This piece is written by Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude, Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix, Kat of Kat's Korner, Betty of Thomas Friedman is a Great Man, Mike of Mikey Likes It!, Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz, Ruth of Ruth's Report, Marcia of SICKOFITRADLZ, Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends, Ann of Ann's Mega Dub, Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts and Wally of The Daily Jot. Unless otherwise noted, we picked all highlights.
"Those 'men' of The Nation magazine and their tired..." and "I Hate The War" -- two most requested highlights by readers of this site.
"'But we can help' -- yeah, right," "pass this jobs bill?," "That disappointing speech," "Idiot of the Week" and "That bad speech" -- Trina, Rebecca, Ruth and Mike cover the 'big' speech Barack gave.
"Okra Mix in the Kitchen" -- Trina offers a simple recipe and addresses the economy.
"Pacifica's little racist" and "Yeah, I said it" -- Betty and Kat take on the War Hawk Goodman.
"Why doesn't Bridget Fonda make films anymore?," "a classic tear jerker" and "Redford and hypocrisy" -- Stan, Rebecca and Marcia cover movies . . .
"Adam vs. the Man, Me vs. RT" -- Ruth covers TV and Ann and Rebecca cover radio:
"elise labott is off her meds and diane rehm is nuts"
"Yea, Maxine!" -- Betty praises Maxine Waters.
"The John Edwards Cess Pool" -- Ruth notes what's to come.
"GOP Attack Machine" -- Isaiah dips into the archives for this from 2008.
"Sleight of Hand" -- Elaine goes musical
"THIS JUST IN! STILL PRETTY?" & "In over his pretty little head" -- Wally and Cedric on America's princess Barack.
"ACLU says keep eyes peeled locally" -- Marcia notes the ACLU.
"Kevin Alexander Gray's great new article" -- Stan steers you to an important article.
"If you ask me, the whole thing is porn" -- Elaine on the war lust.
"He leaves tax payers on the hook" and "THIS JUST IN! BARRY O CONTINUES TO FLOUNDER!" and "Ari Mebler tries to punk, get punked instead" -- Cedric, Wally and Betty on the idiot Ari Mebler.
"Why they never found Hoffa" -- Betty lays it out.
"He thinks this is how you win?" -- Ruth puzzles over this.
"Jay Carney hands the GOP the 2012 election?" -- Kat on the major f-up by Jay Carney.
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Sunday, September 04, 2011
Truest statement of the week
It would seem then that the interaction between the CIA operatives and Cole was long standing and sufficiently intimate that the CIA spooks could be expected to know things about Cole's lifestyle and personal life. It is not that anyone should give two figs about Cole's personal life which is more than likely is every bit as boring as he claims. But his relationship with the CIA is of interest since he is an unreconstructed hawk. What was remarkable to me at the time is that Goodman did not pick up on any of this. Did she know before of Cole’s connections? Was not this the wrong man to have as a "frequent guest," in Goodman’s words, on the situation in the Middle East?
-- John Walsh, "Juan Cole, Consultant to the CIA, Et tu, Amy Goodman?" (Antiwar.com).
Truest statement of the week II
During last month, I was gone for a grueling two weeks in Japan and then nine days for a bus tour of the West Coast advocating Re-creating Revolutionary Communities that are peaceful and sustainable. After I returned, when I was looking through my pile of mail from my PO Box, I found something from my speaking agent, who stopped getting me gigs during my campaign and has only arranged two since. She was forwarding me a "Notice to Levy" from the IRS that said I owed more than 104 grand to them for 2005 and 2006. This is where the good timing comes in.
The Institute for Policy Studies recently did research and found that 25 of the top 100 companies doing business in the US paid their CEO's more than the government! The biggest war profiteer of all, General Electric, which made 10.8 billion dollar profit worldwide in 2010, received a 3.2 billion dollar refund from the IRS -- the IRS says that I owe them more than General Electric does? Here in the US, GE conveniently recorded a loss of 10.8 million dollars (so where does the 3.2 billion refund come in?) in 2010. The head of GE, Jeffrey Immeldt, gets 15.2 million in yearly compensation AND a position in the Obama Administration, while I have been informed I can face up to five years in prison for being "frivolous," with my moral and ethical compass -- even though
-- Cindy Sheehan, "If a=b, then b=a" (Cindy Sheehan's Soapbox).
Truest statement of the week III
This writer does not get to listen to Democracy Now every day. But I have not in recent weeks heard a full-throated denunciation of the war on Libya from host or guests. Certainly according to a search on the DN web site, Cynthia McKinney did not appear as a guest nor Ramsey Clark after their courageous fact finding tour to Libya. There was only one all out denunciation of the war -- on the day when the guests were Rev. Jesse Jackson and Vincent Harding who was King's speechwriter on the famous speech "Beyond Vietnam" in 1967 in which King condemned the U.S. war on Vietnam. Jackson and the wise and keenly intelligent Harding were there not to discuss Libya but to discuss the MLK Jr. monument. Nonetheless Jackson and Harding made clear that they did not like the U.S. war in Libya one bit, nor the militarism it entails.
If one reads CounterPunch, Antiwar.com or The American Conservative, one knows that one is reading those who are anti-interventionist on the basis of principle. With Democracy Now and kindred progressive outlets, one is not so sure where some segments of the "Left" stand, especially since the advent of Obama. In his superb little book Humanitarian Imperialism Jean Bricmont criticizes much of the Left for falling prey to advocacy of wars, supposedly based on good intentions. And Alexander Cockburn has often wondered aloud whether many progressives are actually quite fond of "humanitarian" interventionism. Both here and in Europe this fondness seems to be especially true of Obama's latest war, the war on Libya. It is little wonder that the "progressives" are losing their antiwar following to Ron Paul and the Libertarians who are consistent and principled on the issue of anti-interventionism.
-- John Walsh, "Juan Cole, Consultant to the CIA, Et tu, Amy Goodman?" (Antiwar.com).
A note to our readers
Hey --
Another Sunday. And we're way late again.
First up, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
John Walsh had an important article last week.
Cindy Sheehan can always be counted on for truth telling.
And John Walsh again.
We're not part of the 9-11 Truth Movement. We also don't trash them or mock them or ridicule them. A number of people who do might want to take inventory of what they themselves are doing because the 9-11 Truth Movement is very serious and focused on very serious events. And whether you're 9-11 Truth or whatever, never silence yourself because some idiot priss or prude tells you your questions are 'crazy' or whatever.
Ava and C.I. report on the garbage that Nightline tries to parade across your TV screen and pretend is "news."
Ann, Ava and C.I. wrote this and we thank them for it. They plan to continue tracking the program to study its continued gender imbalance.
Never stop questioning and never fall for the lie of "unity." There is no unity. "Unity" pushed the Patriot Act through the Congress. "Unity" is nothing but a coward's way out from standing for what is right.
This wasn't planned but Ava, Ann and C.I. came back from their piece and our two environmental pieces had bit the dust.
A repost from Workers World.
From ETAN.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Hope everyone gets some rest this Labor Day. See you next week.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Another Sunday. And we're way late again.
