NPR Hit Piece on Rally for America

National Public Radio's Marketplace

[Wordsmith]

NPR's widely broadcast business and economy radio program Marketplace included a short segment tonight intended to discredit the past weekend's pro-war rallies.

In short, the segment raised the possibility that many of the pro-war rallies were organized by Clear Channel Communications radio stations either at the direction of the Bush Administration or due to a desire to gain favor with the Administration, a quid pro quo.

They specifically reported that "many in the media" were questioning whether these rallies reflected legitimate public sentiment. Their source for this? A SINGLE "journalist" - from salon.com!!! This "journalist's" comments that Clear Channel was part of a Bush cabal staging shows of public support was the ONLY evidence given of the existence of doubt from "many in the media". Neither Salon nor the journalist were identified as liberals.

To be fair, while Clear Channel didn't comment, the program manager for an affiliate - I believe in Virginia - that organized one of the rallies did speak at length, and quite eloquently, about how the rally sprang from listener demand not directions from HQ.

Still, the smear was quite noticeable. Typical "throw it at the wall and see if it sticks" reporting from NPR, planting the idea with listeners that the VRWC is behind these rallies and all is being directed by the Bush cabal. Thought those who helped with the rallies might like to know. I'll post a transcript or link if I can find one.

[swilhelm73]

So, they'll throw out any dirt they can get on pro-war rallies...but has NPR covered who is behind the pro-appeasement rallies? You'd think the union of former communists and islamists would merit some serious discussion in the press...

[merrin]

I see, so if it's organized by hard-left groups, then it's "genuine," but if it's organized by a radio network, it's not.

Got it.

[Darksheare]

NPR, frontmen for terror, evil, and deviant behavior.

[nvcdl]

Marketplace seems to include a leftist opinion piece in every edition.

[Rocko]

Boycott/defund NPR.

[gathersnomoss]

NPR should have their funding discontinued. Then let's see how they fair in the free market. I do not like my tax dollars funding their second ammendment rights.

[Drango]

Gee NPR...how is it you forgot to report on your sister "Public Broadcasting" stations Pacifica? They have been organizing and mobilizing the ultra left for anti-war protests.

Strange to take umbrage at a commercial station while you give a pass to a TAX funded one. Did I say strange? I meant hypocritical.

[Cindy]

"ARE THEY FOR US OR AGAINST US?" (Updated Daily - Click Here.)

[PianoMan]

Paul Krugman said this too, but he's no journalist, not by a long shot. I can't believe my tax dollars go to this crap.

[Mr. Silverback]

Bump for later reading

[Drango]

Gee NPR...

For the record, Marketplace is technically PRI...which is just another shell under the CPB propaganda machine.

[Beck_isright]

Bookmark to forward to Glenn Beck later. Why are my hard earned dollars being wasted on this communist broadcasting group?

V

[Darksheare]

That would work, but...
NPR is kept alive by idiots who think it's a free speech issue.
If anyone of us said one fourth the vile garbage that NPR does, we'd be arrested for hate speech.

[Shermy]

They've found for themselves a pat excuse not to consider the protests and their message.

[KOZ.]

I knew you two were working for NPR!!!

koz.

[CatoRenasci]

I heard the piece driving home (after Sean Hannity was over) and was infuriated: NPR was the pot calling the kettle black! NPR is cozy with the Demoncrats (remember the flap about mailing lists at WGBH in Boston) and very much anti-war biased. I found their tu quo que attack on Clearchannel despicable.

[Tamzee]

It's actually a bit worse...

Krugman at New York Times took the same salon.com column and turned it into a grand-slam which implied the rally participants were Nazis...

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/874701/posts?q=1&&page=21

[m1911]

AFAIK, Pacifica is not publically funded.

[codder too]

Talk show host Glenn Beck was called by NPR to do a taped interview on the Rallies. It ended up being a "non-Story" according to his relating of the session. The NPR interviewer didn't want to hear that there was no political motivation or that Clear Channel did not sponsor nor instigate the Rallies.
Beck did a follow-up NPR "commercial" on his show that was great. Aired on FRiday 3/21. Might be on his web page.

[farmfriend]

The rally we had here in Sac was Emceed by a local news talk host and broadcast live on a clear channel station. They did not organize it. It was organized by a local resident and patriot Dave Jenest (Comwatch). You can find pictures and info on his web site. Patriotwatch.com

[redheadtoo]

My local talk radio station KFI 640AM (home station of Dr. Laura) is a Clear Channel station. I could not imagine any of the hosts bowing to pressure from company execs to promote a corporate position. If Clear Channel tried to dictate what position they were to promote, I'm certain the whole lot of them would walk off the job in protest.

