NYC Utterly Replaces NPR In My Acronym Reference List

Fig. 1 These are they who guard the treasure of the Globalisms. No, this is NOT the re-staging of an old vaudeville routine


Fig. 2 See? Note the location. Click on photo and enlarge to see what the Big Guy guarding the treasure is doing (photos: mine own)


Hey folks, I just got back from a couple weeks in NYC (one acronym that actually stands for something), without a single Nothing Public Radio moment. I’m chipper as a Central Park squirrel, and more mature than ever to dump NPR for good.

While it is a certainty that the corporate media is a corrupting force, one can survive quite readily and be immune from it while being in the very center of its headquarters (Times Square excepted). Capitalist monolith that it is, the Big Apple’s diversity has sewn the seeds of that very system’s mutation into something yet unknown. I get the feeling that things is gonna be somewhat different in the near future.

Plutocrats have been circling the wagons ever since Reagan gave them the go-ahead, but them axles ain’t as properly greased as has been estimated. One gentleman in the subway was heard to vent his frustration and anger thusly: ‘This town needs a tsunami. Washington DC needs an earthquake.’ I think we know what he meant, eh?

A few amateur media observations (with apologies to infinitely more hip native New Yorkers): In the general city scene, almost no newspaper presence. A few had the Daily News in the subway. I saw ONE person reading the NYT – and that was in Newark! Bob Herbert told ‘em where to stuff it and is moving on to more purposeful things. No WSJ mightiness either, and I hung out for a time in the canyons of Wall St.

No, anyone who is anyone has a pod/phone device, and I’ll bet the percentage of people utilizing any old NPR app at any one time is severely low. Why would you even bother with an NPR? Can you imagine commuting to Queens while listening to – gulp – Melissa Blockhead?? NPR’s for scared middle and upper class white folks who are scared that poor and angry people are going to take everything away from them. This, while being fleeced and zombified by the corporate edifice they think is their comfort zone.

I’ve had a hunch that NPR’s on the way out for some time now. Like newspapers. I’m convinced that, despite the flaunted PR that their listenership is bigger than ever – along with their influence - all such advertisement is grossly over-produced in fine MSM fashion.

One pallid bright spot: CBS’ Early Show on Sunday still has some elements of Good Television in it. Not cutting edge, but easy to take traces of the CBS of old. Of course, their audience is literally dying out.

NPR’s, on the other hand, doesn’t necessarily need NPR anymore. I mean, taking NPR seriously is like believing every word that some nobody like Ann Coulter says. Beyond preposterous. They’ve even got Inskreep tossing in little National (self)Promotional Radio maxims like ‘Not letting go of older stories – that’s the kind of thing you get on NPR…’ or some such desperate BS.

Listening for about a minute after two weeks’ sanity, it’s just too painfully obvious what a godawful thing NPR is - just to HEAR, let alone ‘consider’. Even with agendas aside, NPR is a failure. Empires that are late in their cycles brush aside such failures, which are quickly forgotten.

So, to paraphrase Snoop Dogg, I’m taking this ‘New York minute’ opportunity, to consign NPR to da project dumpster’s bottom, where it belongs.

Staying untuned…

2011: ARAB WORLD IN CRISIS - CAUSES NPR TO GO INTO CRISIS MODE

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?

From Doha Comes . . .

Hillary speaks the overwhelmingly obvious (from DN!):

"Hillary Clinton Praises Al Jazeera as "Real News"

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has surprised many after she praised the news programming on Al Jazeera, while she criticized the over-commercialization of news programs in the United States. Speaking before the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Clinton said the United States is losing the "information war."

Hillary Clinton: "Viewership of Al Jazeera is going up in the United States because it’s real news. You may not agree with it, but you feel like you’re getting real news around the clock instead of a million commercials and, you know, arguments between talking heads and the kind of stuff that we do on our news, which, you know, is not particularly informative to us, let alone foreigners."

While Al Jazeera English is broadcast to more than 200 million homes around the world, it is hardly available in the United States due to what critics have described as a media blackout by U.S. cable and satellite providers.
"
(end quote)

We all know about NPR's contributions to commercial on-air clutter, so subliminally ushered into our brains by Frank Tavares' supposedly 'neutral' but extremely nasal pestering. However, I'd just like to mention the hours of wasted filler time that NPR (and the US MSM, natch) spends MAKING SURE we know who's speaking/reciting/acting/performing for your show biz pleasure at any one time, in their terribly important roles as America's Storytellers.

I mean, a perfect example is news reciter Craig Wyndham's crusade to 'personalize' his news slot by being chummy with his fellow creative writers. This morning, in the few seconds allotted to her segment, Craig said 'Tamara' four times: introducing Tamara Keith, exiting Tamara Keith, and 'communing' with Tamara Keith twice in the brief soundbyte 'report'. He of course is most famous for doing this with his inseparable workhorse buddy, Paul Brown. (e.g. 'Thanks Paul. That's NPR's Paul Brown'). I know, it's meant to imply collegiality, but to me it's the collegiality of Wall Street CEOs. Plus it makes for extremely tedious listening. I mean, who ARE these people?

OK, this is getting a little neurotic in the hair-splitting department, but the accumulated CLUTTER is in itself neuroses-inducing. Of course, with a passive public, they just absorb it all, then blow out down the line, I suppose.

BBC and Al Jaz hardly bother to be control freaks about making SURE that you know precisely at every second who the star personality of the moment is who's delivering the news. Their business isn't to keep you distracted into hopefully buying something. US media hates this reasonable neutrality, cuz they're convinced that 'personality-izing' the news brings in audiences, which naturally bring in money. You might say they're horribly addicted to this (Planet) monkey on their backs: win ratings or die.

This is not only a failed policy, it has made for some of the most worthless broadcasting ever to be conceived, and it's getting worse.

Al Jazeera, like the Jasmine Revolution movement (a current label of convenience), is a big threat to the US MSM, and you can bet there will be some pathetic attempts to 'Al Jaz-ize' their outfits, while others in the shadows will be plotting Al Jaz' demise (consultants: Wolfowitz, Perle, Xe & Partners, etc.).

Al Jaz chief Wadah Khanfar made an outstanding statement at TED, which makes meatloaf out of Hillary's obviousness:

http://english.aljazeera.net/
indepth/opinion/2011/03/20113341535651130.html

PS: Patty Culhane, Al Jaz's WH correspondent, makes anybody from NPR seem like a sick joke. Yes, I know her name, but she's cogent, serious, non-distracting, and plays no games.

That's all this child wants and needs in his news-gathering.

Actual Contents Of An NPR Diaper Considered

A full diaper-load on Morn Ed this morn. Forgive the onslaught, please.

