Saturday, January 20, 2007

Kid Gloves for Joe

There's fierce competition these days for most shameless, disgraceful character in American politics, but Joe Lieberman is definitely a front runner. The man is a compulsive war monger and hypocrite who showed utter contempt for the democratic process when he turned on the party that built his career because its voters turned him down in the primary.

Lieberman was on NPR's ATC yesterday for a friendly chat with Melissa Block. Here's a few of Lieberman's statements that went unchallenged:
  • "I say to those who are opposed to what the President is now suggesting, that they have a responsibility to do one thing, one is to come up with a better plan if they don’t like this one...." [If Block had done 5 minutes worth of research before this interview she might have come across this list of MANY alternate plans for Iraq that don't include escalation and used it to challenge Lieberman's distortion.]
  • "Look, many mistakes have been made in Iraq, in the prosecution of this war. I’ve spoken of those mistakes at length, but we are there now...." [Except for this one critique of the post invasion situation, Lieberman has spent most of the Iraq war attacking critics of the war and praising the "real progress"of the war.]
  • "Elected leaders have a responsibility to do what they think is right for the country and the future of the country and not to play to public opinion...." then later "....extremists and terrorists…can break our national will." [Just what is this amorphous "national will?" Or does he mean the will of the extremists neocons that he represents.]
  • "If the Democratic party can not convince the American people that we are prepared to protect them in a dangerous world, ultimately we’re not going to be successful." [Funny, I thought the policy that Lieberman is pushing has made the world more dangerous and made the country less secure.]
This failure of the media to act as a watchdog in challenging those responsible for the disaster of Iraq was noted by David Sirota of the San Francisco Chronicle - a failure that NPR seems to relish.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I campaigned for and donated to the Lamont Senate run. That people could actually vote for Lieberman was appalling. I still don't understand it. There is a silver lining here, though. Had he lost I'm fairly certain he would have replaced Rummy.

I have given up on NPR, but not public radio. The only NPR programming I'll listen to is Fresh Air, Wait Wait and Car Talk. Still, I like to check your site. Keep up the great work.

Anonymous said...

Even in high school here in Chatham, NY, Melissa Block was considered so homely she was regularly blamed for train derailments. So she's bound to cozy up to Lieberman: they're soulmates.

Porter Melmoth said...

Boy, Melissa sure showed 'em back in Chatham, getting to interview Holy Joe and all! Radio may be a non-visual medium, but Melissa's voice is just as homely as the rest of her.

Mytwords said...

Honestly, I'm not concerned with how people look (except for the body language thing--Cheney's snarl, Bush's swagger and smirk, etc...). I'm far more concerned with the distortions and rightwing biases that these hacks at NPR are passing off as journalism!
God knows I've known some "ugly" folks who had more progressive courage and spark than I'll ever have and some "attractive" folks who were as mean, dishonest and reactionary as anyone I've ever known.

Porter Melmoth said...

'Fair' enough, Mytwords; looks shouldn't matter at all. The thing is, for me, the dislike of certain NPR personalities is ignited but what is being said, not how they look, and the rest is pure reaction to the initial frustration. I don't give a fig as to how these people look, but it is somewhat of a catharsis to blow off some steam in their direction, hopefully in a humorous vein. For me that goes back to the David Frye and Smothers Brothers era, and the gauntlet has been successfully taken up by Stewart and Colbert and others. Things of course should not get too nasty, but throwing darts at a particular target eases the dissatisfaction somewhat, especially if the notion is present that the 'target' (for lack of a better term), seems likely to continue what it's doing, unimpeded; witness Bush, Cheney & Co. That includes certain NPR personalities, I should think.

Mytwords said...

I hear you...I've been guilty of it myself!

Anonymous said...

NPR is simply a taxpayer funded arm of the Ministry of Truth. It is even more insidious as most people believe NPR presents a different side to the story, somehow contrasting the Washington Times and other rightwing media.

It is pathetic, anyone trusting NPR for balance and fairness is as deluded as Fox News viewers