House Republicans voted their conscience, and this tells us everything we need to know. It’s not about the money.
When you can listen to Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity for free, who needs NPR? It reaches 33 million listeners through its member stations, with its 36 bureaus and offices around the world, and local coverage produced by more than 270 independent NPR member public radio stations across the country. Republicans hate that. In the House of Representatives they voted their conscience, and this tells us everything we need to know. It’s not about the money.…
Article comments
76 - Dan
"o'keefe and breitbart are laughing at you all the way to the bank, dan. you've been taken..."
No zingzing, it's worse than that. Nearly everyone has been snookered by these two evil propagandists. Innocent people who's only crime was to spread truth and justice have had their funds cut and turned out into the street.
Only a select few know the truth. You and Glenn, probably because of your brilliance, can detect the diabolical, heavy editing. The rest of us ignorant sheep cannot even understand how it is critically important that O'keefe and Giles did not actually wear their pimp and hooker costumes during interviews with ACORN workers. Possibly because we are distracted by the hotness of the evil seductress Hanna Giles.
And the worst of it is that there seems not to be any of the brilliant heavy edit detectors among the ranks of trial lawyers who will bring these easily winable cases to trial and put these evil doers behind bars where they belong.
oh the injustice! But you hang in there zing. Fight the good fight. Continue to combatively assert the undeniable truth with all the vigor of a Fred Phelps street preacher.
77 - zingzing
"Only a select few know the truth. You and Glenn, probably because of your brilliance, can detect the diabolical, heavy editing."
and everyone else who has looked at the damn things. including glenn beck's website. just look up "james o'keefe editing" on google. 3.6 million hits. you keep trying, dan. put them blinders on. you really think just glenn and i are suspicious of these videos? you really need to get out of the house.
if you really can't see the editing for what it is, why don't you go look at the unedited tapes that have been released? if you can really come to the same conclusions after seeing the unedited tapes, i'll just have to give up on you. in the sherrod case, he took what she was saying and completely and obviously turned the meaning around. do you not see that?
by the way, npr recently interviewed o'keefe. his heroes, apparently, are "G.K. Chesterton, underage prostitutes, Attorney General Gerry Brown and hyperbole and obfuscation."
"And the worst of it is that there seems not to be any of the brilliant heavy edit detectors among the ranks of trial lawyers who will bring these easily winable cases to trial and put these evil doers behind bars where they belong."
on what charge? lying in the media? quite a can of worms there, isn't it? they'd have to get them on something very specific, and the burden of proof is upon those who would wish to prosecute. he's caused a few job loses, and those are sparking some lawsuits.
the (former employee of) acorn lawsuit in california against him is still going. he just cited "punk'd," the mtv program, as proof that he can record people without their express permission. he's citing ashton kutcher, dan.
in the PA acorn lawsuit, he settled out of court (he paid them off, if you can't figure it out). the maryland acorn lawsuit was dismissed due to procedural mistakes.
your "undeniable truth" is that you've shit in your pants but you won't admit it.
78 - Costello
Dan, is it that you don't care becasue O'Keefe is taking down people don't like or are you really uninformed about his tactics? I want to know if you are unprincipled or ignorant before commenting further
79 - Boeke
Tommy Mack,
Now I'm curious about AFRTS, so I spent a couple hours going through material on the 'net.
It seems hard to find actual schedule information, but some general principles seem to be that the music is bland and religious programs are permitted as long as they don't attack each other (presumably, they all can gang up on atheists, agnostics, pantheists, non-theists and other such heretics).
I was specifically looking to see if they carry programming from Pacifica Foundation, Classic Arts Showcase (CAS from the Lloyd Rigler foundation) and foreign public feeds such as Al Jazeera, BBC, France24, Russia Today, Taiwan Report, Deutsche Welle, NHK, etc., but I could find nothing. Does anyone have a good citation for that information.
Lacking such diversity I would be concerned that AFRTS has become an Establishment propaganda tool which is financed by the taxpayer. If that's the case, they are far more eligible for scrutiny and budget trimming than NPR, which has a rather tepid broadcast personality.
80 - zingzing
costello, i think it must be that dan doesn't care what means are used to take down perceived enemies. no one can be that ignorant, unless it's willful.
81 - Dan
yes yes, of course. Many lawsuits are "sparking". The wheels of justice are slow to turn. But eventually truth will prevail. hundreds of ACORN employees will be back in the saddle. Their funding will be restored with damages, and they'll be able to resume the legal battle against all those scurrilous election tampering charges evil people have been hounding them with.
