NPR Check: Q Tips

Monday, September 21, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.

26 comments:

Jay Schiavone said...: It's awful nice of Kaiser News Service to help out Morning Edition today, what with them being non-profit and all. That generosity almost made me fail to recollect that there is also a huge insurance company called Kaiser. This is an uncomfortable coincidence, no doubt, one which will be clarified any day now.; 9/21/09, 6:43 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: I drove a 1947 Kaiser motorcar for a time. The (flathead) engines were used in Jeeps. Frazer was the luxury line. They were neat looking cartoon cars. The cars were later produced in S. America when the American division 'went south'. Kaiser Aluminum. Kaiser Permanente. The Henry J. (sold as the Sears Alstate). In short, Henry J. Kaiser was one of the first modern conglomerate creators. Every self respecting conglom needs its fingers in the media somehow.; 9/21/09, 10:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Did anyone catch the first 10 minutes of ATC on Sunday night? They played a bunch of recordings of Obama giving the same answers to the same questions he was asked on the Sunday talk shows. I believe it was NPR's intention that we take this to mean that Obama was . . . What exactly? Insincere? Programmed? That he had talking points? The real surprise would have been if he hadn't answered the questions consistently. But in that aren't-we-cute NPR way it was played purely for snark.

It was followed immediately by a very respectful interview with Ron Paul. (Ron Paul!); 9/21/09, 10:43 AM
Anonymous said...: Noticed on the Saturday hourly NPR news they kept referring to the rebuttal to the President's weekly address as scathing.

Listening to it I do not know where the headline came from. Seems that the republicans found the one small business owner who loves to pay the high cost of private insurance plans.

The rebuttal was factually lite (if not misleading at times) which the news did not high light but far from scathing.

Oh well.; 9/21/09, 11:12 AM
larry, dfh said...: Heard some of the Ron Paul interview. Either the interviewer was asleep, or replaced by a robot, because there wasn't any evidence of a sentient being from npr. All sorts of inconsistencies and flat out ridiculousness passed for a sober interview. Things like: 'you don't call the insurance company for a policy when your house is on fire, and medicine was really great when doctors were making $3/hr working for charity providers. And of course, 'The Market', the Magic Murkin Market, the magic hand that runs the magic front-end alignment machine.; 9/21/09, 12:28 PM
Anonymous said...: I nearly fell out of my seat when I heard Kaiser was the funder for the discussion on healthcare I heard this morning. Wow, you can't get any more blatant than that. Guess they think they don't even have to bother with trying to deceive us anymore.; 9/21/09, 2:51 PM
larry, dfh said...: And CA, where kaiser is king, has the highest per-capita health care costs in the country.
On a more pleasing note, Tom Ashbrook today (monday) had a really good show, with Daniel Ellsberg and Larry Wilkerson; no B.S. whatsoever, no stacking the deck, no lies that had to be refuted, just the straight poop on the magnificent clusterfuck in Afghanistan. It was actually informative. Hope Tom doesn't pay a price for that, seeing how unamerican it all was.; 9/21/09, 7:23 PM
gopalope said...: Just heard Boobian: How Zelaya is "very much a lefty" and details how Michelleti was "constitutionally in line" to become president after the coup - as if the coup was somehow also constitutional. And then Professor Seagul asks about the protesters in the street "both pro and con?" Let's see...no, my bullshit meter has cracked.; 9/21/09, 7:34 PM
gopito said...: NPR reports on some background for the Honduras story:

Danilo "Chanchin" Blandón always insisted that Enrique Bermúdez never mention drug sales during his fund raising pitch, but from Blandón's description of Bermúdez's instructions, that didn't appear necessary. The Contra commander apparently had a pretty good idea of what they were getting into. "There's a saying that the ends justify the means and that's what Mr. Bermúdez told us in Honduras, ok?" Blandón said. "So we started raising money for the Contra revolution."

