National RePUBLICan Radio 2.0: NPPRR (National Pentagon Press Release Radio)

[marmar]

from HuffPost:


by Tony Hendra

National RePUBLICan Radio 2.0: NPPRR (National Pentagon Press Release Radio)
56 Comments | Posted May 29, 2007 | 08:21 PM (EST)

One thing you can say for our wondrous New-Broom-of-the-System Democrats. They may have folded like a two-dollar suitcase faced with the Caligula in the White House, but at least they got rid of Don Imus.

Not to exhume the Imus issue. But whatever you thought of Imus there was one great thing about having him on the air: you had somewhere to escape from the appalling Steve Inskeep.

Inskreep (sorry can't resist), he who hath never met a progressive he didn't feel compelled to patronize or contradict, replaced the much lamented Bob Edwards a year and a half ago as Morning Edition's co-host, where his smug, condescending drone has become a daily reminder of the Republican drive to garrote the last independent voice in national news.

(Should you need an example of Steve's sympathies check out his deferential serve-up-the-softballs interview last month of war criminal Douglas Feith. Which teaches us, class, that there are other kinds of on-air obscenity than calling college athletes offensive names.

But it's not really Inskreep I'm gunning for; rather an insidious phenomenon that's been occurring on his watch. As soon as the Dems took control in January, Morning Edition began to include an almost daily diet of 'behind-the-scenes' Iraq-related news stories (Feith-based perhaps?) so pro-war they made you wonder if there wasn't a Pentagon PR flack embedded with this particular NPR unit.

This is only getting worse. The 'stories' range all over the subject map from the logistical concerns of non-combat units (medical, infrastructure rebuilding, even chaplains) to heartwarming home-front stuff to the trials and lifestyles of Iraqis who work with US forces. There's nothing theoretically wrong with such topics, but the stories all have the pre-packaged uncritical feel of shameless plants. And two relentless messages: A. Iraq is a war like any other, dirty yes, but a just war, justified and justifiable; B. things are going much better than you think, if you'll just stop listening to those lefty naysayers. ......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/tony-hendra/national-republican-radio_b_49905.html

[pscot]

1. The defenestration of Bob Edwards

was the last straw. The creeping repuke rot had been apparent for some time. The way they treated Edwards was a typically shabby corporate play. The two idiots who replaced him just sealed the deal. I don't even listen to the car guys any more. It's a shame, really. For 25 years NPR was my network of record. Just goes to prove, the bush-bots could fuck up a ball-bearing.

[DavidDvorkin]

2. I always disliked Bob Edwards

I never considered him progressive or even balanced, and his insertion of sports into news segments upset me.