Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 6:01 AM
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18 comments:

Anonymous said...

the fact that NPR has just recently started to use the "T" word in their pieces (albeit still in quotes "Torture memos") is more than ample evidence that they are little more than a "US government thermometer".

Every day they take the temperature of the White House and Congress (rectal, of course) and "report" what they find.

Of course, they never analyze 9or even ask about) the condition of the patient -- whether he/she is delusional, mentally ill or even dead (until after the fact).

They leave that up to the quacks they air as "experts").

4/23/09, 10:10 AM
Anonymous said...

NPR apparently took John Boehner's temperature this morning ("Bend over, John")

////////////////
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/boehner-memos-outline-tor_n_190547.html

"Boehner: Memos Outline "Torture Techniques" -- Ryan Grim
"While cable news outlets and major newspapers [and the rectal thermometer favored by 4 out of 5 members of the American public: NPR] continue to use euphemisms such as "harsh interrogation tactics" to describe the Bush administration's approach to intelligence gathering, House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) used a more succinct term Thursday: "torture."

4/23/09, 11:24 AM
miranda said...

Did anyone hear notorious Bush speechwriter and torture lover Mark Thiessen on "Diane Rehm" today? It was beyond appalling, and I recommend those with a strong stomach give it a listen.

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/09/04/23.php#25590

4/23/09, 12:10 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Miranda,

I heard him. Pretty disgusting.

-JET

4/23/09, 12:13 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Mark Thiessen is a bed wetter.

4/23/09, 12:13 PM
larry, dfh said...

This Thursday's atc had a very disturbing military tone, story after story with an obvious Voice of America slant. One guy had a mention that a coup against Hugo Chavez was 'welcomed' by the U.S., of course as apposed to 'sponsored' by the U.S. And bobbie siegel had an Air-Force reserve colonel who had protested the torturing of arrestees. siegel had the jaw-dropping question about how amazing it was that people could be prosecuting for following orders. Never in the nearly 9 minutes of discussion was the word 'Nurenberg' ever mentioned. In siegel's mind, that is just archaic.

4/23/09, 11:12 PM
artes moriendi said...

NPR has always attempted to treat "harsh interrogation techniques" (i.e., torture) as a complex, controversial "issue" on which "respectable people" have "differing views"--and
to discuss it largely outside of any legal context, without mention of laws and treaties that require us to prosecute those who torture. Covering the legal ramifications of torture would inevitably lead them to declare, in essence, that senior officials in the past administration are war criminals and lawbreakers, and that would be icky and unpleasant. NPR would rather hedge and pretend that the legal status of the acts described in the recently released memos are open to interpretation and argument, inhabiting a gray no-man's-land of legality. And so torture is given the comfy euphemism "harsh interrogation techniques," a serious phrase that signals to listeners that this is just another of those "complex" topics of grave importance that NPR is so adept at "exploring." This permits them to air endless "serious" reports in which they discuss these "techniques" with people who "shed light" on this "controversial" and "challenging" issue, to turn it into fodder for "exploratory" "background" pieces and interviews that circle evasively around the topic without ever declaring it to be this or that. In taking this approach, of course, they have adopted the logic of the memos and of those who clamorously defend the practices described in them. NPR tells its listeners, in effect, that acts that have been traditionally been prosecuted as torture in our country are now possibly neither illegal nor torture. Powerful people have told us so, and NPR is happy to oblige them by pretending that such views fit comfortably within the spectrum of acceptable opinion on this subject, though until very recently those who espouse them would have been called barbaric and monstrous. In taking this approach, NPR continues to help normalize, as it has done so assiduously for the past ten years, criminality and brutality.

4/24/09, 4:42 AM
George said...

Once again, the lead story on ME relentlessly attacked Obama on torture, spouting the Dick Cheney talking points. Do they think we're all idiots? (yes)

It's funny, yesterday's torture piece was well reported, almost as if they heard the listeners who poster their disgust on their website comments the day before.

But today, it's right back to the neocon line--hey, it worked, so who cares? They frosted the cake with some former CIA agent who must be having tea with Cheney soon.

