NPR Check: Q Tips

Monday, October 26, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.

41 comments:

Anonymous said...: The caption says it all

"Death Toll Rises To 155 In Dual Baghdad Bombings

The attacks targeted government buildings, calling into question Iraq's ability to protect itself."

So, whom is "Iraq" protecting itself from?

Just how does NPR know that this attack was not perpetrated by Iraqis unhappy with American occupation?

With Iraqis unhappy with other Iraqis?

This claim of an "Attacks on Iraq" (by Syrian backed Baathists, for example) with no evidence whatsoever has grown REALLY old.

NPR admits that
"There have been no claims of responsibility or arrests so far."

but is quick to lay blame:

Massive car bombs have been the hallmark of the Sunni insurgents seeking to overthrow the country's Shiite-dominated government. Iraq has accused members of the outlawed Baath Party living in neighboring Syria of being behind another series of deadly bombings"

NPR could be right in their speculations or could be wrong.

But such speculation without evidence has gone far beyond innocent ignorance and is now simply dishonest in the extreme.; 10/26/09, 9:16 AM
geoff said...: NPR gives the astro-turf tea baggers inexplicable credence ("The backlash") while relegating the true public opinion (for public health care) a mere asterisk ("Most polls have it in the high fifties, though some show it even higher.") They attribute the no public health program position to "moderate and conservative" senators.

Rankling.; 10/26/09, 9:46 AM
Anonymous said...: NPR wants to nuke Iran for fraudulent elections (I think they were NOT completely without anomolies - where are elections pure ever since America's go round in 2000?) but they are relatively silent about 1/3 of The Mayor of Kabul's votes being disallowed. I guess that wasn't fraudulent?

edk; 10/26/09, 10:34 AM
RepubLiecan said...: Following on what gopolganger posted here and in the Q Tips Sat Oct 24 thread posted on 10/24/09 2:49 PM:

In regard to NPR's reporting on health care reform I heard a sponsorship ad/announcement at the beginning or end of WESAT or WESUN this past weekend. The part I caught was that it was some organization interested in health care reform and mentioned a URL of something like "health care reform.org". Did anyone else catch this sponsorship ad? I wonder if it was linked to the discussion by the Sermonizer and Rovner on WESAT or NPR's abysmal coverage of the support for a public option? I tried searching at NPR, but they don't reveal their corporate/organization sponsors very willingly. Surprise!!!; 10/26/09, 11:37 AM
JayV said...: I got another NPR Listens survey "invitation" today, this time about the Saturday and Sunday weekend editions programs. Did anyone else reading this blog get one, too? I was not complimentary in either my answers or comments.; 10/26/09, 12:01 PM
geoff said...: Republiecan,

There are a hell spawn of "nonprofit" foundations set up by the insurance companies through third parties. Johnson and Johnson has one. Kaiser has one (scrupulously articulated as independent and different from the insurance company that spawned it). Their purpose seems to be to funnel money to media outlets like NPR to muddy the waters.; 10/26/09, 12:30 PM
RepubLiecan said...: gopolganger,

They are certainly getting their money's worth from NPR.; 10/26/09, 12:48 PM
geoff said...: It seems to be a theme of the industrial age: as you sew fear and confusion, so shall you reap wealth and power.; 10/26/09, 2:39 PM
geoff said...: Quite the quiet coverage of the Showdown in Chicago.

Rob Johnson of the Roosevelt Institute is among the protesters. He writes on Huffington Post:

The question most asked here is “how long can this go on? Bailouts for the ones who created the mess, bankers acting like they earned it, foreclosures and bankruptcies and unemployment rising, and the Congressional Committees pretending to reform the financial regulatory system while they load up on money from the financial lobbyists.

My answer is that no one knows how long. We know that it will change. We will not see a nation that lives on 30 percent credit card rates. We will not see Wall Street wages forever at a 40 percent premium to wages throughout the economy adjusted for skill and experience. We will not pretend that only financial repackagers work hard and are deserving.

The question is when and how, not if, it will change.

