I listened to a few stations on the way home from church today including NPR. They had a story from Iraq. It started off by acknowledging that Iraq is geopolitically stable ... more so than most places in the ME now. Then they started in on how it was still a hellhole, trashy, security checkpoints, shortages, unemployment, underemployment, still intermittent bombings (I listed and thought yeah, its still a mideastern country) .... They talked mainly to storekeepers and English interpreters it seemed. They found an Iraqi woman to reluctantly tell them she thought of America as the enemy. Then another Iraqi came on to say he was disappointed as he thought America would fix Iraq's problems .... And then this Ira Glass guy comes on and says he doesn't think NPR is biased at all .... NPR programming is just like what you heard in the Iraq story - straight reporting on things as they are.
Well, why Ira, are they reporting on Iraq now in light of whats going on in Iran, Syria, Libya, Yemen, etc etc? Because American liberals are still obsessed with the evil Iraq war? So its still news .... more so than the riots and demonstrations and civil wars going on everywhere else. So Ira, where are the reporters touring Iran? Etc?
Then, I have to wonder isn't it funny those reporters went to Iraq and found just what American liberals would expect to find? Seriously they could have stayed in the US and done that story. How are we to know those reporters even gave us an objective look at Iraq? Did they search till they found what they wanted for their story frame?
I read elsewhere Glass is pushing this NPR isn't biased line .... and in his 'We're not biased" piece he mentions "O'Keefe's highly edited videotape." Well excuse me, but that phrase is highly biased itself. EVERYTHING any media, including NPR, does is highly edited.
The only thing wrong with O'Keefe is he showed what NPR folks are really like.
And I have blasted off a few comments to NPR on the above this afternoon .... their comment feature is very unfriendly. Very easy to lose what you typed. |
