Tuesday, June 23, 2009

NPR Does Care About European Demonstrations - Sort Of

According to Renee Montagne, "Europeans are reacting with outrage over events in Iran...and demonstrators in major capitals have taken to the streets." Wow! European protests are so important that NPR quickly puts a reporter on the story and has her on the scene. Eleanor Beardsley checks in from the outskirts of Paris at one of the demonstrations, complete with ambient sounds of protesters and speakers.

Could it be that NPR is changing it's outlook on European public demonstrations? It seems like only yesterday that the record shattering February 15, 2003 demonstrations against the coming Iraq War rocked the globe and especially those "major capitals" Montagne is so keen on. But back then European demonstrations drew a yawn from NPR -



- picking up a mere mention during a Margot Adler report on the concurrent demonstration in New York and an explanation of why those meaningless protests wouldn't deter the Commander in Chief from doing his job.

So what gives? Why is NPR so interested in European street protests now? It must be the Iran factor (see post below), and the opportunity for Eleanor Beardsley to slip in these sly closing lines that would do Benjamin Netanyahu proud:
"Wayne White is a fellow with the Middle East Institute and a former director of Middle East intelligence at the State Department....says if the Iranian leaders discredit themselves in front of the eyes of the world, European nuclear negotiators are likely to be much more wary. He says that if they stole the election, they surely wouldn't hesitate to lie about The Bomb."

7 comments:

geoff said...

Yes, NPR has been slanting reportage on people's movements towards the pro-war side for years now. Consider the antiwar protest at the Vietnam Memorial in 10/2002 or the 9/2005 antiwar protest in Washington.

Porter Melmoth said...

Wow, it's really weird knowing that La Eleanor 'Aquitaine' de Beardsley is getting into hardass on-the-champs reportage! Taking her nightmarish (and tipsy) lullaby voice seriously is never going to happen in this child's choice options.

Rumsfeldian haughtiness over Old Europe has been replaced by urgency over containment of the Neo-Commies (aka Iran). Then, when the Euros go all flaccid when they actually face Mahmoud the Demon, Neocon Public Radio will be the first to sound the alarm. Wolfowitz & Co. await in their dens, to be called back into service by a desperate nation.

geoff said...

Porter-
Wolfowitz & Co. await in their dens, to be called back into service by a desperate nation.

You know how to put the fear of Wolfowitz into a body! You know those people know how to wait.

byg!pynk!fuhzi!buhni! said...

"And while your at our website, check out the sidebar ad link to "The Fearmonger's Shop" and our hot new "They Got th' Bomb" t-shirts, doggy sweaters and baby bibs! Boooooooo! Boooooooooooo! Boooooooooooooooooooo!

Anonymous said...

I suppose we should just be glad Cheney and his (middle) finger puppet are not still at the helm. If they were, we'd almost certainly now be bombing Iran.

You know, to bring them Democracy, kinda like we did back in 1953.

Anonymous said...

In Iran, the leader steals the election and people are rioting in the streets.

in the US, the election is stolen and most people just yawn (and the guy who it was stolen from does not even contest the result).

geoff said...

Let's not forget the NPR coverage of the February 15, 2003 anti-war protest.

GONYEA: So the White House moves into a critical period on Iraq. It's bumping up against its own deadline set by the president's statement at the end of January that the crisis would break in weeks, not months. The White House had planned on using these weeks to knit together the last strands of international support for a war, but instead the president finds opposition stiffening among countries the US once thought would be on board, making it more likely than ever he will have to make good on his own warnings that he would move without the support of the United Nations. Don Gonyea, NPR News, the White House.

Emphasis added...and never mind the domestic opposition.