Vivian and Ron Schiller will be back at NPR and all those bigoted, tea party homophobe, "racist racists" will just have to suck it.
Of course, Breitbart and O'Keefe will be facing a very deserved hard time in the hoosegow. Although Hanna Giles will likely get off with just probation. (they always let the women off easy, especially the hot ones)
And you my friend, will be vindicated for sticking to your guns, unfaltering in your faith, one of only a few heroic voices of reason, who somehow were able to see through the rush of conventional wisdom to grasp the elusive truth. Bravo, Braaaavo!
82 - Dr Dreadful
Gents, in my own encounters with Dan I've found that even the soundest arguments made against him are like water off a duck's back. He sincerely believes that the set of opinions he holds have been arrived at through pure reason, and that any dissenting viewpoint must therefore be irrational. It makes him a propagandist extraordinaire.
83 - Dr Dreadful
see through the rush of conventional wisdom...
Pun intended, Dan? :-)
84 - Dan
Costello, haven't you been paying attention? O'Keefe hasn't "taken down" anyone. It is just a temporary setback. Everyone is innocent. It is O'Keefe who will be taken down. As soon as justice prevails.
85 - Dan
ah, Dr. Dreadful. I like how you walk the line. The "soundness" of an argument is of course subjective, as is the "irrationality" of one. That's why we argue.
I do have quite an extensive electronic paper trail here. I like to think that trail demonstrates a formidable integrity, if not the most popularly fashionable viewpoints.
86 - Dr Dreadful
The "soundness" of an argument is of course subjective, as is the "irrationality" of one. That's why we argue.
Although there are logical precepts which can help to determine whether an argument is sound or irrational.
I like to think that trail demonstrates a formidable integrity, if not the most popularly fashionable viewpoints.
You're certainly unwavering, Dan. If you're defending a position purely because it's unfashionable, though, that in itself can lead to fallacious reasoning.
87 - Costello
So you are unprincipled, Dan. I'll do my best to ignore you
88 - Clavos
If you're defending a position purely because it's unfashionable,...
I doubt he is Doc, because, while some of his views might be "unfashionable" here at BC, most of them don't bear that stigma out in the real world.
89 - Tommy Mack
Boeke #79 writes he would be “concerned that AFRTS has become an Establishment propaganda tool which is financed by the taxpayer” and asks about it’s scheduling.
First and foremost let me point out that the service is for Armed Forces and Department of Defense personnel serving the United States overseas, not in the continental US. For scheduling, you should look to AFN, American Forces Network, which is a part of the Department of Defense (DoD).
Second, one could argue that AFRTS is an establishment propaganda tool, that establishment being the federal military/industrial establishment, once again the DoD. One could also argue that the context in which the word “propaganda” is used must be considered. The context usually depends on what side one is on.
Third, with regard to scrutiny and budget trimming, that goes directly to the DoD Budget itself, which is Holy to Republicans. They would just as soon burn an autographed picture of Ronald Reagan than to touch the so called Defense budget. But that is what would have to happen before any cutting of the pittance paid for media.
In 1947 the DoD, the acronym for United States Department of Defense, is what became of the Department of War, which was founded in 1789. It has the largest budget of any US Department headed by a single secretary. Its budget is more than 4.5 % of Assumed Nominal GDP and accounts for more than 21% of the US Federal Budget. One wonders if it would be so much if it was still called the Department of War.
Name changes and propaganda give us the US Navy as a "Global Force for Good". Good aiming, see CNN. While I am at it, the job of the US Army and US Marine Corps is not peace keeping. Their job is to seek out an enemy and to destroy it.
Take it from a former US Army propagandist [Awards winning Military Journalist]. But, I digress.
Tommy
90 - zingzing
clavos: "while some of [dan's] views might be "unfashionable" here at BC, most of them don't bear that stigma out in the real world."
it's hard to know if "dan" is really "dan," as "dan" is a common name, even around here, but if it's the same "dan," dan has some pretty nasty views (he'll pass them off as "politically incorrect," i'm sure).
i know i've run into a "dan" (or maybe two) around here with views that are nothing short of bigotry. but who knows if its the same dan. (it's a pretty good trick, naming yourself an anonymous john.)
and i also notice you're not stepping up to agree with dan that o'keefe is just telling the truth.
91 - Clavos
the job of the US Army and US Marine Corps is not peace keeping.
