By the by, Dave old boy, what is it with you and avatars? Perhaps your mother was frightened by one while pregnant with you?

Ive another one I would like to use, me and a 48 Lb. Salmon I caught, but its just too large for the allotted size. Pity.

David J. Cyr, October 24 at 6:35 am

You occasionally post rather wonderful and insightful efforts. Not this particular effort, old boy. It really is a sophomoric attempt at countering the truth about NPR reportage.

QUOTE, ardee, the red motorcycle avatar:

“They [NPR] consistently report all sides of editorial issues which allows the listener to make up their own minds regarding these issues.”
______________________________

NPR’s reporting the (D) side v. the (R) side, and occasionally including the Libertarian side, is a reporting that consistently offers several different positions on the Right, from which corporate media managed minds may choose.

NPR and PBS contain the conversation upon issues within compliant constraints that their corporate controllers consider comfortable.

NPR and PBS do not provide the public’s news medium. They provide just another means to obtain corporate-state messaging — corporate controlled “news” tailored for targeting those who say they won’t get fooled again every time they are always fooled again.

http://www.chenangogreens.org

For those who criticize NPR for not being Fox or Pacifica radio.

That is not their mission statement nor is it their function. They are a news service dedicated to truth, accuracy and impartiality. They consistently report all sides of editorial issues which allows the listener to make up their own minds regarding these issues.

Should you seek otherwise then I suggest that you seek elsewhere. Besides, they have some of the best nonpolitical programming extant; ‘car talk’, ‘wait, wait dont tell me’, ‘this American life’ all hold my attention and either amuse or sadden all quite professionally. They are, in my opinion, the very best our airwaves have to offer.

Your criticisms are all of a straw man type as they generate because that network doesn’t do what you want it to do. Too bad.

Cyr said “The PBS Newshour’s Jim Lehrer sits silently with a wry smile, presenting no challenge, while (R)s and (D)s manufacture misinformation”

That is precisely right.  This is the crux of the problem. It inspires contempt.  Seems to me people are clamoring for a system overhall (multiple parties etc).  Something to break the continual propaganda and mob appeal of empty platitudes and sanctimonious claptrap that equally eminate from the mouths of the both parties reps [as the journalist or moderater in the debates just sits there with the wry smile without challenge or beggin of substance] 

Without challenge, these (corporate influenced) politicians know they are the people’s only choice so it doesnt matter if what they say has no substance, they only need to SELL themselves.

I think PBS like SBS-one in AU has a few intelligent shows and documentaries, but we are talking about journalism.  And after they roll the credits at the end of Newshour correct me if Im wrong but there is always an EXXON commercial.  Indeed one that has been portrayed as saving the environment; conceived just after the BP gulf spill.

FOX merely maintains ignorance, while the more nuanced NPR stupifies “intelligent” voters… allowing them to “think” it’s extraordinarily smart to stupidly vote for Democrats to get the same evil they’d get if they voted for Republicans.

NPR’s national (yes… propaganda) radio has smug liberal “journalists” who coyly insinuate perpetuation of the corporate person agenda. Who controls the local content for the Binghamton station I hear here? Lockheed Martin does.

The PBS Newshour’s Jim Lehrer sits silently with a wry smile, presenting no challenge, while (R)s and (D)s manufacture misinformation.

FOX merely blatantly does what PBS and NPR deviously do. It’s all fascist theater and corporate state indoctrination.

Republicans merely get people who never saw a war they didn’t love to vote for those wars they love. But it’s the Democrats who persuade people that say they don’t ever want war to eagerly vote for perpetual war. The same dynamic is always liberally at work, whether the issue is the immorality of war, an unconscionable denial of healthcare, or the environmental insanity of hydrofracture.

There’s no creature more uneducable than an corporate compliant “educated” liberal.

http://www.chenangogreens.org

Lafayette,

Euro-centric includes the U.S..

berniem, October 21 at 3:40 pm

So you join willingly all those radical right wing mouth breathers who also wish to see NPR disappear. One may be known by the company one keeps.

WE LIVE IN INTERESTING TIMES

TG: I want real news delivered by people who possess intelligence and insightfulness.

Try reading the Guardian, then Fox News. The truth is quite likely somewhere in the middle. (Or, should I have said “muddle”? ;^)

Insight always comes from a perspective, which can be excessive depending upon the person, their background and if they have an ax to grind.

Truly neutral reporting is very, very difficult to sell because, in fact, people like reporting that coincides with their beliefs. It comforts them. (Which does not intend to mean that such is right or proper. It’s just an observation.)