OK, two US airmen were shot dead in Frankfurt, presumably, says NPR, by an Islamofabulist. An act of terrorism, certainly. Match this with the Davis affair in Lahorror, Pawkeestawn, when our ‘diplomat’ shot two creeps who were ‘trying to rob him’. Interesting how each situation is couched. Terrorism is OUR tool to use, not the other side’s. WE get to use terrorism to explain our M.O., while the Pakistanis get completely freaked out by a guy just defending himself from ruffians. National Praetorian Radio must serve the Imperium at all cost.

Personal: I myself have walked the streets and alleys of Lahore in depth. It is a sophisticated, cultured and fascinating city. And friendly, too, at least when my wife and I were there. A privilege to be there. As safe and as dangerous as New York. Any CIA/mercenary who packs heat in such a place is just looking for trouble. If Davis mucked up his ‘mission’, it’s just another example of US failure in the region. Dean Martin as secret agent Matt Helm would NEVER be so bumbling. In all seriousness, I hate Davis and his employers all the more for trashing the privilege that I once enjoyed.

Who knows, is the CIA involved in bumping off more western-sympathetic Pak officials, so as to stoke the crusade to deliver nukey-nervous Pakistan from sharia terror?
AND
Bill Ford of FoMoCo was interviewed by a typically casual Renaay M. He sounds like a Whole Earth Catalog nerd. I hope he is. He seems like he would be an enemy of the oil companies, but Renaay conveniently forgot to ask Bill if maybe the oil companies were having a problem with Ford’s uppityness in tilting away from fossil fueling. Amy Goodman would of course have asked that question. But she’s Amy Goodman and not mundane. NPR, in all its civilized behavior, does not make CEOs tapdance.

AND

Incredibly, today Renaay referred to Zimbabwe’s Bob Mugabe as ‘somewhat of a despot’. SOMEwhat? I mean, where has she BEEN? Mugabe is more universally despised than Gaddafi. (Muammar has oil. Bob doesn’t. Oil-less despots are more convenient to despise.)

Anyway, Renaay is final proof that NPR must have airheaded brains hosting their shows, as they are impervious to reality. Propaganda-ready mouthpieces cannot be moved to humanity, even though they’ve witnessed, firsthand, all sorts of hot spots. (Chris Hedges, hardline reporter, always has been a humanitarian.) Their job is to serve the specific sectors that their employers have defined, not to go off on some humanitarian bleeding heart lovefest.

But Renaay, honey, it’s official: MUGABE IS A DESPOT. Inflict your dumbass personality elsewhere, STARTING TONIGHT. Even Mattel’s PR dept. couldn’t use you.

AND

Morn Ed saves their cheerful crap for the end of the show, so as not to appear too disrespectful to the dark side of US imperialism. And in their ongoing service to America, they’re still helping us know what is really stupid in American pop culture, as opposed to what ISN’T really stupid in American pop culture.

For example: Barbie (and Ken)=good. Anna Nicole Smith=bad.

In London, Philip Reeves profiled the new opera, ‘Anna Nicole Smith’, and he didn’t apply any mockery to the story, just straightforward reporting. NPR HQ obviously disapproves of Anna Nicole, so they can smirk around Reeves’ story all they want. I daresay, Anna Nicole’s life is just as operatic as Lucia di Lammermoor’s. What’s wrong with giving it the Donizetti treatment?

Renaay: What’s a Don A. Zetti, Steve?
Inskreep: A pizza sold by an insurance agent! Har har!
(See? I kin doo kulturul eleet all by myself now!)
Inskreep’s own contribution involved him saying that Anna Nicole Smith being discussed in a British accent was so much better. Or something like that. (See why I get sarcastic?)

Even though Reeves has been sidelined on stories like this, he and Quist-Arcton still warm my heart. (Hey you two, they could use you both over at Al Jaz…)

We’re all little NPR-influenced pop culture critics now, aren’t we?

AND

One more NPR pop culture nightmare.

More examples: Justin Bieber=stupid/childish. Scott Simon=not stupid/not childish – but funny!
Our Morn Ed team was making gentle fun about a lock of Justin Bieber’s hair being auctioned off. Scott Simon wasn’t mentioned, but his spirit was there.

At any rate, they made it clear that the Bieber hair thang was sort of, you know, silly. They even implied that the charity the auction money would go to was sort of - silly.

My local morning hostess always likes to join in on the NPR HQ fun. She’s skillfully adopted the Inskreep Punchline Pause ™ wholesale, and today she expanded on the Justin Bieber mockery by deliberately calling him ‘Justin Timberlake’. Really funny stuff for the new listeners who are just discovering NPR!

It’s also funny how Bieber, a virtual Michael Jackson knockoff, gets the National Public Ridicule, while Jackson himself always seemed to get uncertain but ‘respectable’ treatment. Yeah, he’s dead and all, but is this because of some below-the-radar racial policy confusion, or just the fact that Michael was one sick puppy and Justin (Bieber) is jes’ plain wholesome and fun, so he can take a bit of harmless joshing?

Bieber=good, safe influence (so far). Jackson=dangerous influence, but so damn popular (proceed with caution).

White boys who just wanna be black will always be treated better on NPR than black boys who wanna be white.

Let NPR become just as stupid as they think they need to be. Because, to paraphrase architect Ralph Adams Cram, ‘the sooner we accomplish the destiny it so perfectly shadows, the sooner we shall be able to clear the ground and begin again.’

Wow, what a humungous burden it is to be America’s Storyteller. So much to decide on! So much to dictate! To paraphrase Harold on the ‘Red Green Show’, NPR is the ‘smartest person in the whole wide room’, as it were.

That’s our NPR – always doing their part to enforce a cultural elite (of dubious, dubious quality) on we the living.

NPR is so monumentally ‘stimulating’, it makes me digress within digressions. Shameful, I know.

AND finally, but most importantly:

Bradley Manning (admittedly erroneously labeled 'a marine' on NPR) is getting slammed further.

Get it from here, not NPR:

http://action.firedoglake.com/
page/s/manning_enemies?
source=em2011032b

We Can Relax, And I Can Get Busy: Paul's Back

The Neocons are primed for a renaissance. My good buddy Paul W.(olf-o-whatever) is ready to hang his comb in public again. Like Cincinnatus of old, he shall serve once more, out of sheer duty to democracy, if called.

He was treated with the respect he deserves by Fareed Zakaria on CNN recently. Interesting, huh? America's famous for giving psychopaths second chances. And hey, with Paul, it's about his tenth second chance. What a swell country!

Wolfie was at his best scoff-laughing through the interview w/o offering anything of value whatsoever. He's already signed his 'Saddam Moment' letter, demanding a repeat of history, with all its attendant failures.

More on my good buddy, just below.

