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Though it is heartening to read such sensitive and meaningful comments, my heart is broken and sad that NPR has gone to the darkside. With the Koch brothers on the board of Directors, and corporate donors rushing to bully and destroy a wonderful and very necessary Public Broadcasting System in America, it is very sad.
While driving truck for cross country deliveries and pickups, time after time there would be NPR with the same programming I love, the thought out commentaries, interesting and fun to listen to. Even in the middle of the night. And all the rural Americans had to listen to basically for news they can use. Now I get angry when I listen to those middle school-like children babbling. Have written many letters correcting their mistakes, including rude manners to heads of state. On Public Broadcasting, I have written a few letters and have received thoughtful answers from some of the commentators. But alas, NPR has no interest for me, as lies are an insult and bad manners disgusting.
I saw this coming years ago when Congress elected to cut back federal funding for public radio. I knew that corporate funding would be taking over, which it has. So now, what was once a wonderfully progressive, alternative media source is now a shell of its former self, sticking to less controversial subject matter (boring). I got tired of it after awhile and stopped tuning in. Much as I enjoy listening to music (and last I heard, they still had some fabulous music programs, especially on the weekends!), I really crave the news, along with updates on various issues and causes. If I’m not getting that, I move on. I now listen instead to KBBR, where you get Thom Hartmann in this area, along with other progressive talk radio. Good stuff. Haven’t bothered with NPR for at least a decade. - AIW
It does not sound good.
Pope Francis recently declared the Big Bang, Eveolution, and Global Warming to be real and credible. Wonder who will rush in to start funding the Catholic Church ? Perhaps Silly Billy O'reily. He's alwsy bragging about his Catholic Faith - so is Sean Hannity for that matter.
I can only tell you that I am vegan and I volunteer in wildlife rehab; I have 7 years of university; I live in mismanaged senior HUD housing; and I almost lose my lunch when my NPR station broadcasts their terribly trendy and yuppified cooking shows! I sell on eBay in order to eat organic! I do some really mean steamed veggies! As for news, I come online to get my ideas, both mainstream and alarming alternative. I'm interested in what thoughtful people in other countries are doing about climate change, and other important concerns of humanity. No, I can only take so much of these brittle chatty smug yuppies on NPR. I have no illusions that they are giving me the whole story!
Thom, of course PBS is doing the , "... bidding of Big Oil ..." IOWs, the Koch boys.
But, Big Oil isn't our biggest environmental problem -- it's the environmental/governmental/media complex that is not addressing the largest, by far, climate changing cause. You think not? See THIS new documentary:
http://cowspiracy.com
I suspect one reason that NPR could be characterized as National Petroleum Radio is the usual Republican de-funding maneuver. Don't like a watchdog agency? Just don't fund it.
Simple and effective.
Then, if the agency can, it can go begging for funds, and you have them at the mercy of those with deep pockets.
This has been done to every federal governmental agency that watches out for the general populace, including the Centers for Disease Control which has had a 30% cut in budget since 2007 and has been unable to fund promising Ebola vaccine research.
Yet, millions of voters across the country are getting ready to vote Republican because they aren't happy with how things are. Yup. That'll make things so much better-for the one percent.
Meanwhile, the rest of us have to pay attention and be active citizens. For this NPR issue, I suppose the thing to do is to advocate for increased funding. Anyone starting a petition?
I think that we deserve and need to demand, the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth somewhere in the USA!!!
It's a sad fact that over a hundred staffers have left NPR in the past year or two. I know this because I heard two announcements on, where else, NPR. "There is no way to exaggerate the amount of experience that is leaving the building," said one.
What I hear now on All Things Considered is the daily ebola story, a foreign story or two, a story about some minority's stuggles, a light feature and then the hourly new music review. There seems to be no shortage of music reviewerrs at the new NPR, at least. There's a combination of predictibility and banality, amolified by repetition there. Or perhaps it's just me, and I'm grumpy after Thom was taken off the local AM dial, and I'm now forced to listen to NPR to hear anything intelligent?
maybe. If we can get folks to relax and agree to whatever quarantine time is reallly necessary. Also, I think there is too much guessing going on. Work on it and adjust to free up the volunteers and protect them. The decision should not involve politicians.
