Friday, December 25, 2009

Q Tips


NPR related comments welcomed.

64 comments:

masbrow said...

Does Daniel Schorr work for the CIA? I mean, the way he fear-mongers about Iran, they should be paying him...

biggerbox said...

My rant left in comments about the Lamar Alexander interview on Weekend Edition Saturday:
----
What was NPR's intention in airing this piece?

After months of public debate, charges, counter-charges, lies and debunking, a supermajority of Sen. Alexander's colleagues have voted not once, but multiple times to reject his position and approve a bill. Does Weekend Edition Saturday bring us an expert to detail what is actually in the bill that finally passed? No. Does it air comments from one of the 60 Senators who voted multiple times to allow the bill to pass, explaining why it had supermajority support? No. Why not?

Instead, we hear from a die-hard sore loser, Senator Alexander. Does he have anything new to add? No. He goes on to make, unchallenged, the same baseless claims that have been debunked again and again. He can't even keep his own arguments straight: at first he complains the bill doesn't actually reform, and at the end he's complaining that it does too much too fast.
He claims it will increase costs; the CBO says no. He claims the GOP had an alternative. But they never actually managed to write it down or introduce a bill. He claims lawsuit reform would lower costs, but it hasn't where it's been tried. He claims selling across state lines would cut costs, yet another bogus claim.

Why was this piece on the air?

Boulder Dude said...

~wails and gnashes teeth~

Now NPR has nuked Grumpy Demo from the community.

Anyone have any idea why?

Nate Bowman said...

Boulder Dude

That's quite a Christmas present for Grumpy-and quite a loss for all.

I hope he stops by here to talk about it.

bgpnkfzzbnn (!!!!) said...

^Heh, at this rate the only ones being permitted to drop comment on their "stories" (read spins, yarns, fables & other tall tales) will be their most duped & deluded Stepford Fanz.

Wussies.

GRUMPY DEMO said...

Sunday morning, rubbing eyes, setting down coffee, . . .

Waaaaa?

Reports or my death are, . . . true?

Damn, logged in got the "Message of Death" that I had violated NPR terms of use.

No email, no letter, no phone call and I though we had a relationship (dysfunctional?).

Lately I hadn't posted much and thought I was better behaved than normal.

Maybe a Xmas present to the Ombudsman? Juan Williams?

My most recent post was just some troll slapping, nothing vulgar.

Like a sand artist my life's work (albeit, bad art) tossed to the wind.

I've corresponded with a couple of sysops before, maybe they let me know.

GRUMPY DEMO said...

None the less:

Season Greetings* and Happy New Year! To all my fellow misanthropes, cynics, media critics, Pinko Liberals, tree-hugging, big-government loving, Femnazi-Stalinists and fans of typos and pointless rants.

Hope you eat too much, drink a little, have fun with your family and friends, don't tell anyone what you "really think" of them (that's what the internet is for) so that renewed and refreshed so we can, as Harry Turman (the Grumpiest Demo ever!) can "Give em hell" in the coming year.

Peace out.
Grumpy

*(must continue the "War Of Christmas" [copyright Liberal Media, Inc.]

Boulder Dude said...

Whacky, Grumpy, Whacky...

Nothing to let you know why? And since you've been nuked, it's not like we can find the post that set the moderator off, so the Troll must have had all of his buddies tag your post to get you nuked. :(

Is sad, I'll miss Grumpy's wise words as much as Madchen's, so it is up to Nate, Matt and I to keep up the good fight until we too are nuked by the DC Villagers at NPR.

Viva la Grumpy!

Nate Bowman said...

Grumpy

I hope I still see you here.

I AM sorry that all your insight went up in smoke. I will miss it, especially your humor. And from where will I hone my crossword skills by learning all those "alternate spellings"? I'll miss you there man. You have inspired me many times.

My theory is that your combination of quality and quantity in taking them to task resulted in them using an excuse to take you out (now that they are more mainstream and conservative and corporatist than ever.) I have the same opinion about Madchen being nuked.

Boulder Dude

Those are awful big shoes to fill, cuz. I'll do what I can. ;-}

Viva la Grumpy!

Mytwords said...

Viva la grumpy...and a happy new year!

larry, dfh said...

Sunday on atc guy raz must have been smacking his lips from his christmas crow as he was running down the best classical music recordings from the last 10 years. He had to endure a large amnount of praise for Venezuela's youth symphony, a product of a clearly socialistic endeavor by Hugo Chavez to develop the musical talents of ALL Venezuelan youth.

Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

GD,

Scrubbed! You are in good company, if you ask me. Resurrect yourself. 'Tis the season, after all.

JET

Gettin' scrubbed is my business

geoff said...

Searching Hoekstra , "the wreaking Republican on the House Intelligence Committee," at NPR you get 88 hits. By contrast searching for Robert Parry yields...you can guess...GOOSE EGG! "There were no documents that matched your search requests."

Of course, Robert Parry is a first rate investigative reporter and "loose lips" Hoekstra is a partisan apparatchnik who was heard on ATC yesterday faulting Obama for calling terrorism "man made disaster" (first I've heard that.) Hoekstra originally fomented his fear mongering on FOX and NPR, as FAUX redux, is obligated to echo.

To be fair, Hoekstra is not always a bafoon: http://www.cnn.com/2008/POLITICS/11/20/cia.coverup.charge/index.html

Nate Bowman said...

The ombudsman has a piece about Daniel Zwerdling's not catching the criminal past of the Nellie Bagley who has heroically fought to take better care of her son who lost half of his brain in a bombing in Iraq.

http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/12/only_a_phone_call_away.html

As usual, they are concerned more with appearances than with journalistic integrity.

And they seem to think that if he had talked to the wife (which he did not bother to do for the original piece!!!) or if he had not needed to run off and try to make the Fort Hood bomber into the next Osama or if he would have not needed to go on vacation (!!!), that he would have gotten to it.

"One of the things that Zwerdling has vowed to do in the future is to interview a profile subject's antagonist, and to check court records to see if he or she has been convicted of a crime."

How do they know she is an antagonist without talking to her? And why are they placing the responsibility on her to do their job? Maybe she would not have wanted to tell them. Maybe she didn't even know.

There's lots more I found lacking and I posted it there.

Nate Bowman said...

goopDoggy

How do I do those linked words in the running text like you do?

larry, dfh said...

Nate, try
this site
and scroll down to the "HTML Tags Chart". What you want is under 'Anchors', if I did everything correctly.

Nate Bowman said...

Thank you Larry.

I tried it by Previewing and it worked.

Boulder Dude said...

Well, NPR wouldn't tell me why they booted Grumpy.

"We cannot discuss specific details regarding another user's account. Accounts are blocked if users repeatedly violate the rules of discussion."

larry, dfh said...

Now,
here's
something that should make everyone happy! The comments are precious.

GRUMPY DEMO said...

Thanks everyone for you support, it's nice to see my role as the "idiot savant of typo laden pinko rants" is appreciated.

Well I submitted the following the NPR:

"I logged in after Xmas to find my account had been deleted.
Why?
Is pointing out that NPR is "FOX Lite" center Right reporting is a violation of the terms of use now?

I have been a registered user since October 2008, posted probably hundreds of comments (yes, I don't have a life) had received more that 50 recommendations (as I recall) and my comments were repeatedly highly recommended (yes, it's all about me).

I think at the least you could tell me, how I have now managed to violate the NPR's terms."

As a drunk Irishman said "do not go gentle in to the night" or pub or somewhere, it was college a long, long time ago in a distant galaxy.

Now I have to decide if I want be reborn what persona should I use? Perhaps the Lone Ranger or The Crow? (Won't my typos, er "unique style" revel my identity though?)

