NPR - Partisan Propaganda for Republicans?

[stepnw1f]

I think so. I listen to them daily and although it is a good source for a limited amount of info, they definitely and cleverly shill for Republicans. What do people think?

[sendero]

1. They've been doing just that....

.... for at least 3 years now. It's hard to say when it happened, it was so gradual at first I didn't even notice it.

My wife heard a long report on the swift boat ads today, and her description was that it was a he-said she-said bunch of tripe that didn't include any well known facts about the veracity of the report.

NPR has gone to the dark side and I implore everyone to deprive them of donations. I'd rather have NOTHING than have a wolf (conservatives) in sheeps (liberal) clothing. If it were up to me I'd shut them down tomorrow.

[glitch]

3. you can donate directly to shows that haven't been corrupted

buy tapes of their shows etc. That's what I do. Plus I support community radio stations that do a good job.
NPR has been corrupt since the head was replaced with the former head of Voice of America - I first noticed it in 2000.
I do miss the old NPR. I would love it if Air America got more serious and had more Ring of Fire type shows daily.

[JohnOneillsMemory]

2. True. NPR has gone MIA in favor of the GOP.

I noticed lots of conservative commentators before a media watch organization analyzed NPR and confirmed that most of them were conservative.

http://www.fair.org/extra/0405/npr-study.html
Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting-How Public is Public Radio?

>snip<

"In a new four-month study (5/03–8/03), the list of think tanks cited two or more times has grown to 17, accounting for 133 appearances.

FAIR classified each think tank by ideological orientation as either centrist, right of center or left of center. Representatives of think tanks to the right of center outnumbered those to the left of center by more than four to one: 62 appearances to 15. Centrist think tanks provided sources for 56 appearances.

The most often quoted think tank was the centrist Brookings Institution, quoted 31 times; it was also the most quoted think tank in 1993. It was followed by 19 appearances by the conservative Center for Strategic and International Studies and 17 by the centrist Council on Foreign Relations. The most frequently cited left-of-center organization was the Urban Institute, with eight appearances.

Diversity among think tank representatives was even more lopsided than the ideological spread, with women cited only 10 percent of the time, and people of color only 3 percent. Only white men were quoted more than twice, the most frequent being Anthony Cordesman of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (8 appearances), Michael O’Hanlon of Brookings (7) and E.J. Dionne, also of Brookings (6).

[peacetalksforall]

4. The turning point where they went from neutral to right was just about the

time the Gingrich and Burton and Grahm screamed at them everyday about cutting federal funding. When they went right, no one peeped. Before the screaming, Cokie Roberts was a neutral. NPR was another win for the right wing. FOX, the NBCs, CNN, NPR. They all marched.

They've been awful today. Everytime they reported, they started it out by making Kerry look guilty. Can you imagine the batallions of propaganda specialists that rove guides througout all these networks?

[auburngrad82]

25. Actually, Wal-Mart and Fox have both become huge donors lately

I think that's when the news slant went to the right. I'm about to quit listening to them. Maybe we should all write them and let them know that if they keep allowing right-wing bias to influence their coverage then we can no longer afford to be NPR supporters. After all, they keep telling us that the news is made possible through the support of listeners like us.

[ogsball]

5. I generally like NPR but

this evenings coverage of the Swift Boat Scandal was not good. They interviewed some guy from the Washington Post who had "researched" everything. He started by saying that Kerry had be inconsistent in some of his reporting (like where did that come from Bob Dole?) then he went on to say that the Vets for Truth have a different perspective but they haven't proved Kerry wrong. He went on about all the people on the right side of the river said there was enemy fire and while the folks on the left said there wasn't any enemy fire. Sounds to me like the Vets for Truth were shooting at Kerry back in Nam.

Terri Gross' interview with Bill O'Liely has to be my favorite radio show ever. That was NPR.

[AP]

That's the new angle: The Smear Boaters are just sharing their 'opinions"

that can't be proven wrong or right.

[AP]

6. What did you hear on NPR?

The best arguments are the ones that cite fact -- that quote from the text.

[benddem]

7. They have definitely swung right

and I stopped giving them so much money.

[Cocoa]

8. something funny with their Olympics report today

the anchor was talking to a reporter who was in Athens, and asked one last question he probably wishes he never had.

He asked him for his general impressions of the games, and the reporter basically totally trashed them. Said he'd been covering the games for a long time, and this was the first year he feld demoralized by all the corporate crap.