AND

How did you like Debbie Amos’ little tour of Al Jazeera English? Finally deigning to fully acknowledge their importance, and defying the Olympian declaration from the Wolfowitz Center for American Strategic Wisdom that ‘Al Jazeera is no friend of the United States’, Debbie nevertheless ventured in to see what the ‘young Turks’ in Doha are up to. Her post-production narration was delivered with her typical ‘savvy woman’ dryness, but her on-the-scene voice was implying, ‘Do you guys REALLY think you’re a news organization to reckon with?’, or even ‘Now just WHO do you think you ARE??’ Meanwhile, at home, sitting in a REAL news organization, InskreepMundane were too cool to take it all seriously, and indeed, surrounded the story with trivialities. I’m sure they’re seething with professional jealousy. I’m sure Debbie’ll share a lot of snickers with the gang when she returns with relief to NPR Intergalactic HQ.

Yes Debbie, many of us in the US are accessing Al Jaz online. You might have implied that that says something: that US Media coverage of the region is propagandistic and largely worthless. But I know why you didn’t say it.

Warning to US Media: HANDS OFF Al Jazeera. No meddling or corporate weaseling-in allowed. Murdoch: don’t even THINK of a hostile takeover.

AND

I know I get stuck on style as far as on-air delivery is concerned, but here we have Juan Forero, covering the extremely important beat of S. America. I mean, does this guy sound like he’s just discovered Playboy magazine, and he’s telling us all about it while in a back alley, or what? Who would ever think that his orgazmatronic, ‘I’m-about-to-climax’ manner of speaking enhances his reportage? Well, I’m sure it’s the ‘CIA Thrill’ that turns him on, and he just can’t help himself.

Yeah, and I gotta bitch about Beardsley yet again. She’s really going into Freedom Fries mode now, adding a particularly sneering tone to her usual me-cool quack. Seems she’s in a mood to scoff at the nation that has been rather good to her these long years and imply that they haven’t been Neocon enough towards Libya. Cuz France has been in bed with Muammar (as if the US hasn’t), and so now France has got soufflé all over its face. Our Eleanor can really see through those Frogs’ BS, can’t she? My beloved dog produces excrement more aesthetically appealing that this horseshit.

Speaking of Wolfie, he’s all ready to repeat history, what with signing a ‘letter’ demanding an invasion of Libya to rescue its people from a tyrant. Sound familiar? Oh Paul! Deliver us from this current situation with your high intellect and proven success! Next stop: starring roles for Wolfie on many an NPR segment??

In the feature department, Susan Steeamberg wisely decided to ditch her gooey, overripe ‘sensuality’ in favor of doing a Best Behavior ™ interview and letting Jane Fonda take center stage for the segment, where she belongs. One of NPR’s many failures is to have decided to be ‘the nation’s storyteller’ by making its own personalities paramount instead of making them invisible, or as facilitators only. Instead we have Inskreep’s (or any other NPR star’s) virtual version of the world. To my mind, that alone is why the US Government should get out of the news biz, as NPR as it is now makes impartiality impossible.

Dumping The Corp For Pub B'casting

I think that the US Gubmunt should get out of the public broadcasting biz. There’s just too much corruption potential in action to make it work any more. If we still had the Fairness Doctrine, there’d be hope, but we’re now seeing the full flower of its abolition, and the product (NPR) is rotten and toxic. Sorry Member Stations, a new architecture will have to emerge, and through this reinvention, new opportunities will develop.

As usual, ignorant hacks like the CPB-hating Republicans (and most everybody else in Congress) are barking up the wrong tree. It’s two failed wars and a morbidly obese Defense Dept. that should be hacked at FIRST. Uh, duh!

The Brits may have been able to pull off the BBC for over 80 years, but they’re laying off people right and left. The Beeb is being cut past the bone. I was in BBC’s Bush House in London recently and there was a hard-to-explain but palpable feeling of impending doom there. Americans may not know that citizens in the UK pay hefty fees to support their BBC. I remember paying 17 pounds for a black and white TV license in the early 80s. Colour TV cost about 45 pounds – a huge sum back then. That was just to HAVE a TV. (Those damn Brit socialists! Never mind that fees were an incentive for the BBC to conscientiously provide high quality news and entertainment to a fee-paying public.)

No, I think that the US is just stuck in their ongoing adolescent behavior as far as public funding for broadcasting is concerned. And here’s the wringer: if the Congress has allowed NPR to become what it is today, they are complicit in propaganda production, the whole of which needs to exposed. (But probably never will be.)


AND

Indeed, Inskreep was at his majestic-powerful best today, trying to (subtly) rip the Wisc. Dem senator a new one. He makes sure that his rapier verbiage takes pride of place, especially when talking to a cowardly runaway pinko with his diminished cell-phone voice and all. And then the I-kreep trademark: leave ‘em twisting in the wind at the end by the little pause and the fake cordiality at the end. And the interviewee, wondering if he/she’s just been screwed (via creative editing), is nevertheless obliged to offer up the now standard parting: ‘My pleasure’. The pleasure was all I-kreep’s. You can imagine his smile as he wipes his sword off with a satin sheet. Oh, but he’s way too suave to be a ‘gotcha’ dude. He’s more like ‘I believe I just sautéed the nuts off that, that, conceited (fill name in blank)’. That’s maybe giving him too much credit for any sophistication, but standard NPR smugness can cover it on all occasions.

‘My pleasure’ they say, even after covering a drone party in Pak. Everybody’s high on ‘pleasure’ at NPR. Of course, the difference between pain and pleasure has always been a bit of a blur.

These are among the tools that help keep NPR on the winning side (they think).

I actually wonder how big people at NPR (e.g. Viv et al) actually, truly, privately, regard Inskreep: insolent prick or genius hip journalisto? Amphetamine-popping goldmine or potential quick burnout, entirely dispensable? Sexy boytoy or closet perv?

Who could have foretold that US media would have ever sunk so low in the sewer?

Now That NPR's Under Fire, Some TOUGH TALK

If commies, hippies, Jews and Islamofashionistas can wage a War on Christmas, then by golly (as Rummy would say) the Republicans can wage jihad on NPR (and PBS - but that's not our concern here; I simply never watch it no more...)

War, war, war, that's all we ever hear about anymore. If I hear 'war' cried once more, I'll just scream!

But there is a sound of war in the camp. Holy war, righteous war. And woe unto NPR for ever, EVER having fired Juan the Yawn Williams.

Now just hold on a minute.

Here's a LINK! to a particularly handy summary that brings us up to date on the NPR that's supposedly a hotbed of anti-Fox liberalism that the GOP is so rabid about.