Do you agree? Or are people just going to wind up like this guy, beating the crap out of stuff in their garage? (FYI - serious profanity)

False choice. Do you think the bankster's financial coup d'etat can't stand or are going to be reduced to blithering rage? That's just a logically stupid injunction. These guys are just blowing smoke at the protest coverage - trying to make them out as some kind of tea baggers. See DN for much better treatment.; 10/26/09, 6:03 PM
geoff said...: I should add that that supercilious coverage of the Showdown in Chicago on Marketplace was the only coverage. Not a word on ATC or ME. Nada. Zilch egg. When you think of the efforts made to get tea baggers exposure, it's just kind of...revealing of a biased agenda?; 10/26/09, 6:54 PM
GRUMPY DEMO said...: Today on ME, while interviewing a author of pro-Penatgon wet kiss of a general (nothing new there). Steve Inskeep demonstrates his contempt for both our troops in harm's way and the Iraqi people.

He pulls out his patented hyena laugh after hearing about the deaths of Iraq troops.

Grumpy Demo (Lord_Of_The_Typos) wrote:

Steve Inskeep, thinks its funny that after Iraq troops were slaughter, for the second time leaving their base, that their general quits. He just laughs, and laughs and laughs; again showing his conptemt of the Iraqs and our troops stuck America's worst foreign policy failure.

-Bush/Cheney stole the election and Steve laughed.
-Bush/Cheney spread lies to take us to war and Steve laughed.
-Bush/Cheney invade a country that didn't attack us, wasn't a threat and Steve laughed.
-Bush/Cheney's policies resolute in tens of thousands of US casualties and Steve laughed.
-To save money Bush/Cheney force our injured troops to live in filth and without care and Steve laughed.
-Bush/Cheney abandon basic government regulation of air, water, food, drugs killing hundreds and injuring thousands and Steve laughed.
-DOJ turned into a patronage office with politically motivated prosecutions and Steve laughed.
-Worst economic decline since the depression, thousands unemployed and Steve laughed.
-Bush/Cheney order American Troop to torture and Steve laughed.
-Harvard study show 44,000 American die each year from lack of health insurance and Steve laughed.

When I look back on Steve Inskeep's involvement in the degrading of NPR's journalism, I
weep.; 10/27/09, 8:14 AM
Woody (Tokin Librul/Rogue Scholar/ Helluvafella!) said...: Yesterday, the Dow ended off 104.22 points, or 1.05 percent, to 9,867.96.

You'll note that it was BELOW the fabled level of 10,000, which was said to betoken "the end of the recession."

If you listened to NPR, you'd have learned that, indeed, the Dow fell yesterday.

But they never said the number. Only that it was down 100 points, or so.

How's that fucking recession going, you fucking cheeseballs???; 10/27/09, 8:22 AM
Cougarhutch said...: Well, you guys are all over this one, but I wanted to mention the undying idea that the public option was dead, but has been brought back to life.

Ignoring the very much alive public options that had been included in several of the house and senate proposals.

To the villagers at NPR this was dead. Who exactly do they think they're fooling with this act?; 10/27/09, 8:31 AM
GRUMPY DEMO said...: OK, it either because NPR back to it's sucky ways or I'm off my meds. But there seems to be an increase in NPR hackery in the past week.

Yesterday on ATC NPR's "Media Critic" fails again. David Folkenflik reads a FOX press release crowing about how it's number one, ignoring numerous other factors.

He describes FOX as "offering opinion from the strong right", sigh, where to begin? Well I guess that what you can expect from NPR where water-boarding isn't "torture".

Given Mr.David Folkenflik prior pieces that were wet kiss to FOX News reports, his guttless pro-FOX reporting isn't a suprise.

I'm trying to figure out if Mr. David Folkenflik is gutless, has submitted his resume at FOX, or is just trying to avoid an awkward moments at the NPR Christmas party with Mara Liasson and Juan Williams, both ten year full time FOX News employee.; 10/27/09, 9:27 AM
geoff said...: NPR is reporting that climate legislation is dead this year. I guess that's because the hearings are just starting.; 10/27/09, 9:43 AM
GRUMPY DEMO said...: "NPR is reporting that climate legislation is dead this year. I guess that's because the hearings are just starting."

Wow just like Single Payer/Public Option was dead before the hearing started.; 10/27/09, 10:29 AM
Anonymous said...: Democracy Now!'s Any Goodman puts the phony journalists at NPR (ie, pretty much everyone) to shame.

I realize there are probably not many reading this who do, but to anyone who still gives to NPR I would suggest asking yourself what are you getting for your money? and might I get more from DN for the same contribution?

