Thursday, January 01, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 10:01 PM
Labels:

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Anyone hear science reporter David Kestenbaum's "objective" he said/she said report this morning on Keynesianism, the current stimulus proposals and what ended the Great Depression? Lately there has been an ideological agrument from the right that "FDR prolonged the great depression." (a pre-emptive attack on Obama's future economic policies). And now we get NPR taking a know-nothing approach giving "both sides" of the argument equal weight and coming to no conclusions. Gosh, we just don't know. Although there has been an incredible amount of economic scholarship done on both the Great Depression and on the effectiveness of FDR's policies. This was simply bad reporting, and serves only to further the interests of the right through obfuscation and confusion. Similar to the effect of he said/she said reporting on global warming.

I must say, from the Israeli propaganda of their Gaza coverage, to their anti-Cuba propaganda, to this...I have a hard time listening to NPR for more than a minute or two before turning it off, lately.

1/2/09, 6:27 AM
Anonymous said...

Kastenbaum has a background in physics.

he's not an economist. In fact, i suspect he knows little about it, so it is no surprise that he would take a "know nothing" approach to the issue.

he probably quite literally knows nothing about economics.

1/2/09, 7:07 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

This morn Our Lady Lourdes in Baghdad reported on a bran-new suicide bombing in which multiples of 10 were killed or wounded. Thing is, her whole perspective in the report was to assure us that bombings/violence/death were all DOWN from last year. You know, this latest bombing was awful and icky, but heck, it really wasn't so bad, because there aren't that many other bombings going on now and... blah, blah. Proof that the Surge (Reg. US Pat. Off.) worked. Proof that US policy is a rousing success, and proof that all these techniques can work in Afghanistan, don't you know.

Happy New Year, Lourdesey.

To my mind, one of the reasons why NPR has been so exploited by corporate/Neoconics/Neoconvicts is that it is a 'clean' medium: listeners flip it on and get their convenient input while driving, multi-tasking, texting, half-sleeping, whatever. Perfect for subliminal brain-washing. Plus, you don't have to display images of someone's jaw splattered against a wall in the latest boring suicide bombing (as if they would anyway...). So, you can imply things more slyly, as your audience is much more impressionable and in need of trust. With NPR, you can be 'concerned' about issues, but keep them pleasantly at a distance. (Maybe that has something to do with so many people at NPR saying 'it's a pleasure'!) Naturally, this is all Propaganda 101, but refresher courses can be handy.

1/2/09, 12:29 PM
Anonymous said...

After seeing this article in today's Guardian I have no doubt that NPR is a part of the hasbara apparatus.

1/2/09, 1:10 PM
Anonymous said...

Kinda nice o'er at NoPR.org (I can't stand listenin' to 'em, why would I wanna surf there?!) that their 'templates' have lately been comments-enabled. And, if a (growing by the day) brassed-off listener can pass muster at the Gate of the Great and Powerful Moderator(s), it's encouraging that other malcontents, possibly outside our own randy bunch here, can just cease the exercise in futility of sending off the Amazing Vanishing Carefully Worded Rebuttal to the Ombudsbot with Zero Effect, go straight to the source & 'em what-for; and yes - oh, dear - sometimes possibly stepping on the sensible-but-delicate toesie-woesies of the hapless-but-well-meaning Stepford Listener/Contributors who still somehow believe the place is the best thing to happen to broadcasting since Murrow. More than once I've noticed with glee "The Check" get name-dropped!

And, nahhh, I'll not bother with registering there (and possibly get put on some anti-establishment watchlist) but it's satisfying enough to click the recommendation counter up a digit on a particulary worthy post.

1/2/09, 2:21 PM

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)