trying to suppress and continues to suppress the notion that and the fact that the man who raised him, a man who he has said he had a loving, open, honest relationship with, was, in fact, a gay man.
Karl buried his father Louie Rove in July of 2004. There was no public notice in the newspaper. And then he got on the campaign plane, and he went to eleven key swing states to help facilitate the anti-gay marriage amendment around this country, which drove turnout in the last election.
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