NPR Check: Fresh Posts

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Fresh Posts

Looks like we hit 100 below. Keep up the great comments.

38 comments:

Mytwords said...: CIA Gjelten gets well deserved scorn in Glenn Greenwald's piece today. Greenwald cites this excellent letter at Poynter Online.; 10/27/10, 6:05 AM
informedveteran said...: Business as usual in the twilight of the American Empire.; 10/27/10, 8:08 AM
Anonymous said...: Has anyone else noticed how much more sports reporting All Trivialities Considered is doing? It seems like they used to only ever report on sports when something really big (World Series, Olympics, etc.) was happening. Now it seems like there's sports reporting every day.

A couple of days ago they were talking about Brett Favre's ankle. WTF??! I had to check my dial to make sure I wasn't listening to sports talk-radio.

p.s. Word verification is "mozlema." Good thing I'm not Juan Williams! I'd be too scared to post!!; 10/27/10, 1:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Nice cite from GG. Good show, MTW!
DonQP; 10/27/10, 1:56 PM
Anonymous said...: Ally Financial cross promotion.
http://community.ally.com/straight-talk/2010/09/10-interesting-financial-podcasts/
DonQP; 10/27/10, 2:27 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Please forgive the obvious, but I can't resist: Gjelten is the Dick Cheney of NPR.; 10/27/10, 2:58 PM
Anonymous said...: Juan Forero, the hatchet man purchased from NYTs, couldn't let someone on the left die without some scary words re: dictatorship. I don't know if you heard his little blurb on NPR yesterday, but after announcing the sudden death of Nestor Kirchner, he had to throw in the unsourced information that Kirchner and wife were planning on running the country for a long, long time if he were to win the next election. Who are his sources? Juan Forero, of course, who happens to be channeling the spirits of mummified cold warriors.

What's amazing is that NPR would hire some hack whose only job was to write hit pieces about Venezuela and Hugo Chavez. NYT's apparently has money to burn, or they did. I'm not sure why they got rid of Forero? Change in administration? New bosses?

[glad you're doing this, Murray]; 10/28/10, 9:08 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: Well, I’m relieved to know that NPR has just discovered the extent of the BS factor in political advertising. If Overby & Seabrook hadn’t pointed this out in their recent ‘series’, I would have continued to believe everything I heard and saw in paid political advertising.
I think DN! knew that Crossroads GPS & Co. were Karl Rove creations about an hour after they were indeed created. NPR of course follows up at a ‘dignified’ distance, when the coast is clear, of course, and when the facts are so glaringly obvious. Even the MSM, guided by Murdoch-ian boilerplate of declaring facts at the last possible moment (e.g. when they are irrefutable) is usually way ahead of NPR’s slug-slime-slow outreach. NPR’s excuse is probably that they’re doing a story more ‘carefully’ or something, no doubt with an ‘intellectual’ approach.
Plus, since turbo-wonk Overby and Gen-X-Appeal Seabrook are on the case (with smarts to rival that oh-so-clever Adumb Davidson and crew), we can take anything they say as gospel. It’s all so clear to me now.
And yes, one more comment on He Whom I Cannot Think Of Without Fuming: Tom Gjelten. Like Cheney, Gjelten gets – nay, COMMANDS the entitlement to be the lord of gravitas at NPR. That is, any pronouncement he makes must and shall be taken as an ultimate. We can’t get any higher than Gjelten, can we? I doubt Gjelten knows who Eric Sevareid was, but even if he does, and even if he tries to emulate him, he ain’t no Sevareid. While Eric could have a twinkle in his eye when the BS meter red-lined, Gjelten’s stony voice soldiers on in the service of propaganda, his opportunism taken over by his own self-delusion. Head puffed up by Pentagon fawning and favoring, his pontifications indicate a combo of egotism and monomania, which he is by right entitled to inflict on the public. He may even be more worthless than that other mighty Tom: the Friedman variety.
I find it interesting that Juan Williams was fired over voicing his opinions (on another network), but Gjelten, doing the same thing regarding Wikileaks, and on NPR itself, wasn’t. How now, Viv Schiller? Well, that’s an easy one: Juan’s a mere cabin boy on the good ship Fox, while Gjelten, Lord of Gravitas, shall not be questioned.
PS: Anon, regarding that other, hipper Juan, Forero, I think NPR retains him not only because he speaks their kind of propaganda lingo, but because they think he's good at sexing up a given story. No doubt the white breads at NPR think his schmaltzy delivery brings a bit of 'Latin rhythm' to their pathetic lineup. Much better than Julie McCarthy's blue-blooded drawl used to.

