Why NPR Should Fire Cokie Roberts

I was outraged at the time and now I find I'm not even vaguely alone:

In the end, it wasn't close. By an overwhelming margin, criticism by Cokie Roberts, NPR contributing senior news analyst and ABC political commentator, of then-Sen. Barack Obama for choosing Hawaii, the state of his birth, to take his August family vacation was the most popular entry in Media Matters for America's poll for Most Inane Punditry of the 2008 presidential campaign. Readers chose Roberts' comments -- which included her characterizing Hawaii, where Obama vacations regularly, as "foreign, exotic" -- in greater numbers than her two closest competitors combined. Roberts stated: "I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place," adding, "He should be in Myrtle Beach, and, you know, if he's going to take a vacation at this time."

...

Vote totals in percentages*:

Cokie Roberts on Obama's Hawaii vacation: "I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state," but it looks "foreign, exotic"	38.65
Scarborough on Obama's "dainty" bowling performance: "Americans want their president, if it's a man, to be a real man"	16.76
Barnes: Obama not "strong on national security" because he opposed war "when the entire world believed" Saddam had WMD	16.71
Brooks thinks Obama wouldn't seem to "fit[] in naturally" at an Applebee's salad bar -- maybe because Applebee's doesn't have them	5.95
Defending Givhan's cleavage coverage, Harwood asserted "calculati[ng]" Clinton knew "what she was communicating by her dress"	5.79
Fox News' Hill criticizes Clinton for leaving too large a tip, accuses her of "spending like a Learjet liberal"	5.59
On Hardball, Matthews and Shuster critiqued Obama's "weird" beverage selection at Indiana diner	4.80
Matthews on Obama shooting pool: "[I]t's not what most people play. People with money play pool these days"	2.48
Matthews: "Who would win a street fight ... Rudy Giuliani or President Ahmadinejad"	2.30
Politico's Simon now on to a different part of Romney's anatomy: "shoulders you could land a 737 on"	0.97

Personally I can't understand why anyone who has so obviously bought into an ideological argument (i.e. "Obama is the other.") would be allowed to report news or give opinions about news by any self respecting news organization, especially one as respected as NPR. Her opinion is worthless and it disgusts me that NPR is still paying this woman to spout bullshit while laying off actual journalists. Let her go work at Fox Noise where facts have nothing to do with what they broadcast and where "opinion" is all that matters and calling someone's home state "exotic" or a common hand geture "a terrorist fist bump" is just the way things are done but get her off of NPR while there is still something left to respect there.

(Someday soon I will rant about NPR's religious segments on their news. American churches have broader media coverage than NPR so they really don't deserve the attention NPR gives them, I don't care who the fuck is giving them money to do it.)