Skip to content

Npr Busted!

Political Discussion
29 6 1.2k
  • I was saying that their programming is biased toward liberals. Which I maintain that it is. As far as the content is concerned, yeah it's balanced, moreso than almost any group out there, but no one else wants to listen to it.

  • I think PBS' programming is more biased towards liberals than NPR's is.

    Honestly, who still wants to watch Peter Paul and Mary concerts? Well, maybe Steve does, but other than that I think it's dried out hippies from the 60s.

    I'd be willing to forgo tax funding for NPR and PBS programming other than for their news divisions, which I think are more valuable today than they've ever been because news coverage has become such a joke. PBS and NPR are some of the few outlets that still produce top quality stuff. The rest of the money should be raised privately.

    But to pretend this is a serious budgetary issue is also a joke.

  • Also, this conservative fixation with using James O'Keefe footage to defund entire organizations is beyond dumb.

    "Hey, I found a not-too-bright receptionist! That means the whole enterprise is corrupt!"

    I'm sure Michael Moore could walk into Halliburtion headquarters and make one of their receptionists look silly on camera. That wouldn't mean they should never receive a government contract again. But apparently this doesn't work in the reverse.

    One of these days Republicans are going to realize that the reason for government isn't to settle small, meaningless scores with liberals. Who make you mad. In theory.

  • But to pretend this is a serious budgetary issue is also a joke.

    It's all about keeping the middle class stupid and maintaining corporate control over as much as possible. Net neutrality, PBS, NPR, it's all the same. Make a big deal out of nothing, rile up your uneducated fanbase, and rake in the profits because they're louder than most everyone on the left. It's about time, though, that people on the left are standing up because they're pissed off. I'm happy to see the turnout that the Stewart/Colbert rally had, and I'm ecstatic about the number of people that are pissed off over Governor Walker's stubborn attempt to take away bargaining rights of teachers. If only these lazy assholes would have voted instead of just waiting til it affected them.

    The problem with the Tea Party, in my opinion, is that they see the government as the big, bad wolf, and in a sense, the worst corporation that could possibly exist. Well, what do they think is gonna happen if the corporations get control of this? We'd only be getting news like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. The internet would change such that it'd be more favorable for friends and allies of these businesses. Government regulation isn't the anti-Christ.

  • Andrew Sullivan:

    "I don't doubt for a milisecond - and never have - that NPR and the NYT have often profound biases to the liberal side of the equation. I've long argued that they should admit it and move on. But I don't get the sense from watching PBS or listening to NPR that they take it as their guiding mission to push for a particular political party or rig the news to inflame a political party's base. I think they still try to aim for fairness and the truth. I truly don't believe, with a few exceptions that this is the case with FNC. I think it's a political operation using the guise of "journalism" to advance a cause and a party; I think NPR is a news organization with a political bias."

  • I'd agree with that dude.

  • But to pretend this is a serious budgetary issue is also a joke.

    It's all about keeping the middle class stupid and maintaining corporate control over as much as possible. Net neutrality, PBS, NPR, it's all the same. Make a big deal out of nothing, rile up your uneducated fanbase, and rake in the profits because they're louder than most everyone on the left. It's about time, though, that people on the left are standing up because they're pissed off. I'm happy to see the turnout that the Stewart/Colbert rally had, and I'm ecstatic about the number of people that are pissed off over Governor Walker's stubborn attempt to take away bargaining rights of teachers. If only these lazy assholes would have voted instead of just waiting til it affected them.

    The problem with the Tea Party, in my opinion, is that they see the government as the big, bad wolf, and in a sense, the worst corporation that could possibly exist. Well, what do they think is gonna happen if the corporations get control of this? We'd only be getting news like CNN, Fox, and MSNBC. The internet would change such that it'd be more favorable for friends and allies of these businesses. Government regulation isn't the anti-Christ.

    @vaportrail said:

    It's all about keeping the middle class stupid and maintaining corporate control over as much as possible. Net neutrality, PBS, NPR, it's all the same. Make a big deal out of nothing, rile up your uneducated fanbase, and rake in the profits because they're louder than most everyone on the left.

    I don't think it's that. It's much simpler. There isn't much difference between people like Steve King and Louie Golmert and Michelle Bachmann and Trent Franks and Sarah Palin and Peter King and James Inhofe and Jeff Sessions and Mike Pence and Jim Demint and your average Fox News viewer.

    These are not very bright people. They think this stuff really is a big deal.

  • Heh.

    One might notice that many of the former cash cows of the "conservative" movement are mad that the new guys are eating into their turf.

    Don't worry, sooner or later teh Fox gang will carp at whoever takes the mantle from them....

    And the lefties will reminisce about the good old days.

    WSS

  • I was hoping that we were going to start heading back to the middle, but I'm afraid you're right. There seems to be no end to the trajectory.

  • The middle?

    That, old buddy, is rich.

    WSS

  • 1. Heck, you are NOT the middle. You are the way, whiney, lalaland left.

    2. NPR has been getting GOV FUNDS - our tax dollars. Fox does not. That is a big difference. Can you see the difference, Heck?

    3. Fox is brilliantly conservative in opinion, but also brilliantly fair and balanced - on the news. Even on Hannity's show, etc,,

    there are way left guests who spout off like crazy. That doesn't happen on MSNBC, or CNN, or NPR, or not much.

    4. I've watched the news on Fox, then turned to CNN. The taint of bigontry and bias was all over CNN. It was disgusting.

    5. I turned CNN off our favorites list.

    6. NPR is a bought and paid for liberal bastion of bigotry. See Juan Williams and the hateful lies by the heads of NPR. They resigned for good reason, btw.