Let us not forget the corporate war profiteers also. They need to be held accountable as well as every Senator, ( Hillary and the other 76), who gave that goddamed bloodthirsty idiot the pre approved go ahead for the invasion. Also the hawkish pundits and brain washing networks that pushed for the rotten war, (CNN, MSNBC, FUCKS NEWS, etc), whose propaganda spewing invective would have made Josef Goebbles proud, need to answer for themselves. And every flag waving sonofabitch who supported the war, yet was only willing to fight that horrible war to the last drop of someone else's blood, ( PATRICIA HEATON) . The blood of the slain including their COUNTRYMEN is on their hands.
The whole of this subject is fictitious and factitious: "terror" is a methodology, not an enemy.
I believe that there is a much more erudite discussion of the matter available:
"The war, therefore if we judge it by the standards of previous wars, is merely an imposture. It is like the battles between certain ruminant animals whose horns are incapable of hurting one another. But though it is unreal it is not meaningless. It eats up the surplus of consumable goods, and it helps to preserve the special mental atmosphere that the hierarchical society needs. War, it will be seen, is now a purely internal affair. In the past, the ruling groups of all countries, although they might recognize their common interest and therefore limit the destructiveness of war, did fight against one another, and the victor always plundered the vanquished. In our own day they are not fighting against one another at all. The war is waged by each ruling group against its own subjects, and the object of the war is not to make or prevent conquests of territory, but to keep the structure of society intact. The very word "war," therefore, has become misleading. It would probably be accurate to say that by becoming continuous war has ceased to exist. The peculiar pressure that is exerted on human beings between the Neolithic Age and the early twentieth century has disappeared and has been replaced by something quite different. The effect would be much the same if the three superstates, instead of fighting one another, should agree to live in perpetual peace, each inviolate within its own boundaries. For in that case each would still be a self-contained universe, freed forever from the sobering influence of external danger. A peace that was truly permanent would be the same as a permanent war. This--although the vast majority of Party members understand it only in a shallower sense--is the inner meaning of the Party slogan: WAR IS PEACE"
George Orwell, 1984.
The only thing that Orwell got wrong was the year - and, not by very much.
I went from a better than 20 year supporter to a total boycott of NPR. It came to that when reporter Mara Liasson began her coverage of the Jack Abramoff scandal back in 2005 where, in her first report Ms. Liasson characterized the influence peddling of Mr. Abramoff as "bipartisan" without citing a single fact supporting that statement.
I wrote the NPR Ombudsman and requested that the statement either be supported or retracted. I did not receive a serious response - only that the matter was still breaking news and that NPR stood behind their reporter. As time passed, and further stories were filed by reporter Liasson, I again requested that the constant refrain that Mr. Abramoff was an equally corrupting influence on both political parties be supported by some fact - e.g. stating the names of any Democrats that Mr. Abramoff had lobbied. Still, the Ombudsman stood behind reporter Liasson.
When the Indictment came down I used my PACER account (I am a practicing attorney) and downloaded the charging instrument - and, nowhere within the charges were any Democrats mentioned, much less named as coconspirators. I sent a copy off to the Ombudsman, along with copies of all of my previous correspondence, and again requested that the Network review all of the Liasson reportage of Mr. Abramoff for political bias.
When Mr. Abramoff pleaded guilty and was sentenced in January 2006 I again implored the NPR Ombudsman to review the record of the Liasson reportage - and was again rebuffed. I followed up with a copy of all of my donations to NPR and various member stations for a period well over 20 years - and stated that not one more dime would come from me while the Network refused to correct the record.
As Mr. Abramoff cooperated with the DOJ, a total of twenty-one other politicians and staffers were charged and pleaded, or were found, guilty of various classes of conspiracy and corruption (including Thom's present contributor, Bob Ney). Not a Democrat in the lot. Still, NPR permitted the Liasson reportage to continue to mischaracterize the matter as bipartisan. I sent copies of the charging documents and guilty pleas to the Ombudsman and after twenty-one separate criminal actions beyond the original charges against Mr. Abramoff were concluded, NPR continued to permit the Liasson reportage to mischaracterize the scandal as bipartisan.