I think the answer to the second question should be obvious.

With a contribution to NPR you are basically paying the high (six figure) salaries of Vivian Schiller, Steve Inskeep, Meeeeeeshell Norris, Scott Simon and Alicia Shepard (that's right, NPR's ombudsman gets $150k per year to make excuses about why NPR can not say "torture" and write other drivel on her NPR blog page); 10/28/09, 8:00 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: The Diane Rehm is busily doing its part to keep the DC yacking class employed.

While conservatives in Congress are hurriedly trying to re-inflate the housing bubble, DR Show Guest Host Frank Sesno, is doing his best to re-inflate the GOPer bubble.

NPR: Fair and Balanced.

http://wamu.org/programs/dr/

10:00 State of the G.O.P.

Guest host: Frank Sesno

Conservatives gaining ground. A new poll finds independents are moving to the right. How this trend might play out in political contests across the country and implications for the Republican Party.
Guests

David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union and managing associate with Carmen Group, a D.C.-based governmental-affairs firm

Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the "Cook Political Report"

Mickey Edwards, lecturer at Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School; former Republican Congressman from Oklahoma (1977-1993)

11:00 Anne Heller: "Ayn Rand and the World She Made" (Nan A. Talese/Doubleday)

Guest host: Frank Sesno

A new biography of the Russian-born philosopher whose mid-20th century novels, "Fountainhead" and "Atlas Shrugged", extol the virtues of individual rights and laissez-faire capitalism and still spark debate today.
Guests

Anne Heller, A magazine editor and journalist; 10/28/09, 8:23 AM
Anonymous said...: Dean Baker nails NPR again.

http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=10&year=2009&base_name=npr_keeps_the_economic_choices; 10/28/09, 9:45 AM
Anonymous said...: http://www.prospect.org/csnc/blogs/beat_the_press_archive?month=10&year=2009&base_name=npr_keeps_the_economic_choices; 10/28/09, 9:46 AM
Anonymous said...: NPR Keeps the Economic Choices on the Banks Narrow

Morning Edition introduced a piece that reported on the House Financial Services Committee plans to deal with too big to fail banks by telling listeners that we had a choice last fall between allowing huge financial institutions to fail, with substantial risks to the economy, or give them hundreds of billions of dollars to keep them afloat.

This is not true, we could have given them money and totally transformed them by slashing pay for their executives (push into the six figures, from seven and eight figures) and change the way they do business. We could have ended many of the speculative practices of these firms and make them more boring. This option was generally ignored by the media at the time and it is still largely being ignored.

The piece itself forget to mention that the regulators failed to see the housing bubble. In making plans for new and complex regulatory structures, it is important to remember that our team of regulators all claimed to believe that nationwide house prices could not fall. If this was actually true, then banks were not taking excessive risks and the regulators acted properly. The problem was not the lack of the right regulatory agencies, the problem was the failure of regulators to correctly understand the economy.

NPR did not discuss the housing bubble at the time and it is still not accurately presenting the crisis caused by its collapse to its listeners.; 10/28/09, 9:47 AM
Anonymous said...: 11:00 Anne Heller: "Ayn Rand and the World She Made"

Wouldn't that be more aptly titled "Ayn Rand and the bed she made?"; 10/28/09, 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...: Morning Edition introduced a piece that reported on the House Financial Services Committee plans to deal with too big to fail banks by telling listeners that we had a choice last fall between allowing huge financial institutions to fail, with substantial risks to the economy, or give them hundreds of billions of dollars to keep them afloat."

That's an outright lie. If the NPR announcer really claimed that, he/she should be fired AND Vivian Schiller should be fired as CEO.

Such LIES are not only disgusting, but they are ILLEGAL. Congress has banned the use of public money for propaganda.

The banks could have -- SHOULD HAVE, BY LAW! -- been put into receivership like the failed S&L's were back in the late 80's.

Such receivership probably would have involved firing many of the people heading up the banks -- ie, the people who implemented the policies that led to failure.

