As everyone knows by now, our beloved NPR has been gripped by those who would commit war terror within these here shores. The following is a headlong compendium of yakkage that attempts to find some 'narration' to explain NPR's fall from sacredness.
To chart a way through this, the Reader will already have to be aware of the events themselves, as I can't possibly provide all the relevant background details during such a time of storm and stress, tribulation and equivocation, not to mention boils and tears.
WARNING: Please forgive me for not providing hip links to the URLs below. In our former cut-'n-paste culture, a few more steps in reaching the goal seemed to be the ultimate in magical realism, but alas, I am regularly left in the dusts of regret for having been out of step, as usual. Please, forgive!
- So here goes:
NPR was going on as usual. Their prize-winning fussbudget, Ari Supremo, was at his constricted-vocal-cords best (I always have to turn down the treble control when he comes on). Feeling his freedom in playing NPR's token 'out' role, he's getting a little too gooey-swishy for comfort. However, he's just complying with the house rules to indulge in word porn for the thinking masses.
Meanwhile, the conceited social club that is NPR continued with the fluttery vanity of Blob Siegel making verbal love with DAVID BROOKS, who 'cares most about education'. He's always at his worst when he's posing as a 'liberal intellectual'.
Then, there's FRANK LUNTZ, facilitated by Neil Conman, eager to sell yet another NYT year-long best seller. He actually has the audacity to mock Charlie Sheen. Like the Neocon superstars, Luntz is a poster boy for the great American comeback. Another lovey-dovey lovefest between club members. During the interview, I was wondering how Frank's hair is doing. I hope it's OK.
I think I'm more comfortable with a Charlie Sheen than I am with these offensive, pompous fakes. Speaking of comebacks: Goebbels-ism flourishes in the midst of mediocrity.
How I weep for the decline of my country!
- OK, nothing unusual there. BUT THEN...
This just in:
"NPR ‘appalled’ by former exec’s comments"
http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thecutline/20110308/ts_yblog_thecutline/npr-appalled-by-former-execs-comments
3/8/11 11:07 AM
AND:
Ron Schiller, Viv Schiller. Supposedly 'no relation'. Uh-huh. Very collegiate.
All sorts of uniformed discussion about NPR erupting. Hillary didn't include NPR in her critique of US media. Bob McChesney praises VOA! Teabaggers think NPR is 'National Palestinian Radio'! Squabbling about how much fed money ACTUALLY goes to NPR (News) Uh-huh again. And so on, too many examples to cite.
NPR Check is needed more than ever to clear up all this bozo talk.
Michael Moore got it right without even naming any news outlet: the corporate-controlled media plays the same program all the time: don't rock the boat because some day you too may be rich, so don't harm the rich for providing that possibility. The US media constantly implies that you too can and should be rich if only you'd just be more 'American' in going about it.
Result: passive population, ripe for permanent exploitation.
I agree with Ron Shill-er: sever fed funding from NPR. It's a scam anyway, no matter what teabaggy types say.
3/8/11 11:21 AM
PS: Interesting 'appalling' video. When Ron takes his NPR hat off, no wonder NPR is appalled. Check it out...
3/8/11 11:28 AM
AND:
MEMO TO WYNHAM/COCHRANE: LEAD WITH VIVIAN SCHILLER RESIGNATION
She’s OUT, baby, OUT.
Welcome to the Post-Schiller Era at NPR. Ron out, Viv out (and they insist there's 'no relation'!)
Nevertheless, the on-air talent is above such things. ME was bouncier than ever this morn. Inskreep of Cairo was able to crow 'From Cairo,' (pause) 'this is Morning Edition'. (Haven't those poor people suffered enough under Mubarak?). Blob Siegel's positively bubbly in a promo for his latest hobby: chatting with 'philosophical' authors about pop/kitschy book promotions, and Ari 'n Renaay are as breezy as ever.
Larry Abramson gave absolutely NO connective background as to why Viv resigned. Their strategy is to just show what a traitor the Schiller with some honesty (Ron) has been to the mother organization. Viv will be portrayed as a victim - who was 'squeezed out' and all of that. Plus, even though rightwingnut James O'Keeffe staged the Ron sting, it's the MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD factor in said sting that will be retained in the minds of NPR's thinking masses. Mission accomplished with style and panache.
There will of course be no change in tone or agenda to be detected on the air at NPR. Schillers come and go, but the Imperative will remain the same. Why wreck a good thing?
AND EVEN…
FYI: (no joke):
At Al Jazeera, I did a search:
'npr vivian schiller'
Results:
'Did you mean "npr vivian shiller"?
3/9/11 2:09 PM
AND:
Diane R. has the fabulous TUCKER CARLSON, who broke the story!
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-03-09/nprs-ceo-resigns
3/9/11 2:05 PM
AND:
Listen to the way Alicia Shepherd TALKS; she's a real Nurse Ratched.
AND:
One more FYI:
Viv Schiller's dad is named RON!
(Source: Wikipædia)
AND:
OK, one more:
Wonkette's take:
http://wonkette.com/440099/
breaking-npr-person-a-human-being-has-personal-opinions-on-politics
AND:
http://wonkette.com/440168/tea-party-racists-will-all-start-listening-to-npr-now
AND:
A significant moment on the Diane R. show though:
Brooke Gladstone asserts that liberal commentators are not in the majority at NPR.
Interesting what comes out when the gun’s to the head.
AND
Typically, like any decent corporation in need of corporate welfare, NPR wants it both ways. They say that only 1-2% is what they get from gub'ment, and it's no big deal. Then they say they can't survive without it.
James O'Keeffe takes notes from NPR's playbook.
Solution: dump your salary hogs (the NPR superstars) and go grassroots. Sure, sure they will...
