NPR Check: Q Tips

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.

36 comments:

Buzztree said...: A quick note: Now the NYT is playing along. Top front-page story today on the released CIA documents -- I couldn't find a single occurrence of the word "torture." I guess strangling a guy near to death isn't torture.; 8/25/09, 8:29 AM
biggerbox said...: This morning on ME: another installment of the series from the Scare People About Iran Foundation, which still didn't answer how starting a war with Iran to keep it from getting a Bomb would be less 'destabilizing' to the region then them getting one.

Also, a delightful profile of Senator Enzi, which managed to avoid asking why a Senator from one of the least populous states should have a vote on TWO of the committees reviewing health care, or what entitles this man to make decisions for the rest of us. We did hear, though, that he was a "mainstream" Republican, not like that Collins or even Grassley, who sometimes actual makes deals with Democrats.

I guess "mainstream" Republicans never, ever, deal with Democrats. Kinda makes you wonder why he's part of the process, don't it? Not if you work at the Nice Polite Republican radio network.; 8/25/09, 10:55 AM
Anonymous said...: I think the war buzz is wearing off for the Death junkies at NPR. But they should be warned that simply talking about killing people is a poor substitute for actually doin it.

edk; 8/25/09, 11:16 AM
Anonymous said...: Please check out
"World Have Your Say: Is it time for Americans to stop questioning their response to 9/11?"

http://worldhaveyoursay.wordpress.com/

Torture apology from top to bottom.

KXOT Tacoma; 8/25/09, 1:02 PM
Buzztree said...: Also on ME: South Korea launches a rocket ... which leads to a discussion about North Korea launching a "ballistic missile capable of carrying a nuclear warhead." Right. South Koreans don't make missiles and North Koreans would never just make a rocket.; 8/25/09, 1:05 PM
JayV said...: Yesterday, Vivien Schiller, NPR's new CEO visited New York's "North Country" (the northern tier of the state) and met with listeners of North Country Public Radio (it serves a very rural and conservative area) for a round-table discussion. Round-table Discussion Link. The recorded program is about 1 hour long. Comments were made about NPR's lack of investigative and international reporting. All Schiller could say was that NPR "could do better," but didn't go into specifics, except to say that money (donors?) would be needed for that to happen. One commenter mentioned that her Republican boyfriend was hooked on listening to NPR. I can understand why. It was mentioned that people do complain about the political stance of NPR's reporting. Ellen Rocco, station manager, said basically you can't please everyone, neither liberals nor conservatives. Schiller re-iterated that NPR provides a balanced perspective on news (no joke, she said that).

Earlier in the day, one of the station's announcers interviewed Schiller, praising her previous work at the NY Times (and her revamping of its website). This segment was called "Leading NPR into the Future"...; 8/25/09, 1:20 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: I'm wondering (not that I will listen) how NPR will handle the passing of Ted Kennedy.

RIP Ted...; 8/26/09, 12:04 PM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: Port,
I didn't listen to the whole thing, but the image I took away was the "passing of the patriarch".

The king is dead, ling live the (anointed) king--by which it seemed to me that NPR (and everybody else) was bestowing the mantel of leading liberal upon Obama...who would look ungrateful if he were too obviously uncomfortable with it...Much about how beloved he was even in life.

I wish he'd been a little more despised for his intransigence in the pursuit of an uniformly just, liberal agenda...; 8/26/09, 12:24 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Funny, I didn't seem to catch any of this from Jackie Nothing or SarSah Nelson...

From DN!:

* Afghan Election Marred by Fraud, Intimidation, Violence, Low Turnout *

In Afghanistan, election authorities are preparing to publish the first partial results from last week's presidential election, but the small sample of ten percent may do little to resolve a dispute over the outcome. The August 20th election was marred by fraud, intimidation, violence and low turnout in many areas. The Electoral Complaints Commission says it is looking into at least 250 allegations of misconduct. We go to Kabul to speak with Jonathan Landay of McClatchy Newspapers.

Listen/Watch/Read
http://www.democracynow.org:80/2009/8/25/afghan_election_
marred_by_fraud_intimidation; 8/26/09, 12:40 PM
Comrade Rutherford said...: From Media Matters:
http://mediamatters.org/research/200908260013

NPR's Cornish ignored CBO's much lower estimate of health care bill's cost

On August 25, NPR's Audie Cornish reported that the House Democrats' health care reform proposal "is estimated to cost a trillion dollars over the next 10 years," without noting that the Congressional Budget Office has concluded that this cost would be largely offset by the savings and revenue increases in the bill. Taking these provisions into account, CBO estimated that the House bill would increase the deficit by $239 billion over 10 years, less than a quarter of the cost Cornish reported.; 8/26/09, 1:45 PM
Anonymous said...: More self-serving justification for NPR's stance on the (non)use of the word torture to describe Bush admin tactics. The titles says it all.

"Differences Of Opinion: CIA Interrogations"

You see, according to NPR ombud Alicia Shepard, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller and other management, the whole "torture" thing is all merely a matter of purely subjective "opinion".

Nothing objective there to speak of.

No indeed.; 8/27/09, 3:47 AM
Mytwords said...: Careful Anon, people might think you're a "disaffected liberal"!; 8/27/09, 5:19 AM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: MY GAWD!

It looks like Insqueak might have a tiny, little pair of 'stones, hidden there under the fluff and prostate-laving.

He actually made Michael Steele a little nervous today.

Coulda knocked me over widda feather...

Squeaky was a bit nervous, too; but Steele being black, it gave him the courage, I reckon...; 8/27/09, 9:46 AM
geoff said...: Looks like Inskeep can get querulous with some Republicans. What do you all make of this?

http://wonkette.com/410750/steve-inskeep-explains-nuance-to-michael-steele; 8/27/09, 9:57 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: Inskreep's a mere weather vane, who will rotate in any direction he's told to follow. Today, it was to play Sheriff Gillespe to Virgil Tibbs (e.g. Rod Steiger/Sidney Poitier - 'In The Heat of the Night'), except Inskreep ain't no Steiger and Michael certainly ain't no MISTER Tibbs.

And over at Wonkette, I'm surprised at all the loyal NPR listeners, still taken in by the squeaky 'Kreep. Hell, I'm almost sympathetic to Michael here... (Not really, but just had to throw a dart at both of 'em. I used to yak over at Wonkette until they were no longer a Gawker entity, and all the avatars were trashed. Wonkette is still a delight, though.); 8/27/09, 10:59 AM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: Interviewing RNC Chair Steele, Today, Insqueak Showed Faint Traces of Vestigial Reportorial "Stones"

to the astonishment of the entire world...; 8/27/09, 11:22 AM
Unknown said...: Gack - the NPR web-site is now featuring "Partner content from NRO"! For example, see this witless slandering obituary of Senator Kennedy.; 8/27/09, 12:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Inskreep's a mere weather vane"

The other kind applies to Inskreep as well:

"You're so vain, I bet you think this world spins around you..."; 8/27/09, 12:30 PM
Anonymous said...: Careful Anon, people might think you're a "disaffected liberal"!

I think of myslef more as a "dis-infected" liberal.

ie, one who has had all trace of the urge to vote for Obama again purged from his system.; 8/27/09, 12:34 PM
Steve B said...: On TOTN now:

Did Harsh CIA Interrogations Work?

I shit you not.

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=112294911; 8/27/09, 1:06 PM
Steve B said...: NPR Summary for the segment:

The recently released 2004 CIA report detailed interrogation techniques used against terror suspects. The debate continues about whether to call the methods "torture" or "enhanced techniques." Former vice president Dick Cheney says the report proves the methods saved lives.; 8/27/09, 1:09 PM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: My comment on the NRO trashing site:

Ted Kennedy's most important legacy is assured, despite the dishonorable carping from the usual, talentless hacks at NRO, by his part in (almost single-handedly) preventing the Borking of America. For that alone, he deserves to be enshrined in the ranks of the nation's greatest patriots.; 8/27/09, 2:33 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Amen Woody.
Well done, Ted.

Saw a video of Ted facing down The Bork, who was grinding his teeth with rage.; 8/27/09, 2:46 PM
geoff said...: Port - You prompted me to look for that. Found this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvFLXFCJvJA

OMG, the whole transcript is here: http://www.loc.gov/law/find/court-withdrawn.php#bork

After Bork was rejected, Douglas Ginsburg was nominated and had to withdraw because he favored legalization? The death knell for Ginsburg's nomination sounded when he admitted that he had smoked marijuana "on a few occasions" while he was a student and during his early days on the faculty at Harvard. What a silly bunch those Murkins are. Then we got Kennedy...Anthony Kennedy, no relation to the greats.; 8/27/09, 4:07 PM
geoff said...: Watching DN just now I was startled to see Walter Cronkite calling on...Daniel Schnore to characterize the health plans of Nixon vs. those of Kennedy. http://www.democracynow.org/ at about 19 minutes.

Schorr (reading from a prepared script) shows how easily bought he is. He read,

President Nixon says this will be health year, the year to tackle what he's called the massive crisis of spiraling health costs and over strained medical resources. Today the president pitted a low-key, low-budget plan to expand private insurance coverage against the more drastic proposals in Congress paced (?!) by the labor-support Kennedy plan for cradle to grave federal insurance for all Americans.

Then Nixon read something Steele-like in its utter nonsense and then Kennedy speaks extemporaneously, obviously using logic and gray matter.