For the time being, I now have to restrain myself from talking to the radio in front of Mrs. Agreeable Demo or she will insist on therapy.

Again, thanks for support, made feel like Tom Joad in “Grapes of Wrath” or maybe Bluto in “Animal House”:

Otter: Bluto's right. . . .I think that this situation absolutely requires a really futile and stupid gesture be done on somebody's part.
Bluto: We're just the guys to do it.

Nate Bowman said...

Grumpy

Thanks for letting us know.

In your honor, I think we should all start using the Grumpy dictionary when we post at NPR.

Boulder Dude said they told him they scrubbed you for repeated violations. Had you gotten any previouswarnings?

I know what you mean. My Mrs.' eyes glaze over when I try to explain what is going on. And I have had repeated requests to not yell at the radio first thing in the morning.

GRUMPY DEMO said...

Now back to your scheduled programing, . . .

NPR is taking a survey on Weekend Edition; play nice, enjoy (found out via Scott Simon twitter post).

At the end they let you join the NPR Advisory Panel! After you complete the survey you can invite a friend.

https://www.nprsurveys.org/se.ashx?s=01D9796E5CE4258C

Share with your friends (Evil laugh)

Anonymous said...

Oh so many things and so little time:

Anyone that gets "booted" from NPR site anywhere is really the real deal. You really are curious, committed, and intelligent. And that's one reason to boot your carping butts from NPRland where . . .

I see Shepard is using students in her work. The Caitlin Huey Whatever is a grad student at GeorgeTown working toward her Master's degree in Journalism where she is learning it from one of modernity's masters. You can google her and read her exciting and intellectually challenging essays and such. Oh to be so young and naive.

No one at NPR can figure out how to use Google and that's why they are getting caught more and more in their "reporting".

And why let details interfere when you got a propaganda job to do. That's what the entire Impact of War is. One day i will find the DoD earmarks for funneling money to domestic media so as to influence the people. Maybe even the "public" is getting fooled but don't bet on it.

Does anyone here think these talking/laughing heads actually do thier own blogs and/or tweets?

edk

Boulder Dude said...

~snort~

First off, thank you for the info Grumpy.

I had to laugh at the two follow up survey's, on the one the question about your income *starts* at 50k and goes up in 50k incriments to 200k...somehow I think someones being an over paid hack is showing.

gDog said...

Boulderdude wrote: I think someone's being an over paid hack is showing

As the WaPo reports, MD median household income is $68k vs. $42k nationwide. That's the bubble effect at work.

gDog said...

I went through all the surveys. It's gratifying to kick a little sand in Scott (flushable wipe) Simon's face by checking the "really don't like" (or whatever it was) box. It's worth it just for that!

b!p!f!b! said...

^ Does this mean that bunny! needs to don his WiddleBwack8Ball guise to submit his paltry input to this quack-a-hack survey?

I don' wanna get banned if I misplace a punctuation!! (sniffle)

Anonymous said...

News Flash . . . Iran is trying to buy yellow cake! OMG!!!! WTF!!!! We need to get to war sooner rather than later. Iran will porbably be able to use WMDs within 45 minutes!! Smoking mushroom clouds, tubes which "can only be . . ." are headed toward this regime that the next Hitler has seized control of! To the ramparts NPR listeners/supporters . . . and in another 6 or 7 years you'll be able to hear NPR talking heads refuse to discuss the hows and whys of the last time they swallowed BS hook, line, and sinker.

ToTN had WaPo and NYT people on yesterday to discuss lessons learned in Iraq which reporters can use in Afghan/Pakistan war. And of course there was no discussion about the last war NPR backed which turned out to be illegal and morally/ethically suspect from jump. Of course that has nothing to do with anything. JUST SEND THE MONEY!!!

edk

Boulder Dude said...

~wails~

Now Mara Heiss has been nuked by NPR. :(

gDog said...

At least, like Grumpy, Heiss will be entitled to her opinion...that is until thoughts become remotely detectable and so prosecutable.

