Wednesday, July 18, 2007

Open Thread

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 5:42 AM
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8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Somewhere on DailyKos I saw a diary about the MSM not using the word "filibuster" to describe what the Republicans are doing on the Iraq bill. I listened for the use of "filibuster" on NPR, and whatd'ya know, they're not using it either!

7/18/07, 7:08 AM
Unknown said...

Both Morning Edition and ATC led with something along the lines of "the Democrats are holding a debate on an Iraq withdrawal bill" rather than the factually-correct "the Republicans are preventing an up-or-down vote on an Iraq withdrawal bill by fillibustering".

BTW, where's the Dem's messaging on this one? I didn't hear Harry Reid or Barbara Boxer calling for an up-or-down vote.

7/18/07, 7:56 AM
Anonymous said...

Atrios is all over the "let's not call it a fillibuster" story...

7/18/07, 8:04 AM
Anonymous said...

Last week I visited an old friend in the Chicago suburbs; she's married to a man who occasionally has pieces on ATC. He was explaining how before the war he was yelling over the phone at NPR/PBS people about how there were no WMDs, and all he got was avoidance. He said they all were afraid. He tried to get NPR to run several anti-war pieces and they were all rejected; he ran some story on his daughters (who are wonderful girls) instead. This reminds me of a very stark contrast I heard in the early '90s: I could hear Askia Mohammed breathing fire on WPFW (Pacifica)and a day later hear him reduced to reading his mother's recipe for egg-nogg on NPR.
When I asked my friend what the NPR folks were afraid of, she said: losing their jobs. It seems obvious to me that something came down from above regarding adherence to the party line. What DID happen to Bob Edwards anyway? This should be contrasted to the time period of the late Johnson administration, where Bill Moyers, LBJ's press secretary, resigned over the Viet Nam war. He wasn't concerned about his job, or his vacation home, or his career options. Yet his bold action was the beginning of the end for LBJ. It is ironic that Moyers did find a career in the "old" PBS.
But the supporters of NPR should know that while they may sacrifice to pay their pledges, the personnel of NPR are making no sacrifices whatsoever on behalf of the listeners.

7/18/07, 9:09 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

larry, thanks for the elucidation. I can only step back and say 'yes indeed, it all makes sense.'

7/18/07, 11:00 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

I noticed recently that when there was a horrible set of bomb blasts in Kirkuk, BBC World Service mentioned a certain number of persons killed. An hour later, I listened to NPR, and the number of persons killed was significantly LESS. Ironically, NPR's source was a BBC reporter, but I noticed that they did not use his statistics in the report. I imagine the NPR editor was going to get the stats from US military sources, rather than the more 'questionable' on-the-scene BBC source. Maybe this is a poor example, but to me it's yet another example of NPR's willingness to bend truth. Maybe they'd all lose their jobs if the BBC stats had been used... !

7/18/07, 11:21 AM
Anonymous said...

This whole Basil Fawlty-like "Don't mention the filibuster!" routine is getting weird. Apparently (according to Crooks and Liars) Diane Sawyer DID mention "filibuster" in her story on last night's debate, but used it to describe what the DEMOCRATS were doing. And then Fox (natch) said that the Senate voted AGAINST troop withdrawals by 52-47!!!

On NPR they won't use the F-word because they're afraid of losing their $300k/year jobs? Well, when the media won't even use the correct language to describe a political act for fear of displeasing Karl Rove, that is no longer a free press.

7/18/07, 1:57 PM
Anonymous said...

What DID happen to Bob Edwards anyway?

Damned good question. Seems that's about when NPR started tilting further to the right, and shilling in earnest for chimp.

7/19/07, 8:43 AM

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