True. It's breaking things and killing people.
92 - Boeke
It looks like this subject is petering out in the usual BlogCritics welter of personal abuse and insult, but as a Parthian shot I want to say that NPR seems like the LEAST likely target for complaint about tax money supporting partisanship, most of which complaint is authored by people who never listen to NPR.
IMO both AFRTS and standard commercial radio/TV broadcasters are FAR more susceptible to complaints about partisanship and wasted tax moneys.
I'm prepared to argue that the commercial airwaves should be radically re-structured to reflect the possibilities of modern technology which can almost eliminate the monopoly control of information communication that now exists and liberate the radio and TV to much greater diversity and expression.
But all I see here on this retarded Blog site is rightists trying to stamp out any expression that hasn't signed the Rightist Loyalty Oath, and limp wristed leftists who have a foggy notion that they should defend NPR whether they listen to it or not, because even they have bought into the notion that NPR is peculiarly partisan, and peculiarly tax supported.
Maybe I should write an article about a new FCC charter, but I think it's Pearls Before Swine in this atmosphere.
93 - Tommy Mack
Boeke, I think you should write an article about a new FCC charter. It is long overdue. You might start your research with an article about the FCC Fairness Doctrine I wrote a little while ago. As a former broadcaster and NPR station advocate, I’d be very interested to know what you think.
Tommy
94 - Dan
"If you're defending a position purely because it's unfashionable, though, that in itself can lead to fallacious reasoning."---Dr. Dreadful
There is nothing inherent in any position or any motivation driving ones position, fashionable or not, that necessarily leads to fallacious reasoning.
Objective detachment and cognitive capacity are two important traits that enhance ones ability to argue logically. They are in short supply around here.
I've admitted before that I am drawn to the irrational logic of the progressive ideology. It is like a puzzle of perversity.
Sal Alinsky's Rules for Radicals does alleviate some bewilderment though. His candid endorsement of dishonesty and hypocrisy as a tool to harness the gullible masses in the service of societal upheaval is now standard operating procedure among progressive elites.
"So you are unprincipled, Dan. I'll do my best to ignore you"---Costello
You're doing a poor job so far.
"...all I see here on this retarded Blog site is rightists trying to stamp out any expression that hasn't signed the Rightist Loyalty Oath"---Boeke
No one is trying to "stamp out" NPR's bigoted expression. We just don't want to be forced to pay for it.
95 - Glenn Contrarian
Dan -
Objective detachment and cognitive capacity are two important traits that enhance ones ability to argue logically. They are in short supply around here.
Yes, and thanks to your dogged insistence that O'Keefe didn't deceptively edit his 'exposes' when even an attorney general and Andrew Breitbart and even Glenn Beck think otherwise, you are solid proof of that!
96 - Dan
Glenn, I believe I've looked at all your "evidence". Your nutty "deceptive editing" schtick fools no one. At least no one in a position to act on it. (thank God) That is why the Schillings are out of work, and ACORN is out of funding, and O'Keefe is probably planning his next expose'.
97 - zingzing
so, dan... why did the acorn guy in california call the police? and why do the unedited videos always show a very, very different story? does this not matter one bit to you?
98 - Igor
Conservatives might be surprised at how impartial NPR really is, if they just listened to NPR.
For example, I just listened to the NPR-Affilliate broadcast of a Commonwealth Club address by Margaret Hoover (whose great-grandfather and life hero was Herbert Hoover) who gave a solid hour of un-interrupted conservative Talking Points (she´s a fast, articulate and intense speaker) without anyone raising objection.
If you´re a conservative and you want a good roundup of contemporary conservative opinion and rejoinders to liberals, look up her speech at the Commonwealth Club website or NPR.
Of course, the contrast occurred to me that conservative radio feeds would never offer a similar venue to some liberal speaker.
Overall, in my experience, NPR is at least fair to conservatives and often leans over backward for conservatives.
Give it a try.
99 - Igor
As an example of how NPR leans over backward to please conservatives (who, apparently, will never listen to NPR anyway) this morning they had a report on Bidens meeting with the Chinese and the commentary was ONLY by the hard-right Pete Peterson institute. No countervailing leftist opinion.
Conservatives: start listening to NPR! (And don´t forget to send in your pledge checks).
100 - Igor
I wouldn want my conservative friends to miss any pleasure, so here? some URLs to Hoovers speech:
podcast
Youtube
blog
101 - Igor
(Sorry about the typos, my KB is acting up).