Karl Rove: '45 Percent Of NPR Listeners Were Saddam Hussein'

GOP strategist Karl Rove and former Vermont Governor Howard Dean discussed the merits of various media outlets Monday night, unsurprisingly finding themselves on polar opposites of the debate.

Dean spoke positively about NPR, even in the wake of a recent controversy concerning the firing of correspondent Juan Williams over statements he made on Fox News, while Rove claimed that NPR's audience was like Saddam Hussein.

NPR "tell[s] it as they see it, and they usually get it right," Dean said of the radio outlet at a University of Delaware forum, according to Politico's report. And Fox doesn't get it right because Fox is a particular offender at making news instead of reporting it."

Rove reportedly interrupted: "45 percent of NPR listeners were Saddam Hussein."

Along with his strange criticism of NPR, Rove also blasted the New York Times and other print organizations, saying that they were "overwhelmingly liberal."

"They are systematically liberal, either politically or culturally, and they are unaware of it," Rove said, according to Politico.

Predictably, Rove claimed that Fox News and the Wall Street Journal were the solution to the woes of these outlets.

There's "a greater diversity there than I see in other networks," Rove said of Fox News. "NPR won't tolerate Juan Williams, but Fox will."

Rove then lauded the Wall Street Journal, home to his regular column and another progeny of News Corp, the massive media company owned by Rupert Murdoch, which also controls Fox News, the company that pays Rove as a contributor.

Rove's swipe at NPR is consistent with a Republican position -- even at the upper ranks of their leadership -- that has arisen since its decision to fire Williams.

House Minority Whip Eric Cantor recently explained that the personnel shakeup could even lead to the GOP seeking to slash federal funding for the radio conglomerate.

"In light of their rash decision, we will include termination of federal funding for NPR as an option in the YouCut program so that Americans can let it be known whether they want their dollars going to that organization," Cantor said.

Comments

[gdfreethinker]

06:17 PM on 11/26/2010

Oh sure, foreign-owned media like WSJ and Faux News are more credible than listener- sponsored radio. And I still can't figure out what he was trying to say. Was Palin wearing a Rove suit and filling in during the interview?

[Jim281]

12:03 AM on 10/29/2010

How can anyone so 'allegedly smart' say something so stooopidt?

[liberty68]

10:23 PM on 10/28/2010

Rove says people are Liberals, and they don't even know they are. WOW. Yesterday I heard someone talking about how liberals may have a specific 'liberal' gene. What next "Weed them out of the HOMELAND" Achtung!!

[RodbfromNC]

03:17 PM on 10/28/2010

Actually Karl, 45% of NPR listeners want white hot steel needles inserted into your eyes and the other 45% want 6 layers of your skin removed and have you rolled in salt, lime and lemon juice. The remaining 10% just want to see you be doused in gasoline and set a blaze.
It appears that you are not well liked by the NPR crowd.

[nofriendofrepublicans]

04:38 PM on 10/28/2010

I second the motion. All those in favor say I.

[Jim281]

12:05 AM on 10/29/2010

FANNED!

LOL

thanks for the laugh!!

[proudcalib]

02:32 PM on 10/28/2010

Does that mean that 45% of Democratic voters did not possess weapons of mass destruction?

[nypapajoe]

12:22 PM on 10/28/2010

There are intellectuals from all walks of life trying to cure childhood disease, cancer, aids and a huge numbers of other social problems and they have to struggle day to day to get funding! Then we have in our mist people like these extreme right wingers with the most offensive and seditious propaganda ever to be spewed on the public and they become multi-millionaires, while the the average working person or as of late unemployed have to struggle day to day to make ends meet! There's a huge problem with this picture? I understand the process of human dynamics, but this is rather perplexing! I didn't know that "public anger" causes "public stupidity"! Some of the best minds of late can not explain the public's inability to distinguish between fact and out right propaganda! Republicorps has purchased our elections and have instilled in the general public an impending fear that the "Black man in office caused our demise" No stupid! It's greed and the right wing agenda to sell us all out to the highest foreign bidder! Check the FACTS!

[thedirkus]

12:14 PM on 10/28/2010

Does anyone realize Rove was joking? Not that I'm a supporter of him, but clearly after Dean said, "And Fox doesn't get it right because Fox is a particular offender at making news instead of reporting it," Rove responded by making some false news as Fox would make, hence "45 percent of NPR listeners were Saddam Hussein." Not a great joke, but honestly the man is not an idiot.