AS for Kirchner, may he RIP. Murdoch-ian media can never forgive him for telling Oliver Stone about Dubya's 'war is good for an economy' statement, told to him by Dubya himself.; 10/28/10, 12:09 PM
informedveteran said...: Speaking of South America, here's Colbert adding a little context to our news media's self congratulatory coverage of recent US involvement with the Chile. Boom!; 10/28/10, 2:27 PM
GRUMPY DEMO said...: Here's something I didn't know. NPR.org has out-sourced it site moderation:

Here the article "What to Do When Commenters Attack?" By Lauren Kirchner at the cjr.org.

Maybe that explains why I've been able to taut all the little "FOXes" that have flooded NPR.org due la affiair de Juan Williams.

Only have one comment deleted, thought I was losing my touch.; 10/28/10, 2:38 PM
Anonymous said...: I think News by Accident is running a decent story on ALEC and its role in drafting legislation (especially at state levels) and the relationship of ALEC and its coporate angels. They have picked up on Arizona immigration law and the main sponsor which is a guy named Pence I think.

edk; 10/29/10, 8:09 AM
Anonymous said...: It's bad enough when NPR panhandles, but when FAIR does it for NPR, it's just pathetic.

The hilarious thing is that afetr saying that
"FAIR's research of NPR and PBS programming over the past 20 years has consistently shown a tilt towards elite guests and sources--government officials, corporate representatives and journalists from the commercial media. FAIR's new study of public television (Extra!, 11/10) finds the same: a system that, by and large, fails to offer the "public" much of a hearing at all."

FAIR nonetheless says NPR should NOT be defunded.

Go figure.; 10/29/10, 6:47 PM
tenacitus said...: Awesome you are posting again! Thank you; 10/30/10, 12:34 AM
gDog said...: Colbert: "7-year-old girl" recognized at the rally for sanity as having more courage than NPR, who was singled out "and especially NPR" in the award of the fear award for being afraid people may regard the station as "liberal." As if the kale rolls in hemp tote bag wouldn't be enough...or some such...; 10/30/10, 2:34 PM
The Boss of You said...: @goopDoggy I llllllllloooooooooooooovvved that. It's as much of a smack in the face as can be mustered.; 10/30/10, 8:21 PM
gDog said...: Yeah, Boss, but Andrea Seabrook apparently did not love so much. No mention of the slapdown NPR received, though she did equate this rally with the Glen Beck rally with a number of not-so-subtle put-downs, including "The Beck rally was kind of a Church Picnic and this more of a hipster's assembly." Or some such. Can't bear to hear twice to get the quote exact.; 10/30/10, 8:27 PM
gDog said...: Ok, they've got a transcript up now:

RAZ: Yeah. Back in August, Andrea, you covered the Glenn Beck rally.

SEABROOK: Mm-hmm.

RAZ: This seemed like a kind of obvious foil...

SEABROOK: Yes.

RAZ: ...for that one.

SEABROOK: Yeah. It was pretty obvious that it was some kind of answer to that. And actually, I found it more similar in a way. I mean, think about it. Some of the biggest political movement in terms of rallies this year have been organized by non-politician...

RAZ: Yeah.

SEABROOK: ...infotainers.

RAZ: Incredible.

SEABROOK: And they were very much alike. People at both the Glenn Beck rally and his rally were very nice, calm, happy. I mean, the Glenn Beck rally was more like a church picnic.

RAZ: Yeah.

SEABROOK: And this was sort of like, you know, a hipster party. But it was the same kind of idea - there weren't chanting, you know, screaming people.

Subtext: "No chanting, screaming people, like at those antiwar rallies...sheesh."; 10/31/10, 4:50 PM
Anonymous said...: Watch Schiller rationalize the firing and tell me (with a straight face) that Vivian Schiller is not a complete propagandist --and complete idiot to boot.

I am no fan of Juan Williams (far from it), but if expressing one's views on air (and being a fake news analyst) is really cause for termination, 99+ % of the "analysts" working for NPR would be fired.; 11/1/10, 8:30 AM
Anonymous said...: Informed Vet:

Sorry to go "off topic" so badly but . . . find a book called The Great American Stickup" by a guy named Scheerer:

"How did this happen?" ~ President George W. Bush

"It was a humbling question for someone from the financial sector to be asked--after all, we were the ones responsible." ~ Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., former Goldman Sachs CEO

But, and this is vital to understanding how a bi-partisan effort to allow banks to become "too big to fail", came about.

