Peter Voskamp writes:
Stumbled upon Terry Gross and Fresh Air last night. Bizarre listening to Ethan Bronner and Gross sort of contort themselves to lay the blame, ultimately, at Hamas'
feet. Bronner offers some "horse race" analysis about the why and
wherefore (Israel had to do this in part to restore confidence in the
military after the 2006 Lebanon incursion; Hamas provoked Israel only
because they saw how Hezbollah
upped its profile by doing so in 2006). He goes on to admit that the
Hamas rockets kill maybe one person a year, but, dammit, the U.N.
doesn't enforce resolutions to keep Iran
from meddling. The end of the interview, in particular, was odd.
Bronner basically acknowledges that if one were to create a "pain
index"– there's no question that the Palestinians are much worse off,
"But that's not what we're talking about here…" Any atrocities
mentioned were only those committed by Hamas.
It almost sounds as if
Bronner knows in his heart of hearts that the Israeli response was
morally indefensible, but has his reflexive, knee-jerk hiccup back to
the party line–
feet. Bronner offers some "horse race" analysis about the why and
wherefore (Israel had to do this in part to restore confidence in the
military after the 2006 Lebanon incursion; Hamas provoked Israel only
because they saw how Hezbollah
upped its profile by doing so in 2006). He goes on to admit that the
Hamas rockets kill maybe one person a year, but, dammit, the U.N.
doesn't enforce resolutions to keep Iran
from meddling. The end of the interview, in particular, was odd.
Bronner basically acknowledges that if one were to create a "pain
index"– there's no question that the Palestinians are much worse off,
"But that's not what we're talking about here…" Any atrocities
mentioned were only those committed by Hamas.
It almost sounds as if
Bronner knows in his heart of hearts that the Israeli response was
morally indefensible, but has his reflexive, knee-jerk hiccup back to
the party line–
Then Gross sounded nervous speaking to Jimmy Carter.
I posted about Terry Gross's disappointingly zionist questions yesterday (under Phil's discussion of "old man" and also Jon Stewart Continues to Spend Political Capital"):
Campare Stewart to Terry Gross.
On today's "Fresh Air"–which should be re-named "White Phosphorus"–on National RePublican Radio, Terry Gross acted as though she's a Zionist.
All Gross's questions to both Ethan Bronner (more who offered more "hand-wringing," as Phil and Adam say,) and former President Jimmy Carter followed the Zionist-AIPAC-Likud script.
Terry Gross feels the pain of an Expansionist Greater Israel deeply, and even interrupted Pres. Carter to ask frantically about Hamas's trustworthiness: [approx] "I'm always waiting for the other shoe to drop" whenever Hamas [pretends] to make concessions. Absolutely sickening!
Terry projects the consistent Israeli violation of all promises onto Palestinians.
I'm writing to NPR–again–now to protest Gross's "Gross Zionism."
P.S. Thanks, Phil, for the info. about the VP of NPR's news division.
"Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform Jews" "is married to Ellen Weiss, vice president for news at NPR."
I haven't been following Gross's recent career. (I assume it's standard PEP.) But here's an incident from when she was starting out–
"… it's an interview that I and other regular listeners to the show didn't have the opportunity to hear that raises questions about Gross' integrity. Specifically, on Jan. 27, 1993, Gross taped an interview with Robert Friedman about his book called "Zealots for Zion" — a book highly critical of Israeli settlers on the West Bank that was reviewed favorably in the New York Times Book Review and elsewhere. The interview never was broadcast.
"Gross claimed that she didn't air the interview because she felt some of Friedman's views were too extreme, it was unbalanced and she couldn't locate a counterbalancing opponent of Friedman to interview. Now, Gross interviews guests with highly controversial views from time to time and has managed to play devil's advocate. What made this interview different?
"It seems clear that because what the press characterizes as the pro-Israel lobby (exemplified by C.A.M.E.R.A.) loudly protested the impending airing of the interview, Gross capitulated. Now Leibovich may plead that this incident is ancient history. But who is to say who Ms. Gross doesn't interview out of fear of offending that same loose grouping or others??
It's also described here.
Peter,
"Bizarre listening to Ethan Bronner and Gross sort of contort themselves to lay the blame, ultimately, at Hamas' feet."
Really perceptive description.
D.,
Wow–fascinating. Thanks to you both.
Here's the FAIR story D links to–unbelievable but sadly typical–what a lack of integrity, trying to "fix the evidence around" the prejudice FOR Zionist fundamentalists:
'Shortly after a favorable review of his book on Jewish settlers in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, Zealots for Zion, appeared in the New York Times Book Review (1/10/93), Village Voice reporter Robert I. Friedman was invited to discuss the book on Fresh Air, an interview-format show distributed by NPR. The interview was taped on January 27 and was to be broadcast later that day. Promos advertised the upcoming segment.
But Fresh Air never aired the interview. Robert I. Friedman says he was told that some of the views he expressed, like saying that some settlers view Arabs as less than human, were "too extreme." According to Friedman, a Fresh Air producer told him that a "moderate" settler was needed to balance his views, and that one had already been interviewed, but turned out to be too extreme as well. The producers wanted a "moderate, reasonable" settler who wasn't a spokesperson — and they wanted Friedman's help in finding such a settler, adding that they wouldn't air Friedman's interview if they couldn't track one down.
"They were looking for something that didn't exist," Friedman told FAIR. Nonetheless, after talking to his publishers at Random House, Friedman gave Fresh Air several settler contacts. But no sufficiently "moderate" settler was found. Fresh Air even called back to complain that one of the names Friedman gave them, like the one they found, was too extreme. Rather than viewing this as evidence for Friedman's thesis of widespread settler extremism and racism, Fresh Air decided to kill the interview with Friedman altogether.
