Wednesday, March 19, 2008

How About Some Fact Checking?

This morning Whaaaaaan Williams takes the Obama - Rev. Wright issue to the right. Here he is whining to Renee Montagne:
"...that's the problematic heart of this speech, Renee, the question is why Senator Obama maintained a relationship with Reverend Wright - a man who has said things like you know the government is pumping drugs into the Black community or spreading AIDS among people of color and has said that America's foreign policy is somehow equal to that of the terrorists who attacked on 9-11" (Could Williams be angry at someone equating the millions killed by US foreign policy with the mere thousands murdered by the 9-11 terrorists?)
Then this evening Michelle Norris hammers away at Rev. Otis Moss who is succeeding Rev. Wright regarding the "inflammatory" sermons of his predecessor. Honestly, shouldn't reporters simply evaluate the content of Wright's allegations? Why would someone accuse the US government of being involved in the drug trade? Of course investigating US government cooperation in narco-trafficking can end up costing a reporter his livelihood, and his life.

I have an idea. NPR can do it's famous "fact checking" as they do after candidate debates - and then just let the chips fall where they will. Wouldn't that be interesting?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

And so I read that Dickhead Cheney's still making speeches alluding to an Iraq/Sept 11 connection. So, like, where's the "hammering"? Oh, oh - this blatant abuse of public office doesn't have the legs that a good ol' Democrat sex (or race) scandal does. I surrender to the befuddling logic (not really).

Anonymous said...

Ugh, I'm ashamed to admit that I heard both of these pieces. Many people on other blogs (C&L for example) we're wondering what planet Juan Williams flew in from. Not that everybody had to like Obama's speech, but he and Montange held a cozy little snarkfest that gave hardly any credit to Obama for having the courage to speak as a human being instead of a politician. It's almost like Obama's honesty went over the heads. Since his speech didn't come in out in politico-speak sound-bytes, they were unable to "hear" what he said.

And Norris did truly hammer this guy. She was really working on him to apologize for what Rev. Wright said - like the new pastor should take responsibility for Wright's sermons. After "Conservative Week," where NPR let the right spout there views unchallenged, it's hard to imagine Norris challenging Hagee - or even challenging McCain about Hagee - with the same venom. Both pieces were truly sickening. And I had been good in cutting back my NPR this week.

In the immortal words of Bill the Cat - "ACK!"

Miranda said...

I cringed and fumed at Norris' interview of Rev. Otis Moss. He very reasonably tried to answer her preposterous questions, and she proceeded to ask them again. This media-generated "controversy" over Obama's ex-pastor, in the face of the truly dreadful things that are really happening, makes me furious. Thanks for the great analysis, as always.

Porter Melmoth said...

I'd like to be a cockroach behind the NPR mikes that capture many of these interviews, if only to discover what gets left out in the editing process.

On the other hand, I'd like to hear from any interviewee who feels that NPR edited his/her session in a way that distorted what they were trying to say.

On the other hand, knowing that NPR News is basically a chickenshit outfit that scavenges stories once it's safe to do so, no such adventurous strings are followed, so there probably isn't much to edit out.

One tries to find the logic behind some of this stuff, but it's simple: NPR is a shill for corporate America. I's love to hear someone try to prove that that isn't so.

Anonymous said...

So CIA-NPR is denying that the CIA has been drug-profiteering off the urban poor since Vietnam?

What a surprise.

Mena Airport, IranContra, the San Francisco Frog Men case, DEA whistleblowers like Michael Levine, Gary Webb's 'Dark Alliance' expose, Terry Reed, Alfred McCoy, Peter Dale Scott...

NPR and PBS are both Voice of America for potential readers.