[Drango]

AFAIK, Pacifica is not publically funded.

---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/874231/posts

Are you sure they get tax $$ ?

LOL...I get asked about this every time I post it...Here is my response from an earlier thread.link

---

Easy to see that Pacifica recieved about $1.3 million of your tax dollars from the CPB. Check out the Pacifica web site (go to page 13 of this pdf file) go to page 13

If you have time, you can go to the CPB page and cross reference this.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

You've forgotten, Cato, the Boston mailing lists were destroyed by WGBH with a promise to "never do that again."

[Wordsmith]

Unbelievable article by Krugman. Marketplace basically lifted the whole segment from Krugman - even the use of the term "quid pro quo".

Wonder when Marketplace will do a segment on ANSWER.

[EternalVigilance]

I organized the Des Moines Rally. Clear Channel certainly didn't have a thing to do with ours.

It was put together solely by volunteers, and every part of the event was done with donated equipment and time.

The success--and it WAS a success--was solely driven by public enthusiasm and demand.

I hate liars.

[Martin Tell]

I do not like my tax dollars funding their second ammendment rights.

Actually I would have no problem with tax dollars funding Second Amendment rights. I wonder if Garrison Keillor prefers a long barrel .357 or something smaller and more concealable, like a .38?

I could use a new piece myself - is it part of W's tax plan, gun-tax credits for everyone?

Just kidding. I think you meant "First Amendment" and I agree with you. I drive a good bit and listen to NPR as it is wall-to-wall war coverage. The slant is so bad, however, that I am now switching to the sounds of silence. I get better coverage from my own thoughts.

[DoctorMichael]

I'm a proud member of the VRWC.

[sweetliberty]

What do you expect? They are part of the problem, not part of the solution. They are a voice for the enemy within.

[nvcdl]

http://marketplace.org/comments/

[gathersnomoss]

My error.

[Cordova Belle]

Infuriating. Bump for later read.

[OBone]

There is some sanity on left coast college campus. Check out this link http://www.protestwarrior.com/ Make sure you look at the photo gallery. If nothing else you will get a great laugh.

OB

[Wordsmith]

I drive a good bit and listen to NPR as it is wall-to-wall war coverage.

Ditto. Good practice in unpacking liberal media spin. My local affiliate in NH has just started broadcasting BBC in the 6:30 slot. They're even worse than our public radio.

[Rome2000]

In that the GOP is still funding these leftist sons of bitches,we can't really complain if we are unwilling to do anything to take them off the air.

[jackbill]

Is NPR still broadcasting?

[timydnuc]

The de-funding of NPR will commence at the end of the war. I can almost guarantee that. This enemy "hussey" needs no more of my tax money!

[m1911]

Thanks for the info - holy cow, it was actually 13% of their income for 2001. If I remember right, that's well above the average of 8% for most NPR/PRI stations. Since I've already been proven wrong once, I qualify that as a number I (hazily) remember from back in the Reagan days.

[only1percent]

They do receive CPB funds and a variety of state and local grants and subsidies. Won't they (claim they) don't take is corporate donations, hence the lack of crypto-commercials which now adorn most PBS, NPR and PRI broadcasts. Can't really imagine what corporations would donate to Pacifica anyway, as Pacifica more or less doesn't believe in private property, but there are always idiots out there, aren't there?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Take a closer look at Minnesota Public Radio. The owners are very much capitalistic.

[spindoctor]

I rarely listen to NPR, but tuned in while driving to the store on Saturday. I don't know who the NPR talking head was but he suggested that the Iraqi civilian injuries, due to anti-aircraft missles, was really the fault of the USA because if it wasn't for us the Iraqi's wouldn't be trying to shoot down our aircraft.

Then he asked another NPR reporter, attending the New York anti-war march, to tell us about it. Well the first thing that came out of his mouth was, "It's great to be here." So much for journalistic objectivity.

[San Jacinto]

I just heard the piece you are talking about. You did an EXCELLENT job of reporting on it, by the way.

At one point they threw in the ad hominem charge that "many" think that Clearchannel "strong arms" musical groups to book concerts through their firm in exchange for air play. Their proof? Well, "some managers" will say so, but "only behind close doors".

Here's the no-spin deal: