NPR's 'Objective' Reporter Nina Totenberg Ends Opinionated Pundit Run
By John Williams | January 15, 2014 | 06:53
Nasty old hatemonger. It's about time for the old white dinosaurs of the left to shuffle offstage.
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Milestones in one's life should serve as an impetus for a person to reflect on the past and on the future. Totenberg turned 70 yesterday. Another such milestone occurred at the end of 2013 in the life of NPR's high-profile Legal Affairs/Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg. Totenberg concluded her 19-year run as a weekly no-holds-barred pundit, pontificating on about every topic under the sun -- not just on her journalistic beat.
Most notoriously, she said in 1995 that a fitting punishment for a quite controversial remark by Republican US Senator Jesse Helms made about AIDS funding would be that he or his grandchildren contract AIDS: "I think he ought to be worried about the -- about what's going on in the good Lord's mind because if there's retributive justice, he'll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it."
 Although on the very rare occasion that she was asked about the comment in 2010, she said she regrets the remark and regarded it as "dumb," "stupid," "harsh," and "overly personalized," she has yet to publicly apologize -- let alone apologize to Helms himself prior to his death, to his wife, or to his grandchildren. Instead, it's about her: "I'll pay for it for the rest of my life."
NPR's very own ombudsman made it clear in 2003 that Totenberg and other NPR journalists need to choose whether to do punditry or to do journalism. While neither Totenberg nor NPR ever heeded the ombudsman's call for her, a reporter, to choose one or the other, in 2010, NPR infamously fired Juan Williams, a news analyst--whose job it is to give opinion--for controversial remarks made away from NPR. Despite much public attention being drawn to the obvious Williams/Totenberg double standard, she continued doing her outside punditry. Finally, in early 2012, NPR released a new ethics code containing unequivocal language forbidding such punditry:
Would you say it on an NPR program?
This is the key test for helping us sort through what’s acceptable to say in public settings: In appearing on TV or other media including electronic Web-based forums, we should not express views we would not air in our roles as NPR journalists. We avoid participating in shows, forums, or other venues that encourage punditry and speculation rather than fact-based analysis.
Unsurprisingly, Totenberg kept chugging along, giving her opinions on all sorts of matters.
Far worse than reporter Totenberg's long stint as a pundit is reporter Totenberg's long stint as a political activist -- inserting herself into stories she was supposed to be covering objectively.
Of the instances that the public actually knows about, Totenberg sought out negative personal information, whether verifiable facts or weak rumors, on three Republicans--and only Republicans. In 1987, she successfully scuttled the Reagan Supreme Court nominee Douglas Ginsburg by publicizing Ginsburg's adult marijuana use.
Fresh off that GOP kill, in 1988, NPR's Supreme Court correspondent bizarrely waged a frenetic campaign to publicize before Election Day allegations of marijuana use by Republican vice presidential nominee Dan Quayle. The fact that the accuser, Brett Kimberlin, was at that time serving a term in prison for domestic terrorism did not dissuade her from taking his charges seriously. Instead, she called him multiple times a day leading up to Election Day.
Most notoriously, in 1991, Totenberg became indignant after the liberal Democrat-dominated U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee declined to investigate rumors of sexual harassment by George H.W. Bush's Supreme Court nominee Clarence Thomas. She took it upon herself to force out into the public those rumors. After her efforts to defeat Thomas failed, Totenberg was a sore loser. To this day, she takes cheap shots at the man she ostensibly covers impartially. In stark contrast, another Justice she ostensibly covers impartially, liberal Ruth Bader Ginsburg is a long-time personal friend--so much so that Justice Ginsburg officiated reporter Totenberg's marriage ceremony.
A good outcome to Totenberg's reflections around recent milestones would be for her to leave reporting and work in an area she appears to be most passionate about: punditry or activism. Possible avenues: MSNBC opinion host, activist at the Alliance for Justice or NARAL, or opposition researcher at the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.
Nina Totenberg is just one reason (actually 2: see #3 and #9) of 20 to defund public broadcasting.
Read more: http://newsbusters.org/blogs/john-williams/2014/01/14/totenberg-milestones#ixzz2qThvU2Ua |