Such receivership is precisely what people like former S&L fraud expert/investigator William Black were calling for. Indeed, he pointed out that receivership is mandated by law in such cases.

receivership would have involved keeping very good track of where public dollars were going and whether they were having the intended affect (increased lending).; 10/28/09, 10:02 AM
Anonymous said...: NPR is part of the same criminal conspiracy. They missed the bubble, and now they are playing propaganda to cover it up.; 10/28/09, 10:43 AM
Anonymous said...: I have heard only 2 things about National Swine flu emergency announcement (the announcement itself and that it was like "preparing for an hurricane") so I looked it up. Might interest us to know what it means since NPR only talks about fake cures/swine flu parties.

edk; 10/28/09, 11:10 AM
Anonymous said...: I just noticed the relevant link to William Black's comments above is broken.

Here it is.

NPR is not only lying, but Obama et al have actually BROKEN the law in failing to put the failing banks into receivership.
Here's the relevant text, as well:

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, certainly in the financial sphere, I am. I think, first, the policies are substantively bad. Second, I think they completely lack integrity. Third, they violate the rule of law. This is being done just like Secretary Paulson did it. In violation of the law. We adopted a law after the Savings and Loan crisis, called the Prompt Corrective Action Law. And it requires them to close these institutions. And they're refusing to obey the law.

BILL MOYERS: In other words, they could have closed these banks without nationalizing them?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Well, you do a receivership. No one -- Ronald Reagan did receiverships. Nobody called it nationalization.

BILL MOYERS: And that's a law?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: That's the law.

BILL MOYERS: So, Paulson could have done this? Geithner could do this?

WILLIAM K. BLACK: Not could. Was mandated-

BILL MOYERS: By the law.

WILLIAM K. BLACK: By the law.; 10/28/09, 1:39 PM
Anonymous said...: The planet Monkeys are still spouting gibberish:

Market Rises, Confidence Falls. Now What?

Consumer confidence fell in October, the Conference Board reports. This was the month the Dow Jones Industrial Average crossed the 10,000 mark again, and yet this rally hasn't had the usual effect."

What Laura Begoneaway (Don's sister) does not seem to understand is that while the Consumer confidence index can (and does) impact the Dow, the converse is not true.

Most people do not base their economic confidence on the level of the stock market.

They base it on things that affect them directly -- like whether they have a job and whether they are worried about losing that job.

The idea that we should somehow be "surprised" (as Conaway is) that Consumer confidence is down despite the fact that the Dow was up (even over 10,000 briefly) is just nonsense.

The only thing surpising to me is that someone who is as clueless about economics as Laura Conaway can be hosting a program on National radio that purports to be about economics.

her "Market Rises, Confidence Falls. Now what?" is just garbage.; 10/29/09, 6:43 AM
Anonymous said...: I thought it said "NPR Health Blog" [sick], but I must have been mistaken...

I must have stumbled upon Ripley's Believe or NOT!

or perhaps a site documenting Virgin Mary sightings

Ghost In The Brain: An 'Apparition Hemorrhage

What utter rubbish.

It's hard to say which is worse: that they publish such crap in the New England Journal of Medicine, or that NPR propagates the nonsense (to appeal to all their evangelical listeners?); 10/29/09, 8:33 AM
Anonymous said...: Anon,

Re: Planet Monkey

I have noticed, and noted on the NPR Blog, Ms. Conaway's construct many times. Here is what I posted today.

+++

OMG! This Planet Money shtick is so tiresome! Here is what passes for news on the PM Blog when they title there stories:

1. Fact 1
2. Fact 2
3. Summary or Conclusion: What up with THAT?

Case in point: Market Rises, Confidence Falls. Now What?

1. Fact 1: Market Rises
2. Fact 2: Confidence Falls.
3. Summary or Conclusion: Now What?

Ms. Conaway is particularly susceptible to this construct. With it she attempts, I suppose, to insinuate or show some sort of relationship between Fact 1 and Fact 2. What she reveals, with respect to news, is usually nothing. What she reveals with her construct is that she doesn't really understand economics, and if she actually does, she doesn't know how to explain it. Thus, she shows an ineptitude with both economics and journalism.

But nobody can argue that she's sure developed that unenlightening blogger technique.

What's up with THAT!

madchen vapid; 10/29/09, 8:34 AM
Anonymous said...: That's clearly a doctored image (if you will pardon the pun).

It's obviously supposed to be Little Bo Peep (from the back)

Just like in this image, she's got a crooked staff in her left hand, is wearing a bonnet, a dress with scalloped pleats at the bottom, and there is even a sheep "arched" above her looking to the left, with outstretched front legs.

