NPR - your clever new acronym >>> HERE!

[HamdenRice]

I was listening to an interview with some retired colonel this morning just back from Afghanistan, about how great things are going there and how the war in Iraq had not distracted the military from finding Al-Queda. Scot Simon (?) did not even question this blatant propogranda. I thought, this is propoganda -- National Propoganda Radio.

I remember when NPR was really independent and investigative. What does "NPR" mean to you. My favorites so far are:

National Propoganda Radio
Not Politically Relevant (Radio)

Any additions?

Or if you want to post real analysis rather than lazy invective like me, feel free.

[JuniperLea]

1. Neo Political Retardation

Nonsensical Political Regurgitation

[Liberty Belle]

2. Noxious Political Rightwing (Radio)

[FormerDittoHead]

3. Here's the thing that pisses me off about NPR...

The right (and many in the middle) consider NPR to be *FAR* left radio.

I'm talking perception, and there are examples which merit this perception (esp the feature stories and interviews)...

The point, after I lay down this premise, is that if NPR lets slip by ANYTHING like the above, IT'S CONSIDERED GOSPEL by the right as "even *NPR* has reported that these lies are true... blaw, blaw, blaw.

So, IMO, NPR better choose sides, because the Reich wing already has, and they will only use NPR as a tool and NPR would be foolish to expect dollar ONE from them...

[zalinda]

5. except a RW runs the network now

It's too late.

zalinda

[HamdenRice]

15. So true -- like they're the official mouthpiece of the left ...

and it gives so much credibility when RW talking points are presented on NPR

[stpalm]

4. I like NPR.

It is actual news. Actual reporting unlike the cable networks and the papers. RW people only think it is "far-left" because it actually practices journalism.

I will stick with National Public Radio, thank you very much.

[Hubert Flottz]

6. Nazi Pig-dog Radio.

...

[marylanddem]

7. Namby Pamby Radio

We are living in a very f**ked up world when Namby Pamby Radio passes for progressive.

[SalmonChantedEvening]

8. No Pulitzers Required n/t

[1932]

9. National Propaganda for Republicans

[benito]

10. National Petroleum Radio

[HamdenRice]

11. The day I stopped respecting NPR -- 9/11

At that time, I didn't think NPR was becoming RW -- it became RW later because like much of the MSM, it was scared into submission by the bush storm troopers -- but by 2001, I was sick of the excess of "whimsey" stories they were running.

The last straw was 9/11. I arrived in my office in lower Manhattan very early, having passed under the WTC around 8 am. I was listening to morning radio while I worked, when I heard what sounded like a military jet whoosh directly over my office and then a loud explosion. My first thought was that there was a military bombing run over NYC. Then I thought the boom was just maybe a truck accident.

NPR was running its usualy morning snooze fest with then morning host Bob Edwards. A secretary told me that a plane had hit the WTC and I went down to the street and saw the building on fire in the near distance. I went back to work. Then we heard about the second plane. My sister called me in a panic and said get out of Manhattan, it's under attack!

In vain I tried to find out what was going on from NPR. CBS Newsradio was explaining there was a terrorist attack and even little left wing Pacifica WBAI was saying that they could see from their window that there had been a terrorist attack.

I went back to "authoritative" WNYC/NPR. They were running an obituary about the guy who invented the bar code scanner. Bob Edward was saying -- I kid you not -- that the inventor of the barcode had "changed our lives forever"!

They did not report the WTC attack until practically when the first tower collapsed, other than a few brief, ill-informed bulletins. The next day WNYC explained that they watched it happen from their window, but they did not explain why they never cut off the stupid taped feed from DC to tell us what the f**k they were seeing from their window. It is claimed they did great reporting from the street by midday and they trumpeted that but by then almost all radio transmission was down (most radio transmitters were in the twin towers) and they were broadcasting to nowhere, so no one heard their "award winning coverage" of 9/11.

They were so scleorotic, that they had ceased to be a news organization and were just a whimsy generator. Last time I ever contributed a nickel to NPR/WNYC.

