Charles, it's too bad you've been duped by the anti-NPR brigade. It's a long-standing brigade, generally populated by right-wing-the-media-is-out-to-destroy-America types, who want our only news to come from large corporations which they hope will promote their own right-wing agenda. Is Grover Norquist involved in this at all. A nefarious character, if there ever was one.

#1

GAZE

Charles,

Do you really need a pet idiotarian?

What about a kitten instead?

Charles:

Re: Caton's comment.

I got four kittens living in my bathroom right now...you can have one if you'd like. ;) They're all screaming to be fed right now...so come over quick. :P (Like it's a ten minute drive between Seattle and LA...)

I guess out of everyone, NPR would be the least biased...although Tavis Smiley really annoys me. I'd much rather watch Dr. Phil at that time. heh.

Golly, Gord-o, last I checked, Microsoft, GE (NBC), AOL/Time Warner, CBS and Disney were all large corporations. Seems like our tragically short-sighted plan to rule the news has failed, leaving us with biased-beyond-belief reporting, in spite of the GlobalHyperMegaCorp ownership of all news outlets (besides News Corp, AllHailRupertTheMagnificent).

Oh, National Pali radio...

Charles posted a couple months back a great article about NY Times bias over the same issue. Can anyone gime a link? It was very well documented.

Well If npr (never heard of it, I guess I am a capitalist casualty) wants to use professional protestors to get their agenda across, they have a problem, and it ain't bias, its insanity.

Gordon,

Three times in the past six months, I have written to NPR to blast them for their palpable bias. Noone told me or encouraged me to protest. I did it because I was personally outraged at their methods, coming across the air waves as they do, designed (for whatever reason) to unfairly influence my opinion.

It doesn't take a genius to know purposeful bias (spelled, p-r-o-p-a-g-a-n-d-a) when you hear it. If you can't hear it, then you ain't listenin'.

Damn I don't read. I forgot sometimes people have real reasons to protest (not a charade and not reported by indyshits).

#5: I'm only telling you what the hoped-for result from the leaders of this 30-year on-going anti-NPR crusade is. For some reason, the media corporations have not always acted in what the right-wing considers to be their own self-interest.

By the way, if I were a true Indymedia type I would be telling you that NPR is in fact a capitalist tool, as bad as the the big corporate media. I've heard that story before too...

Sure wish I had some good ol' stooopid protest to protest around NC.

Wait. No I don't.

Something good about living in the sticks :-)

I had a rather lengthy email conversation with NPR's CEO Kevin Klose some months ago, about their bias against Israel as reported by CAMERA. When told and shown specifically how reports are biased, even untrue, he refuses to address the matter. Like a brick wall, he "stands by" a whole list of qualities he thinks are evidenced by NPR, veracity not included.

Not only should people show up at these demonstrations, but we should call during local fund-raising drives to make sure they know exactly why we're not pledging financial support.

Charles, you could've helped the organizers out with some posters of your own. You've had so many shocking photos up on your site that could've been used.

I kinda like NPR - as long as you don't buy in to the P word. If you turn the anti-bias dial to about 12, you are fine. It beats a lot of the radio available on the drive to work. Somehow conservative radio as a public service would go wrong, I think.

Also didn't they get a spectacular scoop in the Iraq battle? I haven't given them any money for a long, long time though. They need to turn over staff once in a millenium.

PS I really liked the Hearts in Space program.

The trouble with conservative or even middle of the road protests is that most of us work. There isn't a site in FL within 8 hours of me.

Charles, how about circulating a petition that says pretty much that if NPR is going to spew propaganda it shouldn't be publically funded. Given the wide choices available now, why is it even needed? It used to be an alternative to the mindless alpabet channels.

I posted this on an earlier thread, but those who doubt the bias of NPR can read this from today's J-Post:

[Link: www.jpost.com...]

#16: Rabidfox: It still is. The alternatives are CNN and FoxNews. Say no more.

I think a protest against national radio is a misdirection of energy. I am in total agreement that NPR is biased, as is PBS. (As are many private media orgs). However state-run media should not even exist.

The only differences between these and the Iraqi-state TV that Baghdad Bob ran, are differences of degree, not kind. Because our government is more benevolent toward individual rights, our PBS and NPR are as well.
And the fact that they take donations from private citizens also keeps them in line

But state-run media can only be a spokesman for the government, never for the private populace.

With the help of a brilliant college student and shomer yisrael, I announce the birth of a website devoted to ending npr bias: [Link: www.endnprbias.com...]