I could produce the same nonsense in about 5 minutes with photoshop.

I wonder if the NJM would publish it.

My respect for that journal just went WAY down (NPR lost no respect because they had none to lose); 10/29/09, 8:49 AM
Anonymous said...: Planet Monkey, powered by Blogic.
Blogger + Logic = Blogic

madchen vapid; 10/29/09, 8:53 AM
Anonymous said...: Don't know if many of you have noticed, but the American Natural Gas Alliance and the American Petroleum Institute have been saturation bombing the airwaves with advertisements, disguised as testimonials, pumping the NatGas meme.

In one ANGA spot, a geeky-looking little girl is praising the wonders of NatGas while holding a compact fluorescent bulb. Oh the wonder!

In an API ad, there is some geeking-looking 20- or 30-somthing talking about how taxes are bad for energy companies and for averages "Joes" just like him.

What is astonishing for me is that I have, and liberally use TiVo to skip commercials, yet I have still managed to catch a dozen or so in just the past couple of weeks.

The ANGA and the API sure are "educating" all of us, aren't they. America's NEW natural gas is not only super clean, it's good for America because it's anti-tax, setting aside all the subsidies and negative "externalities" we have already paid for it.

NPR's new motto should be: "SHOW ME THE MONEY {so we can educate you}!"; 10/29/09, 9:14 AM
Anonymous said...: NPR? What the Frack?
http://planetgreen.discovery.com/travel-outdoors/split-estate-oil-resign.html; 10/29/09, 9:28 AM
Anonymous said...: NPR? What the Frack?
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/28/business/energy-environment/28drill.html?_r=1; 10/29/09, 9:29 AM
Anonymous said...: NPR? What the Frack?
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/20/colorado-oil-and-gas-chie_n_327476.html; 10/29/09, 9:31 AM
geoff said...: Yes, as anon eloquently queries, what the frack? Gas Company Won’t Drill in New York Watershed ?

Why the frack not, I wonder? When NPR has so clearly articulated the many and wondrous bounties to be had? Why haven't I heard protesting from the Schillers? Or even reporting?; 10/29/09, 5:02 PM
geoff said...: NPR's motto oughta be, Do you need to 'make it so'? With enough underwriting, we can say it's so and so make it so. NPR, saying so for dough.; 10/29/09, 10:10 PM
Anonymous said...: NPR: Always on the money; 10/30/09, 5:55 AM
Anonymous said...: This reminds me a lot of NPR.

Unlike NPR's (truely) alternative news competitors (Democracy Now!, Pacifica and web-based news outlets like Alternet, Common Dreams, truthout, etc), NPR (through "payments" from its member stations, who get millions from the federal government) gets a huge amount of government funding and is therefore able to offer lots of stuff that its competitors can't (cushy $300k+ salaries for its CEO and announcers and stupid programs like Planet Money, though I'm sure Democracy Now would never offer anything so dumb as the latter no matter how much money they got!).

NPR gets all the benefits of public funding but is NOT required to abide by the restrictions -- eg, ban on propaganda -- because no one is enforcing them.

Another similarity:

NPR claims to be "non-commercial", but we all know what a joke that is (ads for Natural gas accompanying NPR pieces about fracking anyone?).

So, NPR has all the advantages of being "non-profit", but none of the usual restrictions.

NPR is a perfect example of an organization run by accountants whose sole purpose is finding loopholes to exploiting government money for all it is worth.

If not corrupt, it is certainly unethical.; 10/30/09, 7:29 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...: The chimps over at Planet Monkey are still trying to type that masterpiece, or wash that cat in the sink, or whatever. I am not really sure.

Here is their little screed about GM taking the money and not being able to pay it back.

Here is Dean Baker's retort.

I have ceased being amazed at how much Planet Monkey can get wrong is such a short space, but then I remember, "They are not human beings!"

-JET; 10/30/09, 8:47 AM
RepubLiecan said...: In regard to comments from Anonymous at 10/29/09 9:14 AM and following posts about the deluge of ads on teevee from ANGA and API, I ask:

Conspiracy or coincidence?

Indoctrination or education?

Payola or public service?

NPR, serving the military-corporate complex since Newt Gingrich brought them to heel.

As George Harrison might say "Isn't it a pity?"; 10/30/09, 9:50 AM