Thursday, January 17, 2008

Open Thread

NPR related comments welcomed.

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thursday's ATC was particularly disgusting as a great partion of the last segment was spent on berating Dennis Kusinich, complete with smarmy little duckie-quacks to mock the gentleman. What a load of high-school crap! It's ironic seeing highly accomplished people like Kucinich being torn up by fools who have never really done anything in their lives. And for what it's worth, I'm sure Mrs. Dennis Kucinich is alot more charming, intelligent, and gracious than whatever bat to whom the clown who made those comments is married.

Anonymous said...

Duckie-quacks?!? How nice that they're just doing their part to marginalize and nullify the 'threat' of progressive candidates to better allow the predictable ooze of mediocrity to permeate the hapless mindset of the populace. None dare classify Notably Pathetic Reportage as amongst the alternative media. Besides, who was it that aired a segment on UFOs this week - eh? eh? (apologies to Edward G. Robinson)

bunny quack for All Those Silly Things Considered

Anonymous said...

This afternoon had the 2nd of two parts on Foul Air about when to leave Iraq. The first 'authority' was Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, who mentioned "our strategic interests in rhw region". I thought that was a cute phrase for "stealing their oil". Terry didn't question. The last "expert" was from...the CFR. He talked about the oil law that the Iraqi Parliament will not pass. He went on and on about how the law would lead to distribution of oil revenues, without once mentioning that this law would distribute the few shekels left after big-oil extracted all the resources at unbelievably favorable rates. And of course it was never mentioned that the Hunts are busy sucking the Kurdish provinces dry. Terry was silent. Well, when the Parliament does pass this law, all hell will break loose, and everyone knows it. Basically, they will pass the law when hell freezes over. But the CFR liar never mentioned what every Iraqi has known since the war began. Terry Gross relentlesssly turns to neocons for the scoop, and refuses to actually inform her listening public.

Anonymous said...

I made a mistake in the first posting, the show was TotN.

Anonymous said...

For all you Rudy fans out there - his plan to take Florida:

“IF ELECTED, I’LL EXTEND THE ‘EARLY BIRD SPECIAL’ TO BETWEEN THE HOURS OF ‘9′ … AND ‘11′.”

http://satiricalpolitical.com/


ellen

Anonymous said...

Gross Air? You mean that show's still on??? (guffaw, guffaw)

Anonymous said...

Can anyone think of a reporter who can match Mara Liasson for sheer vacuousness, laziness, triviality, and intellectual bankruptcy? After listening to her latest gossipy, phoned-in screed against the Clintons on NPR this afternoon, I really think the woman deserves an award for her work--the ET Mary Hart Award for Jaw-Droppingly Mindless Reporting, let's call it. Virtually indistinguishable from every other anti-Clinton pastiche she's whipped together with robotic regularity over the past few months, today's piece had about as much intellectual nutritional value as a bowl of Count Chockula.

Like a hopelessly inept, talentless cook whose culinary repertoire is restricted to one or two easy dishes, Liasson can always be counted on to follow the same unvarying recipe. It's easy; you can make it in minutes! 1. Pick some character flaw of the Clinton's--Hillary's "stridency" or willfulness or Bill's argumentativeness--and magnify it to cartoonish proportions. 2. Throw in a few snippets of Clinton quotations that comically illustrate said character flaw. 3. Get quote from Gergen-esque beltway insider saying that the electorate is weary of whatever Clintonesque trait is being derided this week. 4. Add prissily skeptical quote from the always obliging Sally Bedell Smith that alludes to the ugly consequences for the nation of allowing the Clintons to regain the White House, given the dreadfulness of the character flaw being discussed. 5. Sardonically point out how the flaw/trait/character disorder is hampering Clinton on the campaign trail and how it will (ha ha!) likely cost her the election. 7. Heavily season with snark. 8. Whatever you do, do NOT make any mention of policy matters, ideas, issues, facts. 9. Mix well n' serve! Mmmm mmmm good!

Even respectable journalists have “off” weeks when they supply their readers or listeners with Rice Krispy treats or Andy Capp Hot Fries instead of with the nutritious, informative fare that should be their specialty. But with Liasson it's Rice Krispy treats, pork rinds, hot fries, and pop rocks all the time. That NPR allows her to serve up this empty, insipid crap week after week is inexcusable.

Anonymous said...

Good serve, Artes! (Myt, give this guy the password! ;-D )

Yes, it's a tight race at NPR for most hard-to-adore personality but ol' Popeye quite possibly does win it in a photo finish. Must be all that sitting between Hume & Kristol every Sunday morning, dumbs ya down a couple titches (hell, Juan gets more jabs in).

Mytwords said...

b!p!f!b! Yes artes kind of nails it doesn't she (or he)? Hey, the invite to write is always there. One just needs to put fingers to keyboard at mytwords AT yahoo dot com :-).

Anonymous said...

well, yes Mara Liasson is bad, but...

for me, Hell would be being locked in a room for all of eternity with a radio tuned to NPR with no off button or volume controls. And it's a Saturday morning. And it will always be Saturday morning, for the rest of eternity. And it's Scott Simon time.

Mytwords said...

A punishment I wouldn't even wish on Scott Simon himself...or would I?

Anonymous said...

I think for Scott Simon, it would be Paradise.

Anonymous said...

nice slap down this morning by Barney Frank on NPR's sloppy, distorting and trivializing piece on a proposed stimulus package. I wish more guests would do this (ie, call them on their bullshit).

Porter Melmoth said...

I'm just tickled to see so much healthy Mara Rage (TM) nicely clustered here. It's sort of an informal tradition we have, to wheel her out onstage and toss some rotten tomatoes from time to time.

Just for fun, I thought I'd sneak in the following retread from about a year ago. It's not too gentle, but boy, is she good at getting folks enraged, or what? Here it is, #723 in an ongoing series:

When is someone going to pull up Mara Liasson's turtleneck collar, so that not only her turkey-neck is concealed, but that her trap will be shut as well?
Who the hell likes her? Who thinks she's funny? Or witty? Why does she have to talk in that self-amused, slime-filled, jelly-masticating rattle-babble, that is so blatantly skewed against Democrats and Whigs, despite her alleged 'center-left' stance? Why, why, WHY??
I know, I know, this is 'NPR Loathing 101', but I listen to her in horror, and I know I can turn the radio off, but - wait, I don't want Mara to know that she has this power over me! I know she enjoys it! OK, I'm better now. Her segment is over - for now. But, but, why can't she just stay at Fox, where she's the token gal amongst Bill 'Howdy Doody' Kristol, Brit ‘Lurch’ Hume, Juan 'The Yawn' Williams, et al? At least in their company she can't compete, so she's just boring, what with her time-filling blah-blah-blah and attention-starved pop-eyed grimaces.
End of Mara Rage #723.

Anonymous said...

Oh gracious, I'm belly laughin' like Thumper about now! Add to all this that particular photo gallery image detail of her inimitable Doctor Mabuse eyes.

We wuv ya, Mara~