Thom Hartmann: NPR Needs To Clean Up Their House

[thomhartmann]

National Public Radio is supposed to be unbiased in how they report on controversial issues - but can that really be the case - when one of their biggest commentators moonlights at Fox so-called News?

For more information on the stories we've covered visit our websites at thomhartmann.com - freespeech.org - and RT.com. You can also watch tonight's show on Hulu - at Hulu.com/THE BIG PICTURE and over at The Big Picture YouTube page. And - be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter!

[Dustlawyer]

1. I am sure the guys and gals at NPR have high paying jobs waiting for them after their

NPR stint is done. We will have to really fight to get our Democracy away from corporate control!

[appalachiablue]

2. Seems this is something that the DNC should be involved with, as in the

deliberate omission of candidate Bernie Sanders officially running as a Dem., now in 2nd place and who's also helping the DNC with fundraising as I understand it.

[libodem]

3. Take that to DWS right away

I'm sure she'll get right on that.

[appalachiablue]

7. DWS is not God of the Democratic Party. If she continues to favor HRC and ignore

other candidates she should step down and go to work exclusively for the Clinton campaign. With widespread dissatisfaction over her performance in the position of DNC Chair, especially the miserable 2016 election debate schedule DWS' days may be numbered. We can only hope; she should have resigned after the 2014 elections or earlier.

[bjobotts]

21. All republican talk, where are the Dem debates

Dem debates would get the democratic agenda before the public but DWS is keeping the dem message from getting out so all we hear about are republican stunts and messages. The entire voting population needs to hear the democratic message thru debates.

[bvar22]

4. We have really fallen through the Looking Glass when...

...RT (Russian Times) is producing relevant news stories and commentary,
and our own NPR has become a propaganda organ.

(I still listen to Prairie Home Companion every Sat night,
but that wonderful show is not going to last much longer.
It won't be the same without Keillor)

[LuvNewcastle]

15. It is sad.

I used to listen all the time; now I mostly listen when they're playing classical music. They definitely have a RW slant when it comes to news. I'll start listening to the talk when they start talking about something worthy of my attention.

[Uncle Joe]

5. Kicked and recommended.

Thanks for the thread, thomhartmann.

[Jack Rabbit]

6. The biased Ms. Liasson has been a disgrace to NPR for years

I can't forgive her for being dismissive to anti-war demonstrators and anti-Bush sentiment in general during the run up to the invasion of Iraq.

She's one of those "journalists" who seems to get all of her information from Republicans at cocktail parties in Georgetown. She must be best buddies with Cokie Roberts.

[appalachiablue]

10. Uh, Cokie, one of the eternal DC fixtures. On Morning Joke today she was clutching her pearls,

in the distinctively cool and old guard Cokie way. Years ago a DC supervisor we had was a dead ringer for her, they could have been sisters or twins which was fairly unsettling at times.

[zentrum]

12. Cokie to me is

…the female David Brooks. A pundit who is republican and yet has some sort of reasonable and "insightful" patina. She's insufferable.

[appalachiablue]

13. Cokie & Brooks are of the same ilk it's true. And both are unbearable, faux & fading fast.

[Orrex]

14. I tune in Monday mornings specifically to hear Cokie's commentary

Otherwise how will I know how terrible and incompetent and out-of-touch Democrats are?

[Jack Rabbit]

18. That a terrible thing to say, Zentrum.

You owe David Brooks an apology.

[Ken Burch]

22. I STILL remember Cokie, in 1990, after the "UNO" victory in the Nicaraguan elections,

smugly asserting(on "Morning Edition&quot that the results proved that the U.S.(through the Contra atrocities and the economic embargo) forced the Sandinistas to hold elections.

To her, the deaths of thousands of Nicaraguan civilians were a small price to pay for the U.S. regime getting to claim that it had got its way.

[zentrum]

11. ^^For years!^^

Be sure to go over to NPR's various websites and leave a comment.

[passiveporcupine]

9. Why is Thom on RT anyway?

Why don't we have a good liberal radio station over this whole country for good liberal reporters/hosts like Thom?

