In my last two diary entries, I have attacked NPR. If you want to know more about my specific reasons for doing so, I suggest you read those diary entries.
Well, last night, while reading Tom Tech's diary, "This Week in Fascism," here:
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/1/27/2379/10058
I was reminded about other aspects of their pernicious and propagandistic influence. With his permission, I thought I'd reproduce what TomTech set forth about NPR from that diary entry:
"Delphis reported that NPR ignores the Democrats' agenda. It seems that National Public Radio had a piece on the new Bills proposed for the new Senate where they totally ignored the proposals by the Democrats. If you listened to this segment you would think the Democrats didn't even have an agenda in the Senate. On Wednesday Delphis Added another instance where NPR shills for the administration (day 2) . That one was about how they are now repeating Social Security propaganda that's been debunked without any dissenting opinions."
Well, Tom Tech also gave me a link to an article by Alexander Cockburn about how in 2000 NPR joined in the fight to kill the low-powered FM initiative that would have opened up the FM radio airwaives to the public and done a great deal to counter the pernicious influence of corporate broadcast consolidation. Here is a particularly juicy item from that article that should give you an idea about the types of people who have been running NPR in recent years and what their political concerns and outlooks are:
'Both the boss of NPR, Kevin Klose, and the boss of the Public Broadcasting Corporation, Robert Coonrod, come from careers in U.S. government propaganda abroad. Klose ran Radio Free Europe and Radio Liberty. Coonrod oversaw Voice of America and the Office of Cuba Broadcasting -- both Radio and TV Marti. As Peter Franck of the National Lawyers' Guild Committee on Democratic Communications puts it, "Klose and Coonrod come out of the National Security State. Their instinct is to see public radio as an actual or potential propaganda arm of government, and they're terrified of independent voices." And indeed, Coonrod has been intimately involved in efforts to curb the independence of stations in the non-commercial Pacifica Network, such as KPFA in Berkeley, Calif. And now, Klose has been working the Hill alongside lobbyists from the NAB.'
By the way, the link to that Cockburn article is here:
http://www.freepress.org/columns/display/2/2000/608
It's important reading if you want to understand better how NPR played a crucial role in the effort during the year 2000 to screw over the American public interest by helping to kill the low-powered FM initiative.
(By the way, the low-powered FM radio initiative is an issue that may very well come up again for consideration soon. Every progressive, especially those who decry the power and influence of the "corporate media," owes it to his or her self to become educated about this issue.)