For intelligence, however, try the Economist. It is eclectic, decidedly on the Right-of-center, but often spot-on in terms of reporting accuracy.

And accuracy is most important because the consequence of “being informed” is to “develop an opinion”, which nonetheless remains somewhat subjective but best when based upon fact.

MY POINT

Besides, we live in interesting times - so making an effort is worth it. We are transiting from the Industrial Age to the Information Age and the socioeconomic paradigm is thus evolving as well.

Unfortunately, America is behind the ball as it moves forward. Too stuck in a reactionary mode because people feel ill at ease without the usual milestones/landmarks. We’ve got used to having it all too easily in a post-war period of relative affluence ... that is coming to an end.

It’s a New Millennium in many ways, but it seems America does not seem to have understood the changes going on.

IM: The only other critique I have is in how PBS, in today’s world market for news and information, is not moving quickly enough away from it’s “Euro-Centric” presentation of global events.

And what, pray tell, is so bad about “Euro-Centric” presentation of global events? Too much Europe and not enough navel-gazing at LaLaLand on the Potomac?

Or, too Left-of-Center for you?

On Thursday, NPR spokeswoman Anna Christopher said the network’s code of ethics applies to cultural programs it distributes, such as “World of Opera,” as well as to news shows it produces, acquires or distributes.

“We are not her employer, but she is a host for a show that we distribute,” Christopher said. “She’s a public person who represents NPR and public radio.”

So, she’s a public person? What did she “say” in public that contravened their (so-called) “guidelines”.

It’s ridiculous and would not hold up in court. To which she should take the matter. It’s censure, pure and simple and a denial of her inalienable right to public protestation - a right that belongs to all citizens of the nation.

Who the hell even knew she was an activist before this nonsense became news? (Which is rife nowadays, given the hysteria that infests peddling news in order to make an almighty buck.)

ardee,

I agree that PBS and NPR do the best overall job of presenting timely, often in-depth, insightful coverage on a large array of current events. I nearly daily podcast All Things Considered, Talk of The Nation and Planet Money. Forty years now I’ve been drawn to News Hour when a television is accessible.

I don’t see PBS and NPR as completely unbiased. I believe the programming does a good job of displaying several sides of issues important to those left of center. I’m not saying this is necessarily bad. As I say, I enjoy the programming.

The only other critique I have is in how PBS, in today’s world market for news and information, is not moving quickly enough away from it’s “Euro-Centric” presentation of global events.

I do enjoy Al Jazeera for its global perceptive.

Tobysgirl,

You never do say where you find the most intelligent and insightful coverage of events.  Perhaps you can share.

As a progressive I’m sorry to say that NPR should finally be defunded having proven itself to be a Quisling and elitist arm of the corporatocracy’s propaganda machine. Without access to my tax dollars this pathetic sell-out will be forced to mount eternal pledge drives and spare us the “People Magazine” nonsense they so often foist as independent programming! I gave up on NPR long ago and am thankful to have found AlJazzrea and LINK-TV!

Tobysgirl, October 21 at 3:26 pm

Your professed desire to hear “real news” and “incisive analysis” may really translate to wanting to hear left wing biased reporting. I urge you towards Pacifica Radio for such.

As a member of my local NPR station, and for over a decade in fact, and as one who listens every day, seven days a week, I absolutely refuse your somewhat smarmy and decidedly untrue definition of what one finds on NPR.

No other source of news available to me, or to you I suggest, gives more in depth reportage, unfailingly covers all sides of the issues and does so with scrupulous fairness allowing the listener to make up her own mind.

But perhaps that is not what you are looking for.

You know, I’m going to say about NPR what I should have said to a friend about the NYTimes.

I am not of the right class to depend upon the NYTimes (or NPR or PBS or the BBC) for news. I am not an upper-middle-class liberal. I need real news about real events, coverage by people in their own countries not hotel reporters, and certainly not people toting water for the ruling class. I want to hear incisive analysis of my country’s economy, domestic policy, and foreign policy, not commentary by people who make their living supporting the status quo. The Newshour is a privately produced program which is not about to bite the government’s or Wall Street’s hand.

So if you’re all comfy and watching the stock market to see how your investments are doing, these so-called news programs are just fine for you. I, however, was working class until I became disabled, and I want real news delivered by people who possess intelligence and insightfulness.

I have been listening to NPR since 1979. It is hardly a “liberal” Media outlet (despite the critics who would define it otherwise). Unfortunately, a more damning criticism of it is this: It has become “main stream” in it’s inability to break away from the DC concern for “access” and (as others have pointed out) being to afraid to use clear language as in the “torture” debate which was and remains a total embarrassment to NPR’s journalistic credentials.

