The Barbaro Cult

With the Kentucky Derby looming I almost jokingly posted a "Barbaro Watch" this week, but I thought, "Come on don't be so snarky." Well, what do you know, this morning Scott Simon and NPR are back on the Saint Barbaro obsession.

You think I exaggerate? Take a look at the saturation coverage NPR gave Barbaro shortly after his demise. They weren't done with it, either; they followed it up with a Name Barbaro's Brothers Contest. Somehow, I missed even more Barbaro coverage last May (notice the long list of "Related NPR stories" beneath the summary of the report).

Beat That Horse!

I don't know how they did it, but NPR managed to put Barbaro back in the news AGAIN! (see earlier post about Barbaro). I give up, I'll tell you anything NPR, just please don't cover Barbaro again--please...

If you were subjected to this story, you know you are invited to send in NPR two names for Barbaro's brothers. I decided to take them up on the offer and sent them the following names and little note:

• Red Herring
• Opiate News

"How about not wasting any more news time on this stupid horse!"

Horsing Around

Did you know that Barbaro got laminitis in his left hind leg while his right leg was healing? Did you know that he recently had two pins inserted into his cannon bone and wore a brace-like structure? Did you know that Barbaro's initial medical treatment involved surgery, titanium plates, and over two dozen screws? If you don't you obviously have not been paying attention to NPR news in the last week. Just for the record here's how the coverage of Barbaro the dead race horse has broken down recently:

• ATC, 1/28/07 (2 minutes, 53 seconds).
• ME, 1/29/07 (3 minutes, 21 seconds).
• ATC, 1/29/07 (4 minutes, 31 seconds).
• ME, 1/30/07 (2 minutes, 17 seconds).
• ME, 1/30/07 (2 minutes, 43 seconds).

Over the course of three short days, that's 15 minutes and 45 seconds of news time devoted to a now dead race horse that has no meaningful effect on the lives of anyone on the planet.

But that wasn't enough for NPR and Scott Simon. This morning - for another 3 minutes and 9 tawdry seconds - Simon reveals that "when Barbaro broke down shortly after the start of last year's Preakness…I burst into tears." He continues his eulogy to the horse: "Barbaro touched something in millions of people…the will he displayed…Barbaro was an athlete, a champion, a performer. Champions carry the hopes of others....greatness died with him....God speed Barbaro."

For a bit of contrast, consider NPR's coverage of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent German kidnapped by the CIA, shipped off to Afghanistan, brutally tortured, and dumped back in Albania. On January 31, 2007 the German government issued arrest warrants for the CIA operatives responsible, and for this case that highlights the barbarism of our government agents NPR gives one 3 minute, 11 second report, and unlike the minutiae of Barbaro's surgery and demise all you'll hear on this report is "those named on the arrest warrant are charged with kidnapping and causing grievous bodily harm to Khalid El-Masri....He was picked up in Macedonia in late December 2003, taken to prison in Afghanistan, held there for nearly five months, then dropped off in Albania to find his way home...." That's it.

If you think it's unfair just focusing on the past week, feel free to look back at all NPR news' coverage of El-Masri's case. The most detail you will find is El-Masri speaking through his translator on November 28, 2006, "I was humiliated; I was beaten; I was drugged. And I was taken to Afghanistan against my will, and there they made it clear right from the onset, they said you are in a country where there is no rule of law.’ A month before that, ME aired a report lamenting how these foreign arrest warrants underscore "the legal threat faced by CIA officers overseas." Contrast NPR's scant coverage with the substance of this report from the Guardian.