NPR’s CEO has resigned. This approach of bending over and taking it every time you upset the wingnuts is proving to be really successful.
And I love the rules. Say true but harsh things in private, and you have to go. Make up awful nonsense, and you get a gig at Fox, a Vice Presidential nomination, or a Senate seat.
dmsilev
How long until we find out that the full unedited video makes things look far more trivial than O’Keefe claims?
A week?
dms
Pamela F
FYI, John:
11:00 a.m. (est), Diane Rehm on NPR is going to discuss the resignation of their CEO. Maybe you should e-mail this post to the show.
catclub
dmsilev:
You type faster than I do.
Violet
Aren’t they in the middle of trying to get money from Congress? Probably scared they won’t get the cash if they don’t offer up a ritual sacrifice. What a bunch of wimps.
If someone would just stand up to these bullies, they’d earn a lot of respect.
singfoom
IOKIYAR in action. The filth that Rush/Beck/Levin throw out on the airwaves make this look like nothing. And it is nothing.
It’s disappointing that NPR didn’t grow a pair and push back and fight for their people, but that fighting spirit isn’t in their ethos.
As Stewart said months ago, “You brought a totebag of David Sedaris books to a knife fight.”
As much as I do love NPR, it’s a pretty establishment organ, and I am not surprised they would react to this bullshit in the most conservative way possible.
To be fair though, they’ve removed the people who are lightning rods, perhaps that’s tactically smart so they can’t be accused of not cleaning their own house, even if it’s bullshit. So sad.
arguingwithsignposts
what, no hat tip? I haz a sad.
ellie
I am trying to figure out what he said that wasn’t the truth. I guess it [truth] really does have a liberal bias.
Trinity
@Violet:
This.
Sweet Jeebus I am just tired of this bullshit.
ellie
I am trying to figure out what the NPR guy said that wasn’t the truth. I guess it [truth] really does have a liberal bias.
Viva BrisVegas
@dmsilev:
It’s not possible for it to be more trivial.
But you do all realise that Breitbart is laying out the foundations for the new Web journalism? Get used to it.
RSR
As was highlighted here recently: the 27%’ers don’t want to be accommodated. If you give in to them, it will not satisfy them.
williamc
WTF is wrong with the executives at NPR? I would bet an overwhelming majority of their audience agrees with what this Shiller guy was saying, and HE WASN’T A REPORTER. Can the man not have an opinion? The majority of the Republcan Party doubts that the first black President of the United States was born here but that’s not racism?
The Republicans are evil race-baiting sharks and we are dripping blood (ACORN, Planned Parenthood, Unions, NPR) everywhere for them to hunt us down.
Redshirt
I’m sure this will settle the matter.
Who cares anyways? NPR is as poisoned as the rest. Time to see all the media implode. Let Newscorp run it all.
Kryptik
Don’t forget the bs people are throwing about him agreeing to anti-semetic crap and to take money from the “Muslim Brotherhood”. Despite even in the edited video him simply nodding dismissively and uncomfortably and not even agreeing to take the money.
Of course all anyone else will remember is that NPR hates the TEa Party, real Americans, and Jews, and loves Al Qaida. Because all the country subsists on is hippie punching, and real Americans abhor anyone who doesn’t want to fuck the poor and fellate the Kochs.
cleek
pussies
Jeff Darcy
When is O’Keefe going to jail for recording without permission?
wyliecoat
Well, I want to do something about it, even if it just means writing to the NPR Board members. Can anyone get me the email addresses?
RSR
via the twitters:
chrislhayes hahaha! MT @brianstelter: V. Schiller: “I’m hopeful that my departure from NPR will…eas[e] the defunding pressure on public broadcasting.”
Kryptik
@Jeff Darcy:
After he gets the medal for Great Achievements in Journalism, right alongside Breitbart apparently. Since everyone seems to be convinced that they’re the true arbiters of fact and what’s right.
kc
Make up awful nonsense, and you get a gig at Fox, a Vice Presidential nomination, or a Senate seat.
Call a Supreme Court Justice a goat-fucking child molester, get hired by CNN . . .
Suck It Up!
Hey, you forgot prime gigs at CNN and regular softball interviews with the very serious journalists at ms/nbc.
Elizabelle
@williamc:
Both Schillers’ problems, in a nutshell.
1) Ron Schiller’s statements were, at core, factually true, although it’s too broad to call each and every Tea Partier a racist. And
2) the majority of NPR listeners would agree with him. Proving all of them are a bunch of elitist snobs to thin-skinned conservative ideologues.
Main problem here for the ideologues: their ideas DON’T WORK in the real world and that fact is pointed out, ably and serially, by NPR on a continual basis.
The real reason for going after its funding and smearing it as a news source.
The facts, irritating creatures they be, do have a liberal bias.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Violet:
In every movie I’ve ever seen where this is done, right after you finish throwing virgins into the volcano to appease the angry magma gods, the volcano ends up erupting anyway.
Zifnab
Hasn’t CBS been a lot better off since they canned Dan Rather? Isn’t the Department of Agriculture stronger and more effective without Shirley Sherrod? Aren’t we finally able to sleep better at night knowing ACORN has been defunded?
And given the goldfish-like mental capacity of the 24 hour news media, wasn’t it far wiser to shit can a decades long administrative veteran for stating his opinion, than just shrugging, apologizing, and waiting till something shiny distracted the national news over the weekend?
:-p To quote Charlie Sheen – WINNING!
kindness
I like how one of the commentors stated that the US Military broadcasts Rush & Beck every single day. Every single day the right is allowed to lie an smear liberals. But when one NPR person gives an honest opinion about conservatives, they all must be fired.
The Republican party is now in the hands of spoiled children. Children who wouldn’t know what is right and what is good if it bit them on the ass.
Morbo
I was screaming obscenities at the radio when ATC had Tucker Carlson on to discuss this. And I can already tell (i.e. Stephen Moore is a guest) that Diane Rehm is going to be unlistenable as well. Yes, NPR’s liberal bias is so intense.
The Moar You Know
@Elizabelle: I agree. How about we limit it to “every single one I’ve ever met, or seen on TV, or read quotes from in the media”?
Kryptik
I’m seriously glad for Wisconsin at this point, since as this story seems to prove, every single other segment of this country seems on board to fuck over every single minutely liberal or liberal-looking person, organization, and policy until we’re finally in that Galtian paradise everyone dreams of. I never expected Wisconsin to turn the way it is, but it still only feels like a gimmie field goal after losing the rest of the game 70-0.
Master of Karate and Friendship
Screw NPR.
http://www.correntewire.com/npr_its_just_not_you
SFAW
Fixed. I hope.