The anchor was not prepared for this, and actually tried disputing what the reporter had said. It sounded really weird when he did that. He had asked the question, after all. The reporter said, well, that's how I feel.

[Doctor_J]

9. national pentagon radio?

they're about 3 months from handing the daytime over to O'Really and Ingraham.

[BiggJawn]

10. Where are the NPR apologists?

These threads usually bring them out of the woodwork, "Hrmm, Yass, NPR's news coverage may be a TEENSY bit slanted to the Right, but they have 'Prairie Home Companion' and 'Whaddayano?', and oh, that 'Car Talk'! I NEVER knew the engine in my Volvo was SO complex <chuckle>..."

Listening to Cokie Roberts give a report on Morning Edition is like listening to my neighbours screw next door. She gives Chimpy GOOD Aural Sex...

And who produced that "Slime Barge" story this afternoon? one of the usual producer's KID? Why don't they just run the damn spot and say "In case it's not burned into your brain yet, we'll play it again, Again-again!"

Was it Goehring or Goebbels who said to repeat the lie until it's believed as Truth?

[The Mafia Squirrel]

27. Nuremberg Public Radio

You asked for an apologist... I can't say I listen enough now or ever to be an apologist for NPR. But even a causual listener has noticed some bright spots:

Sarah Vowell on This American Life. I recommend her book "The Partly Cloudy Patriot", she refers to herself as a "partisan capital D Democrat" and writes about protesting at the '00 inauguration and crying at the indignity when the national anthem played.

NPR also had lengthy interviews with both Ralph Nader (in error this year but hardly a conservative bastion) and Howard Dean during their campaigns, one of the few places to allow them to air fleshed out positions rather than "kooky liberal soundbites".

They still have plenty of left wing foundation supporters too, so there's hope for the future. But then again, i'm writing from extreme right wing Idaho, anything that shows a hint of liberal stands out like a freakin lighthouse here. Our COLLEGE sponsored radio station features Bill O'Reilly, Sean Hannity and the worst of the worst, Michael "women are too irrational to have the vote" Savage. So at least NPR isn't giving me a peptic ulcer.

[BiggJawn]

30. Howdy, Squirrel!

I hear that "Fresh Air" and Diane Rheem are pretty good,but I work 2 floors underground in a common area where it's considered "bad joss" to have the speakers turned up in your prairie dog hole, so I can't speak to those shows.

That leaves mornings and afternoon drive-home time, and that's where the worst of it is.

Jeez, you have a college station that airs RW hate? what is it, an MBA factory? My sympathies!

[autorank]

11. De-Fund Them Forever! PBS Too

They've been around too long. They're media whores, par excellance. Even if they shift back, they're still whores. Take every government dime from NPR and PBS, ear-mark it for Head Start, and make these tepid, pseudo news people find real work.

[ogsball]

13. I can't afford XM and I'm in

the land of Rush and Jim Bohanon. I think Dobson is on the radio on three different stations and the local hacks are even more conservative. No NPR is my only hope of even a hit of rational thought. With another administration they'll swing back.

[autorank]

19. Sorry

I was just venting. I see you point and do a big 'flip-flop'. God Bohanon sucks. I think he's even more arrogant than Rush. Good luck with your work...satellite radio is absolutely perfect. If you have a dish, check and see if Sirius Satellite Radio is on it. They are XM's competitor and THEY ROCK. See how persuasive you are!

Fellow Democrat.

[leftofthedial]

12. national propaganda radio

open forum for whatever RW wack job has some bile to spew

[question everything]

14. Most Republicans that I know consider NPR a propaganda for liberals

so, I suppose, this means that they are doing just fine

[Bimini_Twisted]

17. Sad, sad sad. I,m glad I have XM Radio for AAR but everything else is too

conservative for me. We have a great community radio station here in Tampa Bay. WMNF plays all my liberal favorites, Democracy Now etc...
Plus some kick ass tunes!!

[newyawker99]

23. Hi Bimini_Twisted!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[question everything]

32. Wasn't there a Radio Pacifica in Tampa Bay?

Used to be really great radio station, in the early 90s. Don't remember their call letters.

[lanparty]

20. They say that about ABC too ...

... that shows you how their viewpoint is schewed.

NPR is STILL the most "balanced" news source out there. Even if it is leaning rightward lately. Air America is great. But I realize that it is partisan (and about 90% correct).

