NPR Omnibus ALMOST admits NPR is just a mouthpiece for State Department

[AP]

... and then tries to hold up the coverage on the Tavis Smiley show -- an interview program, not a full-bore news program, which few stations offer and which NPR tries to canabalize with "Day to Day" -- as evidence that NPR isn't all bad.

"{Listeners complaining about NPR's Haiti reporting} are right as far as Morning Edition and All Things Considered (weekdays) are concerned. Both programs benefited from some strong reporting from Cap-Haitien and Port-au-Prince by Martin Kaste and Gerry Hadden. Yet the programs themselves seemed to avoid any contextual reporting...

...

"But the most interesting interviews, in my opinion, were on The Tavis Smiley Show, where Jesse Jackson put an interesting perspective on the overthrow of the Aristide regime. The program also interviewed two journalists with expertise on Haitian events that weren't heard anywhere else."

http://www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/

[DarkPhenyx]

1. Crap and BS.

But that's just my opinion.

[thebigidea]

2. thus setting yourself up for: "Uh, crap and BS is your opinion?"

[DarkPhenyx]

3. Probably.

Tonight I really don't care.

[AP]

4. I'm not sure what it is that you think is crap and BS.

[LisaM]

5. That guy is the worst ombudsman EVER

He never answers my emails, for one thing - in fact, he never even acknowledges them with an auto-reply (and I don't send that many messages to him.) And his responses to touchy situations are always like that - larded with quotes to make it look as if he's actually spent time weighing his responses, for example, and pretending to consider all sides when it's just a crock. For example, he pretended to acknowledge how listeners were offended by Mara Liasson and Juan Williams because of their stints on Fox News, yet both are now on more than they were before he addressed the issue! (this is all after Williams was yanked from "Talk of the Nation" because he lost the WNYC live broadcast.) I've personally reached the point where Mara Liasson makes me want to break my radio.

I think the NPR reporters try to tell the whole story and be fair. But Morning Edition, for example, is started to get loaded with fluff and long pieces about voodoo religion and obscure musicians. These things are interesting and meaningful on their face, but we do not live in the kind of world at the moment where we have time to spend precious morning news time on those stories. The coverage of Haiti has been thin at best and his comments that taken as a whole it's substantive reporting is B.S. Even if what he says is true, the coverage is spread out in snippets throughout the day, and not every affiliate gets all those shows (we do not get "Talk of the Nation" in Seattle, for example; we get that whacko Alex Chadwick show instead now.)

I think we should continue to press them on the coverage of Haiti (which by now seems to have vanished completely.) I'm sure the reporters are onsite and doing the stories. NPR is somehow not airing them with enough critical mass to garner attention.

[AP]

6. That vodoo religion series, I think, was a set-up for the planned Haiti...

...coup.

I bet the State Dep't encouraged that report so that people would be in the mood for thinking places like Haiti are fucked up.

[LisaM]

7. Wow, interesting point.

Very interesting point. Even if it was completely subliminal on their part, I am really intrigued by your comments.

[AP]

8. It was one of the first things I thought when the coup came down.

I spent a week wondering why the hell NPR was doing a piece on vodoo which was exploiting cliches about Black nations.

I also happened to be reading this book, http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0974003905/qid=1078447878//ref=sr_8_xs_ap_i6_xgl14/102-2725665-2932937?v=glance&n=507846 , at the time, which influenced my thinkin.

[LisaM]

9. Yeah, and it wasn't a short piece either - several days of it

That book sounds interesting. Is it any good? I recently read a book that influenced my thinking more than any other I've read ("Under the Banner of Heaven", by Jon Krakauer.)

[EDT]

10. I always do a doubletake when someone here poo poos NPR

I have a very right-wing friend at work who always complains when I listen to it on the job, saying NPR is a bunch of Liberal Commies.

Between him and DU, I don't know who to agree with...

[AP]

11. Make up your own mind. Listen to the vodoo shows, and the Haiti coverage

and then tell us what you think.

[LisaM]

12. The actual people who work at NPR are pretty liberal

for the most part (though I would not include Williams and Liasson) and an interesting study came out recently showing their listeners are the most informed news audience in the country.

However, since Newt conducted the recission hearings on their funding, they have had to vastly change their product.

[Nlighten1]

13. Maybe this hasn't been brought up for a while.

But...NPR's CEO and VP are former CIA agents who helped run VOA back in the day.

[peacetalksforall]

14. NPR and CNN are similar

They both had a good reputation for just the facts.
CNN capitulated to the right, far right.
NPR is doing it more slowly.

Just as right wingers still think CNN is liberal, some still think NPR is liberal. They don't listen, so they can't detect the changes. But, we're watching the conversion daily. They have plenty of right wingers on the staff - Cokie, Mara, Juan.

They still edify. But, when there is something happening such as Haiti, a person wants to hear Democracy Now anytime in a 24 hour period, not for just an hour. NPR was hours behind bringing out any info about the presidency theft in Haiti (or what was appearing to be a theft in light of witnesses who saw handcuffs and the telephone calls). That is, they only reported the Bush side of events and it was hours before they mentioned Waters and Robinson.

Notice how none of the most despicable of the right wingers in Congress are not threatening to drop funding? I've been surprised and disappointed when listenting to the Director of News talk about political issues. He ain't no liberal.

[greekspeak]

15. Every monday morning

We have to hear Cokie F-ing Roberts on Morning Edition. She gets on and shills for the Republicans. She makes sure to put Shrubco brand Privatized Government in the best light, and dems in the worst.

At least we get Tavis Smillie in Tallahassee. I like his show. Not J.C. Watts so much, but the rest seems pretty good.

[AP]

16. The real story is, if you were the right wing, would you NOT try to...

...interject yourself into a media outlet which reaches 11 million people daily and has the imprimatur of neutrality, and reaches the demographic that NPR reaches?

Of COURSE you'd try to interject yourself into it.

And they have.

It's not as blatant as Fox, but it's there.