NPR Check: Q Tips

Monday, June 29, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.

17 comments:

GRUMPY DEMO said...: Missed this Saturday, but I stopped listening after Fawn Williams said that Michael Jackson was the "original crossover artist" guess Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Mills Brother, Nate King Cole, and on and on (you get the drift) don't count.

But he mentioned the Michael Jackson did "Ebony and Ivory" with Sir Paul.

As the commenter noted, FAIL,

That was Steve Wonder, just another quality "analysis" from FOX News' Happy Negro.

http://www.newshounds.us/2009/01/30/source_of_juan_williams_as_happy_negro.php; 6/29/09, 6:11 PM
geoff said...: Oh. Wow. I thought I was experiencing a special kind of cognitive dissonance there. Sure enough! Epic. Thank you for pointing to that. "He ate better. Dressed better. And lived in a better house." "And he could talk just like his master talked." -Malcolm X. Fawn is just as facile with creative fact making as his master, the Faux.; 6/29/09, 6:41 PM
geoff said...: Lest anyone doubt the utter idiocy of this "political analyst," Here's the chronicler of American Life, that he is, speaking on what M. Jackson represents.

JW: You know, first of all, I think Scott, for me and for you [the world is a ghetto] he really is the sound track of our lives. I mean he's trem- I mean it's unbelievable how many songs bring back how many memories with MJ and we saw MJ grow up, and part of that, for me, is that he was the original cross-over black star. To the point where he starts to disfigure himself to look more like

SS: Starts to really cross over, yeah.

JW: yeah, but you think of things like Ebony and Ivory or We Are the World, and it really is, there's an ethos to MJ that suggests he doesn't want to be limited and remember when MTV wouldn't play his videos and he responds by insisting, "oh, no, they have to play my videos" and he was quite the deal-maker and then of course as Thriller and then everything goes out the door and people who I think might have been resistant, especially parents, to the idea of their children listening to black music and the kind of hip shaking moves that had to be in the person of a white performer Elvis Presley in the previous generation were now acceptable from MJ and then of course MJ also was sort of androgenous. He crossed over in terms of the sexual identity.

SS: heh

WJ: Clearly, I think her represents that cross-over ethic.

Gopol: That's just so twisted, maybe it needs to be twittered to make sense.; 6/29/09, 8:20 PM
geoff said...: Of course those lefty educator types are all over wah wah for supporting NCLB and Charter schools and attacking teacher's unions.; 6/29/09, 8:56 PM
Unknown said...: NPR's reporting on Ricci, at least on the website is politically charged. Rather than announcing that the Supreme Court in a narrow majority overturned the 2nd Circuit Court's decision, of which Sotomayor was a part they nefariously announce "Court Topples Sotomayor Ruling in Firefighter Case." They also blindly repeated Frank Ricci's comment that "if you work hard, you can succeed", ignoring the fact that the promotion system upheld by SCOTUS was not based on merit. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=106038551; 6/29/09, 10:33 PM
Anonymous said...: Fawn Williams said that Michael Jackson was the "original crossover artist"

Maybe he meant "cross-dresser"??; 6/30/09, 6:29 AM
Jay Schiavone said...: Back when Juan was hustling his tome, "Enough, etc." he appeared on Franken's Air America Radio show. Juan had a lot to say about how popular music was undermining black youth. Al pressed him on this very hackneyed point, asking for examples. Juan sputtered and dodged. Finally, Al demanded, "What music do you listen to? What's in your car stereo right now?" Caught off-guard, Juan confessed he had been listening to something called "Grammy's Greatest Hits, Volume 7."
There is no forum in which Juan Williams is qualified to speak with any authority regarding the life and work of any musician, African American or otherwise. "Ebony and Ivory?" I guess they all look alike to Juan.; 6/30/09, 9:30 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Mara Liasson's analysis, wrong again.; 6/30/09, 11:03 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Mara Liasson's facts, wrong again.; 6/30/09, 11:07 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: Just a sampling of the stories covered at Democracy Now!:

