Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Q Tips


NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 5:18 AM
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35 comments:

Patrick Lynch said...

Few people push the anti union, pro Republican, pro corporate agenda with as much nakedness as Steve Inskreep did this morning while "interviewing" the Democratic state senator from Wisconsin.

From the sound of the senator's voice he seemed surprised at Inskreep's hostility. He must have mistaken Inskreep for one of those liberals that NPR is so full of.

2/22/11, 8:20 AM
Patrick Lynch said...

That last line about the liberals at NPR needs a sarcasm tag of course.

2/22/11, 8:21 AM
gDog said...

Patrick,

Inkscreep was particularly disgusting this morning. For a better framing the influence of money and interest groups in politics, see Cenk Ugyur's cage match with Jane Hamsher vs. Heidi Harris. Here's Harris talking a little conflicted:

And the Republicans said they were gonna cut, and they're cutting a lot of things I'm not thrilled about: PBS I don't want them cuttin'...I mean I do want them cutting things like that... (At a bout 40 sec in)

2/22/11, 9:44 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

I think that the US Gubmunt should get out of the public broadcasting biz. There’s just too much corruption potential in action to make it work any more. If we still had the Fairness Doctrine, there’d be hope, but we’re now seeing the full flower of its abolition, and the product (NPR) is rotten and toxic. Sorry Member Stations, a new architecture will have to emerge, and through this reinvention, new opportunities will develop.

As usual, ignorant hacks like the CPB-hating Republicans (and most everybody else in Congress) are barking up the wrong tree. It’s two failed wars and a morbidly obese Defense Dept. that should be hacked at FIRST. Uh, duh!

The Brits may have been able to pull off the BBC for over 80 years, but they’re laying off people right and left. The Beeb is being cut past the bone. I was in BBC’s Bush House in London recently and there was a hard-to-explain but palpable feeling of impending doom there. Americans may not know that citizens in the UK pay hefty fees to support their BBC. I remember paying 17 pounds for a black and white TV license in the early 80s. Colour TV cost about 45 pounds – a huge sum back then. That was just to HAVE a TV. (Those damn Brit socialists! Never mind that fees were an incentive for the BBC to conscientiously provide high quality news and entertainment to a fee-paying public.)

No, I think that the US is just stuck in their ongoing adolescent behavior as far as public funding for broadcasting is concerned. And here’s the wringer: if the Congress has allowed NPR to become what it is today, they are complicit in propaganda production, the whole of which needs to exposed. (But probably never will be.)

2/22/11, 12:34 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Indeed, Inskreep was at his majestic-powerful best today, trying to (subtly) rip the Wisc. Dem senator a new one. He makes sure that his rapier verbiage takes pride of place, especially when talking to a cowardly runaway pinko with his diminished cell-phone voice and all. And then the I-kreep trademark: leave ‘em twisting in the wind at the end by the little pause and the fake cordiality at the end. And the interviewee, wondering if he/she’s just been screwed (via creative editing), is nevertheless obliged to offer up the now standard parting: ‘My pleasure’. The pleasure was all I-kreep’s. You can imagine his smile as he wipes his sword off with a satin sheet. Oh, but he’s way too suave to be a ‘gotcha’ dude. He’s more like ‘I believe I just sautéed the nuts off that, that, conceited (fill name in blank)’. That’s maybe giving him too much credit for any sophistication, but standard NPR smugness can cover it on all occasions.

‘My pleasure’ they say, even after covering a drone party in Pak. Everybody’s high on ‘pleasure’ at NPR. Of course, the difference between pain and pleasure has always been a bit of a blur.

These are among the tools that help keep NPR on the winning side (they think).

I actually wonder how big people at NPR (e.g. Viv et al) actually, truly, privately, regard Inskreep: insolent prick or genius hip journalisto? Amphetamine-popping goldmine or potential quick burnout, entirely dispensable? Sexy boytoy or closet perv?

Who could have foretold that US media would have ever sunk so low in the sewer?

2/22/11, 12:37 PM
Patrick Lynch said...

As I write this, people are shouting "Free Libya" in the courthouse plaza across the street from where I work at the public library. I wonder how my local NPR station will cover or not cover this? From what I can see there are about 50-60 men women and children holding signs with more people joining them. From where I am I can see only one TV crew out there WLEX. I hear horns honking as people drive by and it looks like the crowd has grown maybe up to 70+ protesters. Their voices are wonderfully strong.

