Very good piece by Glenn Greenwald on NPR's refusal to use the word "torture" to describe the interrogation techniques adopted by the Bush administration, and on the refusal of an NPR ombudsman to answer Greenwald's questions. (I'd be afeered of Greenwald too, across a table–steeltrap mind). A friend's comment:
Interesting as a revelation of how successfully the Bush-Cheney intimidation of NPR was carried through. Its peak was the chairmanship of the CPB by Kenneth Y. Tomlinson between September 2003 and September 2005: a Voice of America far-right controller, whose job was to discipline and enforce "balance" to the point where the censorship would be internalized and self-induced. Tomlinson did what he was brought in to do. What we are seeing now are post-mortem effects.
All Things Considered, around 1990, seemed a small miracle, completely out of keeping with the rest of American political culture, a reliable and sometimes a courageous source. Now, it is just part of the scenery. The difference between All Things Considered and Fox Radio is the difference between the drawing room and the garage but the two are audibly members of the same family. The NPR wife and the Fox husband.
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Thats a bullshit summary.
RE: "I'd be afeered of Greenwald too, across a table–steeltrap mind" MY COMMENT: Me too! He's as tenacious as a pit bull. (I mean that as a compliment.) PS. I've pretty much given up on both NPR and PBS.
NO. It's right on the money. Do I have to tell you to read in what NPR consistently leaves out?
Don't be passive in relation to news, Citizen. Its a single source, where to be informed requires inquiry from MULTIPLE sources, with multiple perspectives.
Frank Mankiewicz/Mankowitz, who started All Things Considered, told me directly that he lifted the idea for the show wholesale from Canada's CBC Radio's As It Happens. Barbara Frum was one of the most famous hosts of that show. You can see a young version of her here: http://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/affiliate/7... [Barbara Frum was David Frum's mother. He came down here to the US because he would never have made it in Canada with his on/off/good/evil/black/white way of seeing the world, which is against broadcast law in Canada, and coming to the US let him piggyback off his revered mother's reputation.] What no one knows is that CBC Radio's As It Happens was a wholesale copy of Alberta's CKUA afternoon programming. CKUA was the first public radio station worldwide after BBC, incorporated three months after the BBC did on Dec 31, 1926. The UA in the call letters stand for University of Alberta. CKUA was the first radio station in the world to cover the legislature live and to produce press commentary on the legislative proceedings live. They played bootleg copies from the Blue Note in NYC two weeks after a performance; Gil Evans was the Saturday night CKUA host of the Yardbird Suite playing Thelonious Monk and Coltrane while they were still virtually unknown in Manhattan. They played afternoon theater for kids, ran the Wheat Board reports for farmers, and could be heard in every rural district of the province. K.D. Lang was raised on this radio station. They conducted phone interviews with every important person in the news during the 50s and 60s — long interviews — when no other station in North America was doing it, and to this day their music programming is known to the cognoscenti. Some of CKUA's history is here: http://www.ualberta.ca/ALUMNI/history/affiliate/7...
Just another historical tidbit about CKUA. Their original mandate 1927 was to bring free university education to people in rural Alberta, people that would typically not have access to post secondary education. THat accounted for their incredible range of programming. In the 90s when the Alberta economy was taking a hit, the Alberta Premier ordered that the public station go private and gave them some dough to do it. The people in charge bungled the job, wasted the money, and it went off the air in 1997. The entire province went nuts. I mean demonstrations and sit-ins. The groundswell from the public — all ages, all nationalities — shocked the government. Anger, people in tears, it made worldwide news even during the Clinton chronicles. (If you were paying attention.) They finally put it back together 100% supported by listeners. No government funding. They get some corporate sponsors because it's considered a provincial treasure, but no corporation can dictate content nor would it attempt to. Locally, it would be considered the equivalent of trying to rape your friend's grandmother on the steps of City Hall.
I would have asked Shepard whether she was Jewish or Zionist. She is using Ziospeak: Zionists like Martha Minow Lie About Torture. In the past the favored Zioterm was "moderate physical pressure." And by the way Minow, who has engaged in a racist Jewish Nazi (Zionist) coverup of Zionist torture, is the dean-designate of the Harvard Law School. She should be fired for moral turpitude.
You should be hung for being an asshole. Oh well.
"All Things Considered, around 1990, seemed a small miracle, completely out of keeping with the rest of American political culture, a reliable and sometimes a courageous source. Now, it is just part of the scenery." Something very similar has happened on the other side of the Atlantic to the BBC World Service. And it occurred over almost exactly the same time period. I remember how impressed I was in the early 90s that the Beeb's radio presenters were capable of asking tough questions of government spokesmen. In the case of the BBC the loss is more tragic than NPR's, as it represents the (intentional?) dismantling of a culture of public service broadcasting that took generations to create. Now it's just 24 hours of innocuous filler. ("Tell us what YOU think.") The most serious news channel these days is probably Al Jazeera. The most serious news channel these days is probably Al Jazeera.
Is there an echo in here?
Pictures are hung. People are hanged.
The most serious news channel these days is probably Al Jazeera. Absolutely, And the ADL went to town to make sure it was barred from cable in this country. Have to use Livestation.com.
I'm not passive at all. I know what NPR consistently leaves out precisely because I read MULTIPLE sources, with MULTIPLE perspectives. How arrogant of you to claim to know how I inform myself and presume from your fabrication out of thin air to lecture me. And, given NPR's financing and charter, pardon me for suggesting NPR intentionally fails its public mission.
Would like to know the mechanics of how that ban was accomplished in the home of free speech.
There are a lot of questions about NPR. 1. Why do American Jewish World Service and George Lucas so heavily fund it? How much do they give and what does it buy? 2. Why do many programs inexplicably feature prominent zionists? David Frum is a mainstay on "Marketplace" bloviating about economics, without ever having to discuss how neocon support for the Iraq invasion is partially responsible for the global recession. 3. Why are Walt and Mearsheimer treated like toxic waste on "The Diane Rehm Show" and "Fresh Air" with Terry Gross? 4. Why isn't there any room for prominent Arab or Muslim broadcasters on NPR?
Thanks for the cite to the history of CKUA. A long time listener to Pacifica Radio (KPFA), I thought KPFA was the original, but now I know better. Mike P
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