Mytwords (of NPR Check), thanks for the helpful digest that illustrates NPR's true identity. I'll refer others to it. I particularly needed it yesterday when I was discussing NPR with friends I trust, and sadly, they gave me that 'he's over the top' look regarding NPR. As has happened many times before, they got very quiet. No debate resulted because they didn't want to hear that 'their' NPR wasn't what they thought it was. I've never wanted to evangelize anybody on this matter, but just provide food for thought.

The American public is more vulnerable to propaganda than ever before. NPR, which appears so trustworthy, enjoys high standing, especially among those whom Hedges rightfully quotes as 'progressives' and 'liberals'. (Quotes implying a dubiousness...)

I include a timely Chomsky quote from Truthout:

"To understand why independent journalism is vital to regaining our self-governance and breathing life into our democracy, we turn to renowned philosopher and activist Noam Chomsky. Speaking recently about the way politicians fear the wave of democratic revolution in the Middle East, Chomsky said:

"We should remember there’s an analog here. I mean, it's not the same, of course, but the population in the United States is angry, frustrated, full of fear and irrational hatreds. And the folks not far from you on Wall Street are just doing fine. They’re the ones who created the current crisis. They're the ones who were called upon to deal with it. They’re coming out stronger and richer than ever. But everything's fine, as long as the population is passive."
(End quote)

Indeed, I've long held that NPR as it is now should be dissolved. It's developed past its useful purpose, and it behaves like the commercial enterprise it is but denies being. And other reasons regularly show up on this blog.

Of course, like GM, I don't expect NPR to disappear. However, if its budget was drastically cut back, perhaps there's a chance that it could be reinvented. As illustrated in the helpful comments above, if their cost-heavy trophy personalities were fired en masse, funding would not be so acute an issue, and NPR could evolve into a leaner, meaner, and even exciting info source. But not under the current personnel roster. No way.

This is a 'scorched earth' approach, but I agree that most of the current staff are hopeless as a result of their ambition, indoctrination, and their perverse, narcissistic versions of journalism are concerned.

Sorry to get 'Old Testament-like' here, but the children of Israel couldn't get to the promised land until all the 'golden calf' generation WAS CONSUMED. (I love that line towards the end of DeMille's 'Ten Commandments'!)

I mean, if CBS wants to blow 30 million on Katie Couric because she's 'good', so be it. They're a wholly commercial enterprise, and ratings are all that matters. When NPR aspired to get into that league, they became an instant failure.

Another problem is that NPR, in all their puffery and Neocon connectivity, aspires to do too much. They think they can do it all, and do it well. They want the gravitas, the comedy, the show biz and the concern, to be packaged in a 'creatively-written' and easy to pop pill - for the 'thinking masses' as I like to call them. Then they can posture as being above everybody else, whether it’s NBC or 'The Daily Show'. (They've never taken on Fox because they're so much alike - just a different wardrobe.)

But look at Al Jazeera. They don't want to do it all. They've basically kept their coverage pretty specific. They touch on 'magazine' issues when they have time, but they're obviously lower priority. I get the feeling that NPR is not only jealous of Al Jaz, some within NPR might think, 'that's what WE used to be like...'

NPR also adopted the classic commercial tactic of 'you can't live without us - you need us on every day, all the time.' And of course they're being so noble and all by providing such a 'service'.

Ultimately though, there really isn't much point in revamping NPR, as their monopoly is becoming rapidly meaningless. In the 90s it could have been done, before the raw corruption of the Bush Era fully set in. But NPR was too ripe a plum to be plucked by the Corporatists, and NPR, in its vanity, solicited the plucking most willingly.

But now it doesn't really matter. Viv might do her darndest to keep the vitality going, but as the baby boomer-plus generation (who still rely on the services a structured radio apparatus provides) age and disappear, there just won't be much point for an NPR anymore, and no one will want to pay for it, even as a propaganda tool, unless it goes wholly commercial. And Fox already exists, so why bother?

NPR is famous for being late on the scene for the story, and in the wider sense, it's too late for NPR to be saved from itself.

If doofus Republicans in a doofus Congress wanna get tough on NPR, fine. They don't know anything about it anyway. True alternatives have already emerged.

Another, Grander Kind Of Donald

Fig. 1 His favorite jammies

Ages after his confessional was published, NPR finally got access to The Donald Rumsfeld's dance card.

What resulted was a dueling of the egomaniacs. Inskreep was determined to 'do a McNamara' on Rummy, and Rummy used his incredible charm to imply that Inskreep was somehow 'strange'. His trademark feistiness, which only made his voice sound reedy once, was kept in check, though he seemed to regard Steven as a pesky insect.

It made for gigantic radio.

Inskreep's big innovative, bottom-line question: was it worth all the mess just to bump off Saddam? Well of course Rummy's gonna say yes.

My big bottom-line question: how many book sales resulted in this NPR interview? I ask Rummy: was it worth it?

PS on Rummy’s addition to the Bush/Blair/Feith Library of True Neocon History: in gangland etiquette, it is always acceptable to bump off your pals if they double cross you or get uppity or don’t stay bought. Former pal Saddam had it coming after he refused offers he couldn’t refuse. The Don was in the thick of all that, as we very well know.

It’s also good gangland manners to let your supposed enemies escape. Rummy accidently revealed to Inskreep that he’s on a first name basis with Bin Laden. The Don to Osama: ‘We’ll bomb the shit out of Tora Bora, which’ll cover your getaway… Then I’ll dump the blame on Tommy Franks, who always follows orders.’

Osama needed The Don as much as The Don needed (and still needs) Osama.

PPS: In the Inskreep interview, I'm surprised Rummy didn't take credit for the Tunisian and Egyptian revolutions, having paved the way for the heathen after 'liberating' Iraq and all. (Assange in comparison is a punk nobody.)

But, being the good honest Neocon that he is, and as a leading soldier against democracy, he couldn't possibly do so.

However, he may have wished that he had taken credit, as the domino effect in the region opens up all sorts of Neocon dreams. The advent of Greater Israel might be at hand, what with the Prophet Glennbeck's forecast of The Caliphate's certain return!

Rummy may have to reinvent himself for a 4th Act.

Stay tuned for the big new movie version, starring Arnie Schwartzenegger in his triumphant return to acting as the Evil Caliph, and Chuck Norris as the Avenging Angel.

In This, The Post-Pharaoh Hosni The Last Era . . .

I did a few minutes of the Simonizer this morn, and he's really been discombobulated with post-Mubarak Egypt. Usually swaggeringly confident, the SS, like the rest of NPR, acts like they've just lost their patriarch.

What to do? Before Israel kicks in with their persecution trip, best to be a little condescending to all the euphoric Egyptians, but then get down to work on the negative. Like, stay tuned for the Brotherhood and all that.

Then it was with much relief that the SS could turn to mocking streetcars in American cities with an Eleanor Beardsley-style snottiness (she's a great influence, doncha know).

These are obvious times to trash most American media as not only worthless, but more harmful than ever.