...or not.; 9/21/09, 8:57 PM
gopoto said...: Honduras blog of note: http://narcosphere.narconews.com/thefield/3439/live-blog-president-zelaya-has-returned-honduras; 9/21/09, 10:37 PM
Jay Schiavone said...: I was charmed to hear the team make reference to "Cadillac" and "platinum" health plans. It's important to remind the peasants that health care is a luxury, not an entitlement. Renee was again giving props to Kaiser Health News this morning. Gotta hand it to Kaiser Health News, a non-profit; they sure are generous to NPR.
Also enjoyed Inskeep hammering home the phrase "climate change." The official policy of the Bush administration was to refer to anthropogenic global warming as "climate change." Good to see Steve remembers which team he carries water for.; 9/22/09, 6:24 AM
Unknown said...: Did you hear what Seigel said about the internet law? He got it completely wrong.; 9/22/09, 6:38 AM
Anonymous said...: Given that NPR is essentially a publicly funded organization and has shown a pronounced bias against public health care (particularly single payer), i would like to see a report on the kind of health care they provide for ALL those who work at NPR (and which companies actually provide it -- and whether any of them is an NPR underwriter, of course).

I would be particularly interested in seeing what kind of plan people like CEO Vivian Schiller, Steve Inskeep and Michelle Norris get, but it would also be educational to see if there is a difference between what they are provided and what a janitor or other "low-level" worker at NPR gets.

I realize this kind of information will probably not be forthcoming from NPR itself, but I wonder how such information might be obtained.

Does anyone know?

I think it would probably make for some very interesting blog discussions.; 9/22/09, 8:22 AM
Steve Hall said...: On Morning Edition this morning, Linda Wertheimer just claimed that the upper midwest states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.) had less poverty, and she also noted that their populations were more "homogeneous." This was in an interview with a representative of the Mayo Clinic, at a point where Wertheimer was asking if Mayo's relative success could be translated to those, umm, "heterogeneous" states.

Is she suggesting that poverty is caused by "heterogeneity"?

This reminds me of that Snopes-bait e-mail forward that I recently got from conservative relatives, in which there was much hand wringing about different reactions to the Iowa floods vs. Katrina and Rita and their respective clean-up efforts.; 9/22/09, 9:31 AM
Anonymous said...: Wertheimer just claimed that the upper midwest states (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, etc.) had less poverty, and she also noted that their populations were more "homogeneous."

I think what Wertheimer is essentially talking about is "economic homogeneity": ie, the states with less poverty are those with less poverty.

Never misunderestimate the inanity of comments uttered by NPR homogeniuses.; 9/22/09, 9:41 AM
Steve Hall said...: To anonymous -

Well, that's one interpretation. However, I've often heard people say "homogeneous" when what they really mean is that "those people don't live there."; 9/22/09, 10:17 AM
Cougarhutch said...: More delightful mind-reading this morning on ME, with Obama body language interpretations.

I wonder if he's comfortable "in his own skin", as they say...

clowns.; 9/22/09, 11:48 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: Keep plucking that chicken, NPR.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=113043935; 9/22/09, 1:21 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 9/22/09, 1:42 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: So much to deride this morning. I heard the whole crappy show, and it didn't help my PRE-EXISTING stay-at-home bellyache, naturally.

Inskreep had a glee-moment when he actually had the nerve to exhort the name of GEORGE ORWELL. Seems an eatery in evil old Moscow was compelled to change its name from 'Anti-Soviet' to 'Soviet' cafe, but folks still tend to call it by the old name. 'George Orwell would be thrilled', uttered our Steven, no doubt rubbing his hands with a 'touche for Free Market Capitalism' flourish. NOW will you use the word 'torture', Steven? If you pretty-please do, George Orwell will be thrilled. He already is, Steven. He already is.

Inskreep still must writhe on our front burner. His parlay with Best Foxy Friend Liarsson about Obama's AfPak dilemma was outrageous. HOW DARE these, these, self-loving FREAKS make qualified statements about a president's handling of such a f-ing monstrous war? It was as if they were treating it like some K Street gossip or something. Mawra's imperiousness has reached new heights of megalomania. Even Inskreep seemed in awe, hearing such words from a goddess, who lives on Mt Olympus, herself. She has spoken, and she's wiser than Athena, folks. And like most egomaniacs who are getting away with all they do, she's coming across as softer, more serene, and more SURE than ever that what she's saying has metaphysical certitude (as McLaughlin would say...)

Then we've got Miss Julie (McCarthy) giving absolutely worthless hearsay reports from Islamabad, and the increasingly controversial Jaysuck Bobo-bian, worshiping his beloved Gramps from far-off Ciudad Mexico.

(However, until further notice, I will heartily defend good Quist-Arcton in her reports from DAKAR, if only for the stylish way she says that word - just about the only style that appeals to me on Neurotic Public R.)

And speaking of imperious, you can’t get much higher in NPR royalty than Dame Linda (Werthenweisenwhatever). Her too-cool banter with the clearly enlightened head of the Mayo Clinic seemed to spoil her morning because all she could do to try and trip him up was that tasteless bit about there being no poverty in the upper Midwest. Like my good buddy Paul Wolfowitz, who stated that there were no sacred sites in Iraq (because they weren’t sacred to HIM), Dame Linda does not have the scope to recognize things she doesn’t – and can’t - understand. Typical, oh-so-typical dismissive NPR-ism.; 9/22/09, 2:13 PM
geoff said...: Missed this critique of NPR on Huffpo a few months ago: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/claudia-ricci/npr-doing-pr-for-the-heal_b_232988.html; 9/22/09, 3:25 PM
bug!punk!feezy!beeny! said...: And on this pledge drive underway, I again resolve (particularly with this new She-male Boobian faux-pas/patch-up) to spare no till the misinformation campaign that is NoPR McNews; to do so would be filthy lucre indeed.; 9/22/09, 5:13 PM
b!p!f!p!s! said...: Oh, Gopester - looks like you got your identity back!!; 9/22/09, 5:14 PM
gopo said...: b!B¡F¿pssss -

That's from a computer that's been continually connected for a while. It could be part of the problem, or my last link to googlehood.

As for the fund drivel, I'd sooner throw a duck at the NoPeRs as give them ducat. So noodnick was on there today sniggering at how impossible it would be to offer Medicare to all give that we can't even afford the cadillac Medicare we have now. May that person join the 45,000 early deaths/year due to no health care.

Somebody asked what plan NPR employees have. It's hard to find out, but I did find this
NPR will zero out contributions to employees’ 403(b) retirement accounts for the rest of this fiscal year and restore them to only 5 percent — half of its prior contribution—next year. The network will also eliminate contributions towards employees’ health-care premiums, known as flex credits, this year and next. However, AFTRA employees voted to recover half of their flex-credit contributions next year in exchange for taking two additional furlough days.; 9/22/09, 6:56 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Glad you are no longer an UnPerson, Gope, Googlian or otherwise.

'Cadillac' as an adjective or as a 'standard of the world' (the marque's onetime motto) seems a bit pallid now, especially considering GM's Post-Rick Wagoner Era. If you're talking a '59 Fleetwood, OK, but I don't think a contemporary Escalade rates as much of a high standard.

I always gravitated to Imperials as the US gold standard in luxury motorcars (unfashionable name, that, especially in anti-Bushistic affairs), but, Euromaniac that I am with cars, I'd have to say that the Audi A8 would be a good gold-crusted standard to apply to anything. But the Teabaggers wouldn't like that sort of thing. As if I care...

(I've traveled from Kaiser to Cad in one quick Q-Tip trip. Whadya know...); 9/22/09, 9:05 PM
Anonymous said...: Tom Ashbrook today (monday) had a really good show, with Daniel Ellsberg and Larry Wilkerson; no B.S. whatsoever,"

That's pretty unusual for Ashbrook.

First, it's unsual that he would even interview someone like Ellsberg.

Second, it's unusual that he would not interject his warmongering views.

That guy was a veritable cheerleader for the invasion of Iraq and for Shock and Awe.

Ashbrook fits right in at NPR. He's basically a propagandist touting his libertarian ideology.

On Point would actually be a good program if they dropped Ashbrook and kept Jack Beatty. Beatty actually CHALLENGES the answers given by guests when they try to pull a fast one.; 9/23/09, 7:20 AM