NPR Check: Q Tips

Monday, February 16, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.

23 comments:

Anonymous said...: Oh boy, more Concern trolling-- Cokie was in rare form this morning, as she recited the current Republican talking points word for word, just before she said she agrees with them. Poor Lindsey Graham, John McCain, and Cokie, there's been no bipartisanship from Obama, which means "Obama is off to a bad start". Bad start for who Cokie? You and your republican friends, who got us into this mess. Please NPR, put this woman out of her misery.; 2/16/09, 7:30 AM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: That venal, mendacious, untalented slag, Roberts got three words into saying Missy Graham was a 'true bipartisan' before the breakfast nugget I had just swallowed involuntarily exploded from my throat, flew across the room, and turned off the awful noise.

Now Dave Brubeck is easing me through my morning...

But even prior to that, Insqueak's tinny badgering of David Kay Johnson, and his desperation to discover the good in tax cutting nearly made me drown myself in the shower...; 2/16/09, 7:57 AM
Anonymous said...: Media Matters has again called out Scott Simon and Juan Williams--this time for repeating standard obfuscatory GOP line that Judd Gregg's recent withdrawal of his nomination for secretary of Commerce had to do with his concerns over the census and who oversees it.
http://mediamatters.org/items/200902150004?f=h_top; 2/16/09, 9:32 AM
Buzztree said...: Folks: I've been scratching my head over the Sunday WE piece on evolution and faith narrated by Lianne Hansen. Wondering if anyone else is doing the same.

Among the peculiarities are Lianne's insistence on asking if college students in Kansas have to "reconcile" evolution and faith, when the students she interviews for the most part say no, because the two things are not incompatible.

Then she is talking with someone named David Sloan Wilson at SUNY Binghamton, who described some kind of "thought experiment" he performs with students: (1) put two people, "virtuous" and "evil" on a desert island (evil would win out); (2) put groups of "virtuous" and "evil" people on separate, isolated islands (evil would self-destruct); and (3) allow an "evil" person to paddle over to "virtue island." The weird part is that he doesn't explain what could happen in the scenario 3, and I was left without a clue as to what the point of this whole long-winded description was.

Then, in the strangest locution of all, Lianne says, "What if altruism, which is at the heart of most religious beliefs [is it?], serves an evolutionary purpose; what if those values meant the inhabitants of virtue island survived, thrived, and multiplied?"

Is it just me, or is she equating "those values" -- i.e., religious values -- to "virtue"? Is it not possible for someone to be virtuous and not religious?

I don't know. This whole exercise seemed an effort to appease -- people talking about making evolution "less scary" (another quote from the piece) -- but only managed to be condescending to just about everyone.; 2/16/09, 10:32 AM
Anonymous said...: I believe in devolution. From Paine to Morrow to Cokie Roberts.

edk; 2/16/09, 11:33 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Gleen Greenwald takes on sniveling David Brooks. Just plug in Cokie Dokie Roberts, Uncle Yawn Williams, and Mara Liarsson where you see Brooks' name.

David Brooks reveals the mentality of the Beltway journalist.; 2/16/09, 12:46 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Steve- You are right, except for one thing. UnPR should put Cokie out of OUR misery. -JET; 2/16/09, 1:18 PM
Anonymous said...: Amen Juan.; 2/16/09, 1:54 PM
Anonymous said...: All the above Q-tips are prime examples why this grateful lupine refuses to ruin his wake-ups, drive times, or weekends with this grating dreck.; 2/16/09, 5:17 PM
Hubertg said...: I just read Democracy Now thing about Obama having just used the Bush line citing "state secrecy" to stop a prosecution from going forward that by all rights should have been allowed to prodeed....interesting.; 2/16/09, 6:03 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: I tend to be following b!pink!'s bunny trax AWAY from the radio-type device these days. What with the Simonizings and LiHam Hamstringings on the weekend, or the sickening bitching of spoiled-sounding Grigory Pied Pfeifer (someone Jerry Lewis would parody) taunting us to follow him into a New Colder War, or the cheap-ass musings of just about everyone else on Non Professional Radio, the pre-breakfast shot of Old Stump Blowout doesn't even work to soothe my soul anymore. (Brubeck is indeed a good idea, though...)

After numerous tests that show my day goes better without the rotted earwax-inducer known as NPR, I certainly know better than to subject myself to it day after day.