I'm just loving it. Given the rather bleak economic conditions in Kentucky, I wonder how much longer it will be before the protests turn to local economic inequality?

2/22/11, 3:13 PM
gDog said...

Take that Inkshit.

2/22/11, 11:54 PM
a.m. said...

Still waiting to hear NPR story on Judge Gladys Kessler's decision upholding health care law. If I recall correctly, Judge Roger Vinson's recent decision striking down the law received coverage in multiple NPR stories and interviews.

2/23/11, 7:16 AM
Anonymous said...

NPR is hiring a company out of Canada (IUCU Monitoring Services) to monitor npr comment(s). So I friended them on Facebook so i can monitor the monitors. I suspect this is going to turn out to be a way for NPR to remove/delete/refuse to accept anti-NPR comments.

edk

2/23/11, 7:50 AM
bpfb said...

^ And why not! If they can scrub their egregious errors & stuff 'em down the proverbial memory hole...

2/23/11, 8:38 AM
Anonymous said...

Tell Me More host Micael Martin has siad that Ron Christie was a "fine man" and tha the only reason Gonzalez did not get the Supreme Court seat was because of "political things". Well, they have been celebrating Black History Month and yesterday's segmant was a person that siad the black person that inspired her the most was Condi Rice!

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/22/133963600/Condoleezza-Rice-A-Political-Superwoman and the person that called her this:

Mary Kate Cary is a former White House speechwriter for President George H.W. Bush. She currently writes speeches for political and business leaders.

edk

2/23/11, 9:06 AM
GRUMPY DEMO said...

Yesterday ATC "report" aka Defense of the "intellectual chops" of Clarence Thomas.

Five Years Later, Justice Thomas Still Silent by Nina Totenberg

Five Years Later, Justice Thomas Still Silent by Nina Totenberg

Sloppy inoffensive lazy journalism at it's NPR finest.

Ends story with a baseless assertion made by former Clerk for Thomas:

"It's so staggeringly offensive," Jaffe adds, "the notion that people, especially professors, can continue to say this after many, many opinions where I think he [Thomas] has more than adequately proven that he has the intellectual chops to run with the best of them."

So, Mr. Jaffe where's the evidence of Justice Thomas' famous "intellectual chops"? A competent journalist would have cite evidence that supports or disproves Jaffe's assumption. Nina and NPR give him an uncritical open mike.

Jaffe and NPR didn't cite ONE SINGLE opinion authored by Silent Clarence to prove this point. Can't cited what doesn't exist, right? Reality's well know liberal bias strikes again.

Also, love that Nina doesn't mention Justice's Thomas' apparent numerous violations of ethics:

-Not reporting $700,000+ of his wife's income as a corporate lobbyist.
-Taking money from the son's of the founder of the John Birch society, Koch brothers, without reporting.
-Talking money from Conservative front groups for corporate interests.

Thomas claims the disclosure form was "too complicated", yeah those are some great "intellectual chops".

Great job Nina, inoffensive "he said, she said" that ends with a pro-GOP closing, FOX couldn't have done a better job.

2/23/11, 9:22 AM
GRUMPY DEMO said...

Good catch edk:

I just posted at NPR.org under my nome de plume: Modest Egoist:

Superwoman no, SUPER VILLAIN YES!

As one of the principal architects of President W's implementation of torture as a US National and International policy for the first time in US history, she's not the least bit heroic:

"Amnesty: prosecute Bush for admitted waterboarding"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/11/10/us-usa-bush-amnesty-idUSTRE6A957O20101110

but then again NPR has been cool with torture by Bush from day one.

Who would have guessed a former Bush speech writer, would be singing hosannas about Condi the National Security Adviser that missed 9-11?

Why NPR doesn't disclose her clear partisan bias? Just being FOXy, dang "Liberal NPR".

2/23/11, 9:37 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

http://www.democracynow.org/
blog/2011/2/22/matt_taibbi_why_isnt_
wall_street_in_jail

Matt is one of NPR's many worst nightmares.

2/23/11, 12:52 PM
Patrick Lynch said...

To follow up on my comment about the Libyan protesters, my local NPR station did do a story on it. It was surprisingly decent, but then I've grown to realise that what WEKU does mostly is read a story and then use the people they put on tape as quotes. The person who coordinated the protest was able to say why they were protesting without any overt editing that I could detect. Kind of refreshing. No obvious bias this time unlike their coverage of the coal industry.

2/23/11, 1:35 PM
Buzztree said...

