NPR's Dionne Promotes Smear: Next, Trump Will Name Mexican Kingpin to Run the DEA

NewsBusters.org ^ | December 11, 2016 | Tim Graham

[Kaslin]

National Public Radio likes to think it's about civility (not rudeness) and real news (not fake news). But when it comes to Donald Trump, on Friday night NPR became the promoter of a rude and disparaging joke on All Things Considered. Washington Post columnist and NPR contributor E. J. Dionne passed along a joke from unfunny leftist Andy Borowitz in The New Yorker: that Trump's picks were so contrary to the government's mission that next he would name Mexican drug kingpin "El Chapo" to run the DEA.

DIONNE: Well, I think you've got Trump naming a lot of people who don't particularly seem to believe in the missions of their department. Scott Pruitt has been a great critic of the EPA, wants states to take over their work. The new labor secretary, Andrew Puzder, is from Hardee's and Carl's Jr. They employ a lot of low-wage labor. He's had regulatory issues with the Labor Department.

This led to Andy Borowitz, the wonderful humor writer of The New Yorker, to write a mock news story saying that Trump had named Joaquin Guzman - the drug dealer, the drug kingpin El Chapo - to head the Drug Enforcement Administration. Now, yes, it's funny, but it does speak to the kinds of people that Trump is naming. This is an extremely conservative administration, way more conservative so far than George W.'s was.

Apparently, Saturday Night Live stole that joke and brought in Bryan Cranston to joke that Trump's DEA nominee was Walter White, the drug kingpin at the center of Breaking Bad. Liberals expect that everyone who serves in government must be a leftist. To them, the Department of Labor isn't about all working people, it's the Department of Unions. To them, the EPA is the Coal and Oil Bankrupting Administration.

NPR anchor Ari Shapiro didn't even blink at the Trump-El Chapo smear. He just turned to David Brooks of The New York Times and asked: "So David, how do you think Democrats, who have the minority in the Senate and yet are part of the confirmation process - how do you think they should approach these picks?" This attack was so liberal that David Brooks actually disagreed with Dionne's arrogant position (don't faint):

BROOKS: They may not be my cup of tea, but you know, it's not like they're against the mission of their agencies. All of these issues, whether it's labor issues, like the minimum wage or wage levels or environmental issues - there are tradeoffs. There are tradeoffs, say, between environmental costs and business costs.

And Trump is clearly worried about growth, and he's picking people who are aggressively on the business costs and may be insensitive to the environmental costs. But it's not like they're against the agency - against the mission. It's just a different set of priorities.

DIONNE: But I think the labor secretary poses a real problem. Here was a man who ran for president as the paladin of the working class. He was going to improve their wages. A, he couldn't even pick somebody at least from the manufacturing sector where he promised a revival. It's from the fast food sector. And so I think that one is a sort of a bigger problem for the long run given who voted for Donald Trump.

Brooks disagreed again, that populists don't mind billionaires -- they voted for Trump. Brooks re-established his usual insider pose when Shapiro ended the week-in-review segment searching for eulogies for Joe Biden's political career:

SHAPIRO: David, what do you think Biden's legacy will be?

BROOKS: Well, people are skeptical and disgusted by Washington. But there are a lot of people like Joe Biden in it who - he was a genuinely good person. One of the things I find most remarkable about him is that so many politicians lose their inner voice, their sense of vocation. They become sort of public personas who are empty within. But Biden never lost the capacity for genuine emotion, which he showed, and genuine conscience, which he showed. And he remained a real person no matter how famous he got.

He "remained a real person" is apparently how you charitably describe his gaffe-a-minute performance.

[jiggyboy]

Trump picks Alberqueque High School chemistry teacher to head DEA

http://www.nbc.com/saturday-night-live/video/the-lead-with-jake-tapper-cold-open/3438951?snl=1

[EQAndyBuzz]

Sell off Sesame Street to the highest bidder and get rid of NPR and PBS. They should be part of the private sector and shouldn’t receive government funding. If they cannot make it on their own, oh well.

[PGR88]

End the National Endowment for the Arts and NPR

Fed.gov has no business choosing “art” and no business with its own propaganda station.

[tumblindice]

We’ll see how hard these NPR chuckleheads laugh when their funding is cut.
Praising Obama, mocking Trump. Why should we subsidize these lefty derps?

[Drango]

Who listens to NPR?

Almost all liberals. But every year GOP helps find it.

[PROCON]

[stocksthatgoup]

Stop government funding. Sell off the stations

[joshua c]

Joe Biden, the left’s quintessential useful idiot

[chiller]

"Contrary to the govt's mission" and yours perhaps, DJ...but not our mission.

[Junk Silver]

“Who listens to NPR?”

I don’t care who listens to it, I care who is forced at gunpoint to pay for it. (All of us who work and pay taxes in other words.)

It’s time to end taxpayer funding of anti-American propaganda.

[marktwain]

NPR was created by progressives to promote the progressive agenda.

It has done so.

[C210N]

There the left goes again...

Projection - accusing the other side of doing exactly something they would want to do.

[RKV]

We are borrowing money to fund this [expletive] via the federal deficit. That is insane.

[The_Media_never_lie]

Who listens to NPR?

---

Lots of liberals and people in transition.

[dp0622]

Yes. Yes it is.

[GingisK]

Oh, never mind, that was Hillary’s plan.

[Candor7]

NPR must be really sure of their continued federal funding.

[Cheerio]

The LEFT just cannot help itself - it is in their DNA. Facts are of utterly no use to these cultists and win.





Conservative had to suffer through 8 solid years of pure he$$ while the MARXISTS ran the show in America and the GOPee sat with their fingers up their #$^%#^. NOW STFU and suffer like we had to, there's a new SHERIFF IN TOWN.

[AZLiberty]

OK, so let’s continue E.J.’s “joke”. Apparently, Trump has a made a “deal” with El Chapo (because that’s what Trump does). El Chapo gets to head the DEA only if he first takes out all of the liberal commentariat, starting with E.J. Dionne.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Liberals expect that everyone who serves in government must be a leftist. . . . To them, the EPA is the Coal and Oil Bankrupting Administration.

The USAF bombing campaign against Germany during WWII was only really effective when it attacked Germany’s petroleum infrastructure. It’s only logical that the opponents of the prosperity of American society would go after the same target here.