NPR's atrocious Scott Simon interviews a Wisconsin Democrat

[Enrique]

Erpenback clearly states that the dispute is NOT about pay cuts, that they are going to accept those pay cuts and that they already took cuts last year, but Scott Simon simply ignores him and asks him why teachers are being so greedy. :mad:

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/19/133893909/Fled-From-State-Wis-Democrat-Says-Why


1:12 Erpenbach "the governor introduced what's called the budget repair bill, and it's to fix about 130 million hole in our state budget, and public employees have to contribute to their health care and their pension, and it's a pretty substantial pay cut and it's something that they're certainly willing to do."

2:47 Simon: "to get specific, as I understand it, the bill would require public employees, except for firefighters and police, to pay 5.8% of their pension costs -- they pay nothing now -- and 12% of their healthcare premiums, up from 6%. Now, so many employees in the private sector have had to just that, one way or another. What's wrong with that?

[kenny blankenship]

1. How many back to back years of pay cuts has Scott Simon had to give up?

I'd want to know the answer to that if I was in Erpenbach's place.

[Buzz Clik]

2. ** self delete**

[Ikonoklast]

4. If your neighbor's house is on fire, will you burn yours down, too

in 'solidarity, or would you help your neighbor put the fire out?

[Buzz Clik]

22. Ok, I'll play. I'd help put out the fire.

:shrug:

[GoCubsGo]

32. Scott's house IS on fire.

See last night's House budget vote. He's just trying to save is own ass.

[Buzz Clik]

3. You're misrepresenting the interview.

Simon was giving Erpenbach the opportunity to clarify. He most definitely was NOT suggesting that the teachers (and other public employees) are greedy.

This thread is bad news. I hope other posters can see through this misdirected outrage.

[rucky]

5. Yet it's almost identical to the conversations I've been having with conservatives.

They ignore the importance of collective bargaining, and paint the unions as unwilling to negotiate when they were never even asked to the table.

[Enrique]

13. I disagree

I know what you mean, and I would agree if he hadn't already given that answer. I have no problem with interviewers asking questions from the point of view of the critics. Like you say, it gives him a chance to respond to the criticism.

But the first thing this Democrat says in the interview is, we're not fighting the pay cuts, we are accepting them. Then it makes no sense for Simon to ask later, "why are you fighting the pay cuts?"

[Ichingcarpenter]

6. I've listened to Scott Simon over the many years he's been on

He ate the Right wing cool-aide that's why he's still there.

I do listen to him now after a BBC broadcast when NPR comes in afterwards...... even MEDIA MATTERS NOTICE HIM TOO.

[Iris]

7. Yeah. I've tweeted more than once that he's a tool. Sometimes he's ok, but mostly a tool.

[Ichingcarpenter]

8. He used to be left but over the years......

After September 11, 2001, Simon spoke and wrote in support of the "war on terror." Simon wrote an op-ed for the October 11, 2001 Wall Street Journal, "Even Pacifists Must Support This War."<8> Simon questioned nonviolence at greater length in the Quaker publication Friends Journal in December 2001, provoking many angry letters, to which Simon replied in the May 2003 edition.

[Enrique]

15. oh, I missed that one. Here it is, it's awful

he's basically the nightmare baby boomer that never really understood the ideals they supposedly believed in. Instead of getting pacifism totally wrong, he should simply say "I'm not a pacifist anymore." Would that be so wrong, where's the rule that everyone has to be a pacifist?

I can't wait to look into how the pacifists responded to him...

http://weber.ucsd.edu/~ecomisso/when_we_must_fight__even_pacifis.htm

[Iris]

17. post moved below

[ChairmanAgnostic]

9. hard to tell. is it him, or his employer?

NPR has really fallen over the last 6-8 years.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. The article in the WSJ attacking Pacifism said it all

and it took him 2 years to reply to critics.

[Puregonzo1188]

37. Even if you're not a pacifist, it was a really bad article. He more or less blames Oxford Students

for World War II. It's wrong to compare the atrocities of colonialism with those of the Nazis, because in England "liberty and democracy were cornerstones" unlike the Nazis which was a "dictatorship founded on racism, tyranny, and fear." Yes, because racism, tyranny, and fear played no roles in colonialism. :eyes:

And my personal favorite--Germany doesn't seem to be part of the West.


Read it for yourself:


http://weber.ucsd.edu/~ecomisso/when_we_must_fight__even_pacifis.htm

[Iris]

18. oh,his Mother's Day piece on how his wife was lucky to be not working so she could pick up his socks

(oh, yeah, and have COMPLETE responsibility for looking after their daughters) tells me it's him as much as NPR

[Ichingcarpenter]

25. yes She's a gem

him not so much.

Now where are my socks I need to put into the washer?

And where is my 'Sock' Wife?

[Iris]

26. When I find mine, I'll see if she has a ...er... mate!

[Ichingcarpenter]

31. See?......... Only someone with a dryer would understand that

LOL!

[Iris]

36. Don't tell anyone. If someone finds out a state employee can afford a dryer,

all hell will break loose!