One question though: it took 30 years for the long-suffering Egyptians to dump their patriarch. How long will Americans put up with their crappy media?

A dear friend of mine, a passionately progressive-thinking person through and through, thinks that the media are all-powerful and that they have the American public permanently under their thumbs. I disagree. I certainly agree about their power, but I just don't think it's what it was. Like the US itself, their power has peaked. Egypt has proven that things will go in different directions now. That's what's so exciting about the here and now.

I was also elated when Al Jazeera had that awful, awful Nicholas Burns on to comment on the Egyptian situation. The interviewer just didn't buy Burns' lullaby-voiced 'gentle' words, and made him look like the worthless 'kindler, gentler' imperialist that he is.

On the other hand, on the recent Al Jaz 'Empire' show with Sy Hersh, Thomas Pickering, old-school American imperialist that he is, was nevertheless hip to fact that change is in the wind, so get on board. At least he was posing as more progressive.

As for NPR, despite Viv's futile attempts to make them the hippest cats on the block, NPR's dinosaur fate is really showing. She's gonna have to sack all the old farts and go commercial if she wants to save that mess.

I mean, if you're mocking streetcars, which work astoundingly well in cities from Calcutta to Riga to Zurich to Portland (all of which I have personally used with great satisfaction), you're not only a bozo, you're not long for your position of 'influence'. Sorta like Pharaoh Hosni The Last.

WELL . . .

Fig 1. He Was Ahead Of His Time (image courtesy of The Stranger - Seattle's Only Newspaper™)

My favorite Reagan anecdote:

RR happened to be on the Royal Yacht and he was being served coffee by members of HM The Queen's staff. Presented with steaming java served in a tankard that Henry VIII had quaffed out of and spit up in, the Gypper asked QE2, 'Is that decaf?'


Well . . . (as RR himself was wont to say!) I guess that after Tom Gjelten definitively proclaimed Ronald Reagan to be a genius (present tense, now and forever), all I need add is the following link to cap things off:

GENIUS - SHEER GENIUS

Also:

Thought I'd make a couple contributions to the Reagan Legend:

I heard a rumor that there's a team of 'experts' currently embalming the Gypper for installation in a mausoleum to be built in the Mall that'll make the US capitol look like a gopher hole. Eat yer hearts out, Comrades Lenin & Ho & Kim Il Sung, and Chairman Mao, too!

After Warner Bros. dumped his contract, RR amazingly succeeded in getting selected for the US presidency thing. To show Hollywood a thing or two, he also succeeded in getting an allowance for a Cult of Personality to be authorized by the US Gub'munt on the occasion of his 100th birthday, and to celebrate 30 years in the Oval Office.

Happy First Century to Our Permanent Leader And Teacher!

And finally, for your LOL pleasure, one of the most famous secrets in the Reagan Legend:



Fig. 2. I always bust a gut with this one! NOTE: This sequence was filmed before they knew how to properly synchronize sound and pictures; 'The Jazz Singer' had just been released, and the Vitaphone hadn't been perfected yet; your patience is appreciated

BONUS: A Few Non-Reagan Cult of Personality Notes, Comin' At Ya!

Yup, and on 'All Thinktanks Considered', Blob Siegel seemed far more interested in 'considering' euphemisms for excrement than anything else today. Very telling.

He was at his double-dipping, unsavory best, posing as the bemused professorial type, daintily curlicu-ing his icky curiosity around his guest's (scholarly?) book on euphemisms, poking about in a sticky box of dainty words with naughty meanings, as if he were salivating over second hand lingerie or something.

Of course, wasn't it all very amusing and droll, and all that rot. Another fine NPR smugfest, with the host as the winner in every respect.

Oh, and he prefaced this encounter by giving us an almost Simonized sermonette about how he learned that the term 'retarded' really wasn't very acceptable, (apparently that process took many years!) despite poring over his dad's books that gave proper definitions for 'moron' and other feeble-minded conditions.

I tell ya, it's getting harder and harder to lampoon NPR, mainly because they're doing most of the lampoonable work themselves. I long ago overcame the Blobert Siegel Projectile Vomiting Reflex, but I imagine I'm in constant danger of it returning full force. All this is is BAD BROACASTING, BAD BROACASTING, BAD BROACASTING.

Oh, and Missy M'lissa Blockhead was especially squirty-cute today. She got positively juicy and squishy with all her scrumptious inflections and nuances, and yes, it's enough to make you puke stomach lining chunks.

I know, it's because everybody's 'fed up' (a la Hosni) of yucky old Egypt, with all their screaming Muzlumanians, bitching, bitching, bitching, spitting on stability and expecting big gub'munt to bail their sorry asses out. And everybody’s always YELLING, just like all those other Islamidextrous places – you know? They’re always yelling and pushing and busting up stuff. Because I heard it all on NPR!

I mean, don't they know they've got a perfectly Reaganesque leader to take care of them?

NPR sets an example to live by. All we need do is listen and obey.

AND

At Dina's Temple of Doom, the buzz is that when you get down to it, Al Qaeda's an EGYPTIAN thingie, and that, hint-hint, if we dump Mubarak, they'll BE BACK. Uh, no mention of Saudi Arabia at all. A Gjeltenian conclusion if there ever was one.

But we all know that NPR-niks don't wanna hear about gravitas shit. Their bubbly comfort zone will forever be populated by Gyppers with sunny personalities, strong Pharaohs, dysfunctional hosts 'n guests, and cheerily peppered with fun euphemisms, word & soundbyte porno, and Barbie fantasies.

Where Is Egypt? Show Me The Way!

Fig. 1. This is NOT Hosni, but the most excellent Sir Cedric Hardwicke in the role of Pharaoh Sethi in Cecil B. DeMille's Technicolor production of 'The Ten Commandments', in VistaVision

I join in solidarity with the pro-democracy movement in Egypt, as any right-thinking person would or should. Surely they can come up with a better government than we have here in the USA. Egypt deserves the chance to reinvent itself, which they haven't been allowed to do in this modern world.

Mubarak said of Obama (paraphrase), 'He is a good man, but he doesn't understand Egyptian society. If I leave, chaos would result.' I add: 'Yes, an Egyptian society that YOU created, influenced, coerced. It stands to reason that you doth protest.' A dictator may address a 'weak' president in terms both condescending and haughty.

His is the classic failure of a dictator whose time has run out. His slaughter of the innocents shall not be forgotten.

The imminent departure of Pharaoh Hosni The First and Last must and shall be - imminent.

To quote Yul Brynner in 'The Ten Commandments', 'The royal eagle has flown unto the sun' (e.g. Saudi Arabia). No Moses awaits at the Red Sea to provide an avenue, but any number of US-supplied aircraft can be scrambled at a moment's notice. Beverages served.