Boulder Dude said...

So, at this point (with the NPR ban hammer falling fast and furious on lefties) it may be worth setting up some sort of bet, who will be nucked first?

Me or Nate?

Nate Bowman said...

BD

Sorry to see Mara go. I thought she was Madchen trying to stay within their stupid rules.

Boy, talk about Main Stream.

I wonder how many of the Reich Wingers who come on and call people names get booted?

I think we can put News Skeptic on the list too.

Boulder Dude said...

Funny, I had thought the same thing about Mara.

Boulder Dude said...

Yeppers, News Skeptic has been insulting, and not too quick on the uptake.

From what I have seen, almost no righty ever get's banned. Their posts may get removed, and they may have nothing but a wall of removed comments on there page, but not banned.

Steve Hall said...

Can you guys help me out -- how do you know that someone has been banned from posting at NPR.org? Is it publicly announced somewhere, or do you guys know because you alert each other privately?

BTW, I've really enjoyed this blog. I found it a few months ago after I became exasperated with the bias on NPR's news programs and I was seeking some kind of confirmation on the net.

Thanks,
Steve

Boulder Dude said...

Well, the way I usually find out is that I have folks friended, and when I go and see what they were up to for the day, the great big Red Letters of death stating:

"This user's profile has violated NPR's Terms of Use and is no longer available."

Appear where their page use to be.

Steve Hall said...

OK, I see -- the community section of NPR.org. Thanks, I'll have to check that out.

gDog said...

Oh, thanks folks! I've been a bit clueless about plugging into the the NPR community...fearing the swamp, I think maybe. But I'm in there now as Frumpy Demon (hat tip to Grumps.) I can see I've been missing the action!

Anonymous said...

All,

Mara was Madchen reborn. NPR nuked me because I had the guts to criticize NPR newscasters while fans were fawning over Carl Kassel's retirement. One of my comments said, "...radio is about quality of sound as much as it is about content..." when referring to the "...jowly, slurpy, sick and ill-sounding" news readers.

Of course, the NPR boosters in the comments block were all telling me how "impolite" I was. I said, "I worked in radio for years, that quality of sound and content matters," and that "staying too long at a party is also impolite."
So, I guess NPR can't accept "sound" criticism. Right?

On a related note, I was listening to Korva Coleman do her editorializing about Iran during the top of hour (TOH is what we called it in the radio business) on Tuesday night. The item went something like this:

1. Iran, yellowcake...
2. Yellowcake can be used for...
3. Nuclear bombs can be used for..

Play that funky musak, white boyce...

1. Propaganda
2. Scary hypothetical
3. Leading conclusion

And so it goes...

madchen/mara

Anonymous said...

Tom Gjelten is applying the domino theory to Central Asia on Morning Edition today.

And so it goes...

Madchen/Mara

Anonymous said...

Steve Inskeep and David Wessel are telling us how great the economy is at the end of the year; that we recovered from the 2nd Great Depression -- The Wall Street economy, that is.

And, so it goes...

madchen/mara

Anonymous said...

John Ridley snarks away on NPR's Morning Edition page today. Triumph of the banal over ego, or just the opposite? NPR reports; you decide.

madchen/mara

Anonymous said...

"Fragile Recovery On The Horizon For Housing," on Morning Edition today.

Glass nearly empty, but NPR acts as if it is half full. Has NPR seen recent Case Shiller data?

And, so it goes...

madchen/mara

Anonymous said...

Steve Inskeep to David Wessel: "The stock market recovered in 2009, can the rest of the economy be far behind?"

And, so it goes...

madchen/mara

Anonymous said...

Economists Who Understand the Economy Are Not Hopeful that the Economy Created Jobs in December

Morning Edition had a segment this morning interviewing David Wessel, the Wall Street Journal's economics editor, about the state of the economy. At one point Wessel told listeners that economists are hopeful that the December employment report, which will be released next month, will show that the economy added jobs in the month.

