As Calipygian wrote about yesterday, NPR's Steve Inskeep recently interviewed Texas energy investor T. Boone Pickens.
This lengthy interview ran yesterday on NPR during Morning Edition.
Inskeep's reverential interview failed to acknowledge the political controversy Pickens is responsible for, nor his controversial statements on Iraqi oil. Details below.
T. Boone Pickens is more than just a Texas oilman. He bears financial responsibility for the most controverisal political action of the 2004 electoral cycle. Pickens kicked in at least
$2.5 million to fund the Swift Boat Veterans' ads against John Kerry.
Now, if NPR had interviewed George Soros, you can be sure that his opposition to Bush in the 2004 cycle would have been thoroughly explored -- his donations, his motivations, etc. But, mysteriously, the topic never came up with Pickens. Pickens is not asked why he funded the swift boat smear campaign, or why he so vigorously supports President Bush.
The interview only addresses Pickens' views on oil and oil markets, yet Inskeep never asks about one of Pickens more notable statements on this topic. In November 2004, T. Boone Pickens said the following in an interview with Forbes:
I will say this. We'll come out of Iraq with a call on that oil in some fashion or another. And we should. For what we paid in Iraq we should get a call on it. But I don't know who would contest that.... We're entitled to come out of there with a call on that oil.
So a Texas oilman spends millions to smear Bush's political opponent -- helping to secure Bush's reelection -- and says the U.S. is "entitled" to the Iraqi oil. Seems worth following up on to me. It would have been interesting to ask Pickens about these issues. I wish Inskeep had done so.
Once again a disappointment with NPR.