[storeysound]

04:18 PM on 10/28/2010

The statement just doesn't make sense, "humorously", logically, or grammatically. What is it supposed to mean? That Saddam Hussein was the smaller one of only two people who listen to NPR? If you're going to make a joke, you would do well to say something that (a)makes sense, and (b) can at least be considered mildly funny by at least SOMEONE.

[Carpetbagger 68]

11:47 AM on 10/28/2010

Dear America:

I'm not Saddam Hussein.
I'm not any ot the things you hear about me.
I'm you.

Sincerely,
NPR Listeners.

[abbadabba]

11:39 AM on 10/28/2010

Wait a minute. Rove can tell me I'm 45% Saddam Hussein, but I can't suggest 45% is his body fat index? That's not a fair and balanced fight. He's the one who destroyed a CIA agent's effectiveness at searching out WMD, and I'm the one throwing the incendiary devise?

[rockbottomriser]

11:23 AM on 10/28/2010

Anyone ever hear Lewis Black's bit about the girl in the bar he overheard saying, "If it weren't for my horse, I wouldn't have spent that year in college." It just kept repeating in his head over and over and he could never make sense of it. I'm reminded of that now.

[abbadabba]

11:33 AM on 10/28/2010

Well, horses are expensive, and getting a horse's rear end elected costs a fortune.

[storeysound]

04:19 PM on 10/28/2010

More than we can even know.

[William Watson]

10:48 AM on 10/28/2010

All this hatred and confusion and petty meanness. Whoever started calling Rove "Blinky" in high school has a lot to answer for.

[abbadabba]

11:29 AM on 10/28/2010

That's a slur against Blinky the Lighthouseship.

Blinky is a very lonely ship who must remain at sea to protect others. His buddy the seagull sings to him to stop his tears "from overflowing the ocean."

"..Yo ho! Whadda ya know?...
...I got a friend who goes blowity blow...
...Yo ho! Whadda ya think?...
...I got a friend who goes blinkity blink...
...Eyes of yellow...
...Gee, but he's an important fellow...
....Blowity blow and whadda ya think?...
...I got a friend who goes blinkity blink..."

I bet Rove's a blinker, but would never warn the nation of impending disaster.

[Carpetbagger 68]

11:50 AM on 10/28/2010

Warn the nation of impending diasaster? He helped it get elected twice.

[CTDFalconer]

10:45 AM on 10/28/2010

The big difference that people seem to be dancing around is not whether a news source gets any money from the government or not. It's a matter of profit motive as much as anything else. Commercial news outlets, especially TV news are beholden to viewership numbers and the ad dollars they bring. Sensationalized stories, huffing and puffing and mock outrage are the elements that lure viewers so that's what airs. CNN, MSNBC and Fox as well as local network news are all guilty here. This is why I simply don't watch news on TV. NPR, relying on donations and grants doesn't need to sensationalize and indeed they have been found to be just about the least biased news outlet in the country. Democracy thrives when citizens are informed, so it is in our best interest to have impartial news outlets whose goal it is to pursue government transparency.

James Fallows wrote a very good piece on NPR for the Atlantic:
http://www .theatlant ic.com/nat ional/arch ive/2010/1 0/why-npr- matters-lo ng/65068/

[rockbottomriser]

11:19 AM on 10/28/2010

Fanned and faved

[storeysound]

04:24 PM on 10/28/2010

"NPR, relying on donations and grants doesn't need to sensationalize and indeed they have been found to be just about the least biased news outlet in the country. Democracy thrives when citizens are informed, so it is in our best interest to have impartial news outlets whose goal it is to pursue government transparency."

And this is exactly the reason that the right wants so desperately to remove any government support for NPR whatsoever. They fear a news source that is largely unbiased, and wish to destroy it if at all possible.

[CTDFalconer]

04:38 PM on 10/28/2010

Good point. They don't need to worry about Fox giving them bad press and they can paint others as being too liberal and thereby dismiss anything they don't like. I think this attitude motivates the desire to declare NPR as hopelessly liberal.

[Beyrak]

09:14 AM on 10/28/2010

Fan and faved Karl!

[dreadylocks]

08:52 AM on 10/28/2010

Where do I vote for giving my money to NPR? I'm all for it!

[Beyrak]

09:16 AM on 10/28/2010

Mail them a check, but no more of my tax dollars are going there anymore.

[abbadabba]

11:46 AM on 10/28/2010

Do you like 60% of each of your tax dollars going to fund two wars? NPR gets 1% of it's budget from the Treasury. And you've never donated to NPR or PBS in your life Laughing Buddha. Go do some yoga.

[Ranaldo]

08:46 AM on 10/28/2010

Karl Rove looks (and sounds) like Dick Cheney's illegitimate son.