So shall it be written, so shall it be DONE.

I've found Al Jazeera, Democracy Now! and Link TV to be valuable sources throughout this intense situation. BBC wasn't too bad, either, for more mainstream audiences.

On a more banal plane, I haven't been wasting time with NPR, but here's a little news item of interest:

Tom Ashbrook had a classic Neocon approach to Egypt on 'On Point' this Fri.

That is, David Sanger and - get ready - Tom Gjelten. Uh-huh. And yesterday he had Nick Burns on, whose lullaby-voiced BS has caused a lot of trouble in the world. (One caller-in astutely labeled Burns 'part of the problem' of Mubarakism (my term).)

Anyway, just an observation about Gjelten (who deserves sustained criticism for the foreseeable future): on this show, he said absolutely NOTHING. Not only nothing of value (naturally), but nothing but filler words parroting what's already known. And he got paid for it.

My point: when he's got a CIA-approved script in front of him, he's Mr. Gravitas, but when he's semi-off the cuff (he couldn't survive without a 'cuff' of some kind), he's as vacuous as Sarah Palin.

Thus, as we know, Gjelten is the perfect vessel to fill by others then pour out onto Neocon Public's airwaves.

Prediction: these overpaid blab-heads in their comfort zones will really start to lose their audiences, because their audiences have already figured out this stuff and have advanced past it. They will get their info from other sources, making things like NPR irrelevant, unnecessary, and prohibitively costly.

Gjelten's most profound statement in the show: 'Ronald Reagan's genius was his sense of timing. He sensed that the Berlin Wall was about to fall...' etc. Spoken by a true believer.

And not bad for an Alzheimers' dude! They can have epiphanies we can't even guess at - I guess. Viz: Ron Reagan's insights on his dad's illness; Gjelten & Co. will no doubt deny Ron's 'skewed' outlook. Conversely, it's like The Don (Rumsfeld) blaming the rush into Iraq on his son's drug abuse. If you were The Don's son, you'd do drugs, too. And there’s no one better to blame a war on than a druggie.

Or, what I meant to say was: believing that Reagan 'sensed' that the Berlin Wall was coming down is like Rumsfeld going along with BushCo's Iraq war desires because he was 'distracted' at the moment by his son's drug problems.

Psychotic reasoning is always a criminal's best defense.

Job opportunities for otherwise disenfranchised sociopaths are always available in top leadership positions in this world.

From The Maw of Mara: Marring Politicized Non-Greek Tragedy

Fig. 1 Serenity - Wisdom - Leadership. And she doesn't really NEED to wear a turtleneck, either! (image courtesy of my friends at Fox)


Fig. 2 And this is how she got that way (image courtesy of Mytwords at NPR Check)

When you’re a National Correspondent (whatever that is) at NPR, just think of the power you have, and the power trip you can go on.

Mara Liarsson weighed in on the Tucson tragedy this morn, politicizing it to an offensive degree, and then having the audacity to imply that others are doing the politicizing, but of course, she isn’t.

Well, that’s unkind of me. She was just commenting on how presidents respond to great tragedies. Uh-huh.

Predictably, she invoked the Greatly Exaggerated Communicator. I was a bit shocked though, when she said that Reagan’s Warner Bros.-scripted tribute to the Challenger astronauts was ‘beautiful’, while to me it sounded more like a Ding Dong School/Sunday School competition than a eulogy.

And then Mara picks the new millennium’s defining moment: Dubya on the national altar of rubble, the ‘America Hears You’ funeral oration. Mara as publicist doesn’t even have to say much, as we all fervently believe that speech to be our young nation’s finest moment. Yeah well, I think it was the weakest, limpest performance by a national figure ever. Sophocles, had he been there, might’ve asked, ‘Who’s the comedian with the mega-horn? Get me someone who can SPEAK!’ Alas, Olivier was no longer with us. Elia Kazan wasn’t there to direct, either.

Then Mara, supreme Clintonian critic that she is, mentions Bill’s hopelessly inadequate attempts to restore his political capital after Timmy McVeigh’s patriotic gesture in Oklahoma City. She spent quite a bit of time on that analysis. She now awaits Obama’s upcoming (andcertain) failure in that department in Tucson, as well.

The life of a National Correspondent! The awesome and majestic duty of dispensing power and influence, and doing it wisely! As Mara looks down from her Olympic heights, she grows wiser and more powerful every day. She and Gjelten are the visionaries, who reside above the fray, who descend unto the rest of us because we need help and guidance. They also get to choose their own stories and don’t have to do fill-in host duties and other peasant jobs.

And Mara, comfy both at NPR and Fox, would never, ever be stupid enough to ‘do a Juan’, though no doubt she has considered a cleaner angle in order to score that juicy Fox contract money she so covets.

PS: I used to waste considerable irreplaceable time by catching some ‘Fox & Friends’ clips over at Crooks & Liars, just to see how bad things were. I never, EVER heard Mara say ANYTHING of value, even Foxified value. She was so utterly worthless that her contributions made even Bill ‘The Bloody’ Kristol look like a quarter-wit instead of the eighth-wit he is. At least Kristol’s a-hole beliefs are unabashed, while Mara works the ‘dark side’ of power, influence and profit. And when you’re a media egomaniac, you’re in it for yourself, and yourself only.

Guess What, What, What?

Aren't you getting sick of me bitching about NPR? Well, I am!

As for myself, the perniciousness of NPR has once again fried my (critical) tolerance of that outfit.

Again I have to jettison its wearisome infiltration of my relative well-being.

The Neocon (to use a generic term) agenda continues unabated at NPR, but it is particularly the increasing vapidness, banality, and downright insulting hodge-podge of sick-making ingredients that's causing me to eject their noise this time. What with the little 2-3 second sound bytes of, say, a snowblower in action (stock library sounds, or actual on-the-scene recordings in snow-struck NYC??), or some frikkin' 'report' about a part of the brain that makes it possible to talk with Awful Uncle Ed at Xmas, I've once again HAD IT with Nauseating Public Reaction. (The 'Awful Uncle Ed' epithet is an actual term employed by a particular second-string NPR smartass. STUPID, STUPID, STUPID. And the problem remains: what if you love your old Uncle Ed? People with beloved Uncle Eds should bombast NPR with mockery.)

NPR tries to be breezy, blithe and savvy, with a touch of the swagger, so as to appeal to the hipster quality that less discerning listeners respond to as they might the latest Mall trend.

And then there's the quality of the 'ho-ho' in the ho-ho news. I'm not the only one who thinks it's abysmal.