It ain't Planet Money cutsey or "Too Big To Fail" which is creative non-fiction (designed to confuse and hide) but a book that names names and dates and institutions. It is also able to find the very few "heroes" in this engineered financial robbery. And let me just hint: How deep was Clinton administration involved with Enron? Up to his lying lips.

edk; 11/1/10, 8:34 AM
informedveteran said...: Either Democracy Now or NPR (you can guess which one) interviewed Scheer for The Great American Stickup.

Also check out all the excellent reporting on this subject by Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone. He is to Goldman Sachs what Jeremy Scahill is to Blackwater (Xe).; 11/1/10, 12:33 PM
gDog said...: From Glenzilla: Government accusations: no evidence needed

UPDATE II: Here's what NPR listeners heard on Friday (h/t Pedinska):

MELISSA BLOCK: Now, Dina, the fact that these packages were coming from Yemen targeting apparently Jewish synagogues in Chicago, that triggers all sorts of connections, doesn't it?

DINA TEMPLE-RASTON: Indeed. I mean, they think that al-Qaida in Yemen is somehow behind this. And the sources I spoke to said that they believe that they saw the fingerprints of the American-born imam that we've talked a lot about, Anwar al-Awlaki, and perhaps he's behind this.

Why not just turn over these media outlets to government officials directly and cut out the middlemen? I suppose the answer is that doing so would destroy the illusion of independence, which is vital to the effective dissemination of propaganda. John Parker --former military reporter and fellow of the University of Maryland Knight Center for Specialized Journalism-Military Reporting -- last week mocked NPR's Tom Gjelten for mindless subservience to the Pentagon's line on the WikiLeaks documents. As he notes, that is not unique to Gjelten but rather illustrative of how our establishment media functions generally.; 11/1/10, 6:49 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: After years in a wilderness of 1.2 appearances on NPR per month (just an estimate - perhaps less), Anne of Green Zone Garrels has been trying to rehabilitate herself. She’s been given a river to profile, to prove to the commissars at Nyet Publicski Radiation that she can still be taken seriously. Her latest attempt, Volga River 101.

Treading softly so as not to piss off either Putin or Schiller, Annie seems to put most of her effort into keeping her vodka-and-cigarettes voice in proper tune, so as to prove she can handle anything your basic Cossack might dish out. After all, she stood up to the Iranians in order to get to the truth, what’s a mere Russki to her?

Always on the lookout for anything ‘Cold and War-like’, our Anne strives to give us a vivid picture of Volgaic life, whether we want her to or not. (Note that David Greene didn’t have to do this one.) Unfortunately her sullen coverage has about as much charm as a gravel parking lot in Stalingrad (I mean Volgograd). There’s no Gogol-like irony, no perception of Russian wryness or melancholy, no black humor in Garrels’ dismal world. (Upon having to sit through a sub-standard symphony, the brilliant composer Dmitri Shostakovich is reputed to have whispered to an associate, ‘This is music portraying the mighty Volga flowing onward.’ As the music worsened, he added, ‘This is the sh*# in the mighty Volga, flowing onward…’)

In Garrels’ wanderings, there’s just banal critiquing without understanding. In all her dreariness, I can detect poor Anne’s own self-centered unhappiness, which this banishment to near-Siberia will only compound, no doubt. But I won’t be along for her further entries in this series. If I want the Volga, I’ll leaf through some ‘National Geographic’ mags, or better yet, bone up on some Tolstoy.

I wonder if any Russian journalist has profiled the Colorado River? It may not have been dammed by slave labor (debatable – any worthwhile journalist would get some native tribe perspectives), but Mexico only receives a dwindling trickle at the river’s mouth. But a cold warrior’s gotta do what she’s gotta do, and anything Russian is just begging to be ‘developed’ as future hot fodder. That’s the NPR way: emergency preparedness.; 11/1/10, 7:15 PM
gDog said...: Ha ha, Port. Good call, yo ho ho and barrel of Garrels over the rocks of the volga.; 11/1/10, 8:54 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Yes g-Dog, NPR is heavily dependent on the fact that their new, now-a-go-go listeners don't 'know' types like Garrels and their lurid pasts. Slap some Discovery Channel-type assignments on the sinners, and down the road, comebacks are possible. And after what happened to Juan, you can bet troublemakers like Garrels will bow low to Severe Martial Law Administrator Schiller.; 11/1/10, 9:28 PM
Anonymous said...: Just when I was wondering where in the world is Anne Garrels? The last I'd heard she was trying to recover from her war-time reporting. So she has been down another lazy river?