First up, we thank all who participated this edition which includes Dallas and the following:
The Third Estate Sunday Review's Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess and Ava,
Rebecca of Sex and Politics and Screeds and Attitude,
Betty of Thomas Friedman Is a Great Man,
C.I. of The Common Ills and The Third Estate Sunday Review,
Kat of Kat's Korner (of The Common Ills),
Cedric of Cedric's Big Mix,
Mike of Mikey Likes It!,
Elaine of Like Maria Said Paz),
Ruth of Ruth's Report,
Wally of The Daily Jot,
Trina of Trina's Kitchen,
Marcia of SICKOFITRDLZ,
Stan of Oh Boy It Never Ends,
Isaiah of The World Today Just Nuts,
and Ann of Ann's Mega Dub.
And what did we come up with?
John Walsh had an important article last week.
Cindy Sheehan can always be counted on for truth telling.
And John Walsh again.
We're not part of the 9-11 Truth Movement. We also don't trash them or mock them or ridicule them. A number of people who do might want to take inventory of what they themselves are doing because the 9-11 Truth Movement is very serious and focused on very serious events. And whether you're 9-11 Truth or whatever, never silence yourself because some idiot priss or prude tells you your questions are 'crazy' or whatever.
Ava and C.I. report on the garbage that Nightline tries to parade across your TV screen and pretend is "news."
Ann, Ava and C.I. wrote this and we thank them for it. They plan to continue tracking the program to study its continued gender imbalance.
Never stop questioning and never fall for the lie of "unity." There is no unity. "Unity" pushed the Patriot Act through the Congress. "Unity" is nothing but a coward's way out from standing for what is right.
This wasn't planned but Ava, Ann and C.I. came back from their piece and our two environmental pieces had bit the dust.
A repost from Workers World.
From ETAN.
Mike and the gang wrote this and we thank them for it.
Hope everyone gets some rest this Labor Day. See you next week.
Peace.
-- Jim, Dona, Ty, Jess, Ava and C.I.
Editorial: Never stop questioning
It's time for mourning, the media tells us, while America's Princess Barack Obama insists it's time for community service. Both orders -- make no mistake, you are being ordered -- result from the upcoming 10 year anniversary of 9-11.
September 11, 2001, the US was attacked by someone for some reason.
Never ask why.
Last Thursday On the Point with Tom Ashbrook (WBUR, with Jane Clayson filling in for Ashbrook) claimed they wanted to explore "Conspiracy Theories and the September 11th Terrorist Attacks." That should have made for a lively hour. It did not. James Megis, whose scientific background is in question (he has none and he was a moody little bitch who pissed off many writers for Premiere magazine when he was briefly in charge there -- and he knew nothing about movies when he was in charge at Premiere), was allowed to pontificate endlessly as was Jonathan Kay so you knew they were in attack mode. Kevin Ryan was granted little time (approximately 6 minutes) and attacked before and after his brief appearance.
Jane Clayson isn't a scientist, Jonathan Kay isn't a scientist, James Megis isn't a scientist. But all three worked to tear apart the only scientist brought on the program.
We have no idea the who and why of 9-11 and haven't made it a point to research it. Our position is that the 9-11 Truth Movement deserves credit for focusing on a serious issue and for the drive and determination behind the research as well as what the research will unearth.
And it seems to us that if you're going to do a program on the issue and to do it fairly, you don't attack a guest and you don't pretend that you or your guests are more knowledgable on science than a scientist. It also seems to us that you don't stack the guests to one side if you're trying to provide a fair look.
But that is how it goes. It's how it went on WBUR, it's how it went on Democracy Now! when Amy Goodman brought on the turncoat Chip Berlet (a pig who feeds at a trough and then turns on the trough is also an ass and Berlet showed his ass when he joined in on the right-wing attacks on the Christic Institute he once worked for) and allowed him to attack Dr. David Ray Griffin. Griffin gets challenged and mocked but a whore like Chip Berlet is treated with respect? A dirty whore who took money from Christic, made his name via Christic and as soon as the push-back on Iran-Contra targeted Christic, cheap whore Chip Berlet attacks Christic with a ridiculous article and that little whore is treated as a trusted source?
In a functioning world, that CIA puppet used to discredit the realities of Iran-Contra would be forever banished by the left.
We honestly don't believe any program has to do a broadcast on 9-11. But if you do and you say you're going to explore it, you explore it. You do not stack the deck. You do not whore. You play it fair or you find another topic to cover.
Instead, it's ridicule, ridicule, ridicule.
The search for truth is a natural human response to any incident. Someone dies, someone wants to know why. Stocks go up, someone wants to know why.
Sadness is also a natural human response to some incidents such as death and loss.
The media is determined to steer the American people on a pity trip using the 9-11 annivesary as their pretext.
Wallow in grief.
And the tacked on messages of (a) powerlessness and (b) unity will be sold as subtle undercurrents.
Powerlessness?
Well that certainly keeps the downtrodden down, doesn't it?
If we're all powerless, then 9-11 had to happen and, just as surely, everything else had to happen and we are all victims of what Gore Vidal calls "a sky god" and whatever he decrees. We lack free will or the ability to influence or, to be sure, the ability to rebel and cause real change.
Unity we deal with elsewhere this edition.
But the search for truth is not to be scoffed at. It has a long, historical tradition. Those who scoff at the pursuit of truth are either so anal that they believe they themselves are never wrong or they've got something to hide.
Whenver anyone tells you not to ask questions, make a point to ignore them. Without questioning, the entire American experience never would have happened.
September 11, 2001, the US was attacked by someone for some reason.
Never ask why.
Last Thursday On the Point with Tom Ashbrook (WBUR, with Jane Clayson filling in for Ashbrook) claimed they wanted to explore "Conspiracy Theories and the September 11th Terrorist Attacks." That should have made for a lively hour. It did not. James Megis, whose scientific background is in question (he has none and he was a moody little bitch who pissed off many writers for Premiere magazine when he was briefly in charge there -- and he knew nothing about movies when he was in charge at Premiere), was allowed to pontificate endlessly as was Jonathan Kay so you knew they were in attack mode. Kevin Ryan was granted little time (approximately 6 minutes) and attacked before and after his brief appearance.
Jane Clayson isn't a scientist, Jonathan Kay isn't a scientist, James Megis isn't a scientist. But all three worked to tear apart the only scientist brought on the program.
We have no idea the who and why of 9-11 and haven't made it a point to research it. Our position is that the 9-11 Truth Movement deserves credit for focusing on a serious issue and for the drive and determination behind the research as well as what the research will unearth.
And it seems to us that if you're going to do a program on the issue and to do it fairly, you don't attack a guest and you don't pretend that you or your guests are more knowledgable on science than a scientist. It also seems to us that you don't stack the guests to one side if you're trying to provide a fair look.
But that is how it goes. It's how it went on WBUR, it's how it went on Democracy Now! when Amy Goodman brought on the turncoat Chip Berlet (a pig who feeds at a trough and then turns on the trough is also an ass and Berlet showed his ass when he joined in on the right-wing attacks on the Christic Institute he once worked for) and allowed him to attack Dr. David Ray Griffin. Griffin gets challenged and mocked but a whore like Chip Berlet is treated with respect? A dirty whore who took money from Christic, made his name via Christic and as soon as the push-back on Iran-Contra targeted Christic, cheap whore Chip Berlet attacks Christic with a ridiculous article and that little whore is treated as a trusted source?
In a functioning world, that CIA puppet used to discredit the realities of Iran-Contra would be forever banished by the left.
