Irony (and History) Is Dead at NPR

(graphic from Borev.net)

On Saturday's ATC Guy Raz held a friendly with John Negroponte to see what he thought about the US joining the UN Human Rights Council. Negroponte told Raz

• "No matter how repugnant some of these organizations or behaviors might be, we're probably better served in an international organization by participating..."
• "I think the leadership...are from countries that have good human rights records..."

Raz added his own skepticism noting that it barely approved monitors for Darfur and "it's already withdrawn human rights monitors from places like Cuba and Belarus. Can the council really be taken seriously if, as some have argued, many of it's decisions are simply political?"

Has Raz ever heard of irony, or for that matter Google? All one has to do it Google "Negroponte human rights" and voila! you get a whole assortment of interesting information about Negroponte's lifelong journey through the dark side. During the report Raz tells us that John Negroponte was "former US Ambassador to Iraq and UN, former director of National Intelligence, and most recently Deputy Secretary of State under the Bush Administration" but - dang! - he somehow failed to mention Negroponte's gig in Honduras from 1981 to 1985. That's odd because there's a lot of information out there about it. Let's see he's got his own special file at the National Security Archive, a nice long newspaper article in the Baltimore Sun, a virtual dossier of articles at In These Times, attention from The Nation and The Progressive, and even a film about his time there.

But really, who needs to know that Negroponte was running cover for an infamous Honduran death squad (Battalion 316) and paling around with death squad leader General Gustavo Alvarez when all he's on to talk about is the effectiveness of a UN human rights council? Besides that was so long ago, and after his tenure in Iraq there's no indication that the US had created death squads like the ones Negroponte helped operate in Honduras...or is there?

Inside Edition

Renee Montagne talks to two guest about two different issues this morning, and lets just say NPR doesn't go very far afield for expert opinions:

On Russia and the UN sanctions against Iran we get to hear from Mark Fitzpatrick, only identified as director of the Non-Proliferation Program at the International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. His and Montagne's opinions are strictly within the approved State Department view of Iran. It's no surprise though if you look at Fitzpatrick's bio. Notice that it states, "Mr Fitzpatrick comes to IISS from a distinguished 26-year career in the US Department of State...." I had to laugh at the following: "In previous State Department postings, he headed the South Asia Regional Affairs Office, responsible for non-proliferation and security policies regarding India and Pakistan." I don't think I'd put that on my resume!

Then on the Khalilzad appointment to be UN ambassador Montagne turns to Richard Haass, who was - as she puts it - "an advisor to former Secretary of State Colin Powell." Excuse me, but I'm not interested in hearing from yet another advisor to a disgraced, dishonest public offical. The man offers nothing new--surprise. He hammers on Iran and asserts that Syria assassinated Hariri in Lebanon (no challenge from Montagne), but there are a few laughers:

He says of Khalilzad, that "he’s someone who comes with a good reputation from his experiences in both Iraq and Afghanistan ." Ah, yes, I'd say he's done a "heckuva job." Then later he describes the role of John Bolton at the UN as someone who used "it as something of a podium, and they use it as a way to speak to the world from the position of the United States." Not exactly how I would have put it!

Entertaining...and scary.

Colorful Bolton

So Bolton is finally going to be out of the UN. And after his lowly performance there, here's what NPR's Jackie Northam offers us: "John Bolton’s short tenure as ambassador to the UN was contentious, controversial, and thanks to his gift for pithy statements, colorful."

This is a pretty sad way to describe a figure like Bolton. Even a mainstream publication like MSNBC/Newsweek gives a far more informative and unflattering portrait of Bolton's shortcomings. Pithy statements? Colorful? Maybe Northam was thinking of the Bolton of July 2006 -- when his words had a distinctly blood-spattered tinge to them? Or perhaps pithy was how she interpreted the occasion mentioned in the MSNBC/Newsweek piece when he called a close ally of the US at the UN an "international civil servant" because the man dared to offer Bolton some helpful criticism?

Glib and shallow pieces like this stand in such stark contrast to what NPR is capable of offering - as in Daniel Zwerdling's rich, substantive, and humane piece on the mental health struggles of Iraq war veterans.