Light's Out

Hello NPR Checkers and anyone stopping by for a look.

I think it's time for a final post to NPR Check.  For the first several years of this blog I posted nearly every day, and then began slowly cutting back.  For the last year I have not posted more than about once a month, and as you can see from the date of the last post - even that modest output has ground to a halt, and I think it's time to call it quits.

I don't want to repeat the reasons for cutting back on my output - you can read that in posts here and here.  My main reason for no longer working on NPR Check is that I no longer spend any time listening to NPR news.  As journalism it is worthless: nothing more than an echo chamber for the views of the powerful interests and forces that control this country - large US and multinational corporations, departments and agencies of US military and foreign policy, and the national Republican and Democratic parties, etc.  As an organization, NPR never challenges or confronts the myth of US goodness in foreign policy, the belief in US exceptionalism, the supposed benefits of capitalism and market ideologies. 

In closing I would encourage any and all people who still contribute to NPR stations to cancel your support for these stations (or some portion of your support) - and let them know that you are sending your financial support to media outlets that do not give your money to NPR (e.g. DemocracyNow! Free Speech Radio Network, Common Dreams, FAIR etc.).  It saddens me to cut my support for our local NPR station, since they do some outstanding local programming, but they give the lion's share of their funding to NPR which consistently promotes US aggressive war, imperialism, militarism, torture, rightwing populism, climate science denial, and predatory capitalism.  There are far better places and organizations to support.

Thank you everyone who has read and posted at this blog over the years. Please stay active in the political struggle for justice, peace, democracy, fairness and the health of the planet.

Sincerely,
Matthew Murrey

Dick and Jane and the Off Button

It's nearly four years since I began my little adventure of monitoring NPR news, and it's been both enlightening and maddening. I must say that it blows my mind that so many people still give NPR positive marks for journalism (e.g. the comments in this recent piece, or the nonsense of this article, and the general praise of this piece) when its coverage - that I have painstakingly documented on this blog - is relentlessly center-right to far right in its perspective, and is unquestioning in its loyalty to US state power - economic, military and otherwise. I can not think of one example where NPR news has challenged the fundamental assumptions underlying the projection of US power at home or abroad - domestic surveillance, torture, military spending, government secrecy, aggressive war, so-called counterinsurgency, predatory corporatism, etc.

Over the course of the last year, the work on this blog has started to have a bit of the Groundhog Day feel to it: I've found myself essentially writing the same articles over and over. The situation changes but the fundamental pattern remains the same: NPR parrots Pentagon press releases; NPR ignores or minimizes the grossest violations of human rights and dignity when committed by the US or its allies; NPR refuses to mention international laws and treaties when they are broken by the US or its allies; NPR provides unchallenged airtime for government, military and corporate spokespersons; etc., etc.

I'm going to leave this blog up and post only very infrequently, if at all. God knows what the future holds with the economy, continuing US/Israeli aggression and genocidal policies toward Palestinians, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the tea party extremists, and the possibility of war on Iran. For now I invite anyone to link, borrow or steal from this blog's archives in order to spread the word that NPR news is not liberal, not balanced, not factual, and not worth supporting in any way, shape or form.

Cheers,
Matthew Murrey
Mytwords

NPR Team Check

What are you waiting for? Be sure to visit NPR Team Check; it's up and running. During this transition period, I'll put up my posts here and there. Eventually, I'll let this blog go dormant and post only at the Team Check site.

Looking Ahead

Readers have probably noticed that my posts are averaging about 1 per week. This May will mark 4 years of writing this blog, and I'm looking to wind it down by that time. If any regulars to this blog - or those frequently critiquing NPR on its website - would be interested in writing for a group NPR Check blog that would supersede NPR Check, please email me. I'm thinking the new blog would look a lot like this one. I've set up a beta version at NPR Team Check.

By Way of an Explanation

Advocatus Diaboli

Deep in my heart I hate despots and priests.
Still more the genius who sucks up to them.

by Friedrich Hölderlin, 1797,
translated by David Young (used with his permission),
published in Margie, v. 6, 2007.

Thanks for the kind remarks about this blog. I don't plan on bowing out for ever -- BUT I am going to cut way back on how much I listen to NPR news. And I don't think I'll be back to posting on such a frequent basis any time soon.

I started this blog with the naive expectation that if the utter lack of impartiality and integrity of NPR news could be illustrated, carefully researched and documented then there would be a broad and significant group of NPR listeners who would reject the blather and outright propaganda that NPR serves up every day, and - who knows - might pester their local stations into cutting back on NPR news (or dropping it altogether). Alas, the NPR juggernaut seems to be gaining steam - like the war business , it's a growth industry. Frankly, I've also run into too many "liberals" and "educated" folk who think NPR is a fairly good and informative program no matter how much fact and documentation one confronts them with to the contrary. We do live in a country of amnesia and denial, don't we?

The work of listening and re-listening to NPR reports and then checking and cross-checking their unfounded assertions and misinformation has been a major time sink (not to mention a soul-killing exercise - even for an atheist!). I have a full time job in a library, I have two teenage sons who I love to death, a partner who likes to see me away from the computer once in a while, and a second profession as a poet. That doesn't leave much time for skittles and beer. I've put in a good year and a half at this because I think it's crucial to challenge the critical role that NPR plays in our country: making the most violent, sadistic, stupid and greedy US policies palatable, acceptable and refined for the college educated and "liberal" crowd - and eventually a younger, more hip generation of listeners.

The one great joy of this blog - and I really mean this - has been the fine community of readers and commentators who are in evidence here. I've become very fond of reading the wit, rants zingers, and insights of responders. I do know people read this blog. If you click on the sitemeter logo down below you can find out a lot of interesting stats: NPR Check is approaching 50,000 hits, someone at NPR reads it nearly everyday, and it gets a daily average of about 70-80 hits. BTW, NPR Check has also been picked up often by FAIR.org, a few less times by Cursor.org, and a couple of times on Crooks & Liars [much thanks to them].

Anyway, the archives will always be here and I encourage anyone to beg, borrow, or steal any and all posts that I've made or research I've done. Also feel free to steal any graphics I've made: you can find them in the side link.

With the elections rolling, the lastest Persian Gulf of Tonkin incident, the endless GWOT and zombified Iraq, etc. there's no doubt there will be more disgraceful coverage of it all on NPR. I'll just be listening and posting less; that's all...

O, and that's me in the picture.