I want to share an awakening I had this morning.
This morning I had two awakenings, as opposed to the usual one. I was listening to NPR and Senator Leahy was being 'interviewed' by an NPR reporter. It was about the military tribunals for 'terrorist' detainees that the Executive Branch have been conducting which the Congress and Court have questioned more recently.
At one point Senator Leahy responded to the NPR questioner with an answer like "You are reading the White House talking points. My response to that is...." The question was concerning the rights that detainees should have under the Geneva Conventions. I will add, that they also should be concerned about what rights the Constitution provides all people, but that did not get said on the air. But that's not the news today.
It wasn't Leahy's actual response that was interesting. It was the first part. It struck me as correct -- Leahy nailed it, and it got onto the air. NPR is not doing original reporting. A "public" radio company is scripting its stories and interviews according to the "talking points" agendas being fed to it apparently continuously by one particular part of the government and not the other parts of the government. No wonder the "reporter's" questions were so one-sided. No wonder that a sample of just one side's view in this major Congressional debate was aired on NPR this morning, the side of Congress which sides with the President. No opposition Congressional sound byte was provided, despite Republican Representative Hoekstra's May 2006 letter to the President on this topic having been revealed to the public last week, which questioned the legality of the President's actions in this regard, as did some recent Supreme Court action. I just happen to know these things from earlier research, no thanks to NPR.
Do you feel that NPR is lazy and deceitful in its "reporting" any more?
Is NPR becoming an extension of Faux News, representing and forwarding the aims of just one faction of our multi-part government?
I for one will never listen to NPR the same way again.
I also wonder if this is a violation of a charter for a radio system which is "public". It is revealed today, as following an agenda which was scripted by only a certain part of the public's government, the Executive Branch. How is that truly in the public interest?