In 2008 the House Government Reform Committee published its report on Mr. Abramoff (see it here: http://web.archive.org/web/20080731124622/http://oversight.house.gov/abramoff/docs/abramoff.pdf ) and, once again - a total lack of Democrats. The Committee documented 485 contacts with Bush Whitehouse staff - most of them personal visits from Mr. Abramoff and ten (10) direct meetings with Karl Rove - (truth be told, all but 70 of those 485 contacts were personal visits to the Whitehouse by Mr. Abramoff - and the remainder - telephone calls from Mr. Abramoff to Whitehouse staff). Still, nearly four years into the scandal, NPR refused to correct the record.
I miss what NPR once was - and I know that there are many excellent reporters still employed by the network - but, I don't tolerate any news organization publishing blatant mischaracteriizations of objectively proven facts. There is simply no other way to characterize the Liasson reportage where my profession has thoroughly documented the crimes as a matter of public record. The amount of "investigative reportage" required to set the record straight (or, get it right straight from the start) is miniscule - anybody can open a PACER account and obtain the actual Court filings. That I took the time to supply those documents to the NPR Ombudsman for twenty-two cases means that reading my letters and verifying that I had not edited or otherwise changed any pleading was all that NPR had to do to correct their errors.
That NPR still has not addressed the tarring of the Democrats with the Abramoff brush - a toxic bit of propaganda every bit as noxious as other, less than truthful, news outlets ply us with every day - means that they have lost me as a listener for the rest of my life.
I'm much more inclined to favor dismantling the Network (and, every other one that pays only passing respect to the facts) as a violation of various Consumer Fraud statutes (the First Amendment does not protect fraudulent speech). I'd rather see thousands of diverse news sources than the gross concentration that we have now. What I wish for won't happen - and, in that light I will, grudgingly, agree with Mr. Hartmann that stricter monitoring of the public radio spectrum is a viable alternative.
Actually, subsidized by the Federal government would be more acurate. Politicians don't define "our society". If politicians are corrupt we shouldn't be afraid to point them out.
Then again, I listen to the spin on your radio show in support of greedy government behavior and think you exacerbate the problem.
Thom: I agree with you about 98% of the time, but was horrified at your comments this morning, when I heard part of your interview with Barbara Coombs Lee. I met her in 1997, as the Supreme Court was deciding the “death with dignity” cases. I didn’t like her arguments then, and certainly don’t like them now. I’m a liberal/progressive, and not a religious conservative (I’m a Reform Jew). I believe that anyone has the right to kill him/herself. I don’t believe in “physician-assisted suicide.” It is not a doctor’s job to kill anyone.
I did some research on Jack Kevorkian’s early cases. 18%-20% of his KNOWN patients had multiple sclerosis (MS), which is not a terminal disease. What they were all lacking was community support, adequate medical care (including things like wheelchairs), and family support. Also, probably because of the depression that can accompany MS, they were afraid of becoming a “burden” on their families. My wife was diagnosed with MS 34 years ago. She has been through some very difficult exacerbation of the symptoms, but with support and proper care, she thrives.
Another example: While listening to a radio talkshow out of the Washington, D.C. area, the hosts were commiserating with the last patient Kevorkian had (the one he murdered) and how awful his life had been. But just the week before, those same hosts were celebrating Christopher Reeve as an inspiration. The only difference between Reeve and Kevorkian’s victim was that Reeve had the money for proper care, family support, and a professional community that stood behind him.
“Death with Dignity” is a misnomer when it comes to physician-assisted suicide. The Oregon law was passed after a state referendum of the general population. How ridiculous is that? I have relatives in Oregon—fine, smart people, but they are not competent to determine what is or is not medical practice. State medical boards usually make those decisions. What will we see next, votes of a state’s general population to determine the safety and efficacy of new drugs?
To give the issue a broader perspective, you should also have interviewed someone from Not Dead Yet, an organization that opposes assisted suicide. See www.notdeadyet.org.
Thanks for the opportunity to spout off.
