Sunday, January 31, 2010

Q Tips


NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 1:01 PM
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37 comments:

gDog said...

Curiously, NPR's coverage of Landrieu breakin is skimpy. The connection to the "intelligence community" that was uncovered by raw story is nowhere to be seen at NPR. What a head scratcher...

1/31/10, 3:08 PM
gDog said...

Well, some radio stations are doing Haiti coverage beyond the feel good "nobody is going without" meme I've heard on NPR. Consider my nephew's interview on 97.3 KMIR newtalk radio:

http://www.mynorthwest.com/?nid=577&a=14419&p=&n

1/31/10, 10:05 PM
JayV said...

Chris Hedges' new article is now up. It's on journalism. Well worth the read, about the incompetent MSM reporters. He doesn't mention NPR, but he very well could have done - especially since a lot of the comments here and on various NPR stories question its objectivity. Also included are great quotes by one of my heroes, Molly Ivins.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_creed_of_objectivity_killed_the_news_business_20100131/

2/1/10, 11:17 AM
Anonymous said...

WHYY's Ed Cunningham stated this morning that Cokie roberts knows more about the workings of Congress than anyone. I e-mailed and asked them if the "exotic" remark was made by Cokie Roberts on NPR.

And Ira Glass said his Fund-Raising justice sthick was so well received he'd do it again. And he did. In fact he used the last one he did to contact "Marlon" who listens to WHYY but hadn't pledged. I pray for Ira to call me and start that line of crap with me cause we could do a year's worth of This American Life (which seems to be about 6 original shows a year) to explain why "investing" (new buzz word at WHYY) in NPR is only furthering the continuing (and I think asked for) dumbing down of Americans.

edk

2/1/10, 12:02 PM
Unknown said...

Cokie Roberts of NPR is one of those Villagers who are known for espousing the Conventional Wisdom of the Beltway...

She does a regular Monday morning political round up on NPR's Morning Edition... and it is almost ALWAYS... in fact, until this morning it was ALWAYS on the meme of "this is good for the Republicans/bad for the Democrats"... the usual CW on just about anything that happens politically....

Well, this morning, she actually said a couple of things WERE BAD FOR REPUBLICANS... and, let me tell you, friends... THIS IS A FIRST...

The two things:

1) Brown. He got elected, even though the fail's the GOP's "purity tests" on issues like abortion. He won by capturing OBAMA/Change voters, not by rallying the tea baggers... In that regard, he represents a problem for the GOP, in that he doesn't fit the mold they intend to use in the fall...

2) Obama's meeting with Congressional GOPs. Roberts said some of the Republicans made the mistake of going after Obama with hard questions, making them look uncivil...

Now, I'm not sure I agree with that last... I'm sure those guys in fact threw out some red meat for their constituents...

But the point is... it's COKIE ROBERTS saying these things.... That means a sea change in The Village...

2/1/10, 1:49 PM
gDog said...

A Cokie Sea Change, huh? I didn't hear it and have no desire to hear it, but it could be she's perturbed about having her Hale Boggs building violated by a bunch of wanna-be "intelligence" operatives.

2/1/10, 3:03 PM
gDog said...

I forgot to add, "isn't that interesting."

2/1/10, 3:03 PM
Anonymous said...

"Cokie roberts knows more about the workings of Congress than anyone."


Cokie Roberts also undoubtedly knows more about the workings of God than anyone (including God herself).

2/2/10, 10:17 AM
Anonymous said...

JayV:

That Chris hedges piece (and the Molly Ivins quotes) has "EmptyR" written all over it.

EmptyR is ALL about "balance" (dueling think tank wankers) and about avoiding anything that could be construed as taking sides (even of the law or Constitution) when doing so could possibly offend someone (Dick Cheney?) and possibly affect the bottom line.



"The smug complacency of much of the press—I have heard many an editor say, ‘Well, we’re being attacked by both sides so we must be right’—stems from the curious notion that if you get a quote from both sides, preferably in an official position, you’ve done the job." -- Molly Ivins

"the creed of objectivity becomes a convenient and profitable vehicle to avoid confronting unpleasant truths or angering a power structure on which news organizations depend for access and profits" -- Chris Hedges

2/2/10, 10:34 AM
Boulder Dude said...

~laughs hard~

Okay, you know all those links to the previous years fact checking on this piece last week?

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/storyComments.php?storyId=123055643&pageNum=2&pPageNum=2

The moderator went through and deleted most of them. NPR, fact free and for a reason.

2/2/10, 11:21 AM
Boulder Dude said...

Frumpy, your buddy Jeff Boarman has been going nuts today. =P

2/2/10, 2:11 PM
Frumpalope said...

Boarman, it seems, is one of these financial sector parasites who have a vastly inflated sense of their contribution to society. The tax ax needs to come down hard on these free loaders.

2/2/10, 3:28 PM
bgpkfzbn said...

