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NPR Admits It Scrubbed Clip of Mara Liasson Separating 'Educated Women' and 'Stay-at-Home Moms'
Newsbusters.org ^ | April 25, 2012 | Tim Graham

Posted on 04/25/2012 7:00:01 AM PDT by KarlInOhio

NPR's Mara Liasson outraged female listeners on Weekend Edition Sunday on April 15 when she said Mitt Romney's political problems aren't with "stay-at-home moms," but rather with "educated women."

Seven days later, NPR admitted it scrubbed the clip and the transcript for the website. On April 22, in a letters segment, Liasson claimed "I misspoke and that's one reason why we corrected the interview for later feeds of the show." Maybe she didn't "misspeak" as much as she betrayed her own opinion. She's never stayed at home and her biographies list no children. At least NPR returned to the scene of the self-censorship:

RACHEL MARTIN, anchor: Time now for your letters. Last Sunday, I spoke with NPR's national political correspondent Mara Liasson about the week in politics, and part of our conversation focused on a political the war of words. It started when Democratic consultant Hilary Rosen said that Ann Romney, the wife of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, quote, "has never worked a day in her life." Many listeners took issue with Mara's analysis of the gender gap between Mitt Romney and President Obama.

Debora Hoard of Greenwood, Virginia, wrote: As I got ready to go to work this morning - work I do in part so I can have some flexibility to be home during the week - I heard Ms. Liasson say Romney's problem is not with stay-at-home moms, but with educated women. Ouch. She writes: Are these really separate categories?

And Allaire Diamond of Williston, Vermont, adds: These groups are not mutually exclusive. I proudly count myself among the large group of college-educated women who have chosen to dedicate ourselves, full- or part-time, for a year or a lifetime, to the work of raising our children. A woman's life and career, especially when children are involved, is extraordinarily complex and it's insulting to have it reduced to these rough categories, especially by someone that I normally hold in high regard.

We asked Mara about the point she was making and here's her response.

MARA LIASSON: Our listeners are right. I misspoke and that's one reason why we corrected the interview for later feeds of the show. What I was trying to say was that while Romney has an overall deficit with women voters, his biggest disadvantage is with college educated women - wherever they work, at home, in an office, a store or a factory.

MARTIN: As Mara said, we re-recorded our interview for later feeds, and that is the interview of record at NPR.org.

The blog My Joy for Today reported her outrage on that day. She could not believe NPR was hiding its arrogance:

I attempted to find the transcript and audio file of this morning’s broadcast. The file that is available for the 8 am show does not contain the quote that I have discussed. Ironically, the audio file and transcript are simply not the same as the one we heard in the car this morning. I do not claim to understand the intricacies of radio broadcasting and realize that there may have been many versions of the broadcast that we heard. However, the quote by Ms. Liasson was certainly part of at least one version of today’s program, and many comments on NPR’s website show that we are not the only listeners who caught this outrageous comment. If Hilary Rosen owed women an apology, it seems only fair that Ms. Liasson and NPR do the same. In the spirit of honest journalism, why not admit your mistake and apologize to your faithful listeners? Do you assume that stay at home mothers are so uneducated that they were not even listening and therefore are not even owed a response? Please do not continue to belittle us with your silence.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: 1984; liasson; liberaltalkradio; npr; sahm; scrubbed
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Winston Smith apparently got the note on his desk:

npr 15.4.12 liasson malreported stay at home mothers rectify

so the old original NPR report got shoved down the old memory hole and replaced with a less inflammatory version. Can't have anyone noticing what liberals accidentally say to the public what they only say among themselves.

1 posted on 04/25/2012 7:00:04 AM PDT by KarlInOhio
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To: KarlInOhio

bttt


2 posted on 04/25/2012 7:06:08 AM PDT by BenLurkin (This is not a statement of fact. It is either opinion or satire; or both)
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To: KarlInOhio

Why do Democrats and liberals hate women so much?


3 posted on 04/25/2012 7:07:19 AM PDT by Lazamataz (Admin Moderator refuses to let me hit it. -- http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/chat/2875871/posts)
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To: KarlInOhio

Feminist Simone Beauvoir:
“No woman should be authorized to stay at home and raise her children. Society should be totally different. Women should not have that choice, precisely because if there is such a choice, too many women will make that one.”


4 posted on 04/25/2012 7:09:18 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: KarlInOhio

It’s funny. I have a college education, but I chose to stay home and raise my three children, more or less. I worked here and there, but considered it my main and HOLY duty to raise and educate these kids.

My oldest daughter now works in a fantastic job on Wall Street and is paying off her own student loans.

