Saturday, January 19, 2008

Open Thread

NPR related comments? Let 'em fly.
Posted by Mytwords at 11:46 AM
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11 comments:

Porter Melmoth said...

Before I heroically flipped off WeakEnd Ed Saturday, just after I got only the headlines and Dan Schnore's not-so-pithy commentary (the old guy sounds pretty spry, though), I heard Scott the Mercy!ful give a teaser for a silly feature to come: how can you tell someone's smiling when they're talking and you can't see them? Uh, you mean, like, uh, like you hear on radio stations?? Well, I failed to hear the segment, but I didn't need to. It's all about those blabbin''n grinnin' NPR All-Stars themselves: Blob Seigel's perfectly upward-pursed lips, Missy Bloque's gentle hostess' always-mistimed smile, Mara-kins' zombie-eyed smirk, and clown-eyebrowed Scottie himself, whose smile muscles are in terrific shape from all that 'mercy! mercy!' jubilation.

Oh, my achin' ears!

1/19/08, 5:50 PM
Anonymous said...

Another blatantly balanced, fair and thoughtful story on Chavez's Venezuela by Julie McCarthy in tonight's All Things Considered. I'm so sick of it! If only NPR had some kind of outrageous balls and started broadcasting absolutely NOTHING but skewered, anti-Chavez propaganda pieces which parroted only official US Washington position, ah my friends, what a great day that would be. Then the real revolution would have arrived.

Does Julie McCarthy even speak spanish?

1/19/08, 7:31 PM
Anonymous said...

Hilarious accounts, folks - I'd rather read it from you than hear it from them.

1/20/08, 12:02 AM
Anonymous said...

Well, on a more optimistic note, Nick Spitzer today on his show "American Routes" had a special on MLK jr. He actually said we need to "get rid of the masters of war", and he played actual peace-n-love music to commemorate Dr. King. I couldn't believe I was listening to NPR, as the show lifted the heavy curtain of depression that has become so much the norm.

1/20/08, 2:14 AM
Anonymous said...

Speaking of a 'more optimistic note', I was surprised one day to hear on National Pentagon Radio [don't remember which wit it was] refer to:

"the so-called war on terror."

Now that takes cahones.

1/20/08, 6:06 AM
Anonymous said...

In light of the bones they've been throwing as per above comments, I remain skeptical and unforgiving. Naturally if the demographics are tipping to some semblance of a peace movement, you know damn well the mainstream media (and thus NPR) will simply lap along with the trend (and in the true spirit of pandering, they're gonna go all retro about it - have to air out my beads & tie-dyes!). But what it requires is an all-consuming zeitgeist of "HELL NO" against the talking-point/conventional wisdom gestapo to even motivate it.

1/20/08, 8:37 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

I quite agree, fuzzy!, that's why we could call them Nationalist Pandering Retroradio, maybe?
I don't trust them further than I could spit in a hurricane.
That's why I've been yakking about stuff like: NPR should be either spun off into the commercial world it's already inextricably part of, or else get some whacked-out Libertarian in Congress (no, I'm not referring to Ron Paul!) to yank their public funding so they can be properly junked out.
It's a fantasy that sustains me in these dark times of NPR's hegemonic power.

1/20/08, 1:54 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

BTW, I heard something cheering the other day: it was either Adm. Fallon (CENTCOM Cmdr - Petraeus' boss) or Mike Mullen (Chair, Joint Chiefs) wanted all references to the 'war or terror' banished from his office and correspondence. At the very least, a welcome signal. Sorry I'm not backing this up with a quickly-found citation... (lazy Sunday morn and all).

1/20/08, 2:02 PM
Anonymous said...

Yea, I have to chime in here about Julie McCarthy's performance on Saturday's ATC: what a bunch of crap.

No mention is made of the fact that these opposition students are from the private Catholic universities and that they were anything but non-violent when they corraled students that supported Chavez at the School of Social Work at the UCV, chanting "You are going to die, you are going to die."

"After approximately one hour National Civil Protection officers intervened in the conflict and acted to secure the release of the 123 students and staff trapped inside the building. Images broadcast later on national television clearly showed the hostages running out of the building on the UCV campus once rescued by the Civil Protection officers." (Venezuelanalysis, Nov. 9, 2007)

What McCarthy tried to do was to romanticize the opposition students by comparing them to the 1968 students in Paris, and airing some audio from the Andres Bello Catholic University folk music concert. The Catholic student thugs were the ones that terrorized the majority who supported the referendum into staying home. I mean, would you want to go and vote when you could be shot at by these lovely students?

As always, NPR sticks to the State Department talking points on Venezuela.

They lie like they breathe.

The truth is, the majority of Venezuelans support Chavez, who has been re-elected in free and fair elections time and time again.

When will NPR stop being a propaganda tool for the State Department?

You can go to McCarthy's blatant propaganda piece "Youth Movement Revives Venezuelan opposition" by going to NPR and looking at ATC's site for Saturday the 19th of January or by going to this URL:

http://tinyurl.com/2zg9kz

Flavio

1/20/08, 3:25 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Thanks for the informed comment, Flavio. NPR should be directly and repeatedly confronted about their biased Venezuelan coverage, as it is so blatantly skewed.

1/20/08, 4:18 PM
Anonymous said...

Listening to Andrea "milk and cookies" Seabrook interview that evil fucking douchebag republican hitman tonight made me sick.


[I'm going to have to take a NPR break myself. Pity AAR has turned to crap as well.]

1/20/08, 7:47 PM

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