NPR's just trying to be funny, ya know. What are they trying to be FUNNY for? Audiences love comedy, but why the hell would you ever go to NPR's news people for comedy? Oh, I know, it softens all the otherwise depressing news. But for anyone who's depressed by the news, try to DO something about it, even in your own tiny way, or don't complain. One of the best tiny ways is shutting off NPR. With the Net, there are many, many other more reliable sources to get one's (depressing) news than depressingly-bad NPR.

(The most obscure Groucho Marx joke is infinitely more hilarious and memorable than ANY attempt our NPR lifers have made to make me crack a smile.)


Anyway, this is all nothing new of course. But the new, dumber-ed down NPR is not-so-mute evidence that Viv & Co. are wasting no time in new audience capturement, so they're radically ramping up the 'ho-ho news' as they used to call it in the post-Spiro Agnew Speech era.

This is of course a blatant misuse of the public trust, as any amount of vapid, shallow and silly radio can be found elsewhere just by twisting the dial. In fact, commercial radio, which found its place long ago, is basically less sickening than NPR, because at least it’s not subverting our expectations.

NPR's continued decline into audience pandering is blatant evidence enough of NPR's commercial/corporate mandate: increase ratings for corporate sponsorship, otherwise, what corporation in their right mind would want to waste the money? I suppose there are enough austerely Neocon organizations who would continue to hone NPR's propaganda potential, but if listeners decline, you can't propagandize them as widely.

Anyway, I'll continue to peruse here, but NPRadiation Exposure is restricted to the occasional newsreading - at my peril.

It's A Brilliant Season

(Image courtesy of Mytwords @ NPR Check)

On DN!, Chris Hedges unreservedly declared Obama 'a disaster'. Wow.

It's still difficult for me to accept our fate, our Great American Curse: Ye Shall Be Ruled By The Skilled In Corruption.

Merry Christmas all, IN JAIL!

It's Winter. Cold Duck Time - I Mean, Cold War Time

Yes indeed, eNdtimes Public Radiation seems to be getting more whacked out than ever lately. Even Frank Browning (in Paris) sounds like he's been commanded to drink NPR's Happy Kool-Aid, so as to get more 'expression' into his delivery, so as to keep the young people from texting distractions. I really think they're getting that desperate.

Some of the druggy reactions don't seem to be going that well, though. Auntie Liane sounds depressed, Beardsley sounds like it's a real hassle just to say 'in Paaaris', and Jack Speer recites his last name as if it's the most boring thing on earth (he may have a point).

I know, these are tinkertoy details, but to my mind, very telling as far as what's going on behind the scenes. I would imagine that there's a certain terror about losing corporate funding, and the looming doom from Juangate that awaits in the next Congress.

Whatever...

Q: When you have a hole in a regular old axis of evil, how do you fill it? (One word answer, please.)

A: Belarus!

OK, I'll try to keep it brief, but it's been pretty hilarious (pathetic, is more like it) to hear NPR's limp attempts to paint Belarus as a citadel of neo-Soviet satanism. Never mind that the US is in tight with Uzbek and Turkmen 'leaders', there's a Stalin wannabe in Minsk, and he's bound to go viral before too long.

David Greene, perhaps the greatest master of smug-smile talking at NPR, wasn't smiling so much during his 'coverage' of the election there though. Seems somebody on his crew had a Prince Charles moment amongst some protesters, and I'll bet that really pissed him off.

Anyway, Greene's been doing yeoman work in the former USSR, what with the hubbub in Kyrgyzstan, which he just happened to turn up in time for, and who knows what else. He probably can't get access to Putin, so he's working on 'containment' from the fringes. Sort of takes me back to the good old Brezhnev days.

Auntie Liane, her quirky voice sounding more world-weary than ever, tried to rev up a little Cold War zing, but Greene didn't have much to give, though Linda Wiesenheimer got a bit of action out of him today.

Here's a possible future scoop from NPR: David Greene discovers that all the dictators/tyrants of the world (you know, Chavez, the Kims of N. Korea, Morales, Castro, and that guy in Minsk) all share Facebook pages. That'll knock that smartypants Assange guy out of the headlines all right.

NPR Thoughts That You Don't Even Have To Have Heard On NPR To Know What I'm Talking About

In a recent report, some NPR reporter explained how you can add phosphates to your dishwasher in case they've been banned by the state in which you reside.

Unbelievable. Typically unbelievable. More proof that NPR will stop at nothing to establish itself as Definitive Explainer for the alleged Thinking Masses.

Ever since it was determined that there was money in that there Journalism (remember all the Ron Baillie schools?), becoming an American Storyteller was doomed to corporate capturement. It's obvious that nearly every NPR-oid is an ambitious egotist, whether in the faux-intellectual showoff department or the blatant moneygrubbing department (lots of overlap there).

And speaking of Alicia's Shepherding of we the listeners, did anyone happen to catch her on On Point a few weeks ago? It was at the height of Juangate (remember that?), and it was the first time I'd actually heard her voice. She was just another snot-nosed narcissist that fit perfectly into the haughty halls of Beltway broadcasting. More than 'nuff said on that miserable subject.

Just a thought on NPR's witty commentary and supremacist humor (I get kind of tired of using quotation marks for what is already over-obvious). That is, whenever Inskreep & Co. crack a little levity before daintily diving into Ivory Coast or choleric Haiti, the implication is that the humor usually describes some stupid act by stupid people, and that everybody stupid is OUT THERE someplace. You know, that such stupidity could never apply to the lofty hosts & literate readers of NPR. And you the listener can join in and parrot these stories of stupidity to your co-workers, so as to prove that you yourself aren't stupid at all, and you never will be because you're smart and listen to smart people. And then you can crown your moment by saying, 'I HEARD IT ON NPR'. 'Nuff said again.

Of course, this is part of the success story of NPR creating its own elitist flock. Like the GOP: you're welcome to support us, but you will never really become one of us.

Egads! I'm guilty of 'doing an NPR': WORDINESS!!! AAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!! Help me!!! Somebody help meeeeee!!!

National Public Responsibility: To Be Perfect So As To Be Trustworthy

Despite all mine criticism, doesn't NPR seem like it would be just the gee-whiz-iest FUNNEST place to work in the universe??

Why, everyone's so polite, civil and merry with one another, I'll bet they don't have a single soap opera amongst themselves to gossip about, especially now that Adenoid Andie C-brook's married up.

They're all so damn supportive of one another! How possible is that? Perhaps it's all due to the free allowances of Ambien, Xanex, Angadrene, certain selected anti-psychotic medications, and other prescription nightmares, generously (and quietly) supplied by Big Pharma. That’s gotta be it.

Steve, Happy 'Kreep that he is, just plain gets along with EVERYBODY. Donny Gonny, the 8th Dwarf, seems to be having a ball, what with all the 'witty commentary' and taking the opportunity to grandstand his illustrious service to the nation as Certified Dubya Sycophant, and all.