The last local commercial station where I live (rural CT) has just been bought by WSHU, NPR station based in Fairfield. So now I get to hear "Talk of the Nation." Lucky me! Anyhoo...apropos of Wisconsin et al.:

On today's show, there was a call-in segment with the Governor of Michigan. Callers specifically from Michigan were invited to call in to answer the question (paraphrasing here) "What are you willing to sacrifice to help out the state's budget crisis?"

Not, "Why do you think the rich bastards feeding at the public trough haven't been thrown in jail yet?"

Color me shocked.

2/23/11, 3:13 PM
gDog said...

If it's Larry Abramson, then it's a hired predator lamb roaring some yarn that attacks anything that smells of good health, education or welfare. In Labor Unions Fight For Their Right To Influence the lamb bites deep into his favorite foe: professionalism in teaching.

Of course, following the take-n-give model of NPR psy-ops, they start with a case where it seems like collective bargaining may have been a good thing: limiting the number of patients a nurse must tend a time. This sets the stage for delivering the give for the Koch brothers:

But for [school] administrators, collective bargaining can feel more like a strait jacket. [..They..] want to team up with neighboring schools to cut costs — but that violates so-called exclusivity clauses.

Isn't it terrible that there's no "I" in "team?" Good! And now the red carpet has been unrolled for the queen of teacher haters to make the scene: Michelle Rhee.

Now, as head of an advocacy group called Students First, Rhee has released a new video attacking seniority rules. In the video, Rhee argues that "when we do seniority-based layoffs, we actually end up cutting some of our most effective teachers. We actually end up having to lay off more teachers and lose more jobs because the junior teachers are paid the least, and we need to fire more of them to make up the budget deficit."

It's just terrible what she needs to do, isn't it? Yes it is.

2/23/11, 7:57 PM
larry, dfh said...

It would seem to me that they could hire two-three teachers for every administrator fired. Exactly how many students does an administrator teach, anyway?
Concerning the raymond davis affair, I've heard two segments on S-4-0 (thanks B!P!F!B!)radio, on different shows, a week or more apart. Wednesday ('To the Point')had the 'expert' from the NYT, who divulged absolutely nothing new, probably because he didn't know anything to begin with. But the really strange thing about these two shows was that the 'Pakistani perspective' came from personnel from 'The Friday Times', and both were obviously, I mean really obviously meant to assuage any angst we Merkins might feel about davis' situation. The woman on Wednesday's show sounded like davis' defense attorney: He was obviously defending himself. I could only think that 'The Friday Times', one of hundreds of Pakistani newspapers, is either known to be pro-U.S., or is a front for davis' employers. Not that S-4-0 would actually try to dig out some Pakistani sources, as opposed to being given copy to regurgitate. Maybe if there were fewer administrators and more teachers in the journalism departments where the clowns @ S-4-0 were trained we might have a chance of being informed.

2/24/11, 1:47 AM
larry, dfh said...

Oh, and Diane Rehm on Wednesday had a good segment on what gives in WI, despite the obligatory presence of a Merkin Exceptionalism Idiot on the panel. People who actually had facts to present were given almost ample time, and the hostess allowed bullshit to be called as such when it became necessary. Wonder if we'll hear about
this on S-4-0 radio. I mean that really is what WI is all about, an audition before dick armey/koch brothers.

2/24/11, 1:59 AM
informedveteran said...

Biggest story on NPR.org "British Judge: WikiLeaks' Assange Can Be Extradited". Of course it is a "by NPR staff and wires" monstrosity. Tabloid journalism at its slimy best.

2/24/11, 9:40 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

Glennzilla in action:

http://www.democracynow.org/
2011/2/24/glenn_greenwald_
on_the_assange_extradition

Should be good.

2/24/11, 1:41 PM
gDog said...

It really looks like the Republican's threat to pull NPR's plug is working wonders, just as I expected. They've got Rachel Martin on overdrive telling the story of how wonderful soldiering is - hey, there are even foxy babes in the soldier pocket! C'mon guys, pull on those cammys and get in the fox hole! Maybe she'll give you some special nursin' in the night.

Plus, "The job market at the time [is] grim" and it's a "stable job at an uncertain time." You can "get trained to be part of the Army's elite" and "learn to soldier so [you] can lead troops in combat" because "war is necessary at some times," even "counterinsurgency wars like Iraq and Afghanistan, [where] medical personnel can find themselves caught up in the fight." "You raise them to be the best they can be, and that's what I want her to keep doing."

