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Energy Independence - A Daily Show History of Empty Rhetoric

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Letter to NPR about Fox Correspondents on Their Staff

[updated 6/17/2010]

I'm sure I join a loud chorus of listeners that are sick of your correspondents that also work for Fox News.  You need to completely purge your organization of these contaminated, damaged anti-journalists.   Fox News is not a news organization and you should not allow anyone to be employed by NPR and Fox simultaneously.  You don't have correspondents that are in the employ of the RNC's PR office, do you?  There is no difference except the RNC might lie less.


On today's ATC, Fox employee Mora Liasson in a typical Fox-style meaningless aside commented that the President was "reading from a teleprompter."  This is unnecessary information and serves only one function:  To belittle the President of this country.  Do you know what a Dixie dog whistle is?  Well saying Obama was reading from a teleprompter is a wingnut dog whistle and you should be ashamed you let it on the air.  Every single President since Carter has used teleprompters constantly.  GWB always had one though he obviously had trouble reading it.  The only people that make note of this President's use of a teleprompter are people that hate him and are out to end his career.  You seriously need to check your editors and producers about this kind of crap, or is NPR more worried about getting teabaggers to listen to ATC than in presenting the news in a truly fair and balanced manner?

[response from NPR 6/17/2010]

Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2010 2:46 PM

Subject: Re: Right Wing Fox News Language – Message ID:26967

Response to Message #26967:

Dear Alan,

Thank you for contacting the Ombudsman. We appreciate your feedback on NPR National Political Correspondent Mara Liasson who also appears on Fox New.

It is not uncommon for NPR reporters to appear on other networks, such as CNN and PBS.  Ombudsman Alicia Shepard wrote a column on this issue. NPR continually evaluates what its reporters say, how they present their work, and whether that crosses an ethical line, and NPR staff is held to a strict code of ethics and practices. These standards are in place to protect and support the integrity, impartiality and conduct of journalists.

When recently asked, Senior VP of News Ellen Weiss confirmed that NPR is continually evaluating how appearances on other news outlets may or may not undermine the NPR journalist’s reputation as an impartial source of information. 

Again, thank you for bringing your observations and thoughts regarding language used in Mara Liasson's report on All Things Considered to our attention. We appreciate you taking time to write.

Best,
Alexandria Neason
Office of the Ombudsman
NPR

[My response]

Please let it be known that I think any correspondent with a link to Fox News is damaged merchandise and should not be allowed airtime on NPR.  With no problem I can find you 10 qualified individuals in New Orleans that can do her job without throwing in disguised insults against our President in the process.  Anyone that is associated with Fox News is contaminated by their fascist leadership and should not be allowed a voice on National Public Radio.

 

Also you did not address her noting the President was reading from a teleprompter.  This is unacceptable on every level, especially that of journalistic behavior.  It is a BS partisan slur and you damn well know it whether it is stated specifically in your code of ethics (which it isn't) or not.

You may not watch Fox News (what sane person can?) but this teleprompter nonsense has been one stick in the continuous drumbeat of opposition to our President, along with the birther nonsense and more recently the "he's not angry enough/he's too angry" blather that you have also stooped to covering.  When will NPR have the balls to say enough is enough?  Fox News is a propaganda wing of the GOP and to say it is other is to lie to oneself.

 

 

What is Up With this Teleprompter Noise?

So not only are right wingers stupid, they have collective amnesia?  You would think no public official had ever read off a teleprompter until Obama... or is that they're pissed he does it so well while Shrub managed to fuck up even when reading his speeches?

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Thinky Prez Done Thinking

Meet the New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

Still ignoring habeus corpus, still detaining prisoners without trial, still maintaining a notorious prison in Bagram where we continue to torture people, still failing to give more than lip service to reducing our consumption of fossil fuels, and still failing to find Osama Bin Laden while throwing tens of thousands of young American troops at an enemy that never attacked us directly until we invaded their country (and gave them the support to rise up from near oblivion). At least when Carter failed we could blame the Congress or the George H.W. Bush led CIA.

Incitement 3 - Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8

"Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8"

There’s a new slogan making its way onto car bumpers and across the Internet. It reads simply: "Pray for Obama: Psalm 109:8"

A nice sentiment?

Maybe not.

The psalm reads, "Let his days be few; and let another take his office."

Presidential criticism through witty slogans is nothing new. Bumper stickers, t-shirts, and hats with "1/20/09" commemorated President Bush’s last day in office.

But the verse immediately following the psalm referenced is a bit more ominous: "Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow." more

It's All His Fault!

Polanski Channels Obama

This Modern World: Language is a Virus

Comparing America to the Nazis

Racism??

Denial isn't just a river in Egypt anymore.

Goofus and Gallant

Is Our Healthcare Be Learning?

Is there anyone out there that thinks healthcare in this country is working properly? Please take a look at this and then tell me why you would think that:

Afterbirthers Demand To See Obama's Placenta

WASHINGTON–In the continuing controversy surrounding the president's U.S. citizenship, a new fringe group informally known as "Afterbirthers" demanded Monday the authentication of Barack Obama's placenta from his time inside his mother's womb. "All we are asking is that the president produce a sample of his fetal membranes and vessels—preferably along with a photo of the crowning and delivery—and this will all be over," said former presidential candidate and Afterbirthers spokesman Alan Keyes, later adding that his organization would be willing to settle for a half-liter of maternal cord plasma. "To this day, the American people have not seen a cervical mucus plug, let alone one that has been signed and notarized by a state-certified Hawaiian health official. If the president was indeed born in the manner in which he claims, then where is his gestation sac?" Keyes said that if Obama did not soon produce at least a bloody bedsheet from his conception, Afterbirthers would push forward with efforts to exhume the president's deceased mother and inspect the corpse's pelvic bone and birth canal.

New Boss, Same as the Old Boss

So much for transparency. President Obama is fighting against FOIA requests for visitor logs for the White House citing the exact same arguments as Darth Cheney. Obama has decided that the 700 year old right to habeus corpus is outdated (why not just call it "quaint" and square that circle?) and he can throw people in jail forever without proving cause. But you really want your mind blown? An actual reason for not releasing Cheney's FBI interview is --and seriously, I can barely type this because it is so ridiculous as to sound invented-- because satirists might use it to make fun of the former Vice President:

Justice Department lawyers told the judge that future presidents and vice presidents may not cooperate with criminal investigations if they know what they say could become available to their political opponents and late-night comics who would ridicule them.

"If we become a fact-finder for political enemies, they aren't going to cooperate," Justice Department attorney Jeffrey Smith said during a 90-minute hearing. "I don't want a future vice president to say, `I'm not going to cooperate with you because I don't want to be fodder for 'The Daily Show.'" AP

I'm sorry, Mr. Obama, but that's complete and utter bullshit and you know it. Grow a pair, buddy, and back up the rhetoric that got you elected.

Obama v Cheney in 100 Seconds