Yes, my local affiliate, KUOW in Seattle raised $1M in listener donations this month (even though they already had $1M in reserves). And yes, my local affiliate produces some of the best “local” coverage in the U.S., but make sure you don’t send them a critical email or challenge the program directors (as one popular volunteer recently did) for you will be eliminated faster than a NY second.

I too support NPR.  Both as a listener and annual donor.

Like ardee I believe NPR, along with PBS NewsHour, allow for the most in-depth context into events.  That is precisely why I support the dismissal of Lisa Simeone.  NPR cannot afford to appear one-sided. In a climate wherein nobody trusts the media these days NPR must appear to stay neutral.

Remember the Juan Williams episode? In fairness we can’t hang any of this dismissal on republicans.

Ms. Simeone is now free to continue with OWS.

Easy Zonth, I wouldn’t include PBS among the chicken-hearted. I am disappointed in the NPR management decision. They are obviously running scared these days, aftraid of extinction. Pity. It’s so unbecoming an important voice on radio.

I suggest that Lisa’s colleagues Occupy their boss’ office and convince top management to come to a better understanding.

When the U.S. Army tortures, NPR chuckles.
http://www.npr.org/display_pages/features/feature_1290449.html

prsnrsdilema: “one more thing, if NPR, is cut out of the budget completely, maybe it would be a good
time to change it’s policies to encourage it’s employees to take political action…”

That is certainly the silver lining, yes. In reaching their million dollar mark a full day ahead of schedule, my local station was profuse in its gratitude for the outpouring of support from the community. Anything that brings people together like that has to be a good thing.

one more thing, if NPR, is cut out of the budget completely, maybe it would be a good
time to change it’s policies to encourage it’s employees to take political action…

It’s good to know that there are still people who are willing to risk, what they have, 
because they know the cost of playing it safe.

I suppose it’s true that the right would like to kill NPR for political reasons. The right has
done a good job turning the news media into an apparatus for non stop brainwashing,
and mindlessness.

Never forget that they are endlessly trying to do the same thing to the Internet.

I would disagree with Lisa about Opera, for Opera can be quite moving. And people who
are so moved are much harder to turn into Robots. Or debt slaves, the rights ultimate
goal for all of us.

Like ardee, I support my local NPR station, which was able to successfully conduct a million dollar fund drive earlier this week, an amount far in excess of fund drives of the past. The reason explicitly given for this by the station’s founder and president was the inevitability of NPR being cut entirely from the budget. He seemed to think this was a fait accompli and that, going forward, public radio was going to be entirely dependent on contributions from local businesses and private citizens. If my local station chief is correct, this would seem to call into question the notion that NPR is “National Propaganda Radio” - why would a fascist state sever one of its most effective, not to mention cheapest, organs of communication and control?

NPR is the news source for the Clinton-Obama type liberals. The consider themselves liberals because they are pro-choice and vehemently opposed to enforcing a sensible illegal immigration policy. Other than that they are pro big business and warmongers. This is the pathetic condition of the Democratic Party today.

I never knew that a crow could be a weasel!
Go figure….

I am a regular listener of my local NPR station, my employment allows me to listen to the radio all day. The reason I am attracted to public radio is the depth and breadth of its reporting as well as the attempt to be scrupulously fair, always giving all sides of every issue. Plus programming like ‘Fresh Air’, ‘Car Talk’, and ‘Wait,Wait don’t tell Me’ play to an educated audience.

I suspect that the “cowardice” shown here and in several previous incidents stems from the Republican attack on NPR and the attempts to strangle the funding it gets from govt. sources.

Regrettable, but hardly what that Crow offers, especially while citing a jackwagon like Michael Fury. Remember ,Crows are carrion eaters after all.

NPR = National Propaganda Radio

http://michaelfury.wordpress.com/2009/12/09/special-friends/

chinless weasels at NPR—both its staff and its internet inhabitants.  The farce of attempting to be perceived as objective eventually makes a mockery of itself.
PBS this evening portrayed Obama as an integral part in Egypts revolution and Gaddafi’s death.  Than another 10-15 minutes of seismologists attempting to legitimize their science and its apparent difficulty in predicting earthquakes.
Meanwhile, in Melbourne police moved in and manhandled the 99% protestors from their tent city, kicking over tents and dragging people off into paddy waggons.  This was on the evening news in Victoria Australia.
NPR and PBS are chicken hearted excuses for journalism.