Actually, there is little reason for this hope. Weekly unemployment claims have averaged well over 460,000 in the four weeks between the November and December surveys. The economy generally will not be adding jobs if claims are over 400,000 per week. Given the current rate of unemployment claims, it is very unlikely that the economy actually added jobs in December.

--Dean Baker

Anonymous said...

The NPR Technique

Economy is 1/2 Full

"Fragile Recovery On The Horizon For Housing"

"Jobless Factory Worker Trains For Office Work"

Politics is 1/2 Empty

"Economy Casts Pall On Administration's Goals"

madchen/mara

Boulder Dude said...

Hehe, well good to know that Nate and I had the right feeling about Madchen/Mara being one in the same. :)

Yeppers, there was a lot of things to smack around today, it's going to be a big job.

Are you moved in yet?

Anonymous said...

BoulderDude,

I move to Phoenix in January. Thanks for asking.

m/m

Anonymous said...

When (and how) will GrumpyDemo return? I like his banker pov when it comes to taking on Inscreep and DWeeb (David Wessel).

m/m

Anonymous said...

On ME today: "Charitable Giving Down In 2009"

But, NPR made up for it by (a) laying off employees and cutting benefits, (b) taking payola from their corporate overloads (ANGA), and (c) sucking up more tax dollars recycled through Ally Bank.

NPR corporate bureaucracy meets public bureaucracy. How are they any differet than the banksters? They missed the housing bubble, the global economic crisis, and in the end, they are feeding from the government teat?

m/m

b$p$f$b$ said...

Liked that I didn't have to log-on or create an account to take that survey - when asked how I listen to WESat or WESun, I replied with complete honesty "nprcheck.blogspot.com". How refreshing to provide input as a lapsed, displaced, disaffected listener.


Weekend Mornin' McNuth'n


Go 'head - tell 'em "The Check" sent ya~

biggerbox said...

Who was that madman with the alarming story about the Afghan war spreading through Central Asia, who even called the concern "a modern domino theory" without for a second realizing how that undercut his whole premise?

Why it could only be the very special Tom Gjelten, of course!

(Hint, Tom: though we wasted lives and dollars, we didn't stop the Communists in Vietnam, but the swath of countries between there and Australia never turned red. Hunh. Think about it.)

larry, dfh said...

Well, I guess some of the little elves got coal for X-mas: From Democracy Now!
"EPA Criticizes New York State Plan for Natural Gas Drilling

And the federal Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it has major concerns about New York State’s plan to allow hydraulic drilling for natural gas in upstate New York in the Marcellus Shale watershed. The EPA said it was particularly concerned about how the drilling will affect the regional water supply and air quality. The EPA’s comments come one week after New York City environmental officials demanded that the state reverse its decision to allow natural gas drilling upstate because chemicals used in the drilling process could contaminate the city’s water supply."
Those naughty little elves apparently couldn't loll everybody to sleep. Add anga to the lengthening list of corrupt assholes with which npr chooses to 'do business'.

gDog said...

The Curious Case of Daniel Schorr's Career

I've come across several references to Schorr recently I thought I'd run by y'all.

First, in reading Dark Alliance (finally getting through the last chapter) where on page 442 (missing from the Google book?) you'll find the following:

CBS newsman Daniel Schorr was demonized by the CIA and conservative commentators for leading a copy of a secret Congressional report of CIA abuses to the Village Voice in 1976, after CBS had declined to make it public. Eventually, Schorr was dumped by the network and virtually blackballed. A decade later, a similar fate befell Robert Parry and Brian Barger of the Associated Press after they broke several stories on Contra involvement with drug trafficking and Ollie North's secret resupply operation. In both case, the mainstream journalistic community uttered barely a peep of protest.

Apparently, if you apologize enough for honest investigative reporting and promise fealty to the Agency, they'll let you spread disinformation for them. It may actually increase your value as an asset when you sell out.