We honestly don't believe any program has to do a broadcast on 9-11. But if you do and you say you're going to explore it, you explore it. You do not stack the deck. You do not whore. You play it fair or you find another topic to cover.
Instead, it's ridicule, ridicule, ridicule.
The search for truth is a natural human response to any incident. Someone dies, someone wants to know why. Stocks go up, someone wants to know why.
Sadness is also a natural human response to some incidents such as death and loss.
The media is determined to steer the American people on a pity trip using the 9-11 annivesary as their pretext.
Wallow in grief.
And the tacked on messages of (a) powerlessness and (b) unity will be sold as subtle undercurrents.
Powerlessness?
Well that certainly keeps the downtrodden down, doesn't it?
If we're all powerless, then 9-11 had to happen and, just as surely, everything else had to happen and we are all victims of what Gore Vidal calls "a sky god" and whatever he decrees. We lack free will or the ability to influence or, to be sure, the ability to rebel and cause real change.
Unity we deal with elsewhere this edition.
But the search for truth is not to be scoffed at. It has a long, historical tradition. Those who scoff at the pursuit of truth are either so anal that they believe they themselves are never wrong or they've got something to hide.
Whenver anyone tells you not to ask questions, make a point to ignore them. Without questioning, the entire American experience never would have happened.
TV: ABC's Infotainment
"From the global resources of ABC News," boasts Nightline at the start of each broadcast, promising so much more than it could ever deliver while signifying that 9-11 changed nothing -- at least nothing changed for the better.
The show began in 1979 with the Iranian hostage crisis and tracking the number of days of "America Held Hostage." Quickly, the show ditched anchor Frank Reynolds and installed Ted Koppel in front of the cameras. Also rather quickly came accusations of bias against the Carter administration. The accusations only grew louder the following year when Jimmy Carter became the first elected president since 1932 to run for a second term and not be re-elected. Bias or not, the program is now credited with taking down the Carter presidency. As PBS' American Experience observed:
On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of young Islamic revolutionaries overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 Americans hostage. "From the moment the hostages were seized until they were released minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as president 444 days later," wrote historian Gaddis Smith, "the crisis absorbed more concentrated effort by American officials and had more extensive coverage on television and in the press than any other event since World War II."
[. . .]
Relatively little happened during the summer, as Iranian internal politics took its course. In early July, the Iranians released hostage Richard Queen, who had developed multiple sclerosis. In the States, constant media coverage -- yellow ribbons, footage of chanting Iranian mobs, even a whole new television news program, ABC's Nightline -- provided a dispiriting backdrop to the presidential election season. As Carter advisor and biographer Peter Bourne put it, "Because people felt that Carter had not been tough enough in foreign policy, this kind of symbolized for them that some bunch of students could seize American diplomatic officials and hold them prisoner and thumb their nose at the United States."
It's not just PBS offering that interpretation, the federal government's White House Historical Association includes this in their lesson plan:
The Iranian hostage crisis contributed greatly to Jimmy Carter's loss of the presidency in the 1980 election. Americans had lost confidence in their leader. It wasn't difficult. Each night television newscasts relayed images of angry anti-American mobs outside the embassy in Tehran, shouting "Death to America," "Death to Carter."8
The creation of the television program, Nightline, devoted strictly to discussion of the crisis, was a blatant reminder of Carter's failure to secure the hostages' release. Each night TV news commentators posted the number of days the hostages had been held in humiliating, terrifying captivity, their president impotent in finding a way to bring them home. "This is the 325th day of the Iranian hostage crisis," the journalists would say, and on and on it went. Election day was the anniversary of the seizure, an irony that wasn't lost on the American people, who voted for Ronald Reagan by large margins.
In addition, James Fallows (The Atlantic) noted:
To Jimmy Carter and senior members of his administration, [Ted] Koppel's famous Nightline program on ABC was a dramatic example of the way media sensationalism could distort, or at least affect, public life. On November 4,1979, exactly one year before Carter would stand for reelection, Iranian radicals seized 66 American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Within a few days, ABC had launched a nightly 11:30 p.m. special report on the crisis, which soon was called "America Held Hostage: Day 15." Then it was "America Held Hostage: Day 100," and the night before Americans went to the polls, "America Held Hostage: Day 365," with Koppel anchoring the news each night.
There are many reasons Carter lost that election to Ronald Reagan; a prime interest rate of 20 percent during the spring symbolized economic problems that might have been sufficient to do him in. But "America Held Hostage" surely played a part. It was an early illustration of the way in which a choice about news coverage -- namely, to offer a daily countdown of America's humiliation -- converted a problem into an emergency. Koppel told me that years after the hostages were released, he met Jimmy Carter at a ceremony in Washington. "President Carter said there were two people who were better off because of the hostage situation," Koppel told me. "The ayatollah. And me."
Jimmy Carter's presidency was a one-term presidency due to a number of variables and while we would include Nightline, we'd also note that Carter repeatedly sounded alien to American voters (the idiotic Playboy interview where he confessed to lusting after women other than his wife in his heart, his word usage such as malaise, etc.), there was the vast and unchecked paranoia of Zbigniew Brzezinski on all matters big and small (one example, Shirley MacLaine has long told the story of returning from Cuba with a box of cigars Fidel Castro was sending as a gesture to Carter's Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan and of the massive hysterics and drama from scared bunny Brzezinski who just knew it had to be a bomb and all but peed his pants as the box was opened) and, among other things, Carter's failure as a politician. Failure as a politician?
When you run for the presidency, you are the top of the ticket. You are supposed to be a draw that helps your party win other races. In November 1980, with the West Coast still voting for at least another hour, Jimmy Carter delivered his resignation speech thereby likely supressing turnout on the West Coast.
So Nightline wasn't the only variable, but it was a variable and it was an important one.
The show has many great moments to look back on; however, they all tend to come before Koppel left the show in November 2005. There were interviews that stood out (such as with Desmond Tutu, a rare African-American guest for the program), surprising choices (an episode covering D-Day as breaking news) and basic news decisions that others weren't making (such as listing the names of US military personnel killed serving in Iraq).
The show also has many embarrassments to endure. Most cite the Madonna episode, where Nightline became an informercial for Madonna, playing the MTV-banned "Justify My Love" and helping its home video sales. It was a bizarre moment but not the worst by any means. This was the show that booked War Criminal Henry Kissinger more than any other guest, that showed Ted repeatedly and publicly fawning over Kissinger. (Had Ted continued as anchor, War Criminal Colin Powell might have overtaken Kissinger. If so, it would have at least helped Nightline be less of an all White program.) This was the program that thought providing a right-wing expert and a centrist expert as well as the right-leaning Ted Koppel made for balance. This was the broadcast featuring interviews with people who couldn't see Ted (they stared into a camera) while Ted saw them and made all sorts of facial expressions as they spoke, undercutting any point that they might make.
Many called out the above but, for our money, the best critique of Koppel came on the sitcom Ellen, when Ellen (Ellen DeGeneres) had lunch with Audrey (Clea Lewis) ("The Anchor" written by David S. Rosenthal).
Ellen: So, um, did you see Nightline last night?
Audrey: Oh, don't you hate Ted Koppel? He's so superior. It's like there's only one opinion in the world and Ted has to have it.
Yes, he could be pompous. But it wasn't really Ted's opinion, it was the opinion of his 'betters.' As Gore Vidal's noted, ". . . if you want to know what the ownership of the country wants you to know, tune in to Nightline and listen to Ted Koppel and his guests" (Vidal, The Decline of the American Empire, p. 44).