Seems like republican air waves are everywhere. I don't understand why liberal programs are so hard to sustain, since supposedly this country is more liberal than conservative.

I guess it's true...you don't know what you've lost till it's gone...and the more you are afraid of being marginalized, the stronger you fight to stay relative.

[KoKo]

20. "You Don't Know What You've Lost Until Its Gone!

Amazing how memories can fade...and to explain goes into the "ether." Who can remember when the deluge of forgetfulness takes over as our internet Bandwidth Shrinks due to inaffordability and choice (yet allows top rate access to Netflix and Amazon for our Movie Entertainment) and Access is denied (with Time Outs and Reloads) for those of us out there who want to watch "Alternative Media" for News Reporting outside the MSM.

-----------

What you say:

Why don't we have a good liberal radio station over this whole country for good liberal reporters/hosts like Thom?

Seems like republican air waves are everywhere. I don't understand why liberal programs are so hard to sustain, since supposedly this country is more liberal than conservative.

I guess it's true...you don't know what you've lost till it's gone...and the more you are afraid of being marginalized, the stronger you fight to stay relative.

[passiveporcupine]

23. well maybe it's time for us to start fighting

and the more you are afraid of being marginalized, the stronger you fight to stay relative.

Like our lives depended on it.

[cprise]

29. Because that's what its come to

And liberal is hardly the opposite of conservative when the latter is preoccupied with extending militarism and xenophobia in every way possible. Selling fear is how you get liberals to go along with your agenda.

There are also the anecdotes (the trend?) of people like Thom Hartman and Cenk Uygur who were rejected as too anti-establishment despite performing well. If you are a heavy at a corporation like MSNBC, its near impossible to be comfortable with a journalist on your team pointing out that your financial backers (and the system they essentially own) are corrupt or lawless. Liberal and especially progressive journalists are shut out even if the audience likes them.

I should also mention Dan Rather (and his producer and two others) who were ousted because they criticized Bush. That was a very high-profile purge.

[passiveporcupine]

30. But if there are so many liberals in this country

Or people who think like liberals, even if they don't claim to be one, why are the sponsors of these stations not supporting liberal programming for the majority of us? Isn't it what many of us want to watch or listen to?

Or does the audience no longer matter? Is it just a money game now, where sponsors pay for a program that the station owner wants to run, but there is no correlation to people (the audience) buying their product?

[cprise]

32. Its money AND power

And the audience matters a lot less to them now than it used to. They hope they can keep walking all over us if they keep us over-entertained and uninformed.

[Scruffy1]

16. I've called them National Petroleum Radio for years.

A few years ago one of my friends asked why I never listened to the radio, and later that night, on my way to work I turned on NPR. it hadn't improved a bit. Their favorite gimmick is putting on paid hacks as honest opinion, without ever mentioning who pays them. It's the old "who's your daddy?' that every reporter should know how to find out.
The reporters from NPR I've met deem to have no beliefs except that the public is stupid and they want to keep their jobs. Once the Public funding dwindled and they begin relying on corporate "donations" it was the end of them as any kind of worthwhile news source.

[zentrum]

25. That's very funny.

I'll remember that.

[840high]

27. I'm stealing that. ty

[passiveporcupine]

31. So how do we get public funding for NPR again?

And who is going to want to fund a radio station that has already gone to the dogs.

We need to put our money where our mouth is.

[wolfie001]

17. Bush (shrub walker) implanted a coterie of RW hacks into this "Corporation"

As a Bush appointee, chairman Kenneth Y. Tomlinson was a disgusting RW hack who openly slanted news stories to the right. This was over a decade ago.

[barbtries]

19. national public republican radio

pisses me off on a daily basis. i think they're trying to create a self-fulfilling prophecy of republican rule along with the rest of corporate media.

[Bubzer]

24. "He has filled up and overflowed nearly every venue he's spoken in" That says a lot.

[Enthusiast]

26. I boycott NPR. Like MSNBC, they don't deserve us.

[840high]

28. +1