On a slightly related note, going to see NOW's Brancaccio speak at nearby college tonight - the theme is "Adventures in Economic Disaster: What the Financial Crisis Means for Justice and Jobs in the Next Generation”

And I hope the query is raised concerning the impending outage of one of the better programmes currently on public broadcasting.

2/2/10, 3:59 PM
The Boss of You said...

Teaser in the car for a piece on Andrew Breitbart, cannot bear to turn the radio in the house.

2/2/10, 6:40 PM
Jacob Jacobson said...

The best way to understand Breitbart is to read Wonkette.
http://wonkette.com/413474/andrew-breitbart-will-kill-all-of-you-decadent-bastards

2/2/10, 8:43 PM
Anonymous said...

An economic rule of thumb says that when a home drops below 75% of its purchase cost, the homeowner will "walk away".

I wonder how low NPR has to go before member stations just "walk away".

Then again, NPR has nearly dropped to ground level and member stations are still purchasing programs from them, so i won't hold my breath.

2/3/10, 7:11 AM
Unknown said...

Here's some insane BS:

ANDREA SEABROOK: Republicans would like to put real dents in the deficit by tackling the real problem, like Medicare and Medicaid.

That's from Monday afternoon's ATC...

It totally ignores the five-sided elephant in the room....

2/3/10, 7:38 AM
Nate Bowman said...

Has anyone else noticed an increase in the "you lefties don't understand", "Obama is a fraud and a failure", "the Gitmo prisoners should all be killed" comments at the stories?

2/3/10, 8:55 AM
Boulder Dude said...

Oh my yes, very much so Nate.

What's really bad is that Frumpy's Freind Boarman is a one man Trolling machine.

2/3/10, 9:25 AM
Boulder Dude said...

Today's post on the Breitbart story, let's see how long it takes to be deleted.

Ahhh, how special, Nice Polite Republican radio's pandering to the fringe right wing continues.

Brettbart?

Really?

After interviewing the pointless ditherings of the Anchoress last week?

So, amusingly, you left out the part on how the ACORN tapes were faked.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2009/12/acorn_exonerated_read_the_repo.html

And then you interview Instacracker? I had no idea that "Heh" and "indeed" were worthy of NPR's broadcast time.

The most laughable thing of all is refering to Matt Drudge, the MSM's assignment editor, since nothing in the DC Village get's covered unless Drudge has put flashing lights all over it first.

Also, when are we going to get the standard rightwing treatment (i.e. a soft ball fawning interview) with *any* left bloggers like Markos Moulitsas Zúñiga, Jane Hamsher, Duncan Black, Glenn Greenwald, or Heather Parton?

So NPR, please continue your drive to the far right and Vivians Schiller's dream of making NPR safe for Glenn Beck.

2/3/10, 10:06 AM
The Boss of You said...

Take it twitter. The omnibud-bot can't filter it. I responded to this one:

http://twitter.com/jayrosen_nyu/status/8589470792

2/3/10, 11:58 AM
Boulder Dude said...

Jacob Jacobson, wow, I am glad I did not hear the Breitbart piece while driving home last night, or else I would have rage driven into a wall or something.

2/3/10, 2:02 PM
gDog said...

http://firedoglake.com/2010/02/03/andrew-breitbart-profiled-by-totally-biased-government-owned-emmessemm/

2/3/10, 2:59 PM
JayV said...

Oh, goopDoggy, thanks for the FDL link. Read the comments there, too. This was suggested to check out if people want to read criticism of NPR. Who knew? A lot of commenters over there are admitting they don't care for NPR!

2/3/10, 4:52 PM
grace said...

boulder dude,listening to NPR has become a much greater danger while driving than cell phones!

Nate your comments on threat level (sorry didn't link!) are so right on.
Our brilliant congress has determined that it isn't the behaviour of our govt, thru the CIA, JSOC, Blackwater etc or the Israeli outrages we wholeheartedly endorse but the fact we know about all this.
Hence the first step into total info suppression, HR 2278. This resolution forbids satellite carriers from carrying any channels from the Middle East that could incite terrorism!!
We wouldn't have the "lone wolfers" if they just didn't know..lol

2/3/10, 7:58 PM
Grace said...

What's with this full scale assault on everything Islam?
The term "Islamist" was clearly put forth knowing many newsreaders and pundits would occassionally screw it up and say Islamic.
I honestly have never seen such an effort to dehumanize and create fear around a group of ppl in my life.
NPR has an almost daily dose that would make Goebels blush with pride
and poor old Orwell role over in his grave. Just waiting for some vermon at the bottom of their photo inserts.
Meanwhile I continue my almost rabid rebuttals as if I were the most extreme burqa/niqab clothed Sunni/Shia/Sufi on earth.

2/3/10, 8:12 PM
Anonymous said...

What a truly absurd question. We are in a clash of civilization er
how to soak many trillions and all liberties from American public or
we've always been at war in East Asia!