Bulworth
Well,since the governor of Wisconsin was forced to resign after his talks with the faux David Koch were leaked, where he alluded to planting fake protestors and bs’ing Democrats into returning to the state, then this was the least the NPR manager could do.
Oh wait.
YellowDog
Add to that rule this corollary:
Only Republicans’ sex lives are private matters. IOKIYAR to visit prostitutes, pay hush money to mistresses, and cheat on your dying wife. IOKIYAR to be gay as long as you’re in the closet and don’t support teh gay agenda. Adopt a wide stance, advertise for trysts with trannies, or get caught with rent boys and you may have to go.
SFAW
I, obviously, am more mature than you are, because I was only flipping the radio the bird, and saying – in my “indoor voice”, of course – “Fuck you, you asshole”.
So there.
Poopyman
@Kryptik:
That might not be so bad if it were a game, and it was over. But this is a fight for the future of the country, nothing less. And we don’t have the option of licking our wounds and getting ready for next week’s game.
And as far as NPR, no more money for them. I’m drafting a letter explaining just why they can no longer count on my money. Sucks for their affiliates, but if NPR actually is wiped out, maybe I’ll feel better about giving money to the locals — assuming they survive.
dslak
@Master of Karate and Friendship: My view on NPR is that it’s the least worst of a very bad bunch, and it’s a more informative listening choice during my commute than anything on AM Radio. Also, their local affiliate provides good, critical coverage of local events.
For serious, hard-hitting news and reporting however, I recommend BBC Radio 4. You can find an excellent selection of their podcasts here.
SFAW
You forgot
Polanddiapers!Ash Can
I was disappointed yesterday that NPR was so quick to apologize for this, but I could understand it given the current budget wrangling in Congress. But forcing out the prez/CEO (and the MSNBC article does make it apparent that she was pushed by the board)? That’s thoroughly and completely fucked up. Either NPR really is on the verge of losing its government funding and lives in abject terror of it (which I find hard to believe given the Dems in the Senate and WH, but then I’ve been wrong before), or there’s something really, really fishy going on with the NPR board.
Kryptik
@Poopyman:
Amazing that after they get roshamboed in the nuts by the Conservative Wunderkinder, they rush to bring on every conservative batshit talking heads they can find to explain why NPR sucks so much and why O’Keefe is a godsend.
Yeah, fuck it, I give up. There’s just no fucking hope for anyone reasonably liberal left in this country. Just give me the match and the gasoline, maybe I can go out with a bang than a whimper of abject despair and helplessness.
Neo
Sometimes you get the feeling that Liberal vs Conservative is much like White vs Black.
piratedan
I suggest that we start mounting a C-SPAN watch, this truckload of blatantly biased crap is probably going to lead up to another righteous Anthony Wiener rant in Congress (since Grayson is gone) and as such, we should make sure it gets posted here. After all, we can’t rely on Jon Stewart for everything.
and in a WTF moment, what in the hell is Lawrence O’Donnell doing covering the Charlie Sheen fiasco, goddammit man, wingnuts are proposing and PASSING outrageous legislation in state houses across America and you have to devote five minutes doing a verbal reacharound with an entertainment lawyer regarding the legalities of Sheen’s firing, who gives a rats ass! Cover politics you arsehole!
three months and counting to KO being back on the air over at Current, thank gawd for Maddow and its surprising, but Schultz has appeared to have raised his game too.
Karoli
The only problem with NPR’s handling of O’Keefe’s punkery? Apologizing for it. I’d have fired her for that, too. Funny how telling the truth these days is a liability.
Lies are the native tongue of the right. They don’t understand truth. It’s a pity NPR bent to their nonsense.
The Ancient Randonneur (formerly known as The Grand Panjandrum)
I just hope this doesn’t delay my tote bag being mailed to me.
JWL
The most pathetic example of democratic capitulation of that sort was when Durbin of Illinois leveled a righteous criticism at the Bush administration (I forget the particulars), and then proceeded to weep on the floor of the senate the very next day during his abject apology.
I have called the GOP the Party of Rule or Ruin for many years. From that moment on, I began to consider democrats as the Party of Boneless Wonders*.
(Hat Tip to Winston Churchill).
Violet
RE: the NPR funding stuff, I haven’t listened to the recording of the NPR guy, but I heard that he says that NPR doesn’t need government funding? Does he really say that? That’s really damning for NPR if he does.
danimal
The real nugget in the O’Keefe propaganda was that Shiller admitted NPR could mostly survive without federal funding. I think a total drawdown of federal funds over the next couple of years is the way to go. Then, the executives of NPR can tell the truth in private without worry. More importantly, the programs themselves can tell the truth without worrying about conservative tantrums over funding.
Conservatives have a lot of leverage over NPR for a relatively small amount of funding. It’s not worth it; our society needs good journalism, and NPR is one of the better sources of actual journalism these days.
eemom
but I haz a confuzzled — weren’t they saying yesterday that this person was on the way out anyway?
Morbo
@eemom: Robert Schiller was on the way out yesterday. Vivian Schiller was not. They are not related.
cbear
Yep. But what’s really galling is that our fearless Democratic leaders and establishment don’t even have the balls to even ask for a little kiss, much less a reacharound.
Citizen_X
@Kryptik:
Meanwhile, O’Keefe mans the literature table at a fucking White Power conference, and he’s a reliable source.
cleek
@eemom:
yep. he had already decided to go work for The Aspen Institute. which now says um, on second thought: no thanks.
Soprano2
I actually got on the air with Diane Rehm to comment and ask a question. I guess their answer to my question about whether or not it’s now a firing offense to express opinions is that yes, it is, always and all the time. Evidently if you work for NPR or any other media outfit that the right labels liberal e.g., all of them except Faux News, you must assume you’re being recorded at all times. No answer to my query about what you might hear if you miked the cafeteria at Fox News. Figures. Also no response to my statement that anyone who accepts a video recorded by James O’Keefe without checking whether it’s been edited is foolish. They don’t want to touch that with a 10 foot pole.
Kryptik
@cleek:
Hey, double scalpage! Win! That O’Keefe sure knows how to do winning right, don’t he?!
Now excuse me, I’m about ready to immolate myself now since I’m further convinced that this country is never turning away from it’s Galtian Conservitopian path within my lifetime.
Nick
@Violet:
Isn’t that what she tried to do…and got no respect
YellowDog
@SFAW:
I could have mentioned toe-sucking too, but role-playing and foreplay are assumed. Similarly, “walking the Appalachian trail” is just one of the lies that these behaviors require and is also assumed.
arguingwithsignposts
Here’s a funny: Vivian Schiller is still scheduled to keynote the International Symposium on Online Journalism. The title of her address: “Make New Friends but Keep the Old: How NPR is Growing Audiences and Engagement in Digital News.”