Actually, I don't think NPR has been nearly as bad as network news. In fact, they've had some occasional interesting slips into the truth in the last couple of years.

Notably, they had a guy on the ground in Kabul (I think it was) during the main Afghanistan campaign who was the only source I heard who really gave a feel for the extent of celebration when the Taliban left.

Of course, they need to be disbanded, since they are funded out of the public purse. But they can do some very good quality work (mixed in with some very biased work).

Anyone from here going to the San Francisco event?

I cannot understand how anyone who reads lgf can show any sympathy for NPR or can dismiss NPR as a mere trifle. NPR is the biggest provider of anti-Israel propaganda outwside the Arab world.

NPR is an inside- the-beltway institution that shapes foreign policy against Israel and on behalf of the Palestinians.

NPR is obsessed with Israel - because many of them (and many of them are married to each other) are Jews and/or 60s leftists. They are so obsessed with Israel that when you walk around the 3rd floor of NPR building there are maps everywhere, not of Washington DC, not of the US, not of the world, but of the Middle East.

NPR has blacklisted Steven Emerson, America's foremost expert on domestic Islamic terror - giving him all of 10 seconds in the 21/2 years after 9/11. (The head of Hamas gets more time than that .)

NPR has refused to call the murder of Jewish children in pizza parlors, or on buses, or in discos - as acts of terror. It is their **official** policy not to label such murder as terror - because that would be prejudicial.

NPR devotes 2/3 of its stories about Arab conflict with Israel to anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian voices/talking heads/partisans.

NPR's whiney Israel correspondent Linda Gradstein made aliyah to change Israel. (and we are not talking about making the desert bloom, we're talking about making a PLO terror state). NPR's Palestinian media shaheed Peter Kenyon cannot hide his disdain for Israel or his love of the Palestinians.

NPR has defamed groups like CAMERA, refusing to acknowledge their constructive critiques, while at the same time kowtowing to Arab-Muslim interest groups
like CAIR or Electronic Intifada (who got Steve Emerson
blacklisted) or FAIR.

NPR President Kevin Klose refuses to meet with CAMERA, NPR Ombudsman (sic) Jeffrey Dvorkin (who has a nice Zionist cousin in the Tsfat) calls CAMERA names and quotes a Noam Chomsky media organization in public, WBUR's general manager Jane Christo says there is no problem as individuals pull $2 million in underwriting over NPR bias against Israel.

Congressman Brad Sherman (D-CA) has an aide who has investigated NPR bias and has met with NPR lawyers.For a congressman from upper middle class LA - that's real brave to take on the darling of the affluent liberal intelligentsia.

NPR responds to mounting criticism of anti-Israel bias by taking your tax dollars and hiring a fancy Washington PR firm to do damage control, getting invited to speak to Jewish events where they control the environment or have sympathetic audience (like a private meeting with Jewish newspaper editors).

NPR does this with our money and with the contributions of left-wing anti-Israel groups like Ford Foundation and the John D and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

NPR is National Palestine Radio, as described by the publisher of the New Republic.

NPR is in clear violation of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting Act which stipulates that broadcasting must be objective and non-partisan.

NPR is on its way to complete financial independence of the government oversight through the establishment of
an endowment and for profit satellite rental services (which of course you the taxpayers bought for them).

Joseph Goebbels said if you repeat a lie often enough it becomes the truth. For the past 14 years, NPR has been broadcasting lies, distortions, and misrepresentations about Israel and Arafat and his thugs. 14 years, NPR has been engaged in their media intifada. Their arrogance and their bias must be stopped.

#22: So what do you really think?

When I drive to work I have a choice of NPR or Howard Stern, Don Imus, and some local shock jock talking incessantly about penile implants. Given the alternatives, I choose NPR. I don't notice any particular pro-Palestinian bias, just as I don't notice any particular pro-Israeli bias (is that your real beef?). I don't believe everything I hear on NPR; sometimes their liberal earnest-mindedness shows through a little too clearly. I found Ann Garrells' reporting from the Hotel Palestine highly embarrassing, especially with all of the sordid revelations about Saddam's media control.

Do you want to replace NPR with FoxNewsRadio? So I can listen to USA!, USA! in between commercials? Or Sean Hannity and Bill O'Reilly spouting off their dishonest nonsense? Or maybe we can have CBSRadio with the insufferably pompous left-winger Dan Rather in the anchor chair?

Barf me out!

From the so bad it would be funny except it is true, "Free Speech Radio News" from those too left wing and anti-semitic to even be on NPR. They allow everyone to submit audio files to add to their show.
Perhaps we should send them a few hundred "Pro-Zionist" radio clips and see if even one is allowed on their diverse "free speech" radio.

