Thursday, January 27, 2011

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed - of course!
Posted by Mytwords at 10:15 PM
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18 comments:

Mytwords said...

In a one-off, NPR has Chris Hedges on this morning, but then this evening brings on Tom Gjelten for one of the most disgraceful performances of his sordid career. He turns to his friends/colleagues at the Pentagon and CIA to belittle the severe abuse of Bradley Manning and to argue for prosecution of Julian Assange respectively. (General Warlove approves!)

I also could barely stand to hear ATC's gloss of Egyptian thug, Mubarak - Shilbey Telhami explains that he's an autocrat not a dictator...nice. Forgets to mention he's our thug...to the tune of about 2 billion a year...

1/27/11, 10:30 PM
geoff said...

Here's something not likely to make the NPR broadcasts: Ron Paul and Ralph Nader talking about a 2012 dream ticket...well, they didn't put it that way, but that's what I'm thinking.

1/28/11, 1:24 AM
Patrick Lynch said...

The glossing over of Mubarak continued this morning on ME which offered assurances to anyone worried that the thug will continue with only minor interruption from social network based rabble rousers plus a bizarre story on the women of Al-Queda. I'm not sure how I missed others in that "girls" series but that was nothing less than surreal.

1/28/11, 9:11 AM
informedveteran said...

Just imagine if there was an Al Queda Barbie Doll! There would be a week-long NPR expose about it.

1/28/11, 9:40 AM
Patrick Lynch said...

Meshill Norris's book gets a scathing review for being the self-centered piece of navel gazing crap that it is.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/30/books/review/Buskey-t.html?nl=books&emc=booksupdateema3

1/28/11, 1:53 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

'Interesting times' are certainly back, and NPR's there to 'interpret' them for us, all right.

The imminent end of Pharaoh Hosni I's reign strikes terror in the hearts of the western establishment.

Egypt ain't no Honduras or Afghanistan, or even Iraq or Chile. It's not a replay of Iran '79, either. The Neocons didn't really plan on this one.

But NPR's heaviest gun, Gjelten, will be standing tall to defend turbo-thugs everywhere (er, rather, not exactly everywhere, but in selected places of advantage...)

1/28/11, 2:58 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

A 21-gun salute to Gen. Warlove for tellin' it like it is to that sissyhawk/toadying/kowtowing/bushleaguer Gjelten!

'Course, NPR always advances to the rear when there's the smell of napalm in the morning.

1/28/11, 6:07 PM
geoff said...

The Norris review:

It would have been more interesting if she had provided a fuller exploration of the conditions that move one older African-American woman Norris interviews to say, “I can’t look at these civil rights documentaries, because it is not entertainment and it sure as hell ain’t ancient history.”

But that would have required something beyond the smug, aloof, NPR brand of insular me-ism.

1/28/11, 7:03 PM
geoff said...

Ah, yes, Warlove has inspired me to add a bit:

Praise be to Gjelten for leading the charge into the valley of infidels who would dare hold a candle to the necessities of empire. The general counsel at the CIA, Mister Smith, would do well to do whatever it takes - legal or not - to help make me safer. Let's capture the traitors and make 'em breath water. Thanks for keeping America number one. You betcha!

I borrowed a bit from Waterboardin' USA.

1/28/11, 7:22 PM
informedveteran said...

The Good Cop Is Here…. Sick Of It All – founded 1989

1/28/11, 9:39 PM
larry, dfh said...

Haven't been listening, but thanks all for the links. The way I see it, Egypt and aipac constitue a money laundering scheme for the security state: $$ go to Egypt and Israel, and some of it finds its way into the personal bank of those committing our funds. That's why the radio propaganda arm of the c.i.a. downplays the serious issues of politics in the region.
And Porter my brother, I wouldn't be surprised if the Egytian situation turned out to be very similar to Iran. In the '79 revolution, I don't think the clerics played a major role, I may be wrong. But I think they were applying Mao's Law of revolution: when the dust settles, those with the most guns are in charge. The Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt may be quiet right now, but you can bet they're out buying armaments. It could be very interesting having two 'theocrazies' on each side of the Arab-Persian divide. Surely the intelligence will spin that as a fear-inspiring continuum, which it never will be. One thing, the bribes coming back from Egyupt to private Swiss accounts held by U.S.intelligence/government officials will be disrupted, unless the winners in Egypt learn how to play by the 'rules'.

1/29/11, 9:51 AM
Anonymous said...

$760,000 goal for WHYY winter fundraiser but open ended (I'll bet they know when the College Challange is scheduled which is on always the "penultimate day" (which they always say because it makes them seem so . . . intellectual) of the drive. That's a cool number cause if and when they reach it I'll breathe easier knowing that "Dollar Bill" Marazzo will get paid. Then we got to start pledging for Mommy Most-Inane (Radio times) who last I read was getting 98k/year and Gasbag Gross who I read was making 168k.

