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Eric Boehlert

Eric Boehlert

Posted: November 18, 2010 09:42 AM

Remember, NPR's Mara Liasson thinks Fox News is a legitimate news outlet and doesn't see anything wrong with getting paid to appear on its programs.

Keep that in mind as you read this crazy outburst from Fox News chief, Roger Ailes:

They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don't want any other point of view. They don't even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.

The question for Liasson, an NPR national political correspondent, is a simple one. Yes, Liasson continues to contribute on-air to Fox News despite the fact her appearances seem to run afoul of NPR's ethical standards. But on a more personal level, does she want to continue to be associated with Fox News when its chief is lobbing hateful attacks against Liasson's longtime employer?

As I noted last month [emphasis added]:

[W]hen the Juan Williams controversy broke, Fox News unleashed a nasty attack campaign against Liasson's employer, spreading all kinds of smears and misinformation about NPR and its staff in an effort to defund and destroy a jewel of public broadcasting. (Fox News' Brit Hume basically called NPR racist for firing Williams.)


Given Fox News' current crusade, I don't see why Liasson, who's been cashing NPR paycheck for two decades, would want to continue to work with a media outlet that now seems bent on discrediting and destroying her employer; and destroying it with a vicious smear campaign. From a professional or personal point of view, why would Liasson want to have anything to do with Fox News and its band of NPR haters who now relentlessly ambush NPR's chief on the street?

With his unhinged interview this week, Ailes has now raised the bar on NPR hating. Will Liasson now finally step forward and defend her colleagues from these insane attacks? And if not, should we conclude that Liasson agrees with Ailes' description of NPR as being home to Nazis and government hacks?

In other words, is there anything Fox News can do to demean and destroy NPR that Liasson will publicly object to?

Crossposted at County Fair, a Media Matters for America blog.

 
 
 

Follow Eric Boehlert on Twitter: www.twitter.com/EricBoehlert

 
 
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05:46 AM on 11/23/2010
" ... is there anything Fox News can do to demean and destroy NPR that Liasson will publicly object to".

a BIG FAT NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
04:10 PM on 11/21/2010
She did NOT appear on the fourth-place "Fox News [NOT] Sunday" program today, November 21st. She has young children and may be taking this week off for Thanksgiving. I don't know; does anybody? Anybody? Bueller?
10:15 PM on 11/19/2010
Well, not that it matters to anyone, here or at NPR. But I've just emailed NPR the folowing:

Hello.

I am writing after having just finished reading an article on the Huffington Post:

Will NPR's Mara Liasson Defend Her Colleagues From Roger Ailes' "Nazi" Attack?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/eric-boehlert/will-nprs-mara-liasson-de_b_785317.html#comments


And I just want to say I've had it. For decades I've put my trust in NPR's integrity and its on-air staff to perform the highest quality of reporting and commentary. I've even worked on-air at my local public radio affiliate, NWPR here in Pullman, Washington.

It has bothered me no end over the years to see the likes of Juan Williams and Mara Liasson working for and giving further legitimacy to the very destructive FOX "news" brand. It is unconscionable, in my mind, that anybody who would work for NPR/PBS would participate in an organization bent on ruining this nation....AND....NPR/PBS via vilifying the once unsullied quality of NPR/PBS' news reporting and threatening to defund NPR/PBS.

I do not understand how either Williams or Liasson, or anyone associated with NPR/PBS, could, with any semblance of conscience and integrity lend themselves to the very entity that would destroy their first employers, committing in effect a betrayal of NPR/PBS' listeners/viewers.

Cont...
10:16 PM on 11/19/2010
I've tolerated this as long as I could even though I've long been very unhappy with this situation. I expect better from people who are employed by NPR/PBS. I expect them to adhere to something greater than their own pocketbooks. I expect they would have the good sense and decency NOT to aid and abet an organization bent on fomenting division, hate and outright lies. Division, hate and lies that are destroying this nation thanks to FOX's unbelievable propaganda.

But with the recent Williams flap and now this, no longer. They have the right to work where they will. But I have the right not to voluntarily support them in any way, even the smallish amount I give.

So, it is with great sadness I must say I will no longer listen to or watch either NPR or PBS. And I wll no longer donate any monies to these two organizations I once considered above mere corporate bottom line thinking.

I will not donate to an organization that has people also receiving paychecks, 30 pieces of silver, from such a horrible organization like FOX "News". And I will urge others to do the same. And if you folks do succumb to defunding know in some part it is because NPR/PBS went corporate and forgot what really matters and the Teabaggers aren't the only people fed up with being duped and used as mere numbers for some corporate interests' money-making schemes.

Cont...
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05:48 AM on 11/23/2010
I left NPR and PBS alone years ago. Their rightward slant was very obvious to me.

Both use to by my favorites and I donated money for years.
10:17 PM on 11/19/2010
Fortunately, thansk to the net, I won't have to miss some of my favorite shows like Wait, Wait..., PHC, What'd Ya Know? and a few others as I can just go online and find other avenues for those programs.

Of course, I know this e-mail won't mean a thing to anyone there. Like any other corporate institution I've trust these days sees NPR/PBS not unlike the Wall Street big wigs who STILL do not give one rat's kiester that they've nearly ruined our country as long as they've got theirs.