2/3/10, 8:34 PM
Nate Bowman said...

ATC had a story on the dearth of funeral rites in Haiti.

I left this:

I guess this shows the different values placed by Americans on the lives of Americans vs. foreigners, especially the not-so-light-skinned.

In Haiti, we are rushing them towards reconstruction and development using earth moving equipment and body trucks as the funeral rites for their loved ones.

When some bone fragments were found under a manhole cover near ground zero, we stopped cleanup and construction to sift through the rubble for any remains.

But we're doing it for their own good, right? The Haitians should be thanking us, right?

link to the story at my name

2/3/10, 9:55 PM
pamela said...

I understand the Ombot has responded to the criticism over the Zinn eulogy/character assassination. Surprise, surprise, she thought the obit was "flawed." The conclusions are a little less felicitous, however.

http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2010/02/howard_zinns_obit.html

2/4/10, 3:43 PM
gDog said...

Pamela, thanks for the head's up on Shepard. I left this for her:

Shepard writes, "I also asked Alana Baranick, [...] to listen to the story. She wrote obits for the Cleveland Plain Dealer for 16 years. She thought it was fair to use Horowitz to balance out leftist academic Noam Chomsky, who said "Zinn had changed the conscience of a generation."

This is the kind of faux balance at which NPR/FOX is so expert. Chomsky was an intimate personal friend of Zinn's. So the idea is to balance friendship with hate? That's the balance you achieved. With all the love in the world, we might get unbalanced if we couldn't generate some hate, huh?

2/4/10, 6:23 PM
larry, dfh said...

'Balance Chomsky' Indeed! That's a major objective of those rat bastards. If they let him on at all, they have to 'balance him'. Who's going to 'balance' folkenflick, or liarsssson, or williams, or roberts, or adam davidson?
Today was lel' debbie (Moon Pie) elliot, talking from Louisiana, ta about poor james okeef who got caught attempting to commit a felony. So what did we hear? We heard okeefe hisself saying that nbc and other news outlets did those things 'all the time'. Lil' debbie never thought to ask any management at nbc if their corporate news policy regularly involved felonious activities. No, it was mainly okeefe apology day for Miss Moon Pie. And this meme about okeefe's having dressed as a 'pimp', wtf is with that? I don't patronize whores, but I've been in many cities, and seen lots of hookers, and have NEVER seen anyone looking as foolish as he did. One of the 'experts' talking with Miss Moon Pie did describe it as 'putting on an outrageous costume'.
But it's all a great big npr balancing act: the Faux News star tries to commit a felony, so ACORN is bad.

2/4/10, 8:46 PM
Anonymous said...

All,

Thanks for the link to the Ombot post. It's nice to know that so many people who peruse this blog posses such high skill and wit when attacking Shepard's specious spew.

Don Pasqueda

2/4/10, 9:47 PM
grace said...

goopdoggy,
Maybe that's why it took a week for Alicia to respond. She was looking around for an obit writer to back up their absurd decision to use Horror itz.

btw, great interview again with your nephew on Haiti.

2/4/10, 10:04 PM
Grace said...

Larry,
Thrilled I missed the O'Keefe love fest. Funny how often I am relieved not to have been listening to NPR!
The get up O'Kreep wore was simply to play well for their racist faux news base, as he apparently wasn't dressed in the garb when he went in to ACORN offices. The little clip used often only shows the two slinking up the stairs.
Shameful.

2/4/10, 10:15 PM
Anonymous said...

Keith Olbermann busts NPR's blog for sloppiness that it's still trying to correct. I guess that's what happens when NPR doesn't fact check other news sources it uses to produce fair and balanced news.

Mark Memmot of NPR's 'The Two-Way'.

Olbermann Defends His Ratings.

Don Pasqueda

2/4/10, 10:23 PM
JayV said...

Here's what I wrote.

I was hoping for an apology.

I'm glad FAIR did the action alert. In my letter to Ms Shepard I didn't use talking points at all, and judging from the other writers' letters posted at FAIR's page, those didn't either. They were just shocked that NPR had stooped so low; several were long-time listeners and contributors, too.

I am disappointed by the infelicitous phrasing of your response, Ms. Shepard.

It is shocking to read that Ms Keyes refused to comment to you on her story. So she stands by her story after all the complaints? Robin Young was able to invite better guests on Hear and Now. If Ms Keyes claims to be a journalist, she could have, too. The choice of Horowitz is like scraping the barrel!

Vivian Schiller [NPR's President and CEO] and Ellen McDonnell [NPR's Executive Director of News Programming] should have demanded an explanation from Ms Keye's.

NPR just doesn't get it.

2/4/10, 10:24 PM
Grace said...

Don, big thank you!
I missed the
beginning of Keith's comment tonight and had no idea it was about NPR's (waste of time and money)Two Way.

oooh, too slimy.

2/5/10, 1:23 AM

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