NPR is now a full-fledged spin-center for Bush! Disgusting.

[gardenista]

Mara Liason just spun the release of the damning Killian memos by minimizing the facts and saying (paraphrased), "The White House is saying that the Kerry campaign is coordinating this because Kerry is behind in the polls".

What a joke!

What am I going to do without NPR?

[wurzel]

1. You will do a lot better.

[gardenista]

2. Yup. Maybe so!

[In Truth We Trust]

3. Evidently they don't need public donations anymore.

next drive in your area call the donation line and tell them that they will NOT be receiving your donation in protest!

[lutherj]

4. I agree, I've had it with NPR. They're status quo pablum for the educated

class. You can listen to it and feel like you're doing your duty and being informed and have your gushy heart-warming feeling over their human interest stories, but the underlying message is that all's fine in America, land o' the free, home o'the brave . . .

I've been contributing money to them for the last few years, but I'm definitely going to send it elsewhere next time.

[Union Thug]

10. me too.. My money will go to Democracy NOW! and other

quality news sources.

[BlueHandDuo]

5. You mean the White House *isn't* saying that?

Then how *are* they trying to make it our fault?

[gardenista]

9. The problem is that NPR is not focusing on the TANG/AANG/MANG story

but on the WH talking points. I'd rather hear the STORY rather than what the WH things of the story.

[Name removed]

6. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[gardenista]

14. I know what I heard. And if you think Mara Liason wouldn't say that,

then I invite you to listen to Mara more often.

This was very close to an exact quote. If you need an exact quote, I invite you to get the transcripts.

There is no question in my mind that she is shilling for Bush.

Very, very sad.

NPR was once a respectable source of news.

[Kathy in Cambridge]

17. Mara is frequently a guest on Fox

'nuff said.

[AP]

19. She's a FOX employee, as was Juan Williams when he had an NPR show (and

he's still a FOX employee and he does stories for NPR frequently).

Cokie has a huge conflict of interest too. She's an ABC employee and, IIUC, she gets a huge amount of income from giving weekend speeches with her husband for large corporations.

And it's not just the NPR hosts who are compromised. If you look at the people NPR gives a voice to, like Bill Kristol who gets to lie every friday on Dianne Rehm's show, or the experts they use -- they're all the same RW'ers who have no problem harnessing the weight of the commercial media to drop their lie-bombs on society.

You'd think NPR would consider its mission as being more about giving voice to people who don't have the commercial media sucking from their tits.

[blondeatlast]

21. Tooooomorrow, tomorrow,

your pro-file will be enaaaabled...

[dionysus]

33. LOLOLOLOLOLOL

thanks for the chuckles!

[Goldom]

7. The white house said kerry was behind it

and the reporter says "the white house says..."

what's the problem here? she is reporting what they said. not saying it is true. not agreeing with it.

[gardenista]

12. She did not report on the story. Only what the WH has to say about it.

This is not reporting. This is representing the WH, as far as I'm concerned.

[Union Thug]

8. Nationalist Puppet Radio

I've noticed this too.

[AngryLizard]

13. I've already made the phone call

Right before the Dem Convention, some guy on NPR pushed the "Kerry re-filmed his Vietnam footage" rumor -- which had already been debunked -- but without saying it had been debunked. Man, they got an earful from me. And they're not getting a dime more of my money, Borders discount not-withstanding. I was really bummed about it.

[jjmalonejr]

11. I don't get it. How is this spin?

They are reporting what the White House says and attributing it to the White House, not putting it forward as fact.

What's the problem?

[gardenista]

16. They didn't report on the real story. Which is Bush not meeting his

committments. They simply reported what the WH has to say about the story.

Looks like spin to me!

[jjmalonejr]

24. What do you mean they didn't report on the real story?

You can't report on "White House reaction" if you haven't already just reported on what they are reacting to. It doesn't make any sense.

Admittedly, I didn't hear the broadcast, but this really sounds like an overreaction. Too many folks out here get all bent out of shape when they hear a single bad fact or single opinion that differs from their own. Suddenly, the reporter becomes a "media whore" or a "GOP shill".

