NPR: National Propaganda Radio

Equal time apparently a foreign concept

Published on May 14, 2004 By Draginol In Politics

This evening on the way back from my son's little league game I turned on NPR. I was greeted with an incredibly sympathetic report on a Mexican immigrant who was on death roll for his roll in double homicide commited during an armed robbery.

The report gave air time to every member of his family. Father, mother, sister, etc. It provided a sound bite from his attorney and talked about all the support he had received from various organizations.

Missing from the report was a single word or mention from anyone related in any fashion to the vicitms. Victims as in the people who were murdered. Nothing at all.

The entire piece was essentially a propaganda piece against the death penalty and played this criminal as the victim. It talked how he had been denied rights because he was a "foreign national" in that that arresting officer didn't follow the Viena convention about informing him that his national government could be contacted. This isn't some diplomat we're talking about folks, this was an illegal alien who came into the US and started robbing people with guns and during one of those armed robberies, 2 innocent people were killed.

My problem isn't that I think he should be executed (or not). My problem is the completely unbalanced reporting. This guy ISN'T the victim. The people who are already dead are. Not having even a single word or statement from the families of the victims (there were TWO victims, it shouldn't be hard to find someone) is just rank propaganda. Wouldn't want anyone to feel sympathy for them as it would get in the way of NPR's rather crude anti-death penalty propaganda piece.

Disgusting.

Comments (Page 2)

jeblackstar

on May 15, 2004

Alas, Super, you are under the misunderstanding that NPR is a NEWS radio station, it's not, I don't know which show Draginol was listening to, since there is no mention of it, but just because it's on NPR doesn't mean it's News. Or even impartial. I think it would be as silly as insisting that Rush be impartial as to insist that this show be. Since most of NPR's funding comes from listeners, the easiest way to get rid of shows like that is to call up the station and complain. Oh, and of course, donate money, because otherwise your voice doesn't reallly count does it? The show, may, or may not receive tax dollars. Most of the federal tax money given to NPR goes to managing the national offices and the news shows. Other shows are sponsored by stations, which may, or may not receive state tax money, that depends on the state.

So, what's the bottom line here? Your donations paid for that show, believe it or not, that means YOU, and you alone can take action on these shows. As someone who donates to NPR I know that my station asks me when I give money which shows I like, and which I don't.

Cheers

Saint Ying

on May 15, 2004

Saint Ying: Regarding the criminal's rights. The arresting officer (in Okalahoma) I think can be excused if he isn't up on the latest Viena treaty issues. For instance, how would the arresting officer have known that the man was an illegal alien? The Viena treaty merely means he could consult with the Mexican consulate to try to get aid. His guilt isn't in question in the case. It is just they want to use this as an excuse to get him off of death roll.
But the entire segment was designed to make the listener sympathetic to this murdering criminal. They interviewed his younger sister for crying out loud. What did that have to do with anything? I'll tell you, it's about trying to "humanize" the criminal so that people will realize that the death penalty is "wrong".
But in the process they dehumanize the victims as nameless faceless statistics. All we get of his crime is that he was involved in a double-homicide during an armed robbery.
My problem with the segment isn't that I'm pro-capital punishment. It's that NPR chose to blow off the other side completely. I've seen this on NPR countless times (recently they had a "debate" on gays in the miliary and their two guests were retired army generals -- both who were gay and both supported gays in the military). They don't even make an attempt to be balanced. And this was on "All Things Consider". It should be renamed "All liberal things considered".
But Ying, by all means, please go on explaining to us knuckle draggers how the enlightened elite such as yourselves have a duty to bring the light of your wisdom to our darkened lives. Correct thinking is rewarded I hope?

Draginol, I asked you to give me a better summary than that. If you are incapable of describing how NPR laid out the story and presented the conflict, please point me to a transcript. There is no point in debating the merits of any piece of journalism unless everything has been laid out. I suspect that you do not wish to provide the transcript because you know that it will prove my point that it presented both sides of the story. Apparently, all you are capable of doing is rehashing your interpretation of the events.

I'll add that NPR is rarely as emotionally manipulative as other stations and networks. It never 'bashes' or resorts to branding or labeling of people to diminish their cause, which is of course a vital weapon of the pea-brained conservative mind. It never waves the flag or preaches religiously. It tells it like it is, the universe in all its secular glory. This is very noble, although perhaps it should do more. Perhaps it should be more like me, and let the populist fools know that they are not welcome in the kingdom of liberal bliss, that their opinions will be ruthlessly torn to shreds in the manner of Sean Hannity or Michael Savage. These are very dangerous times, and all that is good and American is being destroyed by the clueless populist conservatives and their evangelical brethren.

Pity for the guilty is treason to the innocent. - Ayn Rand

You think I have pity for this man? Not exactly, but I realize that he and all other murderers must be given just proceedings, and must realize that justice is something that is bigger and more important than a courtroom's retaliation for his crimes. If he is to die, this is especially important. Justice is the toughest form of love, and the machine that stops all hate and injustice dead in its tracks. I am not saying that justice was nor served in this case, because Draginol has not provided me with an accurate summary, but I do think it is something to consider.

I can understand how my attitude might alienate my brethren from the left, but the dimwitted conservative majority must be exposed to its own medicine, so that liberalism can reach its zenith before the coming environmental appocalypse and the arrival of the feminist moon gods to slay all white American heterosexual christian conservative males (and their thick and ugly wives) and milk them of their vital essence for the future of the lesbian utopia of Mother earth. No more whales or songbirds may die so that a conservative satanic numbskull may live to inflict another faith based Bushist disaster upon this country.

That's right, unless you want to be castrated by Kerry's fascist Hillary Brigade and made to bow before his majesty Saddam Hussein of America, you had better give your life to the service of Bush. He'll sell your soul to his corporate employers, he'll keep you safely in the balmy airs of his moral zeppelin, but he'll never threaten your sexual identity and your right to think and act like a muddy animal in some cosmic slaughterhouse. Viva la Bush for the poor and defenseless white Christian.

greywar

on May 15, 2004

Good spot Draginol, NPR and other extreme idealogue shows (Limbaugh I am looking at you sometimes) are rife with this sort of business and only when subjected to the harshest of criticism do they *ever* change anything about their coverage.

Draginol

on May 16, 2004

Apparently Saint Ying is incapable of carrying on a mature discourse so bye bye to him.

Anyway, to Jeb who puts together his usual intelligent thesis, the show was "The World" (the 7pm EST show). It was not designed to be news but the bias was still incredibly extreme.

I'd challenge anyone to find something on say FoxNews that is as imbalanced as that is. I'm not talking a segment of one of the news analysis shows (otherwise we could get into a Diane Rheim vs. Hannity and Colmes type deal). The 7PM Fox show (forgot the name of it) is FoxNews's equivalent of NPR's "The World". I can't think of any news magazine being as one-sided as that.

If Dateline NBC were doing this story, for instance, they would have certainly included something more about the victims of this guy.

vernmeister2u

on May 16, 2004

You think I have pity for this man?

I relayed a concept. It was not directed at anyone in particular. But if the shoe fits....

VES

jeblackstar

on May 16, 2004

Draginol, we don't get the world in my neck of the woods so I can't say how ideologue it is, but and I can say this having lived in some pretty conservative parts of the world, there are NPR programs which are rather conservative in their viewpoint. Since each station picks it's content it seems as if your station doesn't pick those programs. It seems as if the people in your region want to listen to that show, you can request some of the more conservative shows next time you reup your membership. I've forgotten their names since I haven't listened to them in years, but most of them are put out by the Minnesota Public Broadcasting "Consortium"

Cheers

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