Saturday, February 18, 2006

 

National Propaganda Radio

It's getting ridiculous when the only information that one doesn't need hip waders to go through comes from the financial press, the British left press, and radical radio. Particularly enraging is the notion that the US Government would use public broadcasting to systematically mislead the taxpayers who pay their salaries. This is what the Soviet Union was rightly criticized for! Is the Voice of America using NPR as propaganda distribution point? That's what Flashpoints is alleging. Emilia Shaw simultaneously serves as a reporter for VOA and sends out the same reports on Haiti. The reports she puts out are anti-Preval/pro-neoDuvalierist. Here's a nice, neutral question to Shaw. NPR's Steve Inskeep:"Was Preval the only person who had thousands of supporters he could turn out into the streets to cause mayhem?" Shaw: "You know... yes." Preval was the one candidate out of 33 on the ballot who somewhere between 50-70% of the population braved violence, long lines, and intimidation to vote for. So, where does the US Dept. of State end and public radio begin? Why is a broadcast that would be called illegal propaganda if the VOA did it permissible when NPR hosts it? Lawyer Brian Concannon predicts that the USG will use the cloud it created over the election to undermine Preval's legitimacy, and that it will use sanctions to strangle the Preval government. Preval would be wise to order the UN to leave and cut all diplomatic ties to the US. Even more shocking: The BBC may also be using VOA reporters. Here are the URLs Concannon's site (URL now fixed) Haiti Action Flashpoints
# posted by Charles @ 2/18/2006 12:43:00 PM
Comments:
NPR is a brothel, just about anything based in Washington is. I once asked people to name DC based "journalists" who weren't whores. They came up with four names, one of whom I wouldn't agree wasn't a whore then and one of whom was the token liberal at Pajama's (see Roger Ailes Blog for regular and hilarious posts about them.)

I've noticed that the BBC has been carrying Bush junta water since the David Kelly scandal. I suspect that Blair has threatened them with fininshing the job that Thatcher began on them if they don't do his patron's bidding. Has his son finished up his term interning for the Republicans here? One suspects that he made many useful connections.

New Labor. Ha.
# posted by Anonymous Anonymous : 2/19/2006 07:09:00 AM
 
NPR is probably the most effective voice for neoconservative dominance. Its liberal culture and high-toned format help to disguise the right-wing news bias, which, when delivered by people with vocabularies beyond "Go fuck yourself" easily seduces the clueless into lethargy. BBC operates under strict government control by law; in the US people are simply bribed or threatened.

By the way, I have frequently heard KPFA lazily repeat Pentagon talking points during its newscasts, too.
# posted by Blogger Jay Taber : 2/19/2006 09:39:00 AM
 
I agree that NPR is terrific property for the right wing to own, Spartacus. A lot of people think of it as the last untouched place in American media.

Same for BBC, olvlzl.

I don't expect any news source to be perfect. Any story needs to be evaluated by historical context, by comparison with other current information and, most importantly, by how successfully it predicts future events.

There is a real risk when people lose faith in media. As with the boy crying "wolf," a media that lies risks the people ignoring real danger.
# posted by Blogger Charles : 2/19/2006 03:19:00 PM
 
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