Republicans are winning the messaging war on the Russia scandal and we cannot let them. We can start by contacting/ writing to NPR.
Years ago, let’s say pre-Bush-era, NPR had a lively and well-rounded news team that reported on all the issues with an eye toward telling the truth. Truths were told, the American people were more informed, and our democracy was better for it. Since Gingrich, NPR funding has dropped, an Ombudsman was installed, a Republican operative was hired as the head, and NPR continues to slide down the slippery slope to irrelevancy by employing and interviewing mainly Republicans.
Since the GOP is so intent on using Confusion, Doublespeak, and outright Audacity in order to “win” the war of ideas, including the Russia scandal, I was curious how NPR is reporting it, so tuned in last week and today to Morning Edition.
Not good. The first episode was a recent interview with Steve Inskeep and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), where Gardner was asked about Judge Gorsuch’s confirmation process. Let me preface this by saying Sen. Gardner is one of the lyingist liars in Congress, and regularly pisses off his Colorado constituents that disagree with him by ducking town halls, and saying they are “paid protesters from out-of-state.” Sure enough, Inskeep asked Gardner about the Grouch hearing and the Senator lied through his teeth, no surprise: “But what I do know is this - the Democrats are trying to obstruct every nominee coming before the United States Senate. I think it's a shameful act. It's the slowest rate of a confirmation process since George Washington. And I think the American people are going to get sick and tired of the kind of politics that are being played in Washington.” Shameless hypocrisy, right? But, what really floored me was that Steve Inskeep said ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to counter that very basic, visible, and well-known lie. Not a word. Nada. Zippo. Zilch.
Today’s Morning Edition reporting on Russia was no better. Cokie Roberts, Republican mouthpiece and scammer, was interviewed about Nunes and the history of House intelligence committee scandals, and she—you guessed it—normalized the fact that Republicans are covering up critical evidence by pointing to historical infighting in intelligence committees. There was no Democratic counter to Cokie’s analysis. There never is with Cokie’s analyses.
Also today, Morning Edition interviewed Hugh Hewitt of all people, rightwing nut, liar, conspiracy nut, and all around jackass, about the Russia scandal—alone. No Democrat present. After Hewitt was given the opportunity to lie through his teeth and opine that Republicans were within their right to withhold any information from Democrats on the committee, that Nunes did nothing wrong by stealing away to tell Trumpy classified material in the middle of the night, and that this is all “politicized” by Democrats, the interviewer presented a weak-tea one-sentence rebuttal of what Democrats might say, and then asked, “Can you punch any holes in that?” which, of course, Hewitt did, by lying some more.
www.npr.org/…
Not only is NPR reporting the Republican position un-challenged, they are reporting it as if it is the only one that exists. This needs to stop. If average time-strapped Americans tune in to NPR, they will leave the segment thinking the cover-up is business as usual, that Republicans have not breached decades of protocol with the Nunez debacle, and will be unaware that Trump’s Russia connections (as well as other’s) may well be acts of treason. That Republicans are given such a platform on NPR to spew lies and obfuscation unchallenged should be a concern to all Democrats, since we all help pay for portions of their budget.
Contact NPR. help.npr.org/...