These kinds of things are the way Stands4Nothing radio is looking to increase its listener (and hopefully supporter) base as illustrated by the Current magizine article. NPR is becoming more and more the network of "accidental news" cause you know the world is such a scary place where evreything from "terrorists" to Nature itself (diversity awareness training finally paying off lol) is trying their/its best to kill us all, steal our 401(k)s, make our kids unable to get into "the best schools", and otherwise complicate our lives. So lay off the heavy news and tell us more about the river of no return or play some catchy tune or interview Bland B. Me about their latest work of non-offensive "art".

edk; 11/2/10, 10:01 AM
informedveteran said...: Here's a cheerful election day message from someone who never drank NPR's Kool Aid:); 11/2/10, 11:02 AM
Anonymous said...: informedVet: Thanks for this. I am gonna facebook it to all those that think there is some sort of qualitative difference between a JackAss and an elephant.

edk; 11/2/10, 11:28 AM
informedveteran said...: Here's another election day classic. He has tons of great stuff.; 11/2/10, 11:55 AM
informedveteran said...: WMDs! Yemen! Terrorists! Only a matter of time before the official invasion starts. So much for an alert and knowledgeable citizenry protecting the country from those influences driving us to war. Thanks NPR.

Who needs context when you have fireballs. Wait, Yemen exports oil? Just a coincidence! Pay no attention to that hegemonic superpower behind the curtain………………; 11/2/10, 12:45 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: Yup, the Neocons haven't stopped marching onward, and their publicity agents out there in the field (e.g. Garrels, Dina, et al.) are doing 'good work'.

Plus, if you have one or two theatres of war that flop, open up another one, quick. From Yemen, you've also got the security of a regional entrance into Somalia, SUDAN....C O N G O!! Yeeeeehaw!!

I can hear them panting.

Bless ol' Carlin, one of our best voices of conscience. (How I relished the Simonizer's 'disorientation' over him!). I'm afraid I did indeed vote though. For old time's sake. . I promise to keep the complaining under control, George.; 11/2/10, 2:28 PM
informedveteran said...: I admit I voted too.

Here in officially the 2nd most gerrymandered district in the country (PA-06) I was intrigued by an Iraq War veteran combat trauma surgeon canditate for congress who, on Radio Times, said that cutting the defense budget was "on the table" to reduce the deficit. Wwwwhhhaaattt?? Didn't he get the memo?; 11/2/10, 4:57 PM
gDog said...: I'm a big Carlin fan, but to use that as a reason not to vote you'd have to be just the kind of idiot he's talking about - one who receives wisdom that seems fun/convenient without giving it much thought. Some votes really do matter - like Prop 19!

Meanwhile Justin Raimundo on Propaganda on Your Dime.; 11/2/10, 7:00 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: The hell if I was gonna clutter up Election Night with NPR superstars. I streamed with BBC till my stamina blew out. There was pretty good levity in the coverage. Even Ted Koppel took some pretty sensible stands.

The evening's most bizarre moment: covert witch Michelle Bachmann made a ghostly Skype appearance, and her android/zombie performance was mysteriously cut off, perhaps by cosmic white magic forces somewhere. Totally hilarious.; 11/3/10, 1:41 PM
Porter Melmoth said...: PS: The Beeb's anchor even pronounced it 'John Boner' and there was no great effort to correct him.; 11/3/10, 5:01 PM
bpfb said...: ^ and a glowing orange weeping one at that!

yuk.; 11/4/10, 8:01 AM
gDog said...: If they clone that boner they can have a dick army on their hands.; 11/4/10, 11:36 AM
Porter Melmoth said...: Joviality is most welcome right now, and it'll be below the belt, whether it's liked or not!

Clarity from Michael Moore - well worth your time:

http://www.democracynow.org/
2010/11/3/exclusive_filmmaker_
michael_moore_on_midterm

Also, the Nader segment at DN! is excellent. Even Nader Haders should appreciate it.; 11/4/10, 11:56 AM
bfpb said...: ^ Thanks, Port - hopped right to it. Refreshing as anything inherently verboten on wishy-washy, desperately-sensitive, lowercase npr (where ya can't tell the girlz from da boyz).; 11/4/10, 12:37 PM