Koppel's departure from the program could have been liberating and provided the show with new life. The decision to utilize different anchors (currently Cynthia 'Lockjaw' McFadden, Terry 'The Moron' Moran and Bill 'Picture Me In Just A Jock Strap' Weir) could have meant different points of view. But that was not to be. The show still has the same pompous and single voice.
The only real surprise is that it uses this voice not to cover the news but to serve up pop and trash culture.
To watch a week's worth of Nightline is to enter a world where there is no Iraq War, there is no Afghanistan War, there is, in fact, no world beyond the US borders other than "sea world" and the only disasters are natural ones like hurricanes and not economic ones like unemployment.
Last week, this program that brags "from the global resources of ABC News" served up such important "news" stories as "What's Susan Lucci like when she's not working," "hilarious big screen bloopers," "Marc Anthony speaks [. . .] in his first interview since their break-up," "plus baby for Beyonce."
At least the Marc Anthony segment was broadcasting for the first time. The show's been cut from 30 minutes down to 25 (17 without commercials) and it still can't fill a show with new material. So you got "an encore presentation" of the interview with soap opera star Susan Lucci and an "encore presentation" of a segment that was part of their "Faith Matters" series -- Christians who kick box.
In fairness, we should note there was a health story last week. Are you worried that, as Verizon is currently doing, your employer will drop your health plan (possibly as a result of ObamaCare in 2014)? Well they didn't address that. Maybe you're concerned about the continued rising costs of health care? Well they didn't care about that either.
But they did find a health story they cared about, one that apparently effected them deeply and personally. Cynthia McFadden breathlessly announced "a health crisis in a billion dollar business" and explained that a porn actor had just tested HIV-positive. And, such the news woman!, McFadden even provided context, reminding viewers that this also happened in 2004 before continuing, "Here's David Wright for our series 'Modern Sex in America'."
That's what passes for a news story on Nightline. For that, they'll interview a public official or two and squeeze them in between repeated shots of women's breasts -- on those repeated shots, were they attempting to imply that contact with female breasts promoted the spread of HIV infection? And, most of all, they'll get all cutesy.
David Wright, possibly worried that since porn can only be legally filmed in California or New Hampshire audiences were wondering why this was even a news story and not just a headline, suddenly insisted near the end of the segment, "It isn't just porn stars at risk. Many adult performers supplement their income by escorting on the side."
Escorting?
He means prostitution.
He'll go on to ask the ex-porn actress about "escorting" and how many people you could have sex with in one month by "escorting?" She'll provide him with a double-digit answer and he'll attempt to look simultaneously thoughtful and aroused. (He'll succeed only in looking stupid.)
Friday the latest economic report was released. Job growth was zero and the official unemployment rate remained at 9.1%. In the midst of ignoring this economic disaster, Nightline decided to focus on a natural disaster -- one they admitted they'd heavily over-advertised: Hurricane Irene. It wasn't the disaster they expected, Dan Harris informed you, as he was mainly videotaped on the streets of Manhattan. In the same story, he also 'informed' viewers, "Only in Manhattan do they have 24-hour McDonalds."
We're not big fast food fans, but we seem to remember being in downtown Dallas in February 2008, having finished speaking to a group at 1:30 in the morning and joking to the cab driver that we wished we could have chocolate malts and his informing us there was an open-all-night McDonalds just a few streets from our hotel. And his taking us there. And our ordering chocolate malts at a 24-hour McDonalds. Closer to home, we were also aware of the 24-hour McDonalds in San Diego. So we wondered over Dan Harris' 'fact' that, "Only in Manhattan do they have 24-hour McDonalds."
In a 2007 Businessweek cover story, it was reported, "Since 2003 more than 90% of the 13,700 McDonald's in the U.S. have extended their hours beyond the basic 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. day. Nearly 40% operate nonstop, up from 0.5% in 2002. Breakfast is busting out of its old boundaries. It now stretches up to seven hours at many locations, and the company is considering making it an all-day option. Next on the agenda: snack foods and fruit smoothies for between-meal refuelings and late-night munchies." So in 2007, a little less than half of all McDonalds were open 24-7? 'News' program Nightline decided to offer fluff and couldn't even offer fluff that was correct? It's not just that they want to wallow in trash, it's that they don't even care enough to get their trash correct.
We noted there is a world beyond the US borders that gets covered . . . sea world. So we got "Happy Feet," a stranded penguin. Who mistook sand for snow and made himself sick eating it. And was then given non-stop medical care and surgery. Love to know who footed that bill. Now he was headed back to the South Pole and, how very holistic!, he'd been implanted with a GPS tracker. In addition, Matt Gutman offered a story last week where he reported from an undisclosed location "somewhere in the Bahamas" and spoke with a woman who estimated that in a few decades, people will be able to speak with dolphins. This was intercut with footage of Matt frolicking in the water as dolphins swam.
Other stories (don't call them 'reports') included an infomercial for travel agencies, an 'expose' on cheese cake ("It's not all sugar & spice! Just how many calories are in those portions?" -- well, actually, sugar would account for many of the calories), the chance that science might one day erase fear from your memory (presented as a good thing, forgetting that fear is a natural response that is hardwired into mammals for good reason), Brian Ross attempting to do an actual news report without the time needed or the resources (he was left posing the question of whether no US planes being hijacked since 2001 was due to "good security or good luck" -- that would be an investigative series and not a brief segment) and a look at the Libyan War.
Well, no.
Not a look at the Libyan War. That's beyond the show these days and might harm the feel-good mood that demands Marc Anthony swear he and Jennifer Lopez still love each other and nothing went wrong they just decided to divorce because . . . To garner headlines? Who knows? His answers made no sense but Nightline lapped them up as reality.
So 'Libyan War coverage' was nothing but a bash-the-bitch segment by Nick Watt (who specializes in hatred of women) in which he trashed Ayesha Gaddafi. Strange Tricia and Julie Nixon never received this treatment from Nightline and there father was responsible for many more deaths than Watts said Muammar Gaddafi was.
Ayesha Gaddafi was trashed. She was trashed for the living quarters her father provided her with (while Marc Anthony and Susan Lucci were praised for their spacious and palatial homes). She was trashed for representing Saddam Hussein in the trial that saw him sentenced to death. (Ayesha's part was mentioned quickly in order to move on to recounting the evils of Saddam Hussein. Staying too long on Ayesha Gaddafi might have forced Nick Watt to admit that she was at least a smart woman since she had a law degree and was a practicing attorney.) He mocked her looks repeatedly as he brought up that she was called, by some, "the Claudia Schiffer of North Africa." He then declared, over a series of unflattering (but not unattractive) photos, "Claudia Schiffer? I don't know."
He 'forgot' to mention that she didn't call herself that which was strange since this part of the story took up more time than all but the section where he made her out to be a coward.
He did that by reading a statement she made decrying NATO's bombing of Libya. He didn't read it, sorry. He 'enacted' it. In violation of every policy ABC News has, Nick Watt did a heavy dramatic reading of the statement. Then he noted that she had left the country.
"Oh the coward," viewers were to conclude.
He added that allegedly she had recently given birth, a single sentence, a fleeting thought.