I'm sure we'd all just love the media to just tell the facts we want and skip the ones we don't like, quote Democrats attacking Bush and not quote the Republicans attacking back, but that's never going to happen.

I get as frustrated as most when I don't like what I'm hearing, but I just don't see the whole "NPR is Bush Country" angle. Sorry.

[gardenista]

29. Wrong.

"You can't report on "White House reaction" if you haven't already just reported on what they are reacting to. It doesn't make any sense."
*******

That's exactly what they did. They basically said that the big hubbub has been over the Bush's TANG years. They did not describe what the hubbub was. Nothing about the Killian memos, nothing about the CONTENT of the newly released documents.

This is not an overreaction.
****************

"I'm sure we'd all just love the media to just tell the facts we want and skip the ones we don't like, quote Democrats attacking Bush and not quote the Republicans attacking back, but that's never going to happen.

I get as frustrated as most when I don't like what I'm hearing, but I just don't see the whole "NPR is Bush Country" angle. Sorry."

******************

You know, I would be satisfied if the media would just tell the facts. Forget sides. I'd like them to report on the story rather than the reaction to the story. NPR did that at one time. No longer.

If you don't see the change in NPR, then you're not listening enough.

[Bread and Circus]

15. It's seemed to change its tone when it got that 100 million dollar...

windfall.

My wife likes it, but I think it is a piece of shit.

[Catfight]

44. Mrs. McDonald is turning in her grave over that 1 Million. It's still

the last News source that at least tries to report the truth. Amy Goodman is the best!

[AP]

18. For months I thought I was fighting an uphill battle trying to open DU'ers

eyes re NPR. I'm glad people are coming to their senses. However, it's important to realize that they've been doing this for years. And it's important to recognize how they do it.

If there's one overriding theme to NPR it's that they try to appeal to (mostly women) liberals and they try to sell them the message that (1) being middle class is really difficult, and (2) you really don't have to do much to convince yourself that you've done a lot. NPR is like a consciousness damper. It tries to corral any impulse to care about society and do good things for society down an incredibly narrow and lame avenue.

That's the overriding theme.

But they also play out some incredibly conservative attitudes too through crappy journalism.

During the Clinton's second term NPR was little more than a cheerleader for middle class investment in the stock market. They blew a lot of breath into the bubble. They have never taken any side but the neoliberal side in every foreign policy story I've heard for a decade now. Often their stories are downright pro-imperialism, like the oh so funny story they did about elephant polo in India in the mid-90s. I could go on and on, but it has made me sick just to make this short list.

[mitchum]

28. Right you are, AP...

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has also been the main opponent to low-power transmissions for over 20 years! Can't be letting other voices out there, you know...

[AP]

41. kick

[LisaM]

20. I don't like Mara Liasson but disagree about NPR

A study was released last year that showed that of all radio and television sources, NPR listeners were by far the most informed (Fox News watchers were the least, surprise, surprise.) Also, listner contributions don't go to NPR - they go to the local stations, which uses it to buy NPR programming. Even though their ombudsman NEVER replies to emails, email him anyway and complain about her. Many of their major complaints are the fact that she and Juan Williams are on Fox.

Also, you may recall that Juan Williams pissed off listeners to such a degree that he was removed from "Talk of the Nation."

[AP]

26. Just because they're the best of a bad bunch doesn't mean they're good

for democracy.

And giving to your local stations so they can just transfer that money to NPR for licenses to their crappy shows isn't so different from giving directly to NPR.

I think people should give directly to their locally produced shows so those shows can get more time and can improve, and I think people should try to talk their local carriers into licensing less of the crap that's produce by NPR or is clearly crap (like Market Watch and the other shit like that).

In fact, everyone should tell their local stations to cut ATC and ME down to an hour and tell them to replace it with something locally produced.

[LisaM]

43. Market Watch is PRI, not NPR. n/t

[gardenista]

30. That's because NPR listeners also seek out other sources of news.

Juan Williams made me sick. When he started to use the "folk" idiom, I just about lost it. I'm glad he was removed from TOTN.

NPR listeners are not more intelligent and better informed than FOX watchers because of NPR. They are so becaue they are discerning.