Kryptik
@Soprano2:
Yeah, funny that, a guy on the way out anyways has an opinion and says so to cameras he really didn’t know were there, that obviously means that the CEO can’t stay and needs to resign or be fired to safe face. Wait, what?
GregB
So let me get this straight.
Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News goes on air and calls everyone at NPR Nazis and then simply apologizes.
Some back bencher at NPR calls some wingnuts racists and the entire network is now in jeopardy of collapse.
Is that about right
JB
When will the liberal media learn to fight back against the boorish words and actions of the conservative media? Nobody at Fox ever offer apologies for the hateful lies and intentional misinformation they spit out daily–much less tender resignations for them.
Violet
@Nick:
How did she do that? Resigning one day later isn’t exactly standing up to them.
NobodySpecial
Where’s Nick to tell us all that this is the media’s fault and Democrats never win and really, we should expect this in a center right country like America?
Silver Owl
A nation of infantile losers is what the U.S. has become because of today’s conservatives. Blow white conservative penis or else.
Citizen_X
@singfoom:
Yeah, but hasn’t that become his battle plan for liberals, lately? I mean, bringing a knife to a knife fight would be downright uncivil!
debit
You know, if only Obama had used the bully pulpit…
Chris
@Violet:
An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.
Poopyman
@Kryptik:
Last guy that tried that started a revolution in Tunisia.
Of course, it didn’t end so well for him.
El Tiburon
@Redshirt:
Exactly. I am not sure what they bring to the table.
They only make the news really for shit like this and as another liberal bogeyman the wingnuts can set their sites on.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
Why’d the CEO get the boot? She wasn’t the one tricked by O’Keefe.
However, the flipside of the Buffalo Beast’s pwning of Walker, is that we can’t complain when O’Keefe pulls his stupid stunts. And I’m sure there’s legions of wannabe O’Keefe’s who have no moral scruples trying to trick XYZ prominent librul into saying something that can be edited to sound awful on tape.
Talking of O’Keefe, why isn’t that little turd in prison after trying to bug a Senator’s office?
trollhattan
I’m guessing Schiller has been on shaky ground since l’affaire Williams–not because I think it was the wrong thing to do (waaay overdue) but because it generated attention and blowback, i.e., the poly-ticks weren’t correct. This latest–whatever it is, I’m still not sure–was a tipping point during budget negotiations.
I suspect NPR can survive without federal money but many local affiliates cannot. And once a station is lost to the vast media conglomerates it NEVER returns to local control.
Once public broadcast funds get zeroed out, they’ll also never return. I think they need preserving, if even in reduced form.
NPR needs another half dozen Joan Krocs.
LGRooney
I know someone will find this offensive here, so I’ll resign after I’ve written it.
Every time I see O’Keefe’s face, I want to beat the shit out of him. His physical features remind me so much of the many pasty-faced, loveless, racist, and dimwitted southern kids with whom I grew up (admittedly, not in the deep south). He is just so generically Anglo-Saxon.
Every time I see his face, I think, “I know that kid and I know that I can’t stand that kid.” I befriended a few before realizing what they really were and none of them were bright. They all grew up in families with very strong British protestant heritages and were fed a steady diet of god, guns, guts, and the need to protect that heritage against an encroaching culture by their racist fathers. They never questioned it, never thought about it. To do so was to blaspheme god by not honoring one’s father, or some such concept.
In the ensuing 25 years, I imagine their ranks have been swelled by linking up with Catholics (former dark enemies but now accepted allies in this fight at least) and I can only imagine how rabid their fathers’ discussions turned as America’s multiculturalism grew and we whites found we weren’t even a majority any more. And, I am sure that most of those dim bulbs took in their fathers’ rants and will soon be repeating them to their own kids.
And so it goes…
p.a.
Tom Levenson Suicide Watch:
Time Magazine includes Makin MeCurdle in list of top 25 economics blogs.
Violet
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
Didn’t he plead down to misdemeanor?
Soprano2
Good grief I think I’m the only caller who got on the air with Diane Rehm. I find it hard to believe they don’t have any other callers.
Punchy
Who gives an eff about NPR? Now, if they dare touch my Pandora or Archive.org, I’m going Chuck Sheen on their asses…..
Herbal Infusion Bagger
‘The title of her address: “Make New Friends but Keep the Old: How NPR is Growing Audiences and Engagement in Digital News.” ‘
While old for-profit media’s been collapsing, NPR has expanded their news coverage & bureau’s. Being able to donate online’s been a boon to their fundraising, and getting a big chunk of change from the founder of McDonald’s widows estate was a big help also.
It’s still a pale shadow of the BBC, but NPR’s a rare case of old media not fucking up new media. Mostly because NPR didn’t have to worry about Google eating their advertising revenues.
Rpx
Now all he has to do is announce a new plan asking for funding to be cut in half at NPR to get out ahead of republicans on the issue.
cleek
@Citizen_X:
no. his wish is that knife fights themselves should be unacceptable to people.
Violet
@cleek:
The problem with this attitude is that if the other side is bringing guns, then standing around wishing there weren’t a fight in the first place doesn’t do much good.
RalfW
Alicia Shepard, NPR ombudsman was just on Minnesota Pub Radio and embarrassed herself royally with her slavering concern trolling for freakin’ Tucker Carlson.
It was awful.
She said that what the NPR fundraiser said about the Tea Party was “outrageous.” The truth, stupidly aired to strangers is an outrage. Huckabee lying his ass of about that Kenyan Obama is okeydokey.
The Us of A is screwed. The right wing has won another round via that discredited, criminal O’Keefe — and the absurd journalistic “standards” of the spineless media.
Audio of this MPR travesty will be posted here
cleek
@Violet:
but the gun/knife fights weren’t always the only way issues get discussed. it wasn’t always one bunch of zealots screaming at another bunch of zealots while everybody else turns away in disgust.
Poopyman
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
See? That’s the thing. They aren’t the same. The Beast’s stunt was perfectly legal. O’Keefe continually skirts the law and gets away with it. Is lauded for the clever way he breaks the law. Which is why I’m against firing LGRooney for his little rant above.
Chris
Somewhere, I bet Juan Williams is saying, “See, I knew you should be more skeptical of Muslims!”
Mike E
And leave it to a WaPo reporter on Diane’s show to crystallize what this issue is all about: all-out culture war.
These pussy-footin’ cocktail weenies are such a joke when being confronted with their role in all of this… But we had Fucker Carlson and Steven Not Michael Moore on the show! Please be nice to us!
arguingwithsignposts
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
From what I understand, the McD’s endowment was a source of some grievance among local affiliates. And bending over for these kinds of conservative shenanigans isn’t helping me open up my wallet.
And I’m curious about where they’ve “expanded” their news bureau’s or – for that matter – their coverage. Maybe I missed all the new news-related programs they’ve been offering. And Planet Money doesn’t count.