[catzies]

15. I, for one, still miss Bob Edwards TERRIBLY.

And I do feel he 'got fired' for speaking out against Bush, and the Corporate Media than enables him. :cry:

on edit: I did cut my NPR pledge in half his year, for NPR's sacking of Bob Edwards and for KCRW's sacking of Sandra Tsing Loh.

[Kitka]

16. As do I. I cancelled my subscription when he got booted.

[Green Lantern]

34. We

refused to pledge the last two years because they wouldn't air Democracy Now. Had a lame excuse that Amy Goodman wasn't a credible reporter.

Told me I could listen to it on my community radio station. They later asked me to pledge again, Said sorry, my money just went to the community station and my listening time did also.

Haven't heard back yet.

[AP]

18. I had an exchange with an NPR segment director re their Chavez coverage.

I complained to the Omnibus that it was outrageous that they played sad music after a story about Chavez's victory.

The segment director wrote me back. He said that he was sorry, and that the choice was a mistake, but that he only picked the song because he thought it was pretty.

I wrote back, essentially telling him that didn't cut it. I said that they do stuff like that so often, that the claim that it was an accident defies the law of averages, and that even if it was, that doesn't solve the problem.

He wrote back again saying, basically, I'm stubborn and I could never know what was in his heart.

I wrote again telling him that characterizing this as being about my personality and about feelings either of our feelings was really missing the point.

He hasn't written back.

[lanparty]

21. The piece was outrageous ..

Greg Palast has all the goods on these creeps. They only need give him some air time. He'd GIVE them his reporting if they'd just air it.

[DeepModem Mom]

22. LINK TO CONTACT WEBPAGE FOR NPR --

http://www.npr.org/contact/

[LeftHander]

24. Becoming Big Pharma Shills?

I am doing a investigative piece on SSRI reporting by NPR over the past 8 months. Should be on my blog in a few days...

I have been hearing lots of contradictory information and I feel SOME reporters at NPR are shilling for the drug companies. (Imagine that)

They spout some studies but fail to mention how the studies were funded. Pharma has a way of covering it's tracks in funding studies designed to slant results in their favor.

[AP]

26. In same vein, NPR's Big Ag coverage has always been pro-Big Ag.

They have a guy who comes on as an expert on Big Ag who has written a pro-Big Ag book. Before he wrote that book, he was an NPR Reporter.

I don't discount that someone could be a reporter, report on an issue, and then write a one-sided book on the issue, and then become an expert on the issue. But there's something that stinks about this situation. I think the guy's arguments are crazy, to begin with. And I also think the chances are so incredibly slim that NPR would have produced someone who wrote a critical book. I also suspect that NPR's underwriters (Monsanto, ADM) probably underwrote this guy during the year or so he took to write the book after he quit his job at NPR.

[midnight armadillo]

28. Consider their funding

NPR has three major funding sources: the feds (i.e. the House Republicans), major corporations, and the white upper middle class who can afford to donate "just $300 this quarter" as WBUR was asking for recently.

Their coverage is fairly liberal on social issues, and pretty conservative on economic and political ones. They never, ever rock the establishment boat. This reflects their funding base. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting needs to be funded like the BBC with a dedicated tax on radios & tvs to remove politics completely from their coverage.

As PUBLIC radio NPR should also provide multiple points of view, and I would hope to hear liberal, conservative, libertarian, and the occasional loony tunes type (of any stripe) on NPR. They should also include labor and low-income perspectives, which never happens, except in the most condescending fashion. I can dream, can't I?

[sadiesworld]

29. Yesterday,I caught the tail end of a segment on trade and outsourcing...

Stephen Moore on the right and Paul Krugman on the left. I think Krugman is great on a lot of issues, but representing the left on globalization? :crazy: No different from the NYT.

[AP]

31. I re-read Krugman's article on Chávez from April 2002...

and I have to agree with you: Krugman representing the left on globalization? Hello?

Krugman said that he didn't think Chavez was the leader that Venezuela needed today, but he was elected democratically, so we should respect him.

He implied that the anti-Chávez alliance started from a good place, and ended up being coopted by the right. He said that it began with the labor unions.

It's stunning that Krugman doesn't realize that the union leaders in VZ are in bed with the RW and don't represent the interests of labor.

[sadiesworld]

33. I can't imagine Krugman doesn't know the score.

How sad to see him go to these extremes to shill for the neo-libs.

[waywest]

35. I supported NPR for 20 years...

Now, I just want to shrink npr down to the size of an itch cream commercial that I can ZAP with one hand.
Newt can have npr. Nationalist Propaganda Radio