All these years Schorr has played off his part in exposing the Watergate scandal when he's just a shill for the shits.; 8/27/09, 4:57 PM
geoff said...: Oh, btw, meant to ask: which would the average Murkin prefer do you think? Something "low-key" and "low-budget" or something "drastic"?; 8/27/09, 4:58 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: I'd like to tear those Meeses to pieces!; 8/27/09, 6:59 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: One thing about Michael Steele: to my mind, he is of course a bozo, but also a cheap trick, placed at the top of the RNC to out-Obama Obama, image-wise, but more importantly, to serve as a whipping boy, certain to be slaughtered, so as to buy the hardasses of the party enough time to reorganize. He is an exploited fool, to be pitied. I can't imagine any true blue Neocon as liking him or trusting him for a second.; 8/27/09, 7:07 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: One thing about NPR: it always makes me uneasy (or indignant!) when NPR blabmeisters fancy themselves as intellectuals. Dr. Blob Siegel is of course the premier practitioner of this, but when the likes of Inskreep takes up the gauntlet, it is not laughable - it is appalling. Michael Steele is a joke and a fake, but when Steven starts to lay waste on his guest's intellect by lording innuendo over him, and then wrapping things up by saying that he 'enjoyed the time' (e.g. enjoyed making a fool out of this, this, naive simpleton, who doesn't even know what a 'nuance' is), well, then the appalling factor enters big time.

To my ear, Steele wasn't literally asking what a nuance was, he was trying not to say 'What the f#*# do you mean 'NUANCE', Stevie?' And Steven, square, un-hip scared of da 'hood cracker that he is, took Michael's question SERIOUSLY, so as to strut his sophisticated ass all over his inferior guest's reputation. (Hell,Wonkette picked up the story, didn't they...?) Bad move, Steven - it shows your lack of perception, lack of subtlety, lack of NUANCE, you kluck!

I have to admit, Michael recovered pretty well. Not that I agree with him, of course, but why did Inskreep turn up the flamethrower on him? (Because, Steven's medication hasn't leveled out yet...); 8/27/09, 7:23 PM
mjs said...: NPR
the elephant graveyard
the comforted bones of
neocons bleaching white
in radio vibes

oh, no
pillow fights!
NPR
shows 'em how it's done
among the carcasses
happy meals for your ears

fancy yourself a liberal?
by all means:
loosen the throat
and warble along
to NPR

Next stop:
fast food speakers
in my car
I can order grease and fat
along with
The Greatest Corporate Show Of All Time!

NPR! (chant it) NPR!
NPR! NPR!

ah, snuggle/slumber/nod head wisely
We Are Your Brains
We Control Your Political Urges

Go to sleep...
go to sleep...
npr...npr...np...r

++++; 8/28/09, 12:25 AM
geoff said...: We Are Your Brains

A thing of beauty, that.

These are your brains
Thinking for you those
Difficult thoughts you'd
Rather not bother about

Guilt for giving to the killing
While the Glenzilla tugs at
Your conscience with pssst
Do something about it

Hearing thought-out thoughts and
Opinions hatched like onions in
NPR's Pentagonal kitchens and
Served with perky-voiced ladles

Wooden spoons held high
In the interrogation rooms
Above mom's vengeful glower
Above dad's ivory tower

Mom is hell
Dad is war

And you're gonna get it if
You don't listen up good
And give generously at the pledge
Break to be true to your central
Intelligence delivery sevice

To your country, so right about being
Wrong when the occasion demands; 8/28/09, 1:46 AM
Anonymous said...: The recently released 2004 CIA report detailed interrogation techniques used against terror suspects. The debate continues about whether to call the methods "torture" or "enhanced techniques."

The only ones "debating" the fact that waterboarding is torture are people like Alicia shepard and vivian Schiller.

These people are completely unethical.

They are using public dollars to perpetuate the myth that there IS a debate about whether waterboarding is torture, the idea that its all somehow merely a matter of "opinion".

This completely ignored the FACT that practices like waterboarding actually violate US and international laws.

Shepard and Schiller have NO business working in any capacity whatsoever at "public radio".

The fact that they are women makes this ALL the more disgusting.; 8/28/09, 8:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Am I hearing this right . . . The AG will look into prosecuting those interrorgators that went beyond what DoJ allowed when it came to waterboarding? So there is a legal way to commit a crime (torutre someone)? We only waterboarded within strict guidelines? Is that the deal?

Is this country totally mentally ill or what?

edk; 8/28/09, 10:33 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: The poetics of NPR Disgust are a joy to see. Sing on, O minstrels!

Who would ever think that some THING such as Naturally Puke-making Radio would serve as a muse? Well, warfare has brought out some inspired writing throughout the ages, I guess NPR deserves a footnote in that regard.; 8/28/09, 10:33 AM
Anonymous said...: The AG will look into prosecuting those interrorgators that went beyond what DoJ allowed when it came to waterboarding

and of course, the whole DOj "recommendation" program was specifically set up to justify torture.

by not prosecuting torture as mandated under the UN Convention Against Torture whihc the US has ratified, Obama is violating the law and could himself be held legally accountable some time in the future.; 8/28/09, 11:14 AM
Anonymous said...: Past efforts to overhaul the nation's health care system had different proponents, different opponents and different plans that were under consideration. But they have two things in common: They all ended in failure, and in every case, opponents used fear as a key weapon in their arsenal." -- NPR

...and propaganda, especially the "propaganda of omission".

and NPR CEO Vivian Shiller and the rest at National Propaganda Radio have the latter pretty well covered.

Like "torture", "single payer" is not even in their vocabulary.; 8/28/09, 3:44 PM