The other two are doing great as well. A lot of the “working” moms I knew have kids who are either on drugs w/ various tatoos, or are pregnant, or are basically not doing a whole heck of a lot after all these years, most living at home still.

I feel that although I never achieved the position of CEO, or staff VP, I actually CONTRIBUTED something to this society, through 21 years of every difficult work — a healthy, safe, appropriately socialized, mentally fit and TAXPAYING citizen who requires nothing from me other than a visit now and then to help her move into her latest apartment.

I suppose after you have a “real” career, you might also contribute something to society — in that also paid taxes. But what else did you “contribute” to society through your work?

Is it really a contest?


5 posted on 04/25/2012 7:09:38 AM PDT by LibsRJerks
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To: Lazamataz

They don’t hate women, they hate families.
Families represent an autonomous unit independent of the state.


6 posted on 04/25/2012 7:09:57 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: KarlInOhio

Mara does have children, I remember her being pregnant on Special Report about 10 years ago.


7 posted on 04/25/2012 7:12:37 AM PDT by GreenLanternCorps ("Barack Obama" is Swahili for "Jimmy Carter".)
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To: KarlInOhio

If Mara Liasson is so educated, why hasn’t she gotten her teeth fixed?


8 posted on 04/25/2012 7:14:34 AM PDT by CatherineofAragon (Time for a write-in campaign...Darryl Dixon for President)
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To: BenLurkin

Good grief. I know a mom that is part of a well organized home school group. She herself is remarkably well educated and she know more about everything than I do. She has to. She teaches it every day. All the way though high school level.

Mara Liason has absolutely no clue what she is talking about. She thinks current GPS-based geography translates to level of education and knowledge. Although..... one might hypothesis that U.S. MSM press rooms are NOT where one should look to find brilliance and clarity of thought.


9 posted on 04/25/2012 7:16:46 AM PDT by rod1 (CTLY)
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To: GreenLanternCorps

Mara let her true feelings slip. Stay at home moms are stupid.

Should not surprise anyone. All media professional women inside the Beltway think this way.


10 posted on 04/25/2012 7:17:49 AM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: LibsRJerks

No matter how big a stash of cash you are able to amass in your chosen career, it cannot compare to the gratification one gets from raising kind, moral, upstanding and contributing members of society.


11 posted on 04/25/2012 7:18:57 AM PDT by Josephat (`)
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To: KarlInOhio

“She’s never stayed at home and her biographies list no children.”

With a name like newsbusters you would think they would get that right. I recall she has went on maternity leave a least twice, I think.

Freegards


12 posted on 04/25/2012 7:19:19 AM PDT by Ransomed
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To: KarlInOhio

Rush can lay hands on the original. The original would have been recorded by any number of media monitoring companies and can be had for a price.


13 posted on 04/25/2012 7:20:23 AM PDT by StAnDeliver (=)
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To: MrB

They don’t hate women, they hate families.

______________________________________

Bingo! And by that we mean traditional families....the foundation of a good society.

;-)


14 posted on 04/25/2012 7:21:04 AM PDT by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))
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To: KarlInOhio

Good catch


15 posted on 04/25/2012 7:22:14 AM PDT by Richard from IL
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To: Lazamataz

Liberals don’t hate women. They hate women who don’t follow their party line. They hate women who don’t abort their babies. They hate women who have functional relationships with men. They hate women who don’t think of themselves as being oppressed. They hate women who have joy in their lives and find great satisfaction in raising the next generation of people who think for themselves.


16 posted on 04/25/2012 7:23:03 AM PDT by Pecos (In God we trust. All others - bring data.)
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To: KarlInOhio

COVERUP! COVERUP!! COVERUP!!!

(Ooooo, I forgot....only Republicans do that. My bad.)


17 posted on 04/25/2012 7:26:18 AM PDT by elcid1970 ("Deport all Muslims. Nuke Mecca now. Death to Islam means freedom for all mankind.")
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To: KarlInOhio

I wonder if Ms. Liasson has any children?


18 posted on 04/25/2012 7:27:37 AM PDT by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))
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To: SumProVita

Sad that we have to put any sort of qualifier before “family” to indicate a real family,
and not something re-defined and perverted by the left.


19 posted on 04/25/2012 7:27:51 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter knows whom he's working for)
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To: LibsRJerks

Don’t let them divide us in this way, by questioning/belittling each other’s choices. THEY are drawing the divide; conservative women, working, stay-at-home, part-time etc. should be united in opposition to them.


20 posted on 04/25/2012 7:29:49 AM PDT by xsmommy
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