This is why I think a forensic audit of this station and NPR inc. should be undertaken. I believe they are simply moving money around between NPR, PRI, and American Public Media. WHYY claims they pay 1.2m for ME and ATC alone.

And then there's the fact that Radio Times is on for 4 hours every week day. From 10 to noon and then repeated at 10PM till midnight. They claim it is because it is such a popular showthat people demand to hear it twice. But it also means that WHYY has 10 hours of programming each week that they don't need to pay for (the repeats). Fresh Air runs twice a day and then again on Saturday (2 times) and then again on Sunday. There's another 8 hours of "free" programming. Car Talk, This American Life, Studio 360, American Routes, and Prairie Home each run twice a week. There's another 5 hours. Not to mention the repeats of the 6-7am ME segment (8-9 am) and ATC first half hour each day. That's 30 hours a week of repeats (not to mention the constant re-runs that end up on many of the shows).

I have asked a number of times if the station has to pay for the repeats from PRI and American Public Media. Hell will freeze over I fear before they answer back.

Moss-Cohane did lead a "revolt" back when Marazzo's salary became public knowledge but I think she got a raise and her staff did also. It appears that this was the end of the "revolt". Where'd that money come from? I'll bet the 10 hours they don't need to pay for because they repeat the Radio Times show.

I guess P T Barnum (fools and their money was right and Lincoln was too (fool some of the people all of the time).

edk

1/29/11, 10:38 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh the irony

Scott Simon on the Egyptian government:
In a country as free as ours, information is so free we can forget how precious and powerful it is. But authoritarian governments know that news, and even the nonsense and misinformation that goes with it, can be insurrectionary. That's why they try to hold news back, contain it, strain it, and dole it out to their citizens after it's been sugar-coated, like treats to obedient children.

This from man who (as NPR's "Great Communicator") regularly "holds news back, contains it, strains it* and doles it out to NPR listeners after it's been sugar-coated, like treats to obedient children."

*prewar reports from Scott Ritter, Hans El Baradei and others that Saddam no longer had WMD, Downing Street Minutes that said intelligence was being fixed around the politics, wikileaks revelations (about: US policy to "look the other way" while the Iraqi government tortured its citizens, US failure to prosecute war crimes and threats to other countries who tried to do so), William Black's claims of massive fraud at the core of the financial meltdown, etc, etc]

1/29/11, 11:06 AM
Anonymous said...

Oh, and in the "strains news" department, we also can't the refusal of Simon and others at NPR to call waterboarding of prisoners by the Bush administration "torture" (and to imply that "torture is only torture when other people do it")

If ever there was proof needed that NPR is a complete waste of the radio waves over which it propagates, Scott Simon is it.

What a joke that guy is.

1/29/11, 11:26 AM
Anonymous said...

should be "we also can't forget"

1/29/11, 11:27 AM
Anonymous said...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129939682#commentBlock

Here's a phrase you won't hear Seabrook utter much in the future since her "colleague" met a real "young gun" and got a bullet in her head.

edk

1/29/11, 12:39 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Larry, your speculations on how the Egypt turmoil may play out are extremely plausible. WAY too plausible! Indeed, the Iran revolution was not ignited by the clergy. However, the cult-of-personality figure of Khomeini was waiting in the wings. A similar figure in the case of Egypt has yet to emerge, but probably will soon.

I noticed that NBC, ABC et al have been hoping for a properly (radical) Islamic element to emerge in this crisis, no doubt to 'explain' it for US audiences.

Like the Shah, the Pharaoh will no doubt be departing shortly in the great tradition of history repeating itself. I wonder if some hostages are being rounded up for when the American embassy falls?

And speaking of jokes:

"What a joke that guy is."

Yes Anon, The Simonizer is just that, repeatedly. I mean, when he can guffaw at the 'timely' and 'hilarious' Mubarak joke recited (with the SS's permission) by Cairo 'expert' Peter Kenyon, it's jokes that are your top priority. The Simonizer, frustrated comic that he is, can chuckle his way through a crisis in which people are being gassed, beaten, and killed, with supreme NPR-style detachment. He also seemed particularly disinterested in the whole Egyptian situation.

Of course, when you own Saturday mornings and your audience loves you unconditionally, you can be very conditional about how you respond in the process of being America's Storyteller.

One of NPR's cardinal mandates is to inflict its personalities on the audience. Only then will the audience properly 'connect' with what they're hearing. NPR, after all, is there to help us understand our modern world. It's a big job, and somebody's got to do it. We have no other alternative than Enn Pee Awrrrrrrrrggggghhhhh!!!!!!

1/31/11, 1:04 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

PS: Al Jazeera coverage of the Egypt situation has been thorough and generally excellent. NPR is completely unnecessary, though Lourdes G-N is a better witness than most, especially when compared to Beardsley's ongoing quackings in dull old Tunis.

(Auntie Liane was trying to indict Al Jazeera in some obscure way, but her guest was quick to say that they had the best coverage. Poor Liane had to drop the subject.)

1/31/11, 1:11 PM

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