Ayesha Gaddafi is the mother of four children -- the last was born August 30th. The children's father is Ahmed al-Gaddafi al-Qahsi. Nick Watt wasn't concerned with that. We doubt he was trying to imply Ayesha was the Virgin Mother and instead think it was another attempt to trash her. But where is the father now?
Oh, that's right. He was killed at the end of July.
A pregnant Ayesha Gaddafi remained in Libya through most of August, despite the fact that her country was being bombed, despite the fact that her husband was killed in the war and despite the fact that she was now nine months pregnant. As her father's regime fell, she left the country and gave birth. Hardly the way Nick Watt chose to portray her.
It reminded us of the lurid stories about Condi Rice that have emerged as "Libyan War" coverage. Muammar Gaddafi kept an album with pictures of Rice. There are many reasons to call out Condi Rice and over the years we've touched on most of them.
Rubbing your legs together and making snide remarks and insinuations about her because some man chose to keep an album filled with clippings of her says far more about the jerks salivating over this non-story than it does about Condi Rice. By the same token, Ayesha Gaddafi is being singled out to be trashed because she's a woman.
Nick Watt offered up Libyans for about 30 seconds. Maybe a little less. He toured Ayesha's quarters with them and then asked them what they thought about her living conditions when they lived in poverty?
No one brought poor Americans into Susan Lucci's home or Marc Anthony's to ask them that question.
But hey, the 'news' report on Susan praised gluttony as it took us expensive shoe shopping and informed us that "she can afford them because she is, after all, the most famous soap star of all time."
As Nick Watt's bash-the-bitch finished, there was Terry Moran, all glassy-eyed, declaring, "Thanks to Nick Watt for that," demonstrating that the biggest idiot ever working for ABC with the surname of Moran was not, in fact, Erin.
9-11 changed everything, we're falsely told. On the ABC News front, all it's done is taken a conservative-leaning half-hour news program, trimmed 5 minutes off it and turned it into fluff -- fluff so inaccurate that Entertainment Tonight is harder hitting and more factual. The anchors take their turn in the chair, one-by-one, but offer the viewers insipid happy talk as though they're hosting the morning shows and speaking to someone paid to find them delightful.
There is nothing delightful about this program and, if this is what Nightline is going to be, cancel it and bring Jimmy Kimmel on right after the local news. There's more honesty in five minutes of Kimmel than there is 25 minutes of Nightline.
The show began in 1979 with the Iranian hostage crisis and tracking the number of days of "America Held Hostage." Quickly, the show ditched anchor Frank Reynolds and installed Ted Koppel in front of the cameras. Also rather quickly came accusations of bias against the Carter administration. The accusations only grew louder the following year when Jimmy Carter became the first elected president since 1932 to run for a second term and not be re-elected. Bias or not, the program is now credited with taking down the Carter presidency. As PBS' American Experience observed:
On November 4, 1979, an angry mob of young Islamic revolutionaries overran the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking more than 60 Americans hostage. "From the moment the hostages were seized until they were released minutes after Ronald Reagan took the oath of office as president 444 days later," wrote historian Gaddis Smith, "the crisis absorbed more concentrated effort by American officials and had more extensive coverage on television and in the press than any other event since World War II."
[. . .]
Relatively little happened during the summer, as Iranian internal politics took its course. In early July, the Iranians released hostage Richard Queen, who had developed multiple sclerosis. In the States, constant media coverage -- yellow ribbons, footage of chanting Iranian mobs, even a whole new television news program, ABC's Nightline -- provided a dispiriting backdrop to the presidential election season. As Carter advisor and biographer Peter Bourne put it, "Because people felt that Carter had not been tough enough in foreign policy, this kind of symbolized for them that some bunch of students could seize American diplomatic officials and hold them prisoner and thumb their nose at the United States."
It's not just PBS offering that interpretation, the federal government's White House Historical Association includes this in their lesson plan:
The Iranian hostage crisis contributed greatly to Jimmy Carter's loss of the presidency in the 1980 election. Americans had lost confidence in their leader. It wasn't difficult. Each night television newscasts relayed images of angry anti-American mobs outside the embassy in Tehran, shouting "Death to America," "Death to Carter."8
The creation of the television program, Nightline, devoted strictly to discussion of the crisis, was a blatant reminder of Carter's failure to secure the hostages' release. Each night TV news commentators posted the number of days the hostages had been held in humiliating, terrifying captivity, their president impotent in finding a way to bring them home. "This is the 325th day of the Iranian hostage crisis," the journalists would say, and on and on it went. Election day was the anniversary of the seizure, an irony that wasn't lost on the American people, who voted for Ronald Reagan by large margins.
In addition, James Fallows (The Atlantic) noted:
To Jimmy Carter and senior members of his administration, [Ted] Koppel's famous Nightline program on ABC was a dramatic example of the way media sensationalism could distort, or at least affect, public life. On November 4,1979, exactly one year before Carter would stand for reelection, Iranian radicals seized 66 American hostages at the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Within a few days, ABC had launched a nightly 11:30 p.m. special report on the crisis, which soon was called "America Held Hostage: Day 15." Then it was "America Held Hostage: Day 100," and the night before Americans went to the polls, "America Held Hostage: Day 365," with Koppel anchoring the news each night.
There are many reasons Carter lost that election to Ronald Reagan; a prime interest rate of 20 percent during the spring symbolized economic problems that might have been sufficient to do him in. But "America Held Hostage" surely played a part. It was an early illustration of the way in which a choice about news coverage -- namely, to offer a daily countdown of America's humiliation -- converted a problem into an emergency. Koppel told me that years after the hostages were released, he met Jimmy Carter at a ceremony in Washington. "President Carter said there were two people who were better off because of the hostage situation," Koppel told me. "The ayatollah. And me."
Jimmy Carter's presidency was a one-term presidency due to a number of variables and while we would include Nightline, we'd also note that Carter repeatedly sounded alien to American voters (the idiotic Playboy interview where he confessed to lusting after women other than his wife in his heart, his word usage such as malaise, etc.), there was the vast and unchecked paranoia of Zbigniew Brzezinski on all matters big and small (one example, Shirley MacLaine has long told the story of returning from Cuba with a box of cigars Fidel Castro was sending as a gesture to Carter's Chief of Staff Hamilton Jordan and of the massive hysterics and drama from scared bunny Brzezinski who just knew it had to be a bomb and all but peed his pants as the box was opened) and, among other things, Carter's failure as a politician. Failure as a politician?
When you run for the presidency, you are the top of the ticket. You are supposed to be a draw that helps your party win other races. In November 1980, with the West Coast still voting for at least another hour, Jimmy Carter delivered his resignation speech thereby likely supressing turnout on the West Coast.
So Nightline wasn't the only variable, but it was a variable and it was an important one.
The show has many great moments to look back on; however, they all tend to come before Koppel left the show in November 2005. There were interviews that stood out (such as with Desmond Tutu, a rare African-American guest for the program), surprising choices (an episode covering D-Day as breaking news) and basic news decisions that others weren't making (such as listing the names of US military personnel killed serving in Iraq).
