Thursday, November 30, 2006

Where's Jimmy?

I waited several days before posting this because I thought surely NPR news would interview former President Carter about his new book Palestine: Peace not Apartheid. I'm not one to gush over Carter (I've never gotten over his support of government by death squad in El Salvador), but his remarks on Palestine are truly breathtaking. They reveal how hollow, stupid and and rabidly pro-Zionist the usual Newspeak on the Israel/Palestine issue is (think Gradstein and Westervelt for example). If you missed him on PBS' Newshour, it's worth watching, listening to, or reading here.

There's no excuse for NPR news not to host Carter for an extended interview as soon as possible (Fresh Air picked him up recently, after all). And in light of NPR's recent enthusiasm for ex-presidents (see posts below), what are they waiting for? It's sad that anytime Bush opens his mouth to bumble through a canned speech, NPR is there to rehash and repeat it, but when a former President, winner of a Nobel Prize, and strong critic of current US policy in Israel/Palestine speaks out with intelligence and conscience on such a vital issue, it is treated as a non-story.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

NPR may be ignoring Carter and his new book, but Democracy Now! hasn't. They've featured all-things-Carter in depth this week. Check it: http://www democracynow.org

Julius Martov said...

and he was on the lehrer news hr. yesterday
this had some interesting quotes from carter,
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=25746

Unknown said...

And from democracynow:
"[...] the nation's newspapers have largely ignored Jimmy Carter's book since its publication two weeks ago. The book hasn't even been mentioned in the news pages of the New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Boston Globe or Los Angeles Times"

:(