The NPR station I listen to is 100% Jazz. Can’t recall the call letters.
But NPR news has been gone for years.
All Things Considerd is still on, though. Just a different news source.
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*Originally posted by december *
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I’ve heard many conservatives remark along these lines, but frankly I just don’t hear it. Can you point to something specific that was broadcast on NRP that was “anti-American” or “left-wing”?
I’m not looking for an argument, honestly…I’m just curious as to what some hear as bias in NRP reporting.
December, are you sure you’re thinking about NPR and not Pacifica News?
Here’s one example. Some years ago, a (then) conservative David Brock wrote The Real Anita Hill, a book that made a strong case that she, rather than Clarence Thomas, was lying. I forget the details, but NPR refused to allow Brock to be interviewed defending his POV.
Another example from a year or two ago. They were interviewing a newspaper cartoonist. This wasn’t supposed to obe a political interview; it was about technique. In the course of the interview, the cartooninst managed to bring in an Urban Legend about Newt Gingrich behaving badly toward his estranged wife when she was in the hospital with cancer. To the cartoonist’s credit, he didn’t spcifically say that this story was true. OTOH, nether the cartoonist nor the interviewer pointed out that it was totally false, as had been confirmed by the NY Times. Listeners were reminded of the story and were left with the impression that it might well be true.
There was a scandal a year or two ago where a couple of public radio stations were found to be sharing donor lists with the Democratic Party. This is a no-no for a supposedly non-paritisan public radio station. As I understand it, these stations aren’t identical to NPR, but the incident tends to confirm the liberal bias in public radio.
These are just some items that come to mind.
Actually I find Pacifica Radio totally charming. I used to listen to KPFA when I was a Berkeley student, and now I get WBAI in NY.
It’s like a time machine. Through some Einsteinian quirk of the space-time continuum, broadcasts made by Communists during the 1930’s are just now arriving at our radios on WBAI. The speakers are totally sincere and sweet. And, they have real insight on issues that have long since become irrelevant.
Funny baout the Brock thing, cause he just recently came out and said he lied and the book was a lie.
december,
That’s the best you can do? NPR is anti-American and leftist because Mr. Brock was not interviewed, because some cartoonist mentioned The Newt and his abandonment of his first wife and because a couple of local public radio stations gave the local Demos a copy of their contributors list? That’s it? This is substance? This is your great revelation of a threat to truth, justice and the American way?
I suppose that makes as much sense as claiming that Uncle Walter Cronkite was bias against Pres. Nixon because of his voice expressed scepticism.
Do us a favor? In future explain to people who think words mean something that when you say that NPR is leftist and anti-American you really mean that NPR is not an organ of the more reactionary elements of the Republican Party.