[Link: www.fsrn.org...]

Incisive news and analysis in the service of peace and social justice
FSRN is the only daily half-hour progressive radio newscast in the U.S. It is owned and managed by news reporters. FSRN is an independent broadcast news organization born in January 2000 as the result of a strike by 43 reporters who formerly worked for Pacifica Network News (PNN). It was created in defiance of the Pacifica Foundation's former Board of Directors and staff who imposed a gag rule and censorship restrictions on PNN reporters. Since that time, FSRN has expanded to over 200 journalists who report from 40 states within the U.S. and 57 countries around the world-including Israel/Palestine, Iraq, Afghanistan, Argentina, Mexico and Nigeria. Any journalist may pitch a news story to FSRN and every reporter who produces a story gets paid.

[Link: www.fsrn.org...]

#22 endnprbias

From your own link:

Only 10% of the budget of any NPR affiliated station comes from the government; the remainder is donated by the public, by foundations, and by businesses whose names and products are then announced on air. NPR national does not receive government money directly (except for occasional program-specific grants that constitute less than 2% of its budget.) Over half of the national budget is funded by station dues; the remainder comes in from corporate sponsors and foundation grants.

So where is the public leverage? You might do more going after the corporations that subsidize it, as most of them are cowards politically - I know mine is.

I agree that NPR will not give 50/50 opinion time on many issues, but didn't Steve Emerson get his "Jihad in America" special done on PBS - another LLL bastion?

When NPR is spouting nonsense, I switch channels - maybe what you should is work towards is getting anti-idiotarian views on air where you can, one show at a time.

I'm basically on your side, but I associate litigating to achieve political goals with the Dems and the LLL. I would prefer to see market forces (a natural evolution away from the LLL as the country swings that way - and I think it is) do the job as opposed to litigation and protest.

I probably don't have your grasp of all the facts, as I am just Joe Citizen, and I would welcome any enlightenment on the issue (yes I read the previous post).

#6   centaur 

Here's Tom Gross's superb evisceration of the NY Times:

[Link: www.nationalreview.com...]

#22   endnprbias 

Well said!

to Gordon: Do I want NPR to become FoxRadio News? That is not the point. NPR is not a private entity, it is a publlic institution, supported by our tax dollars (even if it is one penny, let alone $10 million). It is against federal regulations for it to be partisan. One can argue rightly whether the US govt should support a domestic media franchise. NPR exists, exists with our tax dollars and tax credits for private, corporate, or foundation support.

NPR is not exactly mr clean - it lobbied (!) congress not to open up the airwaves to true mom and pop low frequency
small power radio stations.

Just because center/right of center media like Fox or Limbaugh thrive does not mean the US govt has an obligation to provide affirmative action for left-wing media. After all, no US govt provides a balance to the left wing bias of CBS NBC ABC NY Times, Globe, Washington Post, LA Times.

to JDwill - so what if PBS ran Steve Emrson Jihad in America - That was one show in 1994, I believe. 8 years
ago. CAMERA has well documented, published in Commentary, that PBS (funded by CPB) had something like 17 shows in the 1988-mid 1990s - devoted to Arab war with Israel - all but one was unbalanced. all but one were 1 were pro-Arab. Shows like "Journey to the Occupied Territories" was subject of congressional hearings.

PBS must be non-partisan. After congressional hearings
which costs Larry Pressler his seat, PBS TV became more
balanced. Quite the contrary - NPR's attitude is F-you to critics (Jewish and non-Jewish) of its anti-Israel bias.

This is our tax supported media. It is in gross violation of federal regulations.

Is it feasible that like Galloway, McKinney and Intl ANSWER, NPR is receiving money from Muslim groups?

I'd prefer to think the bias is a result of the leftist infiltration in college campuses. They always side with the one who cries "oppression" no matter what.

"She would have liked to tell them that behind Communism, Fascism, behind all occupations and invasions lurks a more basic, pervasive evil and that the image of that evil was a parade of people marching by with raised fists and shouting identical syllables in unison."

You'll have to excuse me if i'm less then enthusiastic whenever i hear the word "protest." But i have to agree with Milan Kundera on this. Here's another great quote in a similar vein:

"...[t]he Grand March goes on, the world's indifference notwithstanding, but it is growing nervous and hectic: yesterday against the American occupation of Vietnam, today against the Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia; yesterday for Israel, today for the Palestinians; yesterday for Cuba, tomorrow against Cuba - and always against America; at times against massacres and at times in support of other massacres; Europe marches on, and to keep up with events, to leave none of them out, its pace grows faster and faster, until finally the Grand March is a procession of rushing, galloping people and the platform is shrinking and shrinking until one day it will be reduced to a mere dimenstionless dot."

