NPR Ombudsman Refuses To Speak To Glenn Greenwald About Torture

Bloggasm:

Salon blogger Glenn Greenwald has rarely been one to avoid responding directly to his right wing critics. He's been on Hugh Hewitt' radio show on multiple occasions and has even appeared on Michael Savage's show. As an opinionated pundit, he believes that people like him should be willing to face off with others in public forums that are not always friendly to their views, and he finds those that avoid doing so "cowardly and irresponsible."

Read the whole story: Bloggasm

Comments

[henrypapillon]

who's green glenwald? why won't npr speak to me either?

[dems08]

National

P U B L I C

Radio

[RationalityPlease]

Propaganda rules. We are no longer a free nation. And we won't be until we take three things back that the Greedy Class have destroyed and/or co-opted: Our educational system, our media, and our goverment.

[glockman]

Our govt. is part of the greedy class.

[lj9283]

Before labeling Ms. Shepard as a lackey for the Right Wing, you might want to read her writings on HuffPo supporting the call in Congress to hold aggressive investigations of the Bush administration's handling of the war with Iraq in 2007.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/alicia-c-shepard/political-stars_b_38143.html

[dems08]

Contact NPR:

http://help.npr.org/ics/support/default.asp?deptID=5670&task=ticket

[dems08]

Send comments to "Talk of the Nation":

http://www.npr.org/contact/totn.html

[gwix]

Just did - thank you for the suggestion.

[Stilts9]

Well, I stopped paying any attention to NPR (Neocon Propoganda Reports) when they supported the Iraq Invasion with all colors flying.

[em3]

Glad to hear someone questioning her. I heard her on NPR explaining why they don't use the term torture and I couldn't believe my ears. Her examples were clearly instances of torture in anyone's mind. Yet she said NPR would not apply the term to those situations. I couldn't believe it.

[ibsteve2u]

Those of you who are talking about cutting donations to NPR over this single issue, I would ask you to reconsider.

This is but one issue, and in rural America NPR provides a counter - however you tilted you may view it to be - to the predominance of tilted-so-far-as-to-be-right-wing opinion and propaganda.

No, I don't work for NPR or PBS...but, depending upon who I visit, I do have to listen to rightie radio and ponder the presence of NRA newsletters laying under the Bible.

[OurKoan]

NPR fought tooth and nail to prevent Low Power FM service, which has primarily been a rural phenomenon. They and the conservative National Association of Broadcasters. Claimed possible "interference" from fully regulated 100 (!) Watt stations. Right. These have been fantastic bastions of alternative programming. Just not under the big propaganda umbrella, thats all.

[lungfish]

Guess I should stop sending my yearly check to NPR... Cheney and co tortured and that is indisputable. To call it anything other than that is to support the idea that nobody is above the law except for Cheney and Bush and their toadies...
NPR is losing its credibility as an acceptable news source...

[CigarGod]

I guess I'll go to their site and tell them the same.
They have been getting more and more right wing.

[jsgaetano]

I've noticed NPR's efforts to be more "fair and balanced". Most times, they take their talking points and political lexicon right off of Faux Noise.

[bobtr900]

I no longer support NPR or PBS for the very same reasons. They were taken over by the GOP just like the MSM, Telecoms etc.

Free speech is dying in America, If the Bushies and the Rethugs don't like it we're not allowed to say it, demonstrate against it or even think it; as they go about manipulating everything they do not like out of existence. And, they don't like anything or anyone that is not them and does not support their greedy mindset.

But when one worships only money and profits, eschewing all human values, that is what one becomes, a predator.

[Samalabear]

Not always. Frontline, NOW and Bill Moyers are far from being GOP. Those are the shows that show up consistently in the fight for single-payer, student loan debt, the financial crisis, and other very important issues that the MSM nor NPR is tackling.

[dems08]

hit 'em where it hurts!

[dems08]

Shepard joined National Public Radio (NPR) in October, 2007, for a two-year appointment as the Ombudsman for the nonprofit public media organization.

SHE'S A BUSHIE!!!!

[em3]

That explains things.

[naschkatze]

So Obama will be replacing her soon? Something to keep our eyes on.

[kevinw]

Ever since the whole "balance" ruckus under BUSH NPR has been really careful not to upset Bush and the neo-con crowd. They still have the vegetarian ambiance, but they further many more Bushisms than the torture one.

The country has prosecuted its enemies for waterboarding as torture. It is internationally recognized as such. They say they are not using the word for dialogue reasons is just plain silly. If that were the case you would be dialoguing about how this has been defined by the US and the international community as torture for about the last 50 years. The Bush administration, using the legal reasoning of "because I need it to be different" they produced some memos saying its not torture if we are careful. That would be where you would have a debate or dialogue. Have people from those that believe that it is torture and in violation of the Geneva Accords and those that believe that the President can make anything legal if he declares it so.

You further nothing by refusing to use the term. Except that you continue to curry favor with the neo-con community.

[lechatnoir]

Issue like torture are extremely useful to weed out the wishy-washy and the morally corrupt. Question anybody who isn't outraged that stuff like this is going on, funded by our money.

[billythehut]

well said

[samlu1]

NPR's Amy Goodman has refused to comment or research the events of 9/11. Ms. Goodman was listening to the countdown during the controlled demolition of WTC 7 on the afternoon of 9/11 AT WTC 7 itself. Google WTC 7 and Amy Goodman and watch the video. She knew from day ONE that the buildings of 9/11 were a controlled demolition. Just 2 weeks before 9/11 NPR did an interview with CDI who was in NYC doing "work" at the WTC's. CDI was paid $35 Billion to clean up ground zero, wrote the NIST report that said no demolitions were used, and was seen inside the OkCity Murrah building before it exploded in 1995. Small world? In terms of who is willing to ask questions from our media....NPR is but one that will never ask the important questions..........

[miranda2060]

Amy Goodman is on Pacifica, not NPR. Most of the topics and guests on Democracy Now would NEVER be heard on National Propaganda Radio.

It is true, however, that many "left gatekeepers" have assiduously avoided any serious 9/11 inquiry.

Visit the blog NPR Check for more info on NPR bias.

http://nprcheck.blogspot.com/

[dynwitch]

Tin foil hat getting some holes in it?

[WilliamProc]

Mental illness strikes many Americans without their knowledge.

Talk with your doctor.

[fishstones]

NPR has made some really terrible decisions with regard to its journalism model. More serious journalism moved aside for semi-entertainment (check out the approach of Innskeep and Montaigne). Morning Edition is getting harder to distinguish from morning TV: lots of fluff and human interest and much less substantive reporting; lapdog to power and wealth, not watchdog. I wonder whether the compromises have even worked on their own terms (youth listenership up significantly?), let alone the fact that the changes seem to push the programming even further away from what might concern working class and minority audiences.

The contrast between the national shows and locally produced programming is often stark. Given that the compromised national shows (ME and All things Considered) are apparently very costly, and given the much higher quality fare available presumably more cheaply (Pacifica programming as well as some PRI and local programming), it would seem plausible for local affiliates to just drop the expensive national programming and fashion a broadcast schedule worthy of the name public radio. It does not seem national NPR is at all responsive to its core listenership, and the torture cover up is just one of many examples we could cite.