The Diane Rehm show was a predictable waste of on-air time, with the guests filling it up with gobbledygook. Viv as victim, of course, as she's done SO MUCH for NPR. And naturally 'Lisa' Shepherd was distancing herself cuz she's 'not influenced' by NPR in any way.
Another average day in the decline of the empire.
Since Broder blew out, why not nominate Mara Liarsson to take up the mantle? (She may need the gig...)
AND THIS to 'Wonkette', in order to help Wonkettes understand just what NPR is:
Nationalist/Narcissist Propaganda/Pentagon/Palestinian Radiation/Relations (aka 'NPR') is the ONLY possible news outlet for America's Thinking Masses. The purse-lipped intellectual wit of Blob Siegel, the smoky sexiness of MeeShill Norris, the brilliant motormouthing of Steve Inskreep and the urbane mall-rat perspectives of Renaay Mundane are guiding lights for the future saviors of the American Empire, who pant for fun, even cheerful digestion of the world today.
NPR is America's Storyteller. People, if you'd only BELIEVE!
Hope This Helps (TM)
AND:
All of this discussion (on its many levels) strikes me as valid because, like Wikileaks, genuine facts about NPR are being tossed out into the public sphere.
And, as Julian Assange so simply put it, the embarrassment that results is gigantic. The truthinesses that previously existed concerning NPR are now being replaced by notions that listeners will have to decide on. That is, if they choose to.
AND:
Who then, shall we get to take up the great Broderian mantle?
Well, how about that soon-to-be NPR orphan, Mara Liarsson? She's smart, sexy, savvy, wears turtlenecks, and makes pop-eyed grimaces on Fox 'n Friends. Plus, she has an attention-getting speaking style that suggests she's masticating her own vomit.
AND:
This, the first day in the Post-Schiller(s) Era, has been a real jungle.
I'm writhing off to bed now. Bedtime reading? Perhaps some Schiller. Friedrich Schiller. No relation. 'Ode To Joy'....
AND:
Thoughts on Ron Schiller's closed doors as the Aspen Institute reminded me of the Dodge Aspen, which was Lee Iacocca's bid to revitalize the MoPar Corp. However, I nominate the following as Worst Car Ever: Leave us not forget: the Chevy Vega. The only car that worked up to being totaled via natural causes.
AND, THE NEXT MORNING:
The Peter King 'hearings' are keeping the great HUAC tradition alive.
As we know, ever since the Commie/Soviet Industry went out of business, things Muslim have been the perfect elements for a segue into a #1 Enemy, whose mission is to infiltrate and destroy the American Way of Life. Soon an Evil Caliph will emerge from, say, all-American Chiggston, Iowa, with a new jihadist cry: 'WE'LL BURY YOU!'
Thus, a Prime Directive to justify our preeminence as a meaningful Empire. It's that loony. Glenn Beck's a children's birthday party entertainer in comparison.
I mean, the US talks a lot about North Korea having to have an enemy in order to justify its existence. Pot calling kettle black, naturally.
There's no reason to tie in NPR to any of this. Their influence is waning by the moment. At Wonkette, I loved Ken Layne's description of NPR as:
"... a dull yuppie news network primarily funded by the industrial food and chemical conglomerates that keep the Tea Party people so plump and diabetic, so of course NPR is catering not to its listeners (liberal yuppies who ignore the Archer Daniels Midland sponsorship messages that bookend basically every NPR program) in this situation, but to Tea Party people and their cynical performers in the House of Representatives. Tea Party people don’t listen to NPR news, obviously."
AND:
Can't resist this one:
According to NPR's Standards & Morals:
- Juan Williams can't make bozo statements on another channel.
- Ron Schiller can't offer his personal opinions at a private lunch.
BUT, Dina's Temple of Doom CAN:
- Refer to an ethnic Chinese man (who converted to Islam) as having a 'Fu Manchu' beard.
I don't know, it all seems kind of, you know . . . funny. I guess it's just entertaining trivia. No big deal. I'm forgetting about the 'new' NPR, and what that means.
What it means is that NPR WENT COMMERCIAL a long time ago. We all know that. And after you go commercial, you can't expect to keep playing this 'moral high-ground' BS trip that NPR purports to exploit.
You've been 'Wikileaked', NPR. Now the public has more of an inkling of your true nature. Judging from the many comments I've scanned, from Wonkette (yes, there are plenty of serious comments there), to HuffPost, C&L and NPR itself, it seems like there are significant numbers of listeners who are fed up. Indeed, many have been for some time, and this latest dust-up just confirms it.
And those commentators who defend NPR as the liberal beacon that it is? Hey, they NEED that NPR gig. They'll say anything in order to keep getting that easy 3-minute segment at NPR HQ, plus maybe a free lunch - or if it's cocktail hour, a designer martini. Keep an eye out for a James O'Keefe 'stinger' though. (No doubt a future cocktail name...)
Meanwhile, back at on-air NPR, the oblivious party continues. Never show any weakness. Ari tries to outdo Chris Rock in the jokey dept (fails - Rock prefers to do it straight), and Dave Greene's still doing those smiley-talk travelogues from 'colorful' Tunisia. Way-too-valuable Gjelten was just there for a show-off cameo, y'know. He's safe back in Chantilly now, but got in a fun junket to 'colorful' N. Africa, 1 to 2% of which was paid for by US taxpayers. Did we get our money's worth, gang?
Oh, and Barbie's not that popular in China. Oh, oh, and the late Dean Broder gets a tacit nod for doing 'shoe-leather' journalism as an old fart.
And stay tuned for DAVID BROOKS, who's getting a full hour of book promotion on Diane Rehm, as is his birthright.
- Leave us leave off there, shall we?
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