Gary C. Stein, Ph.D. (History)
phanomf8: I experienced the shunning of America while I was in the military many years ago. The US has been at the game for a long time and has earned the disdain of other countries around the world for a long time now. It seems many in the US are either not aware of it or just shut themselves up in their own caves of ignorance just to see the shadows on the wall that are projected by propagandists skilled at manipulating people.
geochand RE #17 (before I forget thanks for contributing and making the blog more interesting). In Thom's and my world (and I think in this blog) you are confusing capitalism with the market place. Capitalism is making money off of money. Since the only reason money was created (4000 years ago or so), was to be able to collect taxes for the commons, making money off of money sounds evil at the core.
geochand RE #11 -- I am sure you watch too much Faux news. That being said how can you say that about American workers when they work more hours than any other nation on earth (well, at least among the OECD countries)
AIW RE#7 -- I think the "great America" Kend is talking about is that America from 1933 to 1980. You know that time when the top marginal tax rate was 91%.
AIW RE#7 -- I think the "great America" Kend is talking about is that America from 1933 to 1980. You know that time when the top marginal tax rate was 91%.
bdangr: You gave a very good response. I've never actually been to Sweden, Norway, Denmark or Finland. I have been to The Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and other places in Europe including Slovakia. All very nice places. I think more people should visit these countries to see how nice they are. It would keep myopic Americans from believing the kind of slop about other countries that Fox News propaganda puts out. The danger is that they just might discover just how unsuperior, in so many ways, they are to other countries. If one has always lived in a pig sty, and were unaware of other places to live, one might think that one is living in the best of all possible worlds.
In lieu of actually going to these places, one can easily virtually go to these places using Google Earth. You can zoom down to a particular street..go to "street view"...and virtually walk down the street while doing 360 degree panoramic scans of the street and houses. Perhaps, most people already know this, but perhaps, some people don't.
kloro: When I traveled down to Guadalajara a number of times on business, on my off hours, I went down to the areas around Lake Chapala. Many of those communities, I've heard, were non-Mexican expatriates who have retired down there. Many of those houses looked very much like fairly decent houses. Big green lawns...well kept up. It was a very nice place.
Thanks for the great links, Vegasman56 and DAnneMarc! I can't wait for the International criminals to be prosecuted! (note: that's not to be taken to mean that I will ever do anything stupid like some personal physical acts against the war criminals....got to be careful with double entendres...or I might get some unwelcome visitors...if you know what I mean. All we have to do is to give them an excuse.) ;-}
Some people, perhaps through their corporations, whether it be the top executives or the controlling stockholders...even down to the minority stockholders...all give their assent to the disasters they create...all in the name of profit...and should all be held culpable for their actions.
The little people in that structure may not know what their "investments" do in the name of maximizing profits, and they probably don't want to know, but feigning ignorance of atrocities didn't keep, for example, the victors of WWII from holding a Nuremberg trial that said, in essence, that ignorance, or subservience, of what your superiors order you to do is no excuse. And even some of the civilians of nearby death camps were herded past the massive piles of decaying bodies, the victims of Hitler's final solution.
If you are working for a corporation that, in some way, causes, directly or indirectly, the deaths of masses of people then you are actively supporting the deaths of masses of people. And aside from the corporations in the Military Industrial Complex, there are all the other corporations that ship our jobs overseas, work to minimize wages and benefits such as decent health care. And, they have been known to screw people out of their retirement savings and to screw people out of the social programs like Social Security and Medicare.
Yes, even you, the little investor, could be using your money to, inadvertently perhaps, kill people. But, it's more likely now that you will just eventually lose your investments to Wall Street shenanigans anyway. They have made no changes that levels the field in trading or keeping it honest. It's all a racket that ends up screwing the little guy and making the criminals wealthier.
Without decent wages, or some source of income and affordable healthcare for all, people die unnecessary deaths. Because some people are maximizing their profits, millions of others suffer the consequences. And then, after shipping American jobs overseas, these few conniving corporate criminals label their victims as "too lazy to work". Let's say they know what "slave wages" means....it means that they will be lucky if they and their families survive even after slaving away for the master slavers for years.
If I could single-handedly rewrite the Second Amendment, I'd phrase the right as belonging to the community, so that it wouldn't be interpreted as an individual right. It would strike a balance by letting the exact level of armament allowed vary from place to place.
http://www.thomhartmann.com/users/mathboy/blog/2012/12/revised-second-amendment