Violet
@cleek:
Yeah, I know. I just don’t know how to get it to stop. You can either try to have a civilized conversation and get railroaded by the rightwing nutjobs who have no problem bringing guns to just about anything, including pre-schools, churches, hospitals and mental wards. Or you can fight fire with fire.
I suppose there’s another option of trying to use logic, but when you’re dealing with people who run on emotion and don’t care much about logic, it’s pretty hard to use logic to get anywhere.
Kryptik
@Poopyman:
Not to mention that the Buffalo Beast’s prank wasn’t explicitly trying to create a gotcha moment like every single one of O’Keefe’s stunts did. It was simply trying to catch a pol being stupid, except Walker was exceptionally stupid.
And that’s another difference. O’Keefe tends to target people either low level or already unattached to his target. The Walker prank call actually aimed at the guy in charge of the whole shebang.
Punchy
OT:
When you put the children in charge, shitty shit‘s gunna happen.
Cry me a river, you retards.
Corner Stone
@NobodySpecial:
Oooo..missed it by that much.
RalfW
@danimal:
Maybe. I couldn’t help but notice that the hour that contained the abject groveling by the NPR ombudsperson was sponsored by Muruka’s Natural Gas Industry.
I’m sure that has no effect on NPR/MPR’s willingness to cover the horrible disaster of marcellus shale fracking. None at all. Nope, all integrity, all the time.
Mike E
@cleek: On my local NPR (WUNC) a local show is discussing what the polls really mean re: collective bargaining. AFL-CIO rep vs John Hood from conservative “think tank” John Locke Foundation. Right2Work rulz!
Sasha
What I don’t understand is why the CEO felt compelled to resign when she had nothing to do with the “issue”. Despite the same last name, they aren’t related.
SFAW
And proud of it!
I can’t stand Walker, nor what he’s doing nor what he’s trying to do, but he has enough stones to tell everyone to fuck off, vis-a-vis the “Koch” telecon. If a Dem (outside of Grayson or Weiner, that is) had the stones to tell the Oxycontin-addled Pedophile or others of his ilk to go fuck themselves with a rusty two-by-four, we might be getting somewhere.
Poopyman
@Violet: Based on personal experience, the time to negotiate with a bully is when you’re sitting on his chest and you pause from punching him in the face to ask “had enough yet?”
Sadly, I think that’s what it’ll take in our national discourse.
Bob L
@Citizen_X: @cleek: Try this analogy: The Right is a bunch of spoiled children – do you deal with a spoiled child by always capitulating to the child’s demands?
ChrisNYC
I’m all for both resignations. NPR totally screwed up the Juan Williams thing and this. I mean, does it take a rocket scientist not to be tricked by wingers? Their funding is on the chopping block, they know they’re a target and this guy pops off to someone he doesn’t know from Adam about Teabaggers? Not smart. Also, Ms. Vivian Schiller very courageously fired an underling after the Williams fiasco. I bet you anything this has nothing to do with appeasement of the right — it’s the NPR board taking action in response to incompetence.
CaptainFwiffo
It’s weird, because if this kind of thing happens to right-wing groups (e.g. this investigation illegal gun sales at gun shows), there is no amount of effort that will gain the media’s attention.
Mike E
My previous comment at #80 or so is in moderation–must be the phallic FYWP filter. I blame Boehner!
Bob Loblaw
Out of curiosity, what is the difference between what O’Keefe does and what the Daily Beast caller did in Wisconsin?
The reactions of the punked parties was completely different (and telling), but I don’t see why one deceptive act is morally praiseworthy and the other heinous? Either it’s wrong to misrepresent yourself to cause political damage and humiliation or it isn’t. Just because Walker needs to be recalled doesn’t justify fraud any more than NPR’s reluctance to embrace right-wing talking points as actual news justifies trying to sabotage their ability to receive public funding.
catclub
@Morbo: Hurray! at least one person shows evidence of reading the stories and knowing that
Schiller (A) is unrelated to Schiller (B), and that although Schiller(A) said a few things on tape, and Schiller(A) was already leaving the organization. Schiller(B) is the one resigning – because SHUT UP, that’s why.
Zach
This is insane. I don’t even think anything the guy said (out of what I read) was wrong. Perhaps it’s reasonable to claim the Tea Party’s not super racist when it comes to rhetoric on Black or Latino Americans. But the Tea Party convention hosted Pam Geller. Its figurehead warns of a plot by Muslims to take over the world. Opposition to building a place of worship was the Tea Party’s main motivating force for several weeks in 2010.
cleek
@Bob Loblaw:
for me anyway, the difference is that NPR folded while Walker basically ignored it.
O’Keefe and the Beast are pretty much equivalent in these two cases.
catclub
@Kryptik: “The Walker prank call actually aimed at the guy in charge of the whole shebang.”
Zaphod Beeblebrox?
Seriously, it targeted Walker. The one in charge is Koch.
Zach
@Jeff Darcy: Washington’s a 1-party consent jurisdiction for this thing. If they’d done it in Maryland, it may be illegal, depending on whether there was an expectation of privacy at a lunch meeting. Probably by putting the camera & audio recording equipment on another table they think they can prove that there’s no expectation of privacy and cover their bases.
Joel
The problem is that most liberals, non-confrontationalists that we are, back down under pressure even when we’re right. We need to push back, patiently and publically.
Gebghis
This sort of event is why I have asked to be removed from Obama’s contributor’s list when they call asking for money. They respond that the Republicans are so much worse, as if that’s a selling point for them. There is no one willing to express the liberal viewpoint, much less fight for it. Find me a liberal politician who will speak up and I’ll contribute again.
NPR can give up on any government help. They’ll be defunded within the year. This could be the best thing for them. They’ll either develop a spine or die a slow death.
Chyron HR
@NobodySpecial:
Haw! It’s funny because NPR being spineless fuck-ups in no way reflects poorly on “the media”!
This is, of course, a huge win for Democrats.
Clap harder!
NPR Hater
The difference between O’Queef and the Buffalo Beast: O’Queef makes misleading edits that completely misrepresent what actually happened. The Buffalo Beast does not.
Joe Bauers
What would Roger Ailes have to get caught saying before he’d lose his gig? Is there anything at all he could say about left-wingers in general or about any of them in particular that would do him in? I tend to doubt it.
Totebag of David Sedaris books to a knife fight, indeed.
Berial
According to the NPR report here the two-hour ‘mostly unedited’ video is being hosted at Veritas. I have not watched the video. The claim at on the page is that only the name of an overseas NPR correspondent has been redacted.
kindness
OK, I listen to NPR drive time. When I’m commin’ in to work & when I’m going home. I switch between them & the local rocks stations as I drive.