For those who have the belly for it, charge on, courageous ones! For those of us who become sullen with disgust from too much Cokied-up and Inskreeped-out audio pollution, give a furlough a try. It may not cure you, but it will help.nsoon; 2/16/09, 8:32 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Typo-

Last part of last sentence: but it will help, at least before noon.; 2/16/09, 8:35 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Porter- Your commentaries are fantastically astute and uproariously funny! I still listen to UnPR to get my blood boiling. Thus, I am probably headed to an early grave. So, I hope you will still check into UnPR from time to time, if only to share your wry wit with the NPRCheck readers. -JET; 2/17/09, 9:52 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 2/17/09, 10:06 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: Thanks, JET, for the comforting words. As a result, I shall embolden myself and timidly tune in from time to time, if only to confirm that UnPR is worth getting enraged over (it is! It is!).
Thanks also for your links to the scattered but growing community of critically-massive NPR Checkers.

I just can't get over how stupid that Grigory Puh-puh-fieffer sounds! He's like some priggish, pole-up-the-ass headmaster, simpering and talking down to his little student urchins, in a nasally, haughty manner that rivals AriHead Shapiro! (And that's saying a helluva lot; Monty Python would have a field day demolishing the odious Grig!) And this is the guy who handles reports from Moscow! He was probably hired on one condition: that he ostensibly speaks Russian (and snottily, too!). You know, like Juan Foraro speaks Spanish. These are people we can really TRUST, huh?!; 2/17/09, 1:02 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: PS: JET: 'UnPR Jumps The Snark' link didn't go through for me...; 2/17/09, 1:05 PM
RepubLiecan said...: On WESAT, I was deeply and truly touched by the Sermonizer's choked up and tear filled reaction to the reports of motherless pandas having survived the fires in Australia. I couldn't help wondering where was Lil' Scotty's empathetic response to the starving orphaned Palestinian children found next to their dead parents in Gaza.

I guess little brown children don't get the same reaction as pandas. Hopefully next Saturday we will be treated to the Sermonizer's essay on the horror of wildfire.; 2/17/09, 2:31 PM
NWB said...: Mara Lies-a-lot was on "Day to Day" this morning and it was quite a rhetorical feat she attempted.

First, she opined that the economic stimulus bill would determine President Obama's "political future" -- and she did so with a devious sneer that could be seen across airwaves -- and then claimed that no matter what happens "we'll never really know if it was effective or not."

For added lunacy, she ended by saying that "some people" are still debating whether FDR's New Deal was effective or not.

I used to pain through NPR's political coverage, but now I think I'm just going to throw in the towel. I've begged the Ombudsman for younger, fresher, non-GOP analysis to no avail, and I'm either going to reject all of NPR's programming, or turn off the radio when Juan, Cokie, or Mara arrive to provide the latest Village idiocy.; 2/17/09, 2:41 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Yes Nicole, when it comes to UnPR, one stands regularly at a crossroads: do you take the path forward, or go in a different direction? I struggle with it. The tyranny of NPR is their convenience of accessibility. It would be one thing if NPR had a greater mixture of the offensive and non-offensive, but they just don't. I've never witnessed a greater collection of worthless and toxic personalities who inflict themselves on we the listeners. Even the cruddiest summer stock theatre company has more interesting egos and more humanity than NPR's insulting magical misery tour.

Sorry to leave it at that, but that's how bad it is. That's why I regularly resort to cheap shots and lame humor where NPR is concerned. NPR as it is now is a failure.; 2/17/09, 2:55 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Sorry, "Jumps the Snark".; 2/17/09, 3:57 PM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: In reference to the recent posts on the propagandas and calumnies rostered by Juan Forero viz Chavez's Venezuela, go HERE, And wait for the Dan Beeton Interview, about 10 minutes in...; 2/17/09, 4:53 PM
Anonymous said...: Hey! Get ready! Tomorrow morning, Wednesday February 18, we're getting treated to a great story on NPR by Ari Shapiro about (drum roll please): MILITARY RESPONSES TO SOCIAL UNREST DUE TO THE ECONOMIC MELTDOWN...

I heard it ADVERTISED on NPR this afternoon. Can't wait...

Listen to All Things Considered Wednesday morning for your dose of Pentagon Propaganda!

Also: anybody notice that NPR's been reporting the daily drop in the Dow Jones and NASDAQ numbers, but not the final market figure? What's up with that, and who dictates that?

Just asking.

Sincerely,

Benoit Balz; 2/17/09, 8:31 PM
Anonymous said...: I've noticed that trend (the excluding of actual closing-bell numbers) at other "news-ey" outlets as well, Benoit. Sorta like how company newsletters will go full throttle over achievements, contracts awarded, so on - but the 'unpleasant' items are hid in the closet with Cousin George.; 2/18/09, 7:37 AM