Because, when you're part of the In Crowd of Smugly-Smile-When-You're-Talking-At-The-Great-Unwashed NPR All Stars, you have ARRIVED, baby!

Hell, I'd rather witness Sen. Mitch McConman hawking up his collective viscosity than having to suffer one minute of NPR cuteness as one of the gang.

Mitch, who of course should be ditched, always reminds me of some fussbudget nobody who's playing an elderly maiden aunt in drag in a high school play. Prim, priggish, and pole-up-the-ass. And sitting in the audience, I have plenty of rotten tomatoes at hand.

PS: In order to con us and keep conning us, NPR must come off as strong, united, resolute, and most importantly, NON-DYSFUNCTIONAL. And don't forget DOWNRIGHT HAPPY as a requirement.

Only then can the powers of propaganda, persuasion, and snake oil dispensation be properly applied, and in perpetuity.

Rove-ism in action. The Neocons knew the Bush Administration might not last. But a propagandistic news organization - now THERE's a plan!

A Neocon Wetdream Named Julian

Tom Gjelten just LOVES Julian Assange. To him, Assange is heaven-sent. There, in the form of one person, is proof positive that a New, Colder War ™ is not only necessary, it’s already started, and Gjelten has been there from the start, warning us and warning us again, his patience wearing thin. And now, there’s triumph in his warning us yet again – this time with conclusive proof. He’s going into turbo Bruce Willis mode now. And today, he doesn’t even sound all that constipated either. Julian’s given him a whole new lease on life. Cyberwar is what he pants for, and now that he’s got it, he’s going to be there more than ever for us, leading the charge. Like Wolfowitz, Gjelten’s a True Believer, just what the shadowy Neocons want for their publicity campaign.

Conversely, Philip Reeves’ report on Assange’s current legal situation was well measured and indeed, cautious. But that’s typical of Reeves, who has never fallen for NPR’s ‘Creative Writing’ BS. Strategically, NPR editors placed Reeves’ story BEFORE Gjelten’s so that the awesome horror of looming cyberwar, in which the evil menace of Assangism will be utterly annihilated, can be dangled before the good honest folks that tuned into NPR this morning.

NPR seems to be ‘trying out’ Reeves on the London beat, perhaps because they can keep a closer eye on him. He and Quist-Arcton are about the only international ones I trust at NPR. Times are tough. Reporters need gigs. I don’t look down my nose at them for that.

I mean, when you’ve got Juan Forerro, who always sounds like he’s been sampling the choicest Columbian, or maybe even the best crystal meth from the back alleys of Sao Paulo, or the Condescension Story Time from Gwen Thompkins, or the anger-management mutterings of Michael Sullivan (wow, haven’t heard from the last two for some time; still on NPR payroll?), what’s the point of trusting America’s Storytellers to deliver the goods?
Speaking of bizarro spew from our American Storytellers, wonder-boy Guy Raz took time out from his cooking class on ATC yesterday to ask a guest about a particular vet who had his legs blown off in Afghanistan. Seems the vet is kind of mad at the Fred Phelps church psychos who plague the funerals of slain soldiers. (Kind of understandable, huh?)

So Raz gets to the point in the interview when he gingerly asks if the vet MIGHT BE SUFFERING FROM PTSD or something. Not even an inkling of insight that maybe it's the Fred Phelps zombies who are the ones who are utterly and horribly insane.

It was a brilliant thematic link to Auntie Liane's 'gotcha' psychoanalysis of Julian Assange. You see, it’s really these lone Oswaldian weirdos that we must fear. And you WILL fear them, because that’s what the media commands you to feel. Because they’re entirely reasonable and objective about their duty to warn you of the imminent threats we face. (Never mind their falling down in light of all the pre-9/11 warnings that were so freely available…)

NPR's Inevitable Progression Towards Irrelevant Entropy

One of the reasons I carp about NPR on this blog is because of what NPR SHOULD be: a truly open forum to examine current events and their effects with as much care as possible, and with the best minds available.

But because it isn't anything close to that, it's important to be aware of what 'thinking' people are being led into.

More and more I resent NPR News for their assertive role in dominating the notion of what listeners think is the only 'sane' option out there. That is, by coming across as the ONLY alternative to so-called commercial news organizations. They have the luxury of utilizing an already-existing network of stations that they have co-opted (why not say hijacked?) for their own purposes. In my book, that's a case of gross misuse of public opportunity under the guise of a Murrow-like integrity.

(No, that's not parroting Gingrich or Palin or O'Reilly-speak. Their NPR critiques were nothing more than bozo blather of the moment, a limp display of ersatz rage that was about as effective as Jesse Helms' tantrum about public broadcasting. We've seen just how sincere Tea Bagger whining turns out to be...)

Meanwhile, the true alternatives, like Democracy Now!, GritTV, LinkTV, the News Dissector, and other excellent sources are on the upswing. They haven't achieved NPR's accessibility yet, but if they can sustain their independence (with further success, they risk hostile corporate coercion), they will increasingly make NPR News irrelevant.

That's not only my hope, it's my expectation.

AND - BONUS ENTERTAINMENT SECTION FOLLOWS:

Boy, it's becoming increasingly apparent that NPR's really going for the laughs these days. It could be in order to foster a bit of seasonal cheer, but I detect that it's part of Viv Schill's circling of the wagons.

This morn Inskreep was about as chucklesome as he could get. Oh, he was careful to sidestep any Assange humor, but at just about every break, he was there with what Blob Siegel calls 'witty commentary' for us to brighten our existential day with.

After NPR's notre dame de Paris, Eleanor (d'Aquitaine) Beardsley gave a little postcard sketch of Paris's bookstalls along the Seine (perfectly accurate, but fitting as filler for Fresh Air or whatever), Inskreep made a barrel of monkeys quip about 'books, a famous river, and dogmeat', and that NPR was the only place where you might hear such a combination.

Aye, the Schill-er Era is a desperate one, tis true.

You know, some listeners may find Mme. Eleanor's spoiled (ugly) duckling quacking to be sort of charming, but... but... I've said it before, and sorry to be tiresome, but it's so STUPID sounding! So utterly distracting!

I mean, they've got the very nondescript Frank Browning covering the Paris beat, but obviously someone in DC has the hots for cutesy deBeardsley. How can NPR afford to have all this overlap coverage? I know they're both contractors, but where's the moneysworth in such a rinkydink setup?

I'm not a Paris snob, but I do harbor lots of pleasant Parisian memories, and I can't stand how this Beardsley person portrays things Parisian or French via her show-offy teenage snot tones, as if French stuff is essentially really stupid or something. She's a Freedom Fries relic, a perfect example of Narcissist Personality Radio in action: SO distracting, SO worthless.

A Priceless and Pithy 'Get Your War On'

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