Here's a brief glimpse into recent activity at the NPR memory hole:
- How about that crazy General Caldwell running psy-ops in Afghanistan on US Senators?And the coverage on NPR? Anyone home?
- Somewhere else in Afghanistan a few (dozens) unarmed folks got wasted in a NATO operation. The response from NPR? Yawn.... Oh well, I guess since the Afghans burned their children to make the US look bad (at least according to that "special breed of soldier: the warrior-scholar") there's nothing to cover on this one...
Then again NPR doesn't have unlimited resources and has to focus on the stories that really matter...such as Ronnie Reagan's Hollywood buddy and Charlie Sheen's personal implosion....
8 comments:
Well, if Charlie Sheen is being castigated by all and sundry in the US "media" -- he must be doing something right.
However, just like NPR, it might be difficult to see what this is. I turned on NPR this morning with a due sense of dread and was greeted with Inskreep interviewing one Brian Fishman (?) who was introduced as being from the "New America Foundation" which is apparently "non-partisan".
Well, apparently, Brian has been keeping tabs on Al Caiber and his pals in the dingy backwaters of internet chatrooms. Inskreep asked all kinds of questions about Al's reaction to recent events in the Middle East and -- well -- Brian had an answer for everything! Yes, Brian really has his finger on Al's pulse. He's a real "terrorism expert". It was Al thinks this and Al thinks that.
Trouble was, Brian sounded as though he has just graduated from college. I was left thinking -- among other things --"how did Brian get this job at the NAF?" and "what were the criteria which enabled him to be selected?" and "how the hell did Brian wind up on the radio?".
The excruciating thing about "news" like this is that the listener has absolutely no way of verifying Brian's report. Brian could make just about any claim and the listener would have to accept that at face value.
Absolute propagandistic nonsense.
Anyone who shares my contempt for Lehrer's various Tink-Thanks "experts", here's a glorious broadside from M.G. Piety on Counterpunch yesterday:
http://www.counterpunch.org/piety02282011.html.
What is happening to this country when kids like Brian are allowed to pontificate and they call it news? Mad-House America.
wonder when we will hear about these terrorists, sorry, I meant patriots and a certain "delusional" thug in the northern part of Africa:
http://www.salon.com/news/politics/war_room/2011/02/22/richard_perle_libya
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1361557/Lockerbie-families-attacked-Paul-Wolfowitz-Libya-compensation.html
edk
Look, I went into journalism to do journalism, not advertising. My views are critical but that shouldn't be mistaken for hostile - I'm just not a stenographer. There is a body of work that shows how I view these issues but that was hard-earned through experience, not something I learned going to a cocktail party on fucking K Street. That's what reporters are supposed to do, report the story.
Micheal Hastings and why he won't be working at NPR or any other news "outlet". Glenn Greenwald column
edk
How did you like Debbie Amos’ little tour of Al Jazeera English? Finally deigning to fully acknowledge their importance, and defying the Olympian declaration from the Wolfowitz Center for American Strategic Wisdom that ‘Al Jazeera is no friend of the United States’, Debbie nevertheless ventured in to see what the ‘young Turks’ in Doha are up to. Her post-production narration was delivered with her typical ‘savvy woman’ dryness, but her on-the-scene voice was implying, ‘Do you guys REALLY think you’re a news organization to reckon with?’, or even ‘Now just WHO do you think you ARE??’ Meanwhile, at home, sitting in a REAL news organization, InskreepMundane were too cool to take it all seriously, and indeed, surrounded the story with trivialities. I’m sure they’re seething with professional jealousy. I’m sure Debbie’ll share a lot of snickers with the gang when she returns with relief to NPR Intergalactic HQ.
Yes Debbie, many of us in the US are accessing Al Jaz online. You might have implied that that says something: that US Media coverage of the region is propagandistic and largely worthless. But I know why you didn’t say it.
Warning to US Media: HANDS OFF Al Jazeera. No meddling or corporate weaseling-in allowed. Murdoch: don’t even THINK of a hostile takeover.
I know I get stuck on style as far as on-air delivery is concerned, but here we have Juan Forero, covering the extremely important beat of S. America. I mean, does this guy sound like he’s just discovered Playboy magazine, and he’s telling us all about it while in a back alley, or what? Who would ever think that his orgazmatronic, ‘I’m-about-to-climax’ manner of speaking enhances his reportage? Well, I’m sure it’s the ‘CIA Thrill’ that turns him on, and he just can’t help himself.
Yeah, and I gotta bitch about Beardsley yet again. She’s really going into Freedom Fries mode now, adding a particularly sneering tone to her usual me-cool quack. Seems she’s in a mood to scoff at the nation that has been rather good to her these long years and imply that they haven’t been Neocon enough towards Libya. Cuz France has been in bed with Muammar (as if the US hasn’t), and so now France has got soufflé all over its face. Our Eleanor can really see through those Frogs’ BS, can’t she? My beloved dog produces excrement more aesthetically appealing that this horseshit.
Speaking of Wolfie, he’s all ready to repeat history, what with signing a ‘letter’ demanding an invasion of Libya to rescue its people from a tyrant. Sound familiar? Oh Paul! Deliver us from this current situation with your high intellect and proven success! Next stop: starring roles for Wolfie on many an NPR segment??
In the feature department, Susan Steeamberg wisely decided to ditch her gooey, overripe ‘sensuality’ in favor of doing a Best Behavior ™ interview and letting Jane Fonda take center stage for the segment, where she belongs. One of NPR’s many failures is to have decided to be ‘the nation’s storyteller’ by making its own personalities paramount instead of making them invisible, or as facilitators only. Instead we have Inskreep’s (or any other NPR star’s) virtual version of the world. To my mind, that alone is why the US Government should get out of the news biz, as NPR as it is now makes impartiality impossible.
Reading this delightful and illuminating new entry, and equally so of the resultant feedback... out popped another slogan for the potential byline randomizer...
"NPR Check - at least WE won't scrub your comments"
^ hee hee, another one...
"NPR Check - go 'head, prove us wrong; at least WE'LL post an open retraction/correction."
Was just wondering, with all the chatter about replacing senior (expensive) with junior (cheap) talent, how many decent journalists can one get for and Inskreep's worth of salary? Or a Simon's?
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