    7. Heck and Vapor - when Sheply was here, he was constantly saying stuff like "the Republican party is dead" or something like that. I said no, the American

    people will just shift the course of our good ship American to being back on course. And the midterm elections proved I was correct.

    8. ObaMao is a failed president. Even high ranking Dems are coming out and criticizing his lack of leadership. We told you - he set a record for voting "present".

    But you wouldn't listen.

    9. In the last thirty days, ObaMao's approval rating has plummeted ten points - among independent voters. It's now 37 percent. That's very bad.

    10. You can't solve poverty by growing entitlements bigger. LBJ couldn't do it. FDR couldn't do it. Carter couldnt do it. Bill Clinton couldn't do it, and ObaMao can't do it.

    But the Dems sure love the poor's votes coming their way every election. Sick how that works, eh?

    11. The left is in all out revolution hate mode. Their arrogance has gone over the edge. I mean, seriously - Pelosi says "We have to pass the hc bill, so that we can

    find out what's in it"... ring a bell? Oh, but Pelosi is really smart, eh? But Palin, etc, aren't very bright? LOL. More nonsense slurs toward conservatives.

    12. ObaMao isn't very bright either, unless he is, then you have to admit he is a flagrant liar and con man, and a corrupt despot would be, bought and paid for by the left.

    He said he'd close Gitmo. Nope. He now, just two days ago, declared in his Pres order, that he can keep a Gitmo prisoner there for how ever long he wants, EVEN

    if they are acquitted in court.

    13. It goes on and on and on and on and .... get it?

  • The middle?

    That, old buddy, is rich.

    WSS

    @westside-steve said:

    The middle?

    That, old buddy, is rich.

    WSS

    Talking about the Republicans. Who don't think Orrin Hatch is conservative enough.

    Orrin Hatch.

    And yeah, I consider myself a centrist Democrat. Very much so. Objectively, that's where I'd rank.

  • @westside-steve said:

    The middle?

    That, old buddy, is rich.

    WSS

    Talking about the Republicans. Who don't think Orrin Hatch is conservative enough.

    Orrin Hatch.

    And yeah, I consider myself a centrist Democrat. Very much so. Objectively, that's where I'd rank.

    @heckofajobbrownie said:

    Talking about the Republicans. Who don't think Orrin Hatch is conservative enough.

    Orrin Hatch.

    I've always been a fan.

    So if W had nominated him for the SC do you think he'd have faced stiff opposition?

    And yeah, I consider myself a centrist Democrat. Very much so. Objectively, that's where I'd rank.

  • I would hope so. Orrin Hatch isn't some sort of titan in the legal world. It'd be like trying to put Joe Biden on the Supreme Court.

  • I would hope so. Orrin Hatch isn't some sort of titan in the legal world. It'd be like trying to put Joe Biden on the Supreme Court.

    @heckofajobbrownie said:

    I would hope so. Orrin Hatch isn't some sort of titan in the legal world. It'd be like trying to put Joe Biden on the Supreme Court.

    Granted he's no Elena Kagan....

    WSS

  • No, clearly not.

  • No, clearly not.

    @heckofajobbrownie said:

    No, clearly not.

    Why, there's a big R by his name, plain as day!

    How did I miss that???

    WSS

  • You really want me to put their legal resumes next to each other? Or perhaps you can look them up yourself.

    Yes, clearly there's no difference beyond the party affiliation. You've got me. In your head and nowhere else.

    However, his legal resume is very similar to Joe Biden's. Would you want Joe Biden on the Supreme Court? I wouldn't. Because he's not qualified.

  • Qualifications took a backseat to ideology right around the Bork nomination.

    Further in what situation would you personally fear that Biden might offer an incorrect decision?

    You're comfortable with him being "a heartbeat away" from being the world's most powerful man.

    WSS

  • Steve, come on. I have work to do.

    Joe Biden has been a Senator since he had real hair. He's perfectly qualified for high political office. He's more qualified than most, in fact. He is not, however, qualified to sit on the Supreme Court. Because that's a different job. (I mean, come on. Don't make me type this shit just so you can be a dick.) And it's also really, really important.

    Now, could Joe Biden sit on the Supreme Court and render opinions and have his clerks write them? Of course he could. Is this what we want out of our Supreme Court Justices? No, it's not.

    Another qualification for the high court? Temperament. And that's where people questioned Bork's abilities, not his resume. John Roberts and Sam Alito were both qualified to be on the court, and more Democrats should have voted for them. This process has become far too political. That said, it's also not a rubber stamp. I'm happy Robert Bork isn't on the court, and I would have preferred it if Clarence Thomas weren't either.

    Sort of like how Sarah Palin isn't unqualified to be president because she was a governor for half a term, though you could make that case as well. She's unqualified because she's an idiot who doesn't know anything about the subjects she's supposed to know about and she's got the personality and maturity of a teenage girl.

    If you want to make the case that Elena Kagan's years of experience in the legal field didn't qualify her for the Supreme Court, then go ahead and try to make it. But that would be sort of a fruitless exercise since she clearly does. If you want to make the case that other aspects of Elena Kagan the person don't meet the criteria for the high court, go ahead and make it. But that would probably get you nowhere either.

    And if you want to believe that Orrin Hatch's experience as a lawyer in a law firm in Pittsburgh and Utah decades ago, combined his service on the Senate Judiciary Committee, qualify him to sit on the highest court in the land, I think you're really wrong. But it would fit in with one of the dumbed opinions you hold, which is that it doesn't matter who we put in these really important jobs because someone else can tell them what to do.

    So let's just acknowledge why you really are making this argument: because you have an idea that everything some people do is entirely political and that's the only way to explain their behavior, and you don't have many ideas that come after that.