# Dear NPR ombudsman **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [October 26, 2006, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-npr-ombudsman/377971 "2006-10-26T13:28:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 9:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-npr-ombudsman/377971/41 "2006-10-27T21:11:53Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] If the economy were strong, wouldn’t it have generated a GDP of greater than 1.3% for the 3rd quarter? Seems kind of “soft” or “weak.” So, her statement was not only an opinion, but was at odds with actual data released later the same day. [/QUOTE] One quarter of slow GDP growth does not a weak economy make, and are you really expecting that she should have been aware of data released after she made the statement? We’ve averaged about 3% GDP growth this year-- just about what the Fed is targeting for healthy, sustainable growth. ---
**Author:** ![Beware\_of\_Doug](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/278dde/32.png) [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-npr-ombudsman/377971/42 "2006-10-27T21:20:14Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] The only other interesting bit was Mara Liasson’s snippet on poll numbers. [/QUOTE] Despite Mara Lie-ass-on’s looking like a Halloween witch in Talbots clothing and being in all probability not quite right in the head, why do I have this urge to grab her by the shoulder pads and engage her in a forcible exchange of bodily fluids? Is it her voice? ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2006, 9:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-npr-ombudsman/377971/43 "2006-10-27T21:56:45Z")
[QUOTE=Hentor the Barbarian] I saw that as the mildest effort to respond to Rove’s assertion that he has secret polling that shows the Republicans will win. What Siegel and the others on NPR do is essentially innoculate; they provide just enough of the mildest forms of questioning so that people like yourself can claim that Rove, Cheney, Mehlmann went on NPR (that liberal station, for chrissake’s) and dealt with the questions that they faced there. [/quote] I’ve already exlpaiend why they were on NPR recently. It’s an election cycle and the republicans make up a good half of our political process. Not to mention with the elections themselves and Iraq circling the drain, it’s good to have some quotes straight from the administrations mouth. I’m curious how “the optimistic side of reality” is a mild effort. It stops just short of referring to Rove as delusional. As an aside, what exactly do you mean by “people like yourself?” > [@](#): > > Come up with anything yet to help explain what was newsworthy about William Jefferson yesterday? I’d sure like to see how comical that was, from your perspective. Nope, and I really have no intention of doing so. The story on William Jefferson is not the topic here. The issue is you doing anything to prove that NPR has a right wing bias. I heard the segment with Mara Liasson. She was half of the rational point/counterpoint pieces that NPR is known to do. I believe that they had a liberal speaker on as well. They did the same thing this afternoon. And as this was a discussion and not a reported story, Liasson was well within her boundaries to editorialize. Also, it came after a story where the intro was President Bush referring to a candidate he was stumping for repeatedly as “Dave.” The stumpee was actually named Jeff. Now you can feel free to keep your ears tuned to your local NPR station in an attempt to pull bias out of the airwaves. You’ll find a lot of it with the low standard of evidence you’re using not to mention your intention of finding it. I’m going to assume you know what confirmation bias is. Happy listening. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dear-npr-ombudsman/377971.md?page=2)