The show also has many embarrassments to endure. Most cite the Madonna episode, where Nightline became an informercial for Madonna, playing the MTV-banned "Justify My Love" and helping its home video sales. It was a bizarre moment but not the worst by any means. This was the show that booked War Criminal Henry Kissinger more than any other guest, that showed Ted repeatedly and publicly fawning over Kissinger. (Had Ted continued as anchor, War Criminal Colin Powell might have overtaken Kissinger. If so, it would have at least helped Nightline be less of an all White program.) This was the program that thought providing a right-wing expert and a centrist expert as well as the right-leaning Ted Koppel made for balance. This was the broadcast featuring interviews with people who couldn't see Ted (they stared into a camera) while Ted saw them and made all sorts of facial expressions as they spoke, undercutting any point that they might make.
Many called out the above but, for our money, the best critique of Koppel came on the sitcom Ellen, when Ellen (Ellen DeGeneres) had lunch with Audrey (Clea Lewis) ("The Anchor" written by David S. Rosenthal).
Ellen: So, um, did you see Nightline last night?
Audrey: Oh, don't you hate Ted Koppel? He's so superior. It's like there's only one opinion in the world and Ted has to have it.
Yes, he could be pompous. But it wasn't really Ted's opinion, it was the opinion of his 'betters.' As Gore Vidal's noted, ". . . if you want to know what the ownership of the country wants you to know, tune in to Nightline and listen to Ted Koppel and his guests" (Vidal, The Decline of the American Empire, p. 44).
Koppel's departure from the program could have been liberating and provided the show with new life. The decision to utilize different anchors (currently Cynthia 'Lockjaw' McFadden, Terry 'The Moron' Moran and Bill 'Picture Me In Just A Jock Strap' Weir) could have meant different points of view. But that was not to be. The show still has the same pompous and single voice.
The only real surprise is that it uses this voice not to cover the news but to serve up pop and trash culture.
To watch a week's worth of Nightline is to enter a world where there is no Iraq War, there is no Afghanistan War, there is, in fact, no world beyond the US borders other than "sea world" and the only disasters are natural ones like hurricanes and not economic ones like unemployment.
Last week, this program that brags "from the global resources of ABC News" served up such important "news" stories as "What's Susan Lucci like when she's not working," "hilarious big screen bloopers," "Marc Anthony speaks [. . .] in his first interview since their break-up," "plus baby for Beyonce."
At least the Marc Anthony segment was broadcasting for the first time. The show's been cut from 30 minutes down to 25 (17 without commercials) and it still can't fill a show with new material. So you got "an encore presentation" of the interview with soap opera star Susan Lucci and an "encore presentation" of a segment that was part of their "Faith Matters" series -- Christians who kick box.
In fairness, we should note there was a health story last week. Are you worried that, as Verizon is currently doing, your employer will drop your health plan (possibly as a result of ObamaCare in 2014)? Well they didn't address that. Maybe you're concerned about the continued rising costs of health care? Well they didn't care about that either.
But they did find a health story they cared about, one that apparently effected them deeply and personally. Cynthia McFadden breathlessly announced "a health crisis in a billion dollar business" and explained that a porn actor had just tested HIV-positive. And, such the news woman!, McFadden even provided context, reminding viewers that this also happened in 2004 before continuing, "Here's David Wright for our series 'Modern Sex in America'."
That's what passes for a news story on Nightline. For that, they'll interview a public official or two and squeeze them in between repeated shots of women's breasts -- on those repeated shots, were they attempting to imply that contact with female breasts promoted the spread of HIV infection? And, most of all, they'll get all cutesy.
David Wright, possibly worried that since porn can only be legally filmed in California or New Hampshire audiences were wondering why this was even a news story and not just a headline, suddenly insisted near the end of the segment, "It isn't just porn stars at risk. Many adult performers supplement their income by escorting on the side."
Escorting?
He means prostitution.
He'll go on to ask the ex-porn actress about "escorting" and how many people you could have sex with in one month by "escorting?" She'll provide him with a double-digit answer and he'll attempt to look simultaneously thoughtful and aroused. (He'll succeed only in looking stupid.)
Friday the latest economic report was released. Job growth was zero and the official unemployment rate remained at 9.1%. In the midst of ignoring this economic disaster, Nightline decided to focus on a natural disaster -- one they admitted they'd heavily over-advertised: Hurricane Irene. It wasn't the disaster they expected, Dan Harris informed you, as he was mainly videotaped on the streets of Manhattan. In the same story, he also 'informed' viewers, "Only in Manhattan do they have 24-hour McDonalds."
We're not big fast food fans, but we seem to remember being in downtown Dallas in February 2008, having finished speaking to a group at 1:30 in the morning and joking to the cab driver that we wished we could have chocolate malts and his informing us there was an open-all-night McDonalds just a few streets from our hotel. And his taking us there. And our ordering chocolate malts at a 24-hour McDonalds. Closer to home, we were also aware of the 24-hour McDonalds in San Diego. So we wondered over Dan Harris' 'fact' that, "Only in Manhattan do they have 24-hour McDonalds."
In a 2007 Businessweek cover story, it was reported, "Since 2003 more than 90% of the 13,700 McDonald's in the U.S. have extended their hours beyond the basic 6 a.m. to 11 p.m. day. Nearly 40% operate nonstop, up from 0.5% in 2002. Breakfast is busting out of its old boundaries. It now stretches up to seven hours at many locations, and the company is considering making it an all-day option. Next on the agenda: snack foods and fruit smoothies for between-meal refuelings and late-night munchies." So in 2007, a little less than half of all McDonalds were open 24-7? 'News' program Nightline decided to offer fluff and couldn't even offer fluff that was correct? It's not just that they want to wallow in trash, it's that they don't even care enough to get their trash correct.
We noted there is a world beyond the US borders that gets covered . . . sea world. So we got "Happy Feet," a stranded penguin. Who mistook sand for snow and made himself sick eating it. And was then given non-stop medical care and surgery. Love to know who footed that bill. Now he was headed back to the South Pole and, how very holistic!, he'd been implanted with a GPS tracker. In addition, Matt Gutman offered a story last week where he reported from an undisclosed location "somewhere in the Bahamas" and spoke with a woman who estimated that in a few decades, people will be able to speak with dolphins. This was intercut with footage of Matt frolicking in the water as dolphins swam.
Other stories (don't call them 'reports') included an infomercial for travel agencies, an 'expose' on cheese cake ("It's not all sugar & spice! Just how many calories are in those portions?" -- well, actually, sugar would account for many of the calories), the chance that science might one day erase fear from your memory (presented as a good thing, forgetting that fear is a natural response that is hardwired into mammals for good reason), Brian Ross attempting to do an actual news report without the time needed or the resources (he was left posing the question of whether no US planes being hijacked since 2001 was due to "good security or good luck" -- that would be an investigative series and not a brief segment) and a look at the Libyan War.
Well, no.
Not a look at the Libyan War. That's beyond the show these days and might harm the feel-good mood that demands Marc Anthony swear he and Jennifer Lopez still love each other and nothing went wrong they just decided to divorce because . . . To garner headlines? Who knows? His answers made no sense but Nightline lapped them up as reality.
So 'Libyan War coverage' was nothing but a bash-the-bitch segment by Nick Watt (who specializes in hatred of women) in which he trashed Ayesha Gaddafi. Strange Tricia and Julie Nixon never received this treatment from Nightline and there father was responsible for many more deaths than Watts said Muammar Gaddafi was.