Excuse me while I retch in my helmet.

2/24/11, 4:28 PM
larry, dfh said...


Dean Baker takes on the neo-libs @ S-4-0, again.

2/24/11, 6:47 PM
b! said...

^ Hey, Lar - and I fully sanction using the dollar-sign for the letter S; then it can serve a double meaning with "Money for Nuthin'."

(bunny whisker-giggle)

2/25/11, 8:28 AM
Patrick Lynch said...

Let's see if NPR does anything on this story:
">Military uses psyops on senators

If NPR has covered this one way or the other I'll be surprised. I won't know from listening because WEKU is in another one of those execrable fund raising fests.

2/25/11, 8:52 AM
Patrick Lynch said...

Oops, here's the link again and hopefully working.

Military PsyOps on Senators story at Firedoglake

2/25/11, 8:54 AM
informedveteran said...

If anyone needs to take a break from NPR and check in with reality, here's a video of Scahill and Englehardt .

2/25/11, 9:43 AM
gDog said...

All that blather about the one-star lady general and not a mention of General Karpinski. Amnesia, the beautiful, from no see to no hear to no speak.

2/25/11, 12:24 PM
gDog said...

Let us one day learn to forget the Vivacious Shiller.

2/25/11, 12:26 PM
Anonymous said...

psyops not mentioned on air at npr

2/25/11, 12:56 PM
larry, dfh said...

Thursday had an informative segment on Holder's refusal to argue DOMA cases. It seemed Clinton's disregard for a Line-item Veto was the last time something like this transpired. Right after this segment was a talk with Rep. Eric Cantor, and what struck me was how incredibly stupid the man seemed. The whole talk was just an opportunity to mouth some poorly scripted cliches. The hostess never said a word, although Cantor made no sense about anything. It's kind a funny hearing the on air 'talent' having to kiss republican ass so they won't get de-funded.
Are all politicians as stupid as Cantor?

2/25/11, 3:21 PM
Anonymous said...

Banal All Things Considered sure does love them Oscars. Lucky for them there is nothing going on in the world to distract their attention from the riveting questions about which celebrities will get a status award.

2/25/11, 5:57 PM
Anonymous said...

"Dollar Bill" Marazzo (WHYY) is plugging this:

http://www.170millionamericans.org/

as I suppose all stations are. But I still find it hard to believe that the government will de-fund this propaganda outlet. Especially the ALWAYS reliable (take that Nelson who is usually rekiable) Temple-Raston of Doom who has been on a jihad against the bin-laden monster waiting to take over in Libya.

edk

2/26/11, 9:12 AM
informedveteran said...

I wonder if NPR will cover this:

from newsdissector.com

WALL STREET JOURNAL CAVES TO INDUSTRY PRESSURE ON GASLAND

Something bizarre just happened at the Wall St. Journal. At 6pm I was reading a home page story on WSJ.com called "Oscar’s Attention Irks Gas Industry” by Ben Casselman which contained perhaps the most honest and revealing quote from the gas industry that I have read to date about their obsession with attacking my film GASLAND. The quote reads “We have to stop blaming documentaries and take a look in the mirror,” said Matt Pitzarella, a spokesman for gas producer Range Resources Corp. …
Just thirty minutes later the quote mysteriously disappears, edited out and in its place is a far more typical spin controlled statement from Tom Price of Chesapeake energy saying, “We need to be able to respond objectively and accurately.” Sounds like a robot at a PR agency, more than a person.

For the first time a Gas Industry spokesman told the truth, that they should look in the mirror instead of attacking our film. You can find the original quote by googling “mirror, Wall St. Journal and Range Resources” but if you read the article now, the quote has vanished.

Is this evidence of what we have long suspected, considerable industry pressure on the mainstream media? (I think we are long past suspecting)

Josh Fox
Director, GASLAND

2/26/11, 1:20 PM
gDog said...

Wow, Dan. Good find. It seems to be a deep cultural shift in the group-mind of America that we more and more willingly self censor our very thoughts so that a picture is developed of benevolent corporations taking a firm hand in disciplining errant unionists and honest reporters by "correcting" the odd aberrant statement that may escape the bubble walls here and there. I see it in my colleagues at work who increasingly don the attitude of an automaton with blinders in carrying forth the will of Lord Blankfein by dutifully shoveling the gold out from the public coffers and into Sach's.

2/26/11, 2:10 PM

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