Best of luck to NPR/PBS. And I hope you don't get defunded. But if that does become a real possibility then don't come begging for my support anymore in any way as I just can no longer trust NPR/PBS. NPR/PBS and crew have sold out for nothing more than 30 pieces of silver.
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04:00 PM on 11/19/2010
I wonder how many of my 5 comments, not counting this one, will make it?
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05:49 AM on 11/23/2010
Did you mention the name of any media lapdogs and shills for the republicans?

The censors don't like that even when it is true.
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03:52 PM on 11/19/2010
If you take the Foxnews money you're not a journalist you're a w____.
10:24 PM on 11/19/2010
Indeed.

Judases.
02:49 PM on 11/19/2010
Now we know where Palin got the line about Obama having values different from the rest of us or why Beck can say Obama is a racist and now NPR is a Nazi organization. Fox is a leader in racist and religious smears and promoting a Pinochet economic policy.
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Tom Nesbitt
10:59 AM on 11/19/2010
No, she'll say nothing and continue to cash cheques from both.
For some strange reason Faux seems to get away with saying
absolutley anything at all with no consequences. Time and again
the 'Nazi' epithet is hurled at 'Republicorp News' and the worst that
happens is a weak "sorry" from the perpetrator, and all is forgiven.
We seem to have reached the absolute bottom of the barrel with
cable news BUT I don't think this will last forever. Roger Ailes' brand
of hyperbolic propaganda is getting all the attention now but sooner
or later the American public (short on attention span and always looking for
the next shiny object) will grow tired of the same old blah blah from his
fake news network. This too shall pass. We can only hope it's sooner than
later.
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03:53 PM on 11/19/2010
naive
10:06 AM on 11/19/2010
What would really be cool and stir the pot is if NPR fired Liasson!!!
 
Get the popcorn!
11:02 PM on 11/18/2010
I find it confusing that Fox says that NPR was a kin to Nazis and the liberals go nuts but not a peep wen Keith Olbermann describes Scott Brown as a irresponsible, homophobic, racist, reactionary, ex-nude model, teabagging supporter of violence against woman and against politicians with whom he disagrees.

Every day Liberals show their hypocrisy
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03:55 PM on 11/19/2010
Jon Stewart among many others called out KO on that.
ydrittmann
Vitter patronizes women.
12:40 AM on 11/22/2010
KO apologizied and rescinded. This does not happen on FOX .
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ranchero42
Taunt him with the licence of ink...
04:45 PM on 11/18/2010
It is the Rightwing that demands absolute loyalty in the face of bold promises to spread tyranny (however re-branded) as far and wide as possible. The hope that progressives adopt this same posture proves the lameness that de-legitimizes their ability to govern or operate any media outlet as unbiased or give any real meaning to a phrase like "Fair And Balanced".

Mara Liasson is either willfully disingenuous or has been properly tenderized by a big fat wad of lies and cash. Take your pick.
04:26 PM on 11/18/2010
For several years, Jane Hall, a journalism professor at American University in DC, was a participant on a Fox "News" Channel show called "Fox News Watch". After FNC hired Glenn Beck, Jane Hall resigned and no longer appears on that channel in any capacity. Will Mara Liasson follow suit?
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03:56 PM on 11/19/2010
What's she waiting for?
04:23 PM on 11/18/2010
Ahhhh, the agenda of Media Matters and their genuine concern for balanced reporting is going after Maura Liasson. I am glad these people are only picked up by the Huffington Post. Soros backed Media Matters is a leftist advocacy group with two missions: 1) discredit and destroy Fox News, 2) discredit and destroy Israel. Don't ask me how these two topics are related.
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whatsyrdamage
10:44 PM on 11/18/2010
What are you talking about?

"Soros backed" is a ridiculous smear, GS only donated to MM earlier this year, after years of commentators on Faux demonizing him. He gave them a cool mil, which is hardly chump change, however he gave it to them after they've continually done good work.

Secondly, they do not just target Faux, but misinformation from any source, whether it's blogged, appears on TV, or in the NYT.

Third, do you have a source for your statement that a part of their mission is to discredit and destroy Israel? I feel like Israel does plenty on it's own to discredit itself, such as using white phosphorous, bulldozing Palestinian homes to build Israeli settlements, and shooting peace activists on a boat.
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hankashley
Catholic who votes like a citizen not a Catholic.
09:01 PM on 11/19/2010
Media Matters ain't the only players in the "kill FOX News" game. Count me in there also. FOX is for the misinformed.
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Mike Costanza
03:23 PM on 11/18/2010
In a word, "No." Liasson knows where the bucks come from. The question for me is this: what will her colleagues at NPR do? Will they avoid confronting her about her need to take a stand either way?

Time to go for the big bucks, Liasson--and away from real journalism.
03:19 PM on 11/18/2010
Liasson is a wh0 re with no principles who'll sell out for $$$.

It's a very simple matter, actually.
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03:58 PM on 11/19/2010
She should get a refund on that face lift.

http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/multimedia/archive/00216/Star_Trek_Alien_216346a.jpg
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kahalaman
your content will resume shortly
12:11 AM on 11/21/2010
That wasn't very nice. It was also, however, very funny.
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HeevenSteven
20 Minutes into the future.
02:13 PM on 11/18/2010
Breaking News: Obama thinks NPR should be more conciliatory towards FOX News. He's sure they can work out a compromise.
11:03 PM on 11/18/2010
This just in Obama gives in without a fight LOL