Ayesha Gaddafi was trashed. She was trashed for the living quarters her father provided her with (while Marc Anthony and Susan Lucci were praised for their spacious and palatial homes). She was trashed for representing Saddam Hussein in the trial that saw him sentenced to death. (Ayesha's part was mentioned quickly in order to move on to recounting the evils of Saddam Hussein. Staying too long on Ayesha Gaddafi might have forced Nick Watt to admit that she was at least a smart woman since she had a law degree and was a practicing attorney.) He mocked her looks repeatedly as he brought up that she was called, by some, "the Claudia Schiffer of North Africa." He then declared, over a series of unflattering (but not unattractive) photos, "Claudia Schiffer? I don't know."
He 'forgot' to mention that she didn't call herself that which was strange since this part of the story took up more time than all but the section where he made her out to be a coward.
He did that by reading a statement she made decrying NATO's bombing of Libya. He didn't read it, sorry. He 'enacted' it. In violation of every policy ABC News has, Nick Watt did a heavy dramatic reading of the statement. Then he noted that she had left the country.
"Oh the coward," viewers were to conclude.
He added that allegedly she had recently given birth, a single sentence, a fleeting thought.
Ayesha Gaddafi is the mother of four children -- the last was born August 30th. The children's father is Ahmed al-Gaddafi al-Qahsi. Nick Watt wasn't concerned with that. We doubt he was trying to imply Ayesha was the Virgin Mother and instead think it was another attempt to trash her. But where is the father now?
Oh, that's right. He was killed at the end of July.
A pregnant Ayesha Gaddafi remained in Libya through most of August, despite the fact that her country was being bombed, despite the fact that her husband was killed in the war and despite the fact that she was now nine months pregnant. As her father's regime fell, she left the country and gave birth. Hardly the way Nick Watt chose to portray her.
It reminded us of the lurid stories about Condi Rice that have emerged as "Libyan War" coverage. Muammar Gaddafi kept an album with pictures of Rice. There are many reasons to call out Condi Rice and over the years we've touched on most of them.
Rubbing your legs together and making snide remarks and insinuations about her because some man chose to keep an album filled with clippings of her says far more about the jerks salivating over this non-story than it does about Condi Rice. By the same token, Ayesha Gaddafi is being singled out to be trashed because she's a woman.
Nick Watt offered up Libyans for about 30 seconds. Maybe a little less. He toured Ayesha's quarters with them and then asked them what they thought about her living conditions when they lived in poverty?
No one brought poor Americans into Susan Lucci's home or Marc Anthony's to ask them that question.
But hey, the 'news' report on Susan praised gluttony as it took us expensive shoe shopping and informed us that "she can afford them because she is, after all, the most famous soap star of all time."
As Nick Watt's bash-the-bitch finished, there was Terry Moran, all glassy-eyed, declaring, "Thanks to Nick Watt for that," demonstrating that the biggest idiot ever working for ABC with the surname of Moran was not, in fact, Erin.
9-11 changed everything, we're falsely told. On the ABC News front, all it's done is taken a conservative-leaning half-hour news program, trimmed 5 minutes off it and turned it into fluff -- fluff so inaccurate that Entertainment Tonight is harder hitting and more factual. The anchors take their turn in the chair, one-by-one, but offer the viewers insipid happy talk as though they're hosting the morning shows and speaking to someone paid to find them delightful.
There is nothing delightful about this program and, if this is what Nightline is going to be, cancel it and bring Jimmy Kimmel on right after the local news. There's more honesty in five minutes of Kimmel than there is 25 minutes of Nightline.
Our Miss Priss (Ann, Ava and C.I.)
Friday's second hour of The Diane Rehm Show, the 'international' hour, was a non-stop embarrassment.
Conversations were disjointed and worst of all was Diane The Scold, Our Miss Priss, surfaced to condescend to a caller.
Returning from the break, Diane declared, "Welcome back to the international hour of our Friday News Roundup this week with Anne Gearan, national security correspondent with the Associated Press, David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, James Kitfield, senior correspondent for National Journal. You can join us by phone, you can send us an e-mail, join us on Facebook or send us a Tweet. James Kitfield, the fact that there were no US troop fatalities in August, how come?"
Presumably, the answer would be: Because none died.
It's not a great mystery.
But which country Diane was speaking of was a mystery.
So eager to rush through the topic of Iraq was Diane that she failed to even identify which war zone she was speaking of.
The fact that zero troops died in Iraq was seen as a success and reason to move on over to Afghanistan after that factoid. No mention was made of the 395 Iraqi civilians who died in August, as counted by Iraqi Body Count, or the 800 injured.
How disgusting.
Diane would later claim in the show that she wanted a civilized conversation. We think a civilized conversation about war has to include Iraqis.
We think an informed and civilized conversation about what took place in August 2011 includes the fact that 56 US military personnel have died in the Iraq War since August 31, 2010. That's when, pay attention, Diane, Barack Obama declared an end to combat operations. After the end of 'combat operations,' 56 US service members have died.
That ugly reality was ignored in what can only be described as a Barbara Bush moment on Diane's part.
She and her panelists engaged in the lie that US forces are leaving Iraq at year's end. No one knows if that's happening. August 2nd, the Iraqi government announced they were in negotiations with the US government to extend the US military stay (but to call any who stayed "trainers").
It was the biggest waste of air time and the most unintelligent discussion NPR may have yet aired and that's truly saying something.
It was so bad that we were reminded of Antiwar.com's Kelley B. Vlahos' observation about a CNAS Conference:
On the contrary, the morning alone was akin to driving around in the car listening to the Friday round-up on NPR's Diane Rehm Show. You know, the kind of radio banter for which you're not likely to miss anything if you pop outside to pump gas or pick up the dry cleaning. That's because it's about all about the title and the self-important tone, and not about depth or nuance, or what they call "value-added" knowledge. Watch out CNAS, you're practically there.
And Diane's program was born there.
It's become such a parrot of conventional wisdom that facts no longer matter and you can 'cover' an 8-year and counting illegal war with just a few sentences. It's become so boring that only Diane getting all fussy in her old age on air can pass for an 'interesting' moment.
From Friday's show:
Diane Rehm: All right. Let's go to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Good morning, Lewis. Go right ahead, please. Lewis, are you there? Okay, to St. Louis, Missouri. Let's go to Darrell.
Darrell: Good morning, how are you doing?
Diane Rehm: Fine, thanks, sir.
Darrell: You wouldn't think that after 9/11 and after Iraq that anybody would believe what my government, the American government says about anything. These are total lies about Gadhafi. You got him to get rid of his weapons, which he had none and now you're bombing the crap out of the country so you can do the same --
Diane Rehm: I appreciate your not using that word on the air. I recognize it's not one of the seven deadly ones, but if you had something to say?
Darrell: You're a coward, lady.
Diane Rehm: I'm a coward? Well, I am a coward in terms of trying to help our audience hear a civilized program. Let's go now to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Good morning, Jose, you're on the air.
Diane's a coward in many ways most days. But she was an idiot as well Friday.
Not just because she banned "crap" from the same airwaves that Terry Gross uses to spew "fa**ot" over and over again. But because she never informed Darrell what word was bothering her. For all he knew, she was offended by lies?
We realize Diane was born during the Great Depression and that computers, microwave ovens, cell phones and, yes, even toaster ovens were new 'developments' in her lifetime, but "crap" is said on TV, "crap" is said on the radio. And if she's going to impose her own little ruling, she might need to start posting those rules.
For example, she could write on her website: "My show is crap but you can't say 'crap' on my show."
Doubt that her show is crap?