These last several years though, NPR has morphed into a Fox Lite network. You NEVER get a good for progressive story without some rightwinger spewing bullshit as a counterpoint and in these cases, you never get the NPR person coming back with any factual information to correct the slander. On the other hand, NPR does frequently give fluff pieces about rightwing craziness with no counterpoint liberal for balance.
Sadly, I spend more times yelling at my radio then I should. That’s when I switch back to what ever rock station I can get.
Mike E
@catclub:
This. Representational democracy is a total farce, and Walker is just another placeholder for the true masters of our sad republic.
R. Porrofatto
Gee, misrepresenting yourself as a 501(C) tax-exempt, nonprofit and trying to pass a bad %5 million check isn’t nearly as illegal as it used to be.
cleek
@kindness:
100x this.
ThatLeftTurnInABQ
@Bob Loblaw:
I can’t speak for others, but in this particular instance what pisses me off is the cowardice and appeasement coming from NPR (O’Keefe is just doing his usual scorpion-on-the-frog bit). Since we are doing Churchill quotations today, I’ll throw in a paraphrase: They had to chose between dishonour and war. They chose dishonour and they will get war. NPR is still going to be savaged by Congress, no matter what.
But to answer the question you asked, the difference between O’Keefe and the Daily Beast caller is in whether deceptive editing is needed in order to create the appearance of an outrage, or not.
Nick
@NobodySpecial:
right here baby
cyntax
@Bob Loblaw:
I think the glaring difference is that one involves an elected official and the other does not. Based on their respective positions of responsibility within our society, I hold the two people to different standards of behaviour.
Corner Stone
Well, the good news is this decision has at least seemed to appease Sen DeMint:
Oh wait..
Chris
I wonder why NPR didn’t go with the defense, “Oh, come on, when people offer us money, we agree with whatever they say. It’s SOP to kiss donor and potential-donor ass.” (/doesn’t actually wonder)
Merkin
@NobodySpecial:
its cute how you act like he’s wrong.
Nick
@Violet:
she was forced out
Corner Stone
@Merkin: I’m not sure how NPR scoring an own goal here confirms any of the Eeyore dreck Nick repeats here?
Merkin
@Corner Stone:
You’re not sure how NPR kicking out its CEO to appease the right confirms Nick’s comments that the media appeases the right?
Or you just don’t want to admit he’s right because it reflects poorly on yourself.
rickstersherpa
Roger Ailes is paid by Rupert Murdoch, and until Rupert decides he is more liability than asset, he can say about anything he wants. However, NPR, and its constiuencies, Public Radio Stations, do care about Congressional funding and with the current make up of the House, a statement like this is caviar for the Teatards in the House who want to kill it. And Schiller was a dead woman walking since the Juan Williams episode.
I still would love to see O’Keefe and Breitbart properly r-t f-k themselves and hope some busy little left winger out there is plotting to accomplish it.
CJ
Because the best way to deal with a bully is to give him your lunch money and apologize for being in the way of his fist. After that, he’ll likely stop bothering you.
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone:
How many hours of the pointless pissing away of blood and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan would cover every dime of CPB’s funding? Four hours? Six?
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone:
How many hours of the pointless pissing away of blood and treasure in Iraq and Afghanistan would cover every dime of CPB’s funding? Four hours? Six?
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
so now that npr is on team brietbart, there is but one selfish question i have to ask, preferrably to some one at npr at some point.
how much do i have to pledge for part of an evening with hannah giles?
sure she was only acting in those acorn skits, but that walk of hers was very method, is all i am saying…
and yes i do feel quite dirty for feeling quite dirty about it, but hey, if its for the integrity of public radio, you can count on my support.
Craig Pennington
@Soprano2: I’m not sure if you were the only caller since I didn’t hear the last bit of the show, but my guess is yes. I’d further guess that it was because they started screening for opinions since the goal of the show was to present the resignation as necessary and then to argue for continued funding (we’ve cleaned house.)
The problem is that the resignation was stupid and will do zip-point-shit to defuse the situation. It was not a rational response, but then the situation wasn’t rational. It would have been nice if they’d gone with a “fuck you” attitude. The right will continue its hissy-fit regardless and the dumbasses who think this kind of thing is necessary aren’t going to help NPR anyway.
Poopyman
@Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal:
You’ll never outbid David Koch. He thinks she’s a real piece of ass.
Villago Delenda Est
@Bob Loblaw:
The Daily Beast didn’t have to edit anything to get their point across.
O’Keefe always does.
THAT is the difference.
If you can’t figure this out, go DIAF someplace.
Corner Stone
@Merkin: I’m not sure how this is the media’s fault or how this is an issue “Democrats” have lost.
Nobody made the board of NPR slink away hoping against hope they could appease Sen DeMint.
They were always going to be defunded, it’s not even a question.
Suck It Up!
david broder of WaPo has passed away.
Omnes Omnibus
@Suck It Up!: For realz?
Merkin
@Corner Stone:
NPR isn’t the media?
Southern Beale
@Violet:
Apparently something else Ron Schiller said during that 2 hour lunch is that he wished NPR did NOT get federal funds…. but that they needed to because the local NPR stations needed it or some such.
What amazes me is how stoooooopeda these people are. Have they not paid attention to the ACORN and Planned Parenthood scams? When someone shows up and starts talking about the Muslim Brotherhood and claiming NPR is “National Palestinian Radio” that should set someone’s bullshit meter off.
I think what we have here is a lack of cynicism.
Suck It Up!
@Omnes Omnibus:
yep. breaking news over at TPM
cleek
@Villago Delenda Est:
6 hours of DoD funding would more than cover the CPB’s entire $420,000,000 Federal appropriation.
scarshapedstar
David Broder has died; our long national nightmare is finally over; bipartisan centrist pablum will be inflicted upon us no more.
Fucen Pneumatic Fuck Wrench Tarmal
@Poopyman:
damn, thwarted by koch again!
licensed to kill time
David Broder dies, age 81. Breaking News on MSNBC.
SiubhanDuinne
David Broder has died
Both side mourn.
(Too soon?)
Srsly, RIP Broder.
Elizabelle
@danimal:
Agree fully with your post 45. Well said.
This might be a case of O’Keefe et al winning the battle and losing the war.
There very well may be a market for incisive, fairly reported, factual news. Which one now has a bigger incentive to keep on air.
dr. bloor
@Omnes Omnibus:
Well, that’s what the coroner said. We haven’t gotten Boehner’s or McConnell’s opinions yet.
SteveAR
Here’s the funny part. Every liberal here who is defending the firing of Juan Williams is a racist.
Since Williams didn’t adhere to the views blacks have been given by their white liberal masters, including those white liberals at NPR, he was fired. At the same time, NPR’s racist white liberals demand more taxpayer dollars.