[Buzz Clik]

19. LOLOL!!! Another poster who is convinced that NPR is a rightwing mouthpiece.

Do you know how much the Republicans HATE NPR?

Fucking insane.

[sendero]

23. The hate Obama and call him a leftist..

... he's about as left as Nixon.

I don't put much stock in what wingnuts "think" because they let others do the thinking for them. As for NPR, they SUCK.

[Buzz Clik]

28. and I find commentaries on NPR at DU completely worthless.

The ridiculous bias is fascinating and baseless. It's good for laugh, but not much else.

I continue to donate to my local NPR station, and I will continue to do so.

Oh, and Simon is fantastic. I wouldn't start a Saturday without him. I miss his interviews with Dan Schorr. (You remember Dan Schorr -- that rightwing knuckledragger who adored Simon because he, too, was a neo Nazi fascist pig. Right? :silly:)

[sendero]

40. I have no opinion on Scott Simon.

.... or any other of the personalities. They are not the problem. The problem is that the "news" is full of crap.

Just last week there was a report on rising food prices and not one mention was made of the PRIMARY CAUSE, the flooding of dollars into the economy by the Federal Reserve.

This is not conjecture it is fact and yet NPR selectively ignores the facts way too often to be at all credible.


And FWIW there are two people on NPR that get complete respect from me for always doing a stellar job, Nina Totenberg and Diane Rehm. And yes I still listen because there is nothing else on, although I stopped contributing in 2002 after 17 years of membership.

[Ichingcarpenter]

34. So ...... NPR is reporting on Wisconsin right now?

and if they are..... they are just moderates now?

you need to leave the USA for a while and then get a new perspective
on what you are being feed.

[blindpig]

11. NPR is atrocious, an avalanche of lies.

Ruing class propaganda for the educated.

[Buzz Clik]

20. Bullshit. You're just pissed because they don't carry the ultra-leftwing's water.

NRP is the best going. If you don't like it, tune it out. Join the legions of DUers who are glued to Beck and Limbaugh so they can express their hate, turn to Al Jazeera for their news (are you fucking kidding me???!!), and decide that NPR is a conservative news outlet.

Just more evidence that DUers can't find their collective asses with both hands.

[blindpig]

27. No I'm pissed beause they carry the ruling class's water.

This has been going on since the mid-90's, when Newt and the boys forced public radio to seek corporate funding in very significant amounts by curtailing government funding.This became very apparent in their environmental coverage. Have you heard anyone on NPR say that this 'austerity' craze and the attack on Social security, Medicare and Medicaid were a bunch of shit(in so many words).

While Al Jazeera has it's own agenda it is good to get some news free of the US corporate filter.

I was once a big fan, now it's propaganda between the classical music.

[Buzz Clik]

29. "The ruling class"? LOL!

This is a great day for reading DU. What the hell are you people smoking?

:rofl:

[blindpig]

30. So, there is no ruling class?

wtf are you smoking?

Gimme some.

[Ichingcarpenter]

35. He doesn't smoke....I do ....and that's why

I can see through him.

[Buzz Clik]

39. No argument here.

At least about the smoking.

[Buzz Clik]

38. Not in this country, Bosco. There is no ruling class.

I do love socialists, however. So entertaining. I've been smiling all day.

[Peregrine Took]

12. I had the exact same reaction. He was so snarky to that Democrat is was

sickening. I guess he wanted it to be real obvious to knuckle draggers that he hates Democrats and liberals.

Can't they get anyone better than him?

[Buzz Clik]

21. Nonsense. He gave him a platform he couldn't find anywhere.

What, exactly, do you expect Simon to do? Applaud and whistle in delight every time a question was answered?

Simon repeatedly gave him golden opportunities to express his views and Simon never challenged him.

:wtf:

[CoffinEd]

14. Selective questioning

Simon says:

"to get specific, as I understand it, the bill would require public employees, except for firefighters and police, to pay 5.8% of their pension costs -- they pay nothing now -- and 12% of their healthcare premiums, up from 6%. Now, so many employees in the private sector have had to just that, one way or another. What's wrong with that?"

Since Simon included firefighters and police in his question, would it have taken too much of his time to clarify for listeners why they are not included in the bill? I mean really. Seriously.

If Wisconsin police and firefighters are already doing what other state employees are being asked to do, some people might want to know this. And if they are not, then some people might want to know this too.

[Wilms]

16. Simon is a failed actor.

I wonder the percentage of others like him who couldn't make it as an actor and wind up blowing smoke for the "owners". Not to say that a failed actor has to make a tool of a "journalist". But it's creepy.

[Dappleganger]

24. This is why I don't have a problem with NPR being defunded...

they have really gone downhill over the years and just aren't worth it anymore.

[DU GrovelBot]

33. ## PLEASE DONATE TO DEMOCRATIC UNDERGROUND! ##

This week is our first quarter 2011 fund drive. Democratic Underground is
a completely independent website. We depend on donations from our members
to cover our costs. Please take a moment to donate! Thank you!

Click here to donate

[TalkingDog]

41. I heard that POS this morning. I had to turn it off.