Fresh Air executive producer and host Terry Gross said, "It's not that[Friedman's] political views were too extreme to air, but that he colored a couple of things in extreme ways." Gross said Fresh Air "needed a balance" to "statements like 'settling the Occupied Territories is a lunatic endeavor' and 'most settlers see Arabs as less than human.'… At some point you feel, maybe it's appropriate to call up a settler and have them express that in their own words, or have them take issue with it." But Gross noted that the settler she spoke to in a pre-interview "was very anti-Arab," adding that they didn't broadcast that interview because the settler was "out of focus."
NPR has recently come under attack as "anti-Israeli" by CAMERA (the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), a media watch group that challenges news reports deemed critical of Israel. CAMERA specifically criticized Fresh Air for interviewing Seymour Hersh, Gloria Emerson and Leslie and Andrew Cockburn, claiming that authors "that fail to label Israel as the villain rarely if ever get an airing."
Gross denied CAMERA's pressure influenced her. She argued that "there's a difference between an editorial decision and censorship." Gross wanted to have the settlers' view to "help bring the interview to life." But after two interviews failed to yield a settler who was sufficiently focused, she determined that "it wasn't worth putting more time into."'
Thanks, D!
Terry projects the consistent Israeli violation of all promises onto Palestinians.
I'm not an anthropologist, Susie, but projection seems to be one of the sacred rituals of Zionism.
I'm writing to NPR–again–now to protest Gross's "Gross Zionism."
And I suppose Terry didn't ask Ethan about how restoring confidence in the military ends up being "baal habayit hishtageya". And that's what you might call Gross negligence on her part.
My take on Gross is that she is herself a Zionist, but I don't know that.
There needs to be a really good investigative report concerning the way the Lobby influences the news. There've been anecdotes – like Phil's call from William Safire threatening to end his career – and we can all see evidence of it, but it's hard to tell how much is explicit pressure and how much is self-imposed thought control. It's a big story and deserves a thorough vetting. Maybe Stephen Bloom would tackle it? Maybe Phil could?
Does anyone know if Vivian Schiller, the new President of NPR, is Jewish?
I only ask because she replaced Ken Stern who in turn succeeded Kevin Klose, and that would make for an impressive streak of Jewish power, even for our American media.
Other top NPR officers are:
- Mitch Praver Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer
- Ellen Weiss Vice-President for News
Everyone has their own favorite on-air NPR personalities. My own personal favorite is Linda Gradstein. I believe she's gathering recipes for a Jewish cookbook to be published when her stint as the Jerusalem correspondent is over.
(I just made that up about the cookbook.)
Doppler.
It was M.J. Rosenberg who was threatened by William Safire while he was an aide to Sen Carl Levin and penned something for the Senator that was "mildly critical of Israel."
I had an entirely DIFFERENT take on Bronner's interview.
That was that Bronner was in fact NOT adopting either the pro-Israel description nor the anti-Israel description, and as such provided a great deal of information on what actually occurred in Gaza, as separate from what is propogated.
For one, he described Hamas Gaza as NOT particularly a "closed-society", as in much more freedom of assembly and speech than they are given credit for. Also, that the effect of the restrictions on commercial traffic across the border made a great deal of difference to the Gazan society.
But, he also described their condition more as strained, than as dire.
I learned a lot.
I think most are upset at the eye witness reports that most of Gaza looks like it always did.
One element of the Bronner piece that conflicted with conventional impressions of Gaza, was that Bronner described Gaza as a relatively developed and cosmopolitan community.
They have universities, police, hospitals, garbage pickup, water purification, courts.
Only the militias and military screws it up. They arm. They fight. They attack each other.
When I think about those in Hamas that do the shelling, I remember a scene from "Dances with Wolves", in which the young teenagers (not yet warriors) steal the captain's horse screaming "We will be heroes. They will write songs about us."
That is because you are a brainwashed Hollywood robot, Richard.
Leave it to the rabble to ruin a fine analogy. There are many instances in Arabic literature romanticizing the same notions.
While it must be nice to day dream, acting on them will bring the world to ruin.
And, what song did the young IDF warriors sing while shitting all over inside the Pal homes?
"Rabbi David Saperstein of the Reform Jews" "is married to Ellen Weiss, vice president for news at NPR."
Yeah, that explains it. Gross is a liberal supporter of Israel. That's what she believes, because that is the sea she swims in, as do others at WHYY Philadelphia (I bugged Marty Moss Coane about this for years to no avail). It's assimilated American Jewish, it's Democratic, it's privileged, it's U.S. FP, it's support for Israel. It's not Jewish money, it's not power-couple wannabees in Washington. OK, it's who your friends are, and that you don't want to offend them or lose them. OK, it might be your job. But it's not coercion, it's conformity. It's laziness. It's arrogance. Why should Gross raise our expectations. She's another pretentious NPR twit, always has been. Oh, she's gay. Sorry, she's privileged.
She's also Jewish herself of course.
Richard—to your point about Bronner’s description of Gaza. I didn’t mention another weird moment in the interview, when Gross mentioned another NYT reporter who courageously reported on the execution of informers in Gaza. It was clearly brought up to further damn Hamas —but Bronner ended up taking that thread and turning it into, “Hamas actually doesn’t try to suppress reporting….” Which was an odd place for the interview to go, because it definitely sounded as if Gross was going there expecting a different response. In the end, it was more confirmation to me about how conflicted Bronner is.
They executed who they believed, without a trial, evidence, jury, or judge, were informers?
Can't help but love people who do that. Why they are the salt of the earth!