It’s time for taxpayers to no longer have to fund NPR, PBS, and CPB. Leave it to the racists here to fund it.
Southern Beale
@Merkin:
This was stuff said in private by one of their fundraisers. This was not something anyone involved in the news organization said.
Fundraisers deal with weird rich assholes ALL THE FUCKING TIME. As Jack Shafer said over at Slate:
I mean I really fail to see the outrage. A fundraiser who has a $5 million donation dangling in his face goes along to get the money. That’s his job. I wonder if we snuck some cameras into a GOP fundraiser what we’d find? Oh hell, we already have.
Elizabelle
Will Broderism outlive Broder?
We are to learn.
cleek
@SteveAR:
go soak yer head, you ignorant fuck.
stuckinred
@SteveAR: Here’s the funny part. Go fuck yourself.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est:
The FY2011 request for both was about $170B. My maths may be rusty but my gastritis says that’s about $20M per hour, every hour, for 365 days.
Poopyman
RIP, Mr. Broder. You were forever fixed in the 60s. It was a good time, for some, but long past.
Now all that remains is to see if the media comes close to doing a full Russert.
Elizabelle
Better to ignore SteveAR.
He can slither back to RedState.
cleek
@Corner Stone:
$710B, not $170B. right?
Culture of Truth
[ shakes fist ]
Brooooooodeeerrrr!!!
Poopyman
@dr. bloor: Wait. The coroner said that?
Was he not merely dead, but really most sincerely dead?
(OK, that was a little too soon. Sorry.)
stuckinred
@SteveAR: Click on this idiots blog if you need a laugh.
burnspbesq
@danimal:
“I think a total drawdown of federal funds over the next couple of years is the way to go. ”
A sensible proposal that only works if those funds can be replaced. Which means that all of you who listen to public radio but have never contributed will need to step up. I will commit, publicly, right here and right now, to double what I give to KCRW and KKJZ, and give the same amounts to KUSC and WBGO, if the NPR money goes away. Who else is in?
Bokonon
Well, as Ari Fleischer said to the media during the Bush Administration … you better watch what you say.
This scalp collecting is a very effective tactic. If you are in the media and you criticize the Tea Partiers – even if it is off-the-record – you will face enormous (and personalized) payback.
And the net result is that the media covers the Tea Partiers tentatively, with kid gloves, and is always on the defensive.
Plus … the double-bank-shot here is that O’Keefe got to raf*ck NPR but good, right at the same time that the Tea Partiers in Congress are trying to defund them. So his timing on the release of this video – and the flurry of coverage this will collect in the national media – couldn’t possibly be more damaging … or more helpful to NPR’s enemies.
Never mind that none of this has anything to do with NPR’s actual COVERAGE or whether they actually slant their coverage. It is SUCH COOL VIDEO. Elitists! Liberals!
And NPR throwing its CEO over the side in a panic mood, right at the time it is under maximum attack? Priceless! A show of weakness and pointless sacrifice! As if that will work. As if THAT is what NPR’s enemies are after (rather than the whole enchilada of defunding them completely, and leaving them for dead).
trollhattan
@Corner Stone:
And the entire DOD FY 2011 request is $708B. Yeah, we could fund seven BBCs from the change between their sofa cushions.
Corner Stone
@cleek: Goddamn gastritis!
But no, I read it as FY2011 request is $51B for Iraq and $119B for Afghanistan
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/natsec/RL33110.pdf
Omnes Omnibus
@SiubhanDuinne: It is not easy to make successful jokes about people who just died, but, god damn, if you didn’t just do it.
Svensker
@SFAW:
Yes, this completely. Why are people groveling to these idiots?
trollhattan
@cleek:
We can hold a fundraiser in the old barn to buy it the bucket!
Bokonon
So, David Broder has died?
Hopefully, someone will propose a truly bipartisan solution for that.
Zach
Health experts claim that David Broder has passed away.
SFAW
Racists? I’m not racist – some of my best friends are delusional/stupid/both right-wing fuckheads. And if those sub-humans aren’t their own separate race/phylum, I don’t know what is.
trollhattan
Now this is how to celebrate failure: failing upwards, Republican-style!
http://blogs.sacbee.com/capitolalertlatest/2011/03/gop-strategist-mike-murphy-joi.html
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@Viva BrisVegas:
But you do all realise that Breitbart is laying out the foundations for the new Web journalism? Get used to it.
Neither Bretbart nor O’Keefe will stop until, eventually, one of their ‘marks’ loses it and pummels them. Or worse.
And no, I don’t condone that (though I confess that I’d watch the youtube video). But it’s inevitable that someone, eventually, will decide that having had their life/career destroyed deserves a little… vengeance.
Bob Loblaw
@Villago Delenda Est:
Editing is a separate issue. The starting point is misrepresentation and entrapment of public officials. If both sides do it without abandon, then all they’re doing is further poisoning a well that’s already toxic.
Political discourse in this country is already scraping the bottom of the barrel thanks to the right. Using the internet and hidden recording devices as a means of changing the conversation is just going to make political actors even less likely to say anything of value publicly or even privately to anybody they don’t know by face and personal history alone.
Gotcha-ism is just another race to the bottom.
trollhattan
@Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta):
I confess I condone a potential pummeling. Does that make me a bad person?
debbie
How low have journalistic standards gone to have this kind of gotcha-ism take over? And how biased? Everyone’s talking about how NPR holds conservatives in contempt; where’s the discussion about how conservatives hold NPR in contempt? It’s bad enough AIPAC can get people to believe NPR is anti-Sem@tic because they have the gall to air Palestinian views alongside Israeli views, now there’s this.
SFAW
Svensker @ 160
They’re groveling here so that they don’t have to grovel over there? When groveling is outlawed, only outlaws will grovel?
Those ‘splanations make as much sense as the real reason(s), what ever it/they is/are.
CJ
@stuckinred:
How to start a blog:
1. Crazy glue your lips to Breitbart’s ass.
2. Start suckin’!
Midnight Marauder
@Southern Beale:
Exactly this. The populace of this country is nowhere near cynical enough to confront the opposition we are facing. And I think it is highly dubious we reach that place any time soon.
Djur
He said that NPR itself would survive but that a lot of small town stations would fold. Which seems accurate to me, and doesn’t justify defunding public broadcasting.
Does anyone know if V. Schiller was actually forced out because of what the other Schiller said, or just because she’s presided over one disaster after another? Or is she just a preemptive sacrifice?
Maude
@Poopyman:
If it’s a slow news day? You betcha.
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@trollhattan:
I confess I condone a potential pummeling. Does that make me a bad person?
Well, no. I’m in fact surprised that it hasn’t happened yet.