This discerning listener is ready to jump ship and find even more additional sources. I used to count on NPR to sum it up for me. No more.

[Strelnikov_]

38. It's Kinda Like Being The Teacher Of An Honors Course

and bragging on how YOUR students have better grades than the rest of the student population.

NPR sure is proud of themselves, though.

[mitchum]

22. The New Yorker recently had an article about the republican...

strongarming of CPB, PBS and NPR

[tinanator]

23. some people say...

you'll be a lot better off tuning into Pacifica programming. NPR is Radio Enron, a VOA op.

[gardenista]

31. Yeah, and our local station *does* carry

Laura Flanders.

And, I have not lost my faith in Terry Gross, who is the most awesome interviewer in the country.

[sendero]

25. NPR uses a series..

... of sophisticated editing, wording and even musical interlude tricks to bolster the white house and denigrate Kerry. I'm talking about their news shows, Morning Edition and All Things Considered here. They do still have some good "entertainment" programs such as Terry Gross and Diane Rehm, who is the fairest and best radio talk show host out there.


But that does not make up for the "news" which is riddled with propaganda. NPR news SUCKS ASS and anyone who thinks otherwise is simply not paying attention.

[gardenista]

32. Ok, I'll go along with that. NPR News has become a Bush spin-center

it would be interesting to see what the personnel changes have been at NPR news in the past year.

[Supersedeas]

34. Mor-a Lie-than-Sound (eom)

[AP]

36. They did a story about Bush losing popularity in PA and the interlude

following the story was sad music.

I was fucking humming "happy days are here again"!

I was so pissed when I heard that.

Just a couple weeks ago they did the same thing after a story about Chavez winning his election.

I complained & the segment producer wrote back saying, sorry, honest misatke but you'll probable never forgive me because you've obviously made up your mind.

I just had to call bullshit on that.

[aint_no_life_nowhere]

27. Listen to Pacifica Radio and watch Free Speech TV

and try to contribute to keep them going, even if it's just a few dollars.

[GaryL]

35. Dump NPR.

If they want to go Faux, let 'em. Let's see how much money they get from rednecks. If they want to stick to corporate donations, let 'em. Let see how their shows play filled with fucking commercials. I constantly encourage my family and friends to not give a dime. Public service broadcasting died a long time ago.

[DoNotRefill]

37. Public Broadcasting is no longer public.

one of our local PBS stations is currently in litigation with me over a FOIA request I filed with them. They claim to not be FOIA, despite the fact that the station in question is 100% government-owned (by the local school boards...their Articles of Incorporation require them to remain 100% owned by public bodies, but somehow thay're not public bodies themselves, despite millions in tax dollars that they receive). What's disgusting is that so far, we've been to court twice (General District and Circuit), and they've won both times. I'm currently working on the appeal to the State Court of Appeals.

Gotta keep on fighting...

[not fooled]

39. NPR now stands for...

"Neutered Public Radio"...or should that be spelled "Newtered", since his machinations in the mid-'90s effectively muzzled them?

Disgusting. Thank dog for Air America! Just in time, too, as NPR continues to deteriorate. Also, another source of great radio is Bernie Ward (www.kgo.com) streaming live 7-10 PM PST + archived.

[yellowdawgdem]

40. npr has gotten worse

on their news coverage, I totally agree. But I think it is better to handle it with phonecalls and emails to express dissatisfaction. I notice that du'ers are constantly calling and writing to our major news media to complain about unbalanced coverage. Why not do the same thing with npr, as there is more of a chance they will change than the (further) right wing media. At least I still enjoy Terry Gross and Garrison Keiler, the city arts and lectures series, and the Commonwealth series. They did have Ariana Huffington on yesterday, and she gave a left-leaning perspective. It is true that they are less than responsive to criticism, and that they are getting corporate donations that they'd be better off not taking. I guess this is just an inkling of how bad things really are, when all you can get is a buncha spin.

[Stephanie]

42. "What am I going to do without NPR?" - Try PACIFICA

You'll be much happier.

[goodhue]

45. Try KPFA

94.1 FM in the San Francisco Metro signal area