4/24/09, 6:17 AM
Anonymous said...

artes meriendi said

"acts that have been traditionally been prosecuted as torture in our country are now possibly neither illegal nor torture. Powerful people have told us so, and NPR is happy to oblige them by pretending that such views fit comfortably within the spectrum of acceptable opinion on this subject,'

Precisely. You have nailed NPR to the wall!

But allow me to put it bluntly, if I may: NPR is the epitome of "official government propaganda"

"National Propaganda Radio", indeed.

4/24/09, 8:33 AM
Anonymous said...

george said "They frosted the cake with some former CIA agent who must be having tea with Cheney soon."

Tea with Cheney?

I'd switch cups and have him drink first.

4/24/09, 8:38 AM
Anonymous said...

This Scott Horselips piece is typical of the kind of spin that NPR tries to sneak into all of the garbage that they air.

perhaps more disgusting than anything else that NPR does is the fact that they decide (for me, the listener) which issues are important and which are not.

Horselip's piece is a perfect example of that.

With NPR, everything is viewed through the lens of politics.

Viewed through their lens (which completely ignore everything else including relevant laws and Constitution), the whole torture issue is nothing more than a "he said she said" with two "equal sides".

of course, We The People don't want to get "bogged down" in a "debate" about torture.

Of course not.

That would mean, as NPR suggests "that Congress gets completely sidetracked by the interrogation program and loses sight of the president's priorities."

4/24/09, 9:09 AM
Anonymous said...

You know, when I read pieces like Horsely's (which contain an implicit argument to "move on because debating torture is so messy and will accomplish nothing and merely 'distract Congress"), i can't help wondering how much of this argument by the media is simply a psychological defense mechanism to avoid feelings of guilt -- and avoid looking like fools.

After all, many in our media (including NPR) have been MIA in recent years on torture by the Bush administration (and on so many other things like Iraq war).

So, it would be no surprise if at least some of these people simply do not want investigations of what happened because it "bursts the bubble they have been living in" -- to say nothing of makes them look incompetent" (at best)

4/24/09, 10:03 AM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...

Reuel Marc Gerecht is an honest broker/interpreter of the terror dilemma?

According to the feculent dillweeds on NPR this morning, his opinions on 'torture' and the impacts of the recent revelations would be in no way altered if it were also reported that he was a founding member of the PNAC...

Of course not...so the feculent phux at NPR decided we didn't need to know anything about him except his present position...

4/24/09, 10:43 AM
Anonymous said...

Asking for "justice" when it involves powerful people (or institutions) is defined as "partisan politics".

edk

4/24/09, 11:06 AM
The Boss of You said...

Anyone angry about that frickin' health insurance story they ran this morning?

4/24/09, 4:21 PM
larry, dfh said...

It seems pretty obvious to this conspiracy-minded paranoid that the reason we are getting the big push on 'moving on' regarding torture, is that the agency is paying the folks at npr to walk the audience away from the issue, one in which the agency is completely steeped. After all, the interrogators weren't lindy england types. I always look to who is benefitting from a particular event, and those who benefit most from the public's ignoring the issue are the torturers themselves. Compare this to the Watergate hearings, which NPR comvered more or less gavel-to-gavel; back when they were trying for more than a paycheck from headquarters.

4/24/09, 4:41 PM
bg!pnk!fzzy!bnny! said...

Exactly - and conversely the more insipid and/or relatively trivial the topic, the more it will be continue to be drummed upon - per diem and ad nauseum (Monica & Elian, anyone?).

Gawrsh, NoPR's getting (nay, gotten!) about as repulsive as the poo-flingin' that ceaselessly transpires on AM tawlk radio.

Yes yes, of course I'm only speaking vicariously as my ear canals & membranes continue to be mercifully spared this dreck.

4/24/09, 5:21 PM
Anonymous said...

Nationalist Propaganda Radio is CIA media for people who can read.

See 'illegal domestic Voice of America.'

4/24/09, 7:27 PM

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