If someone like that came after me for no reason, and made me lose my job, career, reputation, everything? He’d be dead by month’s end. Or I’d be dead trying.
piratedan
@Bob Loblaw: oh really Bob?
a separate issue?
on one hand we have an entire unedited conversation with an elected official stating that he wouldn’t be above underhanded and illegal tactics in order to get his desired outcome
and on the other, we have a conversation with a public official so heavily edited out of context that he is seemingly promoting the ability to secure government housing for people engaging in crime, when the full conversation shows that not to be the case….
entrapment is a crime when you find someone actually doing or promoting something illegal, what O’Keefe did to ACORN was a crime and if you can’t see the difference then there is no fucking hope for you.
Midnight Marauder
@Bob Loblaw:
I think the difference between the two cases is the nature of the misrepresentation we are discussing. In anything involving O’Keefe, he is misrepresenting not only his true agenda, but his true self. He’s targeting low hanging fruit that is explicitly vulnerable to misrepresentation; in the case of the Daily Beast writer, you are talking about misrepresentation only being effective because an entire apparatus of government fell down on the job as they were seduced by the specter of power. O’Keefe misrepresents with the intent to embarrass his target wildly out of context; the Daily Beast sought out to embarrass Walker in an attempt reveal Walker’s (ongoing and complete) flagrant misrepresentation to the people of Wisconsin. I would say the difference could be classified as “proactive misrepresentation” versus “reactive misrepresentation,” if that makes sense.
This kind of comparison only works if you completely disregard the intent of the respective actors involved.
Again, all this ignores the fact that entire point of the mission in the case of the Daily Beast was potentially improving the discourse of Wisconsin by revealing the fact that Scott Walker was a lying scumbag who eagerly will entertain the wishes of modern day robber barons:
And as to not saying anything privately of public value, the Madison Police Chief obviously disagreed with you:
Villago Delenda Est
@licensed to kill time:
Oh, great, are we going to have a solid week of Brodergasm as we had when that fuckwit Russert died?
Xenos
@burnspbesq: I have not given money in years to NPR because they waste it on shite like Weekend Edition and Car Talk. And don’t get me started on Marketplace, the theme song to which is GE (the sponsor, of course) jingle “GE, we bring good things to life.”
I know I am being a purity troll, but that shit irritates the hell out of me. And Pacifica Radio is too smug Berkely-itis, and Minnesota Public Radio just makes me think that lame, lame, Lake Wobegon shite. What else is there?
Tom65
I just don’t get this. NPR only gets about 3% of its budget from the feds. They could have made six times that in donations if they’d simply issued a statement saying that Schiller was expressing his personal opinions , and that oh by the way, James O’Keefe is a fucking moron.
ericblair
@Villago Delenda Est:
That’s my fear. I’m not going to watch TV journamalism for a week to make sure I miss the sackcloth, ashes, and rending of tasteful bipartisan garments. Oh, wait, I don’t watch it anyway. That was easy.
Mister Papercut
@kindness:
Case in point: when Howard Zinn died, they got a nice bit of spittle-flecked analysis from David Horowitz. I was driving when it aired and damn near ran off the road.
And I’m not sure if it was shortly before or after that I also heard an extremely reverent and fawning piece about Breitbart himself.
SteveAR
@cleek and @stuckinred: You really can’t see how racist you really are, can you?
You can dish it out, but can’t take it. You both are pathetic.
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone:
Yeah, but that’s just short term.
How much will we be paying (unless of course, ala Bachmann, we renege on our promises) for the next 60 years for the medical needs of the young men and women mangled by these exercises in macho posturing by deserting and draft dodging assholes, anyways? How much lost productivity from those same young men and women do we face as a result of the short term thinking of said assholes?
Wars have costs that those who don’t think things through utterly fail to take into account. But, it’s all about the next quarter’s report to the boys on Wall Street, or the next election. Nothing beyond that exists. I’ll be gone, you’ll be gone.
eemom
@dr. bloor:
you made me laugh at the dead, you evil man.
cleek
@SteveAR:
why aren’t you soaking your head like i told you?
not another word until you’ve had a good, thorough soaking.
eemom
look y’all, there’s no QUESTION about this. This ain’t gonna be a Russert-style send-off — this is gonna be full metal Ronald Reagan Part Deux. Mark ye well my words.
So we might as well have fun.
eemom
……like how this was reported in the “Another Scalp” thread. bwaaahaaaahaaaaahaaaa
cleek
@eemom:
i’m going to have fun ignoring every fucking word of it.
i just don’t get people’s fascination with the Village.
Skippy-san
Leave it to the Brits to put this in proper perspective:
THEY call themselves “citizen journalists”, the two impostors sent by James O’Keefe to have lunch with two executives from National Public Radio and secretly film the conversation. In a rambling conversation they got their target – a man named Ron Schiller – to say (stressing that these were his views, not those of NPR) that he thought the Republican Party had been hijacked by the xenophobes of the tea-party movement, which he called “racist”. He also said that in the long run NPR would be better off without funding from the federal government. After the video was posted online, Mr Schiller (who was leaving NPR anyway) resigned, as did NPR’s chief executive, Vivian Schiller (no relation). It later emerged that in light of the controversy Mr Schiller would not take up his new job at the Aspen Institute.
What’s the scandal here? Mr Schiller’s bilious attitude towards the Republicans and the tea-party movement? His opinion of the Republicans was, to say the least, unnuanced. But he wasn’t on air, and nor is he a journalist. You will hear views like this – and their mirror image from the right disparaging the Democrats and unions – at almost any Washington lunch. As for his claim that NPR would be better off without federal funding, he may well be right.
I find myself more uncomfortable about the way he was entrapped. Who cannot be crushed by a plot? These “citizen journalists” set up a fake organisation and website, pretended to be offering a donation to NPR, and did everything they could to elicit some sort of damaging remark. The full transcript might tell a different story, but the posted extract shows Mr Schiller rebuffing their suggestion that NPR’s Jewish donors demanded, or got, pro-Israeli coverage from NPR. He comes over as a glib young man with a partisan take on politics, expressed in what he thought was a private conversation. That never used to be a hanging offence. The real offence is against the sanctity of lunch.
kindness
I’ll contribute a cord of aged oak wood for David Broder’s funeral pyre if we could only strap David Brooks on there with him.
Who is with me?
SFAW
Said the pot – speaking from experience as a member of the “personal responsibility is for everybody else” right wing – calling the milk black.
Oooh! I can hear it now: “Pot calling the milk black! What a racist!”
Keep tellin’ yourself that, you pussified moron.
Xenos
@SteveAR: Heavy Metal Conservative? You have got to be fucking kidding. You think you are some sort of alpha dog, you inbred third-rate sister-fucker?