Robert Parry, on the other hand, has not sold out and continues to scrape by on the fringes at consortiumnews.com, where his partner, Ray McGovern, a 27-year veteran of the Agency himself, recently penned a pair of pieces including the curious Schorr quote below:Are Presidents Afraid of the CIA? where we read the following about Schorr:

Additional detail came from a March 2001 conference on the Bay of Pigs, which included CIA operatives, retired military commanders, scholars and journalists. Daniel Schorr told National Public Radio that he had gained one new perception as a result of the “many hours of talk and heaps of declassified secret documents”:

“It was that the CIA overlords of the invasion, Director Allen Dulles and Deputy Richard Bissell, had their own plan on how to bring the United States into the conflict.… What they expected was that the invaders would establish a beachhead … and appeal for aid from the United States. …

“The assumption was that President Kennedy, who had emphatically banned direct American involvement, would be forced by public opinion to come to the aid of the returning patriots. American forces, probably Marines, would come in to expand the beachhead.

“In fact, President Kennedy was the target of a CIA covert operation that collapsed when the invasion collapsed.”


So, curious! In his StoryCorps piece there's this revealing exchange with his son:

Mr. JONATHAN SCHORR: So the thing that's fascinating is that you would think that the results of that would be that you would be really concerned about keeping your job.

SCHORR: And I am.

gDog said...

Ugh. That's "leaking a copy" not "leading a copy"

larry, dfh said...

So that makes alicia his 'minder'?

Anonymous said...

Larry dfh
That is horrifying!!
http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2009/12/23-0
Moyers to Bush .. nfw

Grumpy, Happy New Year!
You will have to be reborn if they don't allow you back!

Madchen, ditto on Cassel!!

Happy New Year All and here's hoping edk finds those DoD earmarks for domestic media....we all know they are there...as well as at State Dept!!!
Grace

Anonymous said...

Yes, Alicia a minder!!
Have you read this?
www.counterpunch.org/webb212172004.html - Cached -
I hope this is correct link.

I think Grumpy linked this some time ago.

Cheers! Grace

gDog said...

Bush Lives in You and on PBS, thanks to Chevron, Monsanto, ADM, Dow and Boeing.

Anonymous said...

I f'd that link up!
It was our dear and valued (lol) Ombudsman's role in Gary Webb blackballing.
I'll find accurate link!

gDog said...

One good fup deserves another - watch at your peril: Bush Lives in You

larry, dfh said...

Graceful anon, the link worked fine; yes that's what I was referring to, the Gopinator linked to it about half a year ago. May you all have finely-tuned bullshit filters for the next decade!

larry, dfh said...

Graceful anon, the link worked fine; yes that's what I was referring to, the Gopinator linked to it about half a year ago. May you all have finely-tuned bullshit filters for the next decade!

Nate Bowman said...

Our ombudsman got on Daniel Zwerdling's case for not discovering that the person he was interviewing had criminal convictions in her past. Apparently, word didn't reach Jim Zarolli when he did his piece cheerleading people into investing in the stock market.

I left the following at the ombudsman's blog:

I guess Mr. Zwerdling's not researching Ms. Bagley's past only applies to this story.

Jim Zarolli did a piece on the stock market and used Henry Kaufman as a source and identified him as a Professor and economist, intimating he is an academic.

Mr. Kaufman is apparently president of Henry Kaufman & Company, Inc., a firm specializing in economic and financial consulting according to Forbes.

And, according to Wikipedia, "he was on the Board of Directors of the now defunct Lehman Brothers where he served as chairman of the Finance and Risk Committee prior to the firm's bankruptcy. On March 19, 2009, Kaufman was named as a defendant in a lawsuit launched by New Jersey governor Jon Corzine on behalf of the state of New Jersey alleging fraud and misrepresentation associated with securities offerings undertaken by Lehman Brothers immediately prior to the firm's bankruptcy."

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=122102292