NPR admits a liberal bias

Townhall.com ^ | October 22, 2003 | Brent Bozell

[.cnI redruM]

National Public Radio is properly understood, even by the media, as radio by and for liberals, not the general public. As Washington Post media reporter Howard Kurtz puts it, the media landscape stretches "from those who cheer Fox to those who swear by NPR."

The only ones who seem not to know that the left has a massive, taxpayer-funded radio network of 700 affiliates are the liberals trying to sell investors on their own private-sector talk-radio network. A recent PBS "NewsHour" story on talk radio turned ridiculous when reporter Terence Smith allowed liberal-network booster Jon Sinton to proclaim: "Every day in America on the 45 top-rated talk radio stations, there are 310 hours of conservative talk. There is a total of five hours of talk that comes from the other side of the aisle."

Don't buy that for a minute. The key word in that sentence is "top-rated" stations. Sinton's upset that conservatives apparently dominate "top-rated" talk. That doesn't mean NPR doesn't have hundreds of hours of liberal talk shows, not to mention liberal "news" shows. It's just not "top-rated."

Last week, NPR's own official ombudsman, Jeffrey Dvorkin, admitted a liberal bias in NPR's talk programming. The daily program "Fresh Air with Terry Gross" -- a 60-minute talk show about the arts, literature and also politics -- airs on 378 public-radio stations across the fruited plain. Gross recently became a hot topic on journalism Web sites for first having a friendly, giggly interview with "satirist" Al Franken, promoting his obnoxious screed against conservatives on Sept. 3, and then on Oct. 8, unloading an accusatory, hostile interview on Bill O'Reilly's show. She pressed the Fox host to respond to the obnoxious attacks of Franken and other critics. Dvorkin ruled: "Unfortunately, the (O'Reilly) interview only served to confirm the belief, held by some, in NPR's liberal media bias ... by coming across as a pro-Franken partisan rather than a neutral and curious journalist, Gross did almost nothing that might have allowed the interview to develop."

The news reports on NPR should be cause for greater public concern. Under the guise of "objective news" reporting, the left is actively advancing its political agenda. On the Oct. 17 "Morning Edition," host Bob Edwards launched into a long "news" report on the flaws of the Bush foreign policy, observing: "Overall, the policies of the United States are still very unpopular around the world. The Bush Doctrine, a preference for unilateral military action and a disdain for multinational diplomacy, is under scrutiny more than ever." The Middle East "road map" was "in tatters," Iraq and Afghanistan were "highly unstable." NPR may as well have suggested it was time for a different president.

Reporter Mike Shuster was intent on driving home the theme that the Bush foreign policy may (read: we hope) one day be analyzed as an utter failure. His three primary, supposedly nonpartisan "experts" were Ivo Daalder, a member of Clinton's National Security Council; Michael Mandelbaum, a foreign policy adviser to the 1992 Clinton campaign; and John Mearshimer, a regular critic of Bush foreign policy who argued in Foreign Policy magazine that Iraq should have remained under "vigilant containment," which we could also describe as maintaining a murderous tyrant in power. Their controversial views and Clinton connections were not developed by NPR.

Perhaps the biggest public-relations problems for NPR come when its liberal reporters hit the weekend talk-show circuit and let their opinions fly wildly. On Oct. 18, NPR legal reporter Nina Totenberg pronounced from her regular panelist perch on the TV show "Inside Washington" that General Jerry Boykin, who sermonized in Christian churches with the shocking, less-than-Unitarian message that Christianity is true and other creeds are false, should be fired.

Well, that's not the way it came out. First, Totenberg said Boykin's remarks were "seriously bad stuff," and then she said, "I hope he's not long for this world." Host Gordon Peterson joked, "What is this, The Sopranos?" Withdrawing to damage-control mode, Totenberg said she didn't mean she hoped he would die, just that he shouldn't last long "in his job."

But it's Totenberg who ought to fear for her job with these outbreaks of hate speech. Totenberg used this very same TV show to wish in 1995 that if the "Good Lord" knew justice, Senator Jesse Helms will "get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it."

It's awfully ironic that a woman who has spent 30 years saying outrageous liberal things on the taxpayer dime is now attacking a general on the grounds that there ought to be some things government officials cannot say and keep their jobs. The concern over these Boykin remarks should not be about the separation of church and state. It ought to be about the separation of National Public Radio from the state.