May 1st, we published "Diane Rehm's gender imbalance (Ann, Ava and C.I.)." As we noted in that study, in the United States, women are said to make up 50.1% of the population. We began our study of Diane's show with the month of April when she featured 79 male guests and 40 female ones.
Despite being over half the population, in April, women only made up 34.48% of Diane's guests.
May, June, July and August have passed. Did Diane do better?
For those four months, she had 323 male guests on the program and only 165 women.
The total numbers from the start of April until the end of August?
402 male guests, 205 women.
That's not a surprise because we've done these studies before. For example, Terry Gross' Fresh Air made it through 2010 with women making up only 18.546% of the guests. This site has also previously documented the gender imbalance in bylines at The Nation and in guests booked for CounterSpin. One thing that we've quickly learned is this: There is no catch up.
Shows and magazines that feature very few women do not suddenly make room for broadcasts or print editions that feature nothing but women in order to even things up, in order to play catch up. No, the numbers just get worse as the years go along.
So from 34.48% in April to the current percentage of 33.77% is not a surprise to us.
33.77% is the percentage of female guests Diane has had on her show since April.
Yes, that does mean that over 66% of Diane's guests have been male.
No, that does not live up to the diversity claims NPR likes to make -- especially at pledge time when they want your money.
Instead of fretting over terms like "crap" that can appear on the airwaves with no problem (what's next, Diane, barring the use of "ain't"?), we'd suggest Diane Rehm concern herself with her inability to book an equal number of female guests.
We'd argue that, in the 21st century, that's the more pressing issue.
Please feel free to check our math (let us know if you find a mistake -- we're far from perfect). May through August figures can be found in the following posts at Ann's site:
Conversations were disjointed and worst of all was Diane The Scold, Our Miss Priss, surfaced to condescend to a caller.
Returning from the break, Diane declared, "Welcome back to the international hour of our Friday News Roundup this week with Anne Gearan, national security correspondent with the Associated Press, David Sanger, chief Washington correspondent for The New York Times, James Kitfield, senior correspondent for National Journal. You can join us by phone, you can send us an e-mail, join us on Facebook or send us a Tweet. James Kitfield, the fact that there were no US troop fatalities in August, how come?"
Presumably, the answer would be: Because none died.
It's not a great mystery.
But which country Diane was speaking of was a mystery.
So eager to rush through the topic of Iraq was Diane that she failed to even identify which war zone she was speaking of.
The fact that zero troops died in Iraq was seen as a success and reason to move on over to Afghanistan after that factoid. No mention was made of the 395 Iraqi civilians who died in August, as counted by Iraqi Body Count, or the 800 injured.
How disgusting.
Diane would later claim in the show that she wanted a civilized conversation. We think a civilized conversation about war has to include Iraqis.
We think an informed and civilized conversation about what took place in August 2011 includes the fact that 56 US military personnel have died in the Iraq War since August 31, 2010. That's when, pay attention, Diane, Barack Obama declared an end to combat operations. After the end of 'combat operations,' 56 US service members have died.
That ugly reality was ignored in what can only be described as a Barbara Bush moment on Diane's part.
She and her panelists engaged in the lie that US forces are leaving Iraq at year's end. No one knows if that's happening. August 2nd, the Iraqi government announced they were in negotiations with the US government to extend the US military stay (but to call any who stayed "trainers").
It was the biggest waste of air time and the most unintelligent discussion NPR may have yet aired and that's truly saying something.
It was so bad that we were reminded of Antiwar.com's Kelley B. Vlahos' observation about a CNAS Conference:
On the contrary, the morning alone was akin to driving around in the car listening to the Friday round-up on NPR's Diane Rehm Show. You know, the kind of radio banter for which you're not likely to miss anything if you pop outside to pump gas or pick up the dry cleaning. That's because it's about all about the title and the self-important tone, and not about depth or nuance, or what they call "value-added" knowledge. Watch out CNAS, you're practically there.
And Diane's program was born there.
It's become such a parrot of conventional wisdom that facts no longer matter and you can 'cover' an 8-year and counting illegal war with just a few sentences. It's become so boring that only Diane getting all fussy in her old age on air can pass for an 'interesting' moment.
From Friday's show:
Diane Rehm: All right. Let's go to Tulsa, Oklahoma. Good morning, Lewis. Go right ahead, please. Lewis, are you there? Okay, to St. Louis, Missouri. Let's go to Darrell.
Darrell: Good morning, how are you doing?
Diane Rehm: Fine, thanks, sir.
Darrell: You wouldn't think that after 9/11 and after Iraq that anybody would believe what my government, the American government says about anything. These are total lies about Gadhafi. You got him to get rid of his weapons, which he had none and now you're bombing the crap out of the country so you can do the same --
Diane Rehm: I appreciate your not using that word on the air. I recognize it's not one of the seven deadly ones, but if you had something to say?
Darrell: You're a coward, lady.
Diane Rehm: I'm a coward? Well, I am a coward in terms of trying to help our audience hear a civilized program. Let's go now to Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. Good morning, Jose, you're on the air.
Diane's a coward in many ways most days. But she was an idiot as well Friday.
Not just because she banned "crap" from the same airwaves that Terry Gross uses to spew "fa**ot" over and over again. But because she never informed Darrell what word was bothering her. For all he knew, she was offended by lies?
We realize Diane was born during the Great Depression and that computers, microwave ovens, cell phones and, yes, even toaster ovens were new 'developments' in her lifetime, but "crap" is said on TV, "crap" is said on the radio. And if she's going to impose her own little ruling, she might need to start posting those rules.
For example, she could write on her website: "My show is crap but you can't say 'crap' on my show."
Doubt that her show is crap?
May 1st, we published "Diane Rehm's gender imbalance (Ann, Ava and C.I.)." As we noted in that study, in the United States, women are said to make up 50.1% of the population. We began our study of Diane's show with the month of April when she featured 79 male guests and 40 female ones.
Despite being over half the population, in April, women only made up 34.48% of Diane's guests.
May, June, July and August have passed. Did Diane do better?
For those four months, she had 323 male guests on the program and only 165 women.
The total numbers from the start of April until the end of August?
402 male guests, 205 women.
That's not a surprise because we've done these studies before. For example, Terry Gross' Fresh Air made it through 2010 with women making up only 18.546% of the guests. This site has also previously documented the gender imbalance in bylines at The Nation and in guests booked for CounterSpin. One thing that we've quickly learned is this: There is no catch up.
Shows and magazines that feature very few women do not suddenly make room for broadcasts or print editions that feature nothing but women in order to even things up, in order to play catch up. No, the numbers just get worse as the years go along.
So from 34.48% in April to the current percentage of 33.77% is not a surprise to us.
33.77% is the percentage of female guests Diane has had on her show since April.
Yes, that does mean that over 66% of Diane's guests have been male.
No, that does not live up to the diversity claims NPR likes to make -- especially at pledge time when they want your money.
Instead of fretting over terms like "crap" that can appear on the airwaves with no problem (what's next, Diane, barring the use of "ain't"?), we'd suggest Diane Rehm concern herself with her inability to book an equal number of female guests.
We'd argue that, in the 21st century, that's the more pressing issue.
Please feel free to check our math (let us know if you find a mistake -- we're far from perfect). May through August figures can be found in the following posts at Ann's site:
- ► 08/07 - 08/14 (5)
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