NPR's non apology, Apology........ for not covering Sanders
NPR is the latest media outlet to respond after receiving scrutiny from their audience regarding coverage of presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders.
This comes just one day following a blog post from The New York Times‘ Public Editor responding to angry readers announcing she will perform a content analysis of Sanders’ coverage.
The segment triggering outrage was on Joe Biden’s potential run, with Mara Liasson closing her piece saying, “There are many Democrats who think it would be good for Hillary Clinton because she’d have a serious opponent… Right now, she’s basically running against herself and her problems.”
NPR Audience & Community Relations has apologized to listener Colleen Shaddox via email saying the “running against herself” reference “was intended to mean that her campaign is being buffeted in large part by issues related to things she’s done – including using a private email server.”
The comment in question came after Liasson was asked when Biden needs to make a decision, she responded by going on to question whether his third presidential run would be good for the Democrats saying “the party wants competition.”
Even though it’s unclear how NPR drew the conclusion that Lisson was actually talking about Clinton’s email scandal rather than the Democratic Party wishing Clinton had some competition, this goes to show the huge outlets like NPR and the Times rely on the public’s satisfaction.
While we await Sullivan’s findings, Sanders supporters can at least celebrate another small victory in the quest to end the Bernie Blackout.
http://berniepost.com/2015/09/npr-apologizes-failing-mention-sanders-democratic-presidential-contender/
One Readers response
NO, they did not apologize! I read the link, and a few other articles about the situation as well (including a very detailed discussion by someone at Vermont Public Radio) and ALL of them come across as "well, we're sorry you took it that way but that's not what we meant." This is the same logic as "well, I'm sorry that what I said offended you, but its not what I meant to do, so I am not in the wrong for saying whatever insensitive thing I just said" and counting it as an apology.
They cherry pick the comment from the end of the discussion and explain it away in context. Had I not listened to the whole piece, I may havce accepted the logic, but there are a half dozen moments or more where Mara Liasson performed bizarrely intense verbal gymnastics to avoid mentioning Bernie.
From the discussion about Biden, "The biggest question is what does he offer that's unique, that's different from Hillary Clinton?," then, "He certainly can't capture the antiestablishment fever that's been sweeping the Democratic Party base," but no mention of what is behind this fever, or who might be coaxing it along. There is no way that she did not intend to leave out Sanders, and a real apology would have said explicitly that the discussion was poorly handled and unfairly unbalanced.
I encourage everyone to contact NPR and express that we are not satisfied with this defense and want to see NPR conduct themselves differently.
http://help.npr.org/customer/portal/emails/new
The show being referenced by this article was
""All"" Things Considered.
which doesn't consider Bernie
= new reply since forum marked as read
I suppose next they'll suggest this:
Sometimes it just leave you with a bunch of water in your ear. 