[Paulus Invictus]

Isn't that Nina Totalbarf? Or is it Totalbawd? Oh. and I despise NPR and the idea that my taxes and yours are supporting these liberal idiots!

[Ben Chad]

Npr has the best music --- fox sound effects are getting tiresome. Npr goes and ruins it all by opening their gay mouths.

[AdamSelene235]

They compared Edward Teller to a Nazi propagandist. Unforgivable.

[Phantom Lord]

The wackos at DU think NPR is a conservative organ for the Bush administration.

[Phantom Lord]

Best ever Fresh Air was when she interviewed Gene Simmons of KISS. If you can find a transcript, or better yet and audio file of it do so.

[Phantom Lord]

I hate the bumper music on NPR. I will often change the channel for 10 seconds to avoid it and then come back.

The most wrongly named show on NPR has to be Market Place. Out of the half hour the show lasts, a whopping 2 minutes is usually directed toward "the market" at best.

I have even heard lengthy stories about arrainged marriages in India and other nations on the show. What the hell does that have to do with "the market"?

[.cnI redruM]

DO you define equality as equality of opportunity or equality of results?

IMHO parity and equality are not the same thing.

[AlexW]

"The crazy thing is, the devoted NPR listeners that I'm acquainted with SWEAR that NPR is fair and balanced....."

Of course it is fair and balanced...between left and Marxist

[Cicero]

NPR used to be listened to be all sorts of people, because they played classical music and had interesting shows. I regularly listened to it while commuting because I'd rather hear Mozart than the latest musical trash. But in recent years they have gotten so loudly, openly, and vociferously leftist that they have completely departed from reality. No more classical music, either.

So their only listeners are exteme leftists just like themselves. It's not surprising that these folks consider NPR to be perfectly normal. But it's a very small and still shrinking audience. Even leftists get tired of hearing the same whining voices day in and day out.

[cwb]

I'm saying that liberals are trying to equate equality with popularity. They are making it appear that they don't have the same oppurtunity...or level playing field, when in reality, they actualy have more. But since their message doesn't resonate, or isn't as popular, they whine that it isn't fair for them.

[Nebullis]

It's easy to see through the liberal bias at NPR and appreciate the higher rate of information transfer than you get from places like Fox or from Rush.

[AnAmericanMother]

NPR admits liberal bias . . .

In other news . . . sun rises in east, Pope rumored to be Catholic . . .

<< g >>

[Big Giant Head]

I listen to "Morning Edition" every day on the way to school, and "All Things Considered" on the way home. I figure it's good practice to argue with the radio and pick apart their slants and rants.

This morning, they were all abuzz about the Bush administration's attempts to "paint" the war in Iraq in a more favorable fashion to help with the election next year. They still don't get it. They were being asked point blank to try to more accurately describe the condition of the country, and they were complaining about not being able to count the wounded in the attacks on our troops.

Annoying, but like I said, good practice.

[.cnI redruM]

I posted this just to see how far Barry Bonds and Sammy Sosa could hit softballs using a 2X4.

[The Great RJ]

My only reason for tuning in to NPR was it was and in most markets still is the only source for classical or jazz music on the dial. However, with commercial free Internet radio and the growth of satelite radio, I see NPR as doomed to neverending telethons and constant whining about the lack of government support. Face it-- there just aren't enough people out there who want to listen to all this liberal drivel to support NPR.

If NPR were smart they would dump "All Things Considered (very liberaly)" and find some great conservative comentator and have a 3 hour call-in show a-la Rush. Then the pledeges might come pouring in.

[rudypoot]

Well, hang me on a wall and call me Art.

[.cnI redruM]

No, but watching an insect like Nina Totenberg squirm does have entertainment value.

[bray]

In other breaking news, it is reported that the earth is round!!

Pray for GW and the Truth (neither found at NPR)

[AnAmericanMother]

Lord, we don't need Bonds or Sosa.

The girl's T-ball league can beat NPR like a rented mule.

Their audience keeps getting smaller, so they whine and telethon still more, so their audience gets smaller still, and round and round they go.

I used to listen to the classical stuff on NPR, but now when I scan the dial I never hear music - just more liberal drivel.

[DmBarch]

Geez - I'm suprised Terry Gross went off on Bill. If she had on the show a serial killer of the Axe-murderer variety, she probably would say... "Was it difficult finding the right type of file for the blade?"