* Headlines for June 29, 2009 *

Honduran President Ousted in Military Coup
House Narrowly Passes Climate Bill
Justice Dept.: Gitmo Prisoners Have Some Constitutional Rights
Report: Admin Drafting Indefinite Jailing Authorization
Iranian Forces Beat Protesters
US Forces to Encircle Iraqi Towns They Withdraw From
Thousands Protest US in Pakistan
US to End Poppy Eradication in Afghanistan
UN Opens Gaza Probe with Public Hearings
Obama Issues Signing Statement to Ignore Labor, Environmental Provisions
Organizers: 500,000 Mark Stonewall Anniversary in New York
Madoff Faces Sentencing Hearing

Things you'd never hear on Numbingly Preposterous Radio.
Subscribing to their email updates is one of the more sensible uses of the Internets.; 6/30/09, 11:49 AM
geoff said...: Juan,

Liasson is with her ilk when she schmoozes in Wikiality land with Kristol and Krauthammer, that's for sure.

She says, "I think that, in the end, this [right wing coup in Honduras] is the outcome that the United States would have preferred. This is not the method that they want to publicly condone."

As Oliver North said of the Iran-Contra conspiracy, "I thought [it] was a neat idea."; 6/30/09, 12:21 PM
geoff said...: As to Liasson's $175/person vs. $175/household error, Kristol runs with that ball just a little too eagerly, don't you think? Like he was ready for it. Truth is what Fox says it is, after all.

There seems to be a high frequency of fudging on the denominator. I'm reminded of the 43 students/teacher in high school claim on NPR last week. Now, 43 is, admittedly, twice what it should be. At West Point, for instance, the classes are cut in two any time a 21st person enrolls in a class. But 43 students per class, when you have 5 classes, is quite bit of a different wicket.; 6/30/09, 12:31 PM
miranda said...: McCartney did record two duets with Michael Jackson, "Say Say Say" and "The Girl Is Mine." I'm not big on defending NPR, let alone Juan Williams, but maybe "biggest crossover POP artist" is what was meant. Many color barriers in the pop music industry (e.g. MTV airplay) were broken by Jackson.

For those not too cynical about the subject, Democracy Now has an illuminating analysis today.

http://www.democracynow.org/2009/6/30/michael_jackson_1958_2009_the_life; 6/30/09, 4:02 PM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: Gawd!

The coup was planned, financed, organized, implemented and approved by the CIA and the WhiteHouse.

Hoinduras is the site of the ONLY USer military base between Texas and Panama.

Of COURSE the US was in on it. The same way they/we're in on the destabilization of Bolivia, the attack on democracy in Equador, and the Paramilitary enforcers in Colombia. Obama is just as dedicated to the overthrow of Chavez as was BuCheney.

Obamanistas are as wholly dedicated to wiping out "left-wing" politics in this hemisphere as any Reagun or Nixon.

This fucker's no friend of "the People."

But I guess you already knew that...; 6/30/09, 9:25 PM
geoff said...: I'm a nut, I know, to notice this, but in the first part of the Simon/Williams exchange last Saturday before the MJ Ebony/Ivory business, Wan Willy also refers to the tax of "$175/person" when the CBO estimate is an average of $175/household.

Since Liasson delivers the same false fact, you wonder if they're being briefed by the same handler?; 6/30/09, 11:20 PM
Anonymous said...: Since Liasson delivers the same false fact, you wonder if they're being briefed by the same handler?"

Or handled by the same briefer.

It's a veritable circle jerk at NPR.; 7/1/09, 8:44 AM
Unknown said...: I really hate it when people display their ignorance with proud hyperbole...

Micheal Jackson, the original crossover artist?

What was Ray Charles, chopped liver?

Here's a guy who crossed all the way over from R&B to pop to COUNTRY for cryin' out loud... and he was country back when MJ was peeing in his diapers... (which was probably last week, know that I think about it); 7/1/09, 2:59 PM