#26 WJ... thank you for the link... that is going to be a valuable source of information. Within its exposure of NYT it gives a chronology of lies that other sources have repeated (NPR to be sure).

Thanks Wild Justice. Terrific article.

#31   Bleeding heart conservative
#32   centaur

You're both welcome! To tell the truth, whenever I finish reading Gross's article I actually feel eviscerated myself.

He exposes some pretty nasty stuff.

Because Houston NPR is airing this, does that make then National Pubic Radio?
Sounds like a reasonable assumption.

The public can make a difference. As was pointed out, NPR gets most of its funding from private sources, and the majority of that comes from corporations and foundations.

Coca Cola was one of those corporations until this year when a shareholder pointed out NPR's bias and introduced a resolution at the shareholder's meeting for Coke to stop funding NPR. It passed!

The only way to effectively make a difference is to do the same thing we do with Al-Qaeda and the terrorists: cut off their funding. Let NPR know how you feel.

See sample letters and NPR's bias for more information.

Uzi,

Your link address should read:

[Link: www.fixnpr.org...]

#25:

From your own link:

Only 10% of the budget of any NPR affiliated station comes from the government; the remainder is donated by the public, by foundations, and by businesses whose names and products are then announced on air. NPR national does not receive government money directly (except for occasional program-specific grants that constitute less than 2% of its budget.) Over half of the national budget is funded by station dues; the remainder comes in from corporate sponsors and foundation grants.

NPR doesn't get as much government funding as it used to, but it is still a very signifigant source, which NPR likes to hide. Local stations get much of the "dues" they pay to NPR (and which are 50% of NPR's budget) from government sources.

At the protest.

The KUOW studios (our local NPR) is on a street under construction, closed to traffic, known as ‘the Ave’, very near the Univ of Washington.

About 35 people or so marched in a loping circle in front of the entrance to the second floor studio , which happens to be over a music store. The signs read:
1.“NPR calls these ‘activists’ “! With a photo of Islamofascists in suicide regalia.
2. “Let’s hear from Terror victims, NPR”
3. “NPR is biased against Israel”
4. “National Pro-Palestinian Radio”
5. “Call terrorists what they are, not militants”

The other marchers seemed really, really surprised to see me, I think because they all knew each other. Many I did get to converse with said they go to the same synagogue.

The leader/organizer, Sharon, asked me how I came to be there, and I said “Little Green footballs.com” She looked at me like I was on drugs before I explained, and shared that there was a link to JAT. She was utterly surprised. I hope she and the others check it out. I talked about LGF a bit, hoping that another reader or two might be there and overhear: it would be fun to connect in person with Seattle readers.

Anyway, then Derek Wong from KUOW came down with a digital recorder to interview as many of us as wanted to talk. Sharon insisted I go to the mic “Because they need to know Christians are out here too.” (Of course!)

We got a few middle fingers and one “You’re delusional! They kill people!” from unemployable earring and black garbed ne’er-do-well anarchist types that populate the Ave. Mostly passers by looked confused and didn’t inquire.

If they do this again, I hope I bump into other LGFers!

Mazeltov

Rachel Corrie's parents will be on KPFK ( a jew hating/ Israel bashing NPR/ Pacifica radio station)
on Friday, 5:00 pm, Pacific time.

THe show can be heard over the internet:
go to

[Link: www.kpfk.org...]

Jerry Quickley is the asshat that will be hosting the show called
Beneath the Surface.

A chance to call in and talk to them.
 

And even more vile: 
 
[Link: www.mpac.org...]

In commemoration of Rachel Corrie, an American activist who was killed in the Occupied Territories by an Israeli tank as she blocked the path to a Palestinian home, the Muslim Public Affairs Council is proud to organize and sponsor, "Freedom Summer: A Celebration of Courage". The event will take place on Saturday, May 17th, 2003 in Los Angeles (see directions below).
During the dinner, which will feature Rachel Corrie's parents, International Solidarity Movement activist Adam Shapiro, poetry by Dima Hilal and Jerry Quickly of KPFK Radio and Palestinian Debke by the Bir Zeit Society, MPAC will award the Corrie family with MPAC's "Courage Award".
MPAC believes that Corrie, who was an activist with the International Solidarity Movement, should be given the courage award for her deep conviction and willingness to in non-violently defy oppression and violations of international law and human rights.