(Portland's progressive talk) KPOJ Cancelling Political Talk Radio

[Strelnikov_]

55. NPR Sucks

I am writing to express my disgust with the rightward shift of your station, and NPR, over the last year. It appears to me that you have fallen into the "earth is flat, opinions differ" approach to GOP/right-wing journalism. I have heard many comments over the last year that called into question the integrity of your staff, but on today’s ‘Talk of Iowa’, specifically, the ‘Dr. Politics’ show; my ‘line in the sand’ was finally crossed.

On last weeks segment, K. Perkins and Dr. Schmidt allowed an obviously far right individual to rant on for what seemed like 10 min. During this tirade, near the end, the right-wing smear that Sen. Max Cleland was somehow not deserving of ‘decorated veteran’ status because his injuries were the result of an accident (a smear first put forth by Ann Coulter) was presented. The hosts of the program did not intercede at any point during this tirade. Actually, this individual went further than Ms. Coulter in claiming that Sen. Cleland was responsible for killing two other soldiers and blowing up a helicopter in the accident.

Now, on this week’s program, a caller expressed concern that one of the hosts should have questioned the individual denigrating Sen. Cleland regarding the factual basis of the statements. To this, Dr. Schmidt replied that this is an opinion show, and that the caller is responsible for the accuracy of their statements.

My experience with your station, and these two individuals in particular, is that anything stated by the right leaning is taken at face value, while the veracity of any statements by anyone left leaning is called into question. And when I say left leaning, I mean anyone not presenting a party line GOP/right-wing position.

Examples? Well, here is one.

On the June 29th, 2004 ‘Talk of Iowa’ program, with K. Perkins and a stand-in for Dr. Schmidt, the following transpired.

The movie Fahrenheit 9/11 was being discussed. Some (partial) quotes from the above commentators are as follows:

"I would compare it to Oliver Stone's film JFK . . . "

"I haven't seen the film, but the art of propaganda . . ."

A number of people called in supporting the film, noting that it is being misrepresented by the mainstream media, that it is not comparable to "JFK", that it is eye-opening, etc.

After a number of these calls where Ms. Perkins expressed her skepticism with the caller’s position, she stated, "we are journalists, and are supposed to be skeptical."

Later in this program a caller noted that fourteen massive bases are being built in Iraq by the U.S. for permanent basing of U.S. Forces. At this, Ms. Perkins grilled the caller as to the source of this information, and then pontificated again on how she is a journalist and must have sources for information. That is, of course, unless the information supports the GOP/right-wing position.

(By the way, the information on the bases is out there, the same way that it was clear in early summer of 2002 that we were invading Iraq. But if you are looking for a Washington Post article on them, forget it. But I guess since you are modern journalists, you need to wait until there is an ‘investigative’ press release before you report.)

And I am not even going to mention where Dr. Schmidt today noted that the Kerry daughters were booed at the MTV awards, but did not mention that the Bush daughters were also booed. Nor the recent FAIR study documenting NPR's preference for GOP/right-wing leaning guests.

The above incidents are simply the more egregious examples of GOP/right-wing bias that I remember. Like all marriages that end in divorce, the partners gradually grow apart, as result of the cumulative effect of differences, as we obviously have done.

I am a long time contributor to NPR in the various communities I have lived in over the years. I did not pledge the last drive due to my perception of your rightward shift. Basically, I was monitoring to see if this was a short-term aberration.

As of today, I am done with you, and NPR. I request that you remove my name form your membership rolls, and cease any future mailings from your organization, as I have no interest in associating myself with a Fox News knock off. Lets just see how many member contributions you can garner from the GOP/right-wing.

“If you give the people the choice of a Republican and a Republican, they will choose the Republican every time”.