Posted on 03/14/2016 5:31:23 AM PDT by Drango
NPR is acting to clarify the role of longtime analyst and commentator Cokie Roberts after she co-wrote a syndicated newspaper column calling for "the rational wing" of the Republican Party to stop Donald Trump's march toward its presidential nomination.
NPR has a policy forbidding its journalists from taking public stances on political affairs. She has not been a full-time employee for decades, and several years ago Roberts officially was named a commentator. (The timing was confirmed in separate interviews with Roberts, NPR officials and the former senior vice president for news who made the decision.) The role gives Roberts more latitude to express opinions than the network's reporters or hosts.
"[Trump] is one of the least qualified candidates ever to make a serious run for the presidency," Roberts wrote late last month in a syndicated column with her husband, the journalist Steven Roberts. "If he is nominated by a major party — let alone elected — the reputation of the United States would suffer a devastating blow around the world."
Roberts, often described as a "founding mother" of NPR, left her position as a full-time staffer in 1992 for ABC News. She continued to appear regularly on NPR as a news analyst for almost two decades on a contract basis. After the change in title from news analyst to commentator, listeners may have noticed little, if any, difference in her role.
Roberts remains closely identified with NPR and presents commentary most Mondays on Morning Edition.
Roberts' column was published Feb. 26, and she did not flag its contents to NPR executives. It came to their attention after Roberts sharply questioned Trump during a March 9 appearance on MSNBC.
NPR's senior vice president for news and editorial director, Michael Oreskes, said the opinion column indicates Roberts has not been sufficiently identified to listeners as a commentator. Additionally, he wrote in a memo to staffers that news executives would work with her to refine the contours of her job.
The very public evolution of Roberts' status occurs against the backdrop of an earlier episode in which an NPR analyst's remarks in another news outlet sparked a firestorm. NPR drew a backlash when it terminated Juan Williams' contract in fall 2010 because of comments he made about Muslims on Fox News.
The greater context involves Trump himself.
As Oreskes has noted, the news media continue to wrestle with how to respond to Trump's spectacular rise. Trump's criticism of the political establishment has at times appeared to incite violence and racial tensions.
Oreskes directed Roberts to explain her reasoning behind her column — both the substantive case and Roberts' conviction she had a right and need to articulate it — in a conversation with Morning Edition host David Greene broadcast early Monday.
"Our journalists have clear instructions," Oreskes wrote in his memo, sent to staffers Monday morning. "We do not support or oppose candidates. We don't advise political parties. We gather the news and seek as many points of view as we can. Cokie's role has evolved into being one of those points of view."
In the Morning Edition interview for broadcast Monday, Greene asked Roberts: "Objectivity is so fundamental to what we do. Can you blame people like me for being a little disappointed to hear you come out and take a personal position on something like this in a campaign?"
"If I were doing it in your role, you should be disappointed," Roberts said. "Or if I were doing it covering Capitol Hill every day. I can't imagine doing that. But the truth is [that commentary] is a different role. And there are times in our history when you might be disappointed if I didn't take a position like that."
Roberts is not the only veteran journalist to take unusual exception to Trump. In a pointed commentary that aired on NBC Nightly News in December, retired NBC anchor Tom Brokaw denounced Trump's "dangerous proposal" for Muslims to be prevented from entering the country. Brokaw, now a senior news analyst for NBC, said it "overrides history, the law and the foundation of America itself."
In an interview granted Sunday night for this article, Roberts was asked whether she had approached her job any differently with the title "commentator" rather than "analyst." She replied, "The answer has got to be, 'No.'
"Here is my basic approach to life," Roberts continued. "I am a totally unpartisan human being. I don't care which party has the right ideas — or which party has the wrong ideas. I am very, very, very interested in civility. I am interested in government working."
Roberts cited her family's own dedication to public service — not just the congressional careers of both of her parents but, she said, a family tradition reaching back to the American Revolution. Roberts particularly pointed to Trump's sharp rhetoric on Mexicans and Muslims and his seeming encouragement of violence toward protesters.
"We are in a time where we have the possibility of going backward instead of forward," Roberts said. "What's so incredibly wonderful about this country — which I believe is great and does not need to be made great — is our constant infusion of new people with new energy and new ideas.
"I know about the dark times in our history where we have gone backwards," Roberts said. "Those have not been useful times in our history. Not to point out that this is a moment in history where we could be backward instead of forward might be a disservice."
They certainly clarified Juan WIlliams’ role with NPR, didn’t they?
Yikes, Cokie looks like David Bowie, now.
With these people, it's always 1968.
That’s funny
Bullllllsh|t. Her kind would put us all in death camps. She is the enemy of our civilization.
Poor old Hale
Not enough spare seats on that plane sadly
That is not an "approach to life".
It is a personal opinion, and is by all metrics, false.
I hope all these old commies die cold and alone, of hunger.
It isn’t just NPR. Nearly all federal government employees donate ONLY to the democrat party.
A lot of agencies need to be shut down and abolished forever.
Trump’s criticism of the political establishment has at times appeared to incite violence and racial tensions.
...
Nobody has incited violence and increased racial tensions more than Obama, yet NPR and Cokie have nothing to say about that.
Anarchists, Leftists, and black racists are using violence and illegal behavior to suppress Trump’s free speech, yet NPR and Cokie are blaming Trump.
Translation: Cokie was off her meds when she said that. Stronger seditives will be used next time.
LOL!
I watched cokie be 4ude to trump and ask a rude question of him. She was on a panel, perhaps a post debate panel. It was recent. Seriously, she leaned forward and her eyes and voice dripped hatred. Trump commented that it was a very nasty question, which it was, and went on to politely answer it. She was unhinged, and it was clear she despised trump. Trump is no plant. They really hate him.
Cokie Roberts - daughter of ambassador and long-time Democratic Congresswoman from Louisiana Lindy Boggs and of Hale Boggs, also a Democratic Congressman from Louisiana.
He was Majority Leader of the House of Representatives and a member of the Warren Commission. He was lost on a plane which disappeared over Alaska on October 16, 1972.
Sister, Barbara Boggs Sigmund, was mayor of Princeton, New Jersey and a candidate for U.S. Senate from New Jersey. Her late brother Tommy Boggs was a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney and lobbyist.
The only thing I’ve heard out of Cokie roberts in 30 years that was remotely on target was her candid on camera admission that Polanski was a pedophile who should be in jail.
Her question was about little immigrant children at the playground being call bad names by American children because of Trump.
Yep. Thanks. You are correct. Entirely off the wall question. Not a shred of evidence offered.
She was seriously bitter and spiteful.
Add NPR to the list of items to cut to save money as the nation sinks in debt, and I don’t care how small the amount is. This has been a Leftist employment racket from its beginning.
“I am a totally unpartisan human being. ..”
Can ANYONE believe that? Her father and mother were both Democrat Members of Congress. Her brother is known to donate a huge amount to the DNC, unsolicited, on the first of every year. Her husband is far to the left as a ‘journalist.’ But SHE, dear Cokie, surrounded as she is and has been her entire life by Democrat partisans, is totally unpartisan. Uh huh.
Yes, the totally unbiased NPR has to "wrestle" with Trump's rise, but Obama's rise was totally A-OK.
Oh, and of course, Trump's a violent racist, but that's a purely objective, real "news" propagandist opinion.
I always suspected her of being Huma’s competition.
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