When trying to convince liberal friends and acquaintances that NPR news coverage does not have even the slightest liberal, progressive or leftist tilt, I often ask them to consider the "expert" viewpoints that are given the lion's share of airtime, or to consider how disputed topics are framed. You can bet the house that if the topic is US foreign policy the extent of the debate on NPR news will range from the neocon far-right to centrist Democrat (at best).A feature on Saturday's ATC is a case in point. Andrea Seabrook interviews "colorful" John Bolton on the Iran 2007 NIE report. Given that NPR has already devoted large blocks of time to making the neocon case for war on Iran (see my posts of Dec. 7, 2007, Nov. 30, 2007, Nov. 3, 2007, Aug. 23, 2007, Aug. 15, 2007, Aug. 1, 2007, etc.), you might hope to hear some reports on the NIE that challenge the administration and neocon assertions regarding Iran. For example Salon.com has two former NSC members (hardly anti-establishment!) on to dissect Bush dishonesty about "negotiating" with Iran. On the Informed Comment Global Affairs blog independent scholar Farideh Farhi posited that the release of the NIE was timed to strengthen the punitive sanctions case. Perhaps even more telling is Gareth's Porter's pre-release report on the attempt by neocons to alter the report (his analysis seems vindicated by the release and by the strident, disciplined neocon counterattack covered here by Marc Cooper and here by Khody Akhavi.)
Do we get even a sampling of this rich (and revealing) discussion and analysis? Not on NPR news, and then - to add insult to injury - we are subjected to a 7 minute hurl-fest with Andrea Seabrook and John Bolton, where Bolton (getting a whopping 5.5 minutes of blab time) makes his case that the NIE was a putsch against the White House.
Needless to mention that what we have never heard discussed or analyzed on NPR news is the hype and absurdity that underlies the entire case of Iran as dire threat to world peace - nonsense which is nicely disrobed in a video that I found at this Iran information site.