SFAW
With any luck, he’ll determine that he needs to keep it under for 30 minutes, to get that deep, cleansing soak.
licensed to kill time
@Villago Delenda Est: Brodergasm, haha! I don’t actually watch MSNBC, I just saw it on their website. So I have no idea. I don’t know if they considered him “one of their own” in the way Russert was.
Villago Delenda Est
@SteveAR:
All my military training on how to incapacitate a fuckwit is coming back to me when I read your posts.
I invite you, quite cordially, to go DIAF.
SFAW
Of course, calling his blog “scipio” also implies a certain lack of self-awareness. But that’s SOP for the GOP and their acolytes.
Svensker
@SteveAR:
Scipio the Metal Con? Ha ha ha ha ha, oh sweet Lord, make it stop.
You probably have an image of yourself as something like that fake metal robot football guy on Fox sports. Ha ha ha ha hah ha.
And you probably orchestrate that tough guy stuff in your head with Carmina Burana. Amirite?
Another good laugh for the day. My insides are all massaged!
SFAW
You got something against In Taverna?
Judas Escargot (aka ninja fetus with a taste for bruschetta)
@SteveAR:
Hey Steve, what race are you?
Whatever the answer, I pledge to hate it for the next 24 hours.
Kisses.
SFAW
Or “Taberna”, even.
Svensker
@SFAW:
No, I actually really like the Carmina, especially In Taverna. :)
But I do think a lot of these tough guy swaggerers go around with the sound tracks to the movies they’re starring in playing in their heads. And Carmina is particularly appropriate.
In Scipio’s case, I’d recommend the Cignus Ustus, personally.
licensed to kill time
@licensed to kill time: That last sentence was probably dumb. Like I said, I don’t actually watch any of these guys, I only read about them here on Balloon Juice which is trying enough.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est: Are you telling me, or just springboarding?
djheru
O/T: I love the paypal banner ad.
Ash Can
@Svensker: No way is he cultured enough to make any use of something as classy as Carmina Burana. And this, BTW:
is chock full of win.
Xenos
@Ash Can: I just listened to the Cygnus Ustus on Youtube. Is that a (hem) countertenor?
Nellcote
@kindness:
I just realized I thought Brooks was the one that passed. I always got them confused.
Soprano2
@Craig Pennington:
I must have been the only caller because I heard the whole rest of the show and didn’t hear one other caller. That’s unusual for Diane Rehm; maybe everyone was saying how stupid they were being, and the didn’t want to let those people on the air. I thought it was funny that they all seemed to think that because his conversation took place in a restaurant it couldn’t be considered a private conversation.
Yes, that’s a countertenor. Also my copy of the “Carmina” vocal parts says it’s “In Taberna”. I love that piece so much I’ve sung it three times and it still doesn’t get old. Sadly most people only know the “O Fortuna” from many movies and commercials. LOL
Herbal Infusion Bagger
“And I’m curious about where they’ve “expanded” their news bureau’s or – for that matter – their coverage.”
See http://www.fastcompany.com/magazine/134/finely-tuned.html.
Yeah, it’s FastCompany, but it’s a good account how NPR managed not to fuck up new media. Unlike 95% of old media companies.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
“I have not given money in years to NPR because they waste it on shite like Weekend Edition and Car Talk.”
Don’t diss car talk.
“And don’t get me started on Marketplace, ”
Marketplace was a pretty good program when it was hosted by David Broncaccio.
Now it’s got McMegan as an occasional guest, it’s unlistenable to.
Mnemosyne
@Ash Can:
Will you be surprised to hear that Bush purged the previous board and stacked it with his nominees?
This is why I can only smile wanly when idiots try to convince me that it doesn’t matter who the president is. They don’t realize how thoroughly the president can stack the government with appointees that agree with him and will be there after he leaves office … which is why the Republicans have blocked just about every Obama appointee they possibly can.
Herbal Infusion Bagger
“This scalp collecting is a very effective tactic. If you are in the media and you criticize the Tea Partiers – even if it is off-the-record – you will face enormous (and personalized) payback.”
I wonder when Ezra Klein will get punked by an O’Keefe wannabe and get cut loose by the Kaplan Daily.
Corner Stone
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
And I wonder when Breitbart or O’Keefe are just going to start calling up their intended victims and telling them to resign or they’re next.
vtr
@Herbal Infusion Bagger: Ezra Klein probably has done enough reporting to know that when someone tells him there’s a call on line 3, he makes damn sure he knows who he’s talking to before he falls for some fabulous news tip. I hope.
El Cid
@Southern Beale:
Didn’t help ACORN. One office called the police right after the O’Keefe duo left, but they still got slammed in the press without correction as having helped the pimp etc.
I just hope that all the liberals and left will make sure and be civil and not play the same sorts of gotcha politics as the right.
Ash Can
@Xenos:
@Soprano2:
Technically, the part calls for a regular tenor (with a masochistic streak), but I can certainly see how countertenors could be substituted.
(Edited to fix blockquote fail.)
Ash Can
@Mnemosyne:
Not at all. That explains an awful lot, too. And it makes me think that rather than castigating NPR for bending over for their Teabagger masters, we should be wondering if the NPR board didn’t force V. Schiller out because she was planning on pushing back against this travesty. We may never know now.
Villago Delenda Est
@Corner Stone:
Just springboarding. You’re right about the raw numbers. I did exaggerate with “a few hours”. Still a couple of months, easy?
The bottom line is, we’re pissing away blood, treasure, and all sorts of future return and the fuckwit DeMint refuses to even consider touching that…instead whining like a little girl about the “lavish” funding of CPB.
Rich Black
I support Free speech TV and Democracy Now.
NPR is worthless for news. They are so timid.
les
@Herbal Infusion Bagger:
Ditto re Marketplace–McMegan and fucking Frum. It’s a cesspit of stupid.
Corner Stone
@Villago Delenda Est: Actually, I was surprised. I thought your estimate was too generous.
I was thinking more along the lines of “maybe long enough to make and eat a ham sammich” and the funding would be enough.
So, I think I’ve learned something here today.
Chuck Butcher
Broder is dead so that’s one less source of bullshit for the moment … his shoes will quickly be filled, though maybe absent the stupid “Dean” appellation.
liberal
@JWL:
I was thinking of that recently, in the context of his stupid climbing up on the “fiscal balance!!!” bandwagon.
Puzzling. My guess is that the guy is both kind of wimpy and not too bright.
liberal
@Chuck Butcher:
God, I hated that stupid smarmy cliche-ridden bastard.
liberal
@Bokonon:
LOL. Fitting epitaph for that sorry moron.
liberal
@GregB:
Good point.
Though it’s much worse than that—there’s some evidence that Ailes might have tried to get someone to perjure themself.