[kahleefornia]

16. Well, they don't have news choppers...

I understand that surely they should have been saying something, but NPR is does more research-type news, not breaking news. They don't really have reporters ready to be sent out immediately with a news van to cover something. So they really could only have been reporting on what they were seeing - which was what everyone else was seeing, and wondering about.

Personally, I got tired of watching CNN run the same damn footage over and over, with meaningless commentary like "oh my god...oh my god". Better than some fluff piece about getting a kitten out of a storm drain or something, but really - how much was there to "report" on in the first few hours? Everyone was in stunned confusion.

[HamdenRice]

17. They didn't need choppers -- they needed to tell us what they saw

In other words, the windows of WNYC looked out over the WTC. They didn't need choppers or reporters -- they just needed to say what they were looking at. Instead they kept the tape on of this idiotic report about the death of the inventor of the bar code scanner.

You have to keep in mind that this was the biggest emergency in NYC's history. People needed to be told where to go, what to do. The idiotic federal government did not cut in with the emergency broadcast system (WTF is that system for if it is not to tell you how to get out of Manhattan on 9/11????), so everyone -- everyone -- was listening to radio and watching TV just to figure out how to save our sorry asses.

Tiny little left wing WBAI which has almost no street reporting, but also had a window over the WTC and just interrupted normal and started telling what was happening, that the subways had been shut down, which bridges you could walk over, whether the govt recommended leaving Manhattan, etc.

WNYC did nothing. They just kept replaying that stupid obit and other fluff pieces.

The next day Brian Lehrer, their newstalk day guy explained that they all watched the disaster in real time. They also have radio and TV from other stations. Yet the staff of WNYC never just cut into the damned tape feed from NPR in DC to say what was happening.

Also NPR never cut in from DC to say what they were seeing on real time TV. There even was I think a WNYC reporter in New Jersey trying to get on air over the NPR feed to explain what was happening, but they made the decision to ignore the biggest story except for Pearl Harbor, of the 20th century.

They never admitted it publicly, but that's why drink besotted Bob Edwards was fired. He was the editor, not just on air reporter, of Morning Edition. It was gossiped in the NY Times media pages that he was fired because of his decision not to report about the attacks on 9/11.

That was not just bad journalism; that was criminally irresponsible, and I have never forgiven them for what they did that morning.

<edited>

[Bucky]

12. Not Presenting Republicantalkingpoints

Just because they don't mimic DU talking points doesn't mean they're mimicking right wing talking points. Sorry, but I've listened to NPR for a long time. I think what they broadcast is pretty fair, accurate, and untainted by spin. They're not perfect, but they're by far the best national news broadcast on the radio.

[BiggJawn]

13. National PUTSCH Radio

Real fifth-column stuff going on there.
The have a Winger who used to run the Voice Of Amerika at the helm, any morning you can tune in and hear Coke-head Roberts, Mara LIE-ason, and Juan (no nickname) Williams all taking turns giving the BFEE "Aural Sex".

And the Gullible Left lap it up and continue to send in their $$$$ because they say "But I LIKE NPR! they got 'Car Talk' and that funny Micheal Feldman fellow!"

HOW can you trust a segment about GMO's when at the bottom of the hour you hear "Support for NPR is provided by Archers-Daniels-Midland. ADM, Supermarket to the World...."

I sure as hell can't.

The only reason I listen at all anymore is because I sometimes get tired of hearing as much static as program. Local radio is "Bob and Tom" and about 10 imitators."Morning Zoo" radio...I outgrew that schlock 30 years ago...

[HamdenRice]

14. Shoot man, now you're making me reconsider -- you mentioned Car Talk!

Car Talk is the best thing on NPR -- it's the best show of any kind on radio anywhere!

Maybe I should forgive them for going RW as long as they keep Car Talk.

BTW, I just found the best fu**ing mechanic in the world, right in my neighborhood, by using Car Talk's website, and they just saved me like 500 bucks!

Also great point about ADM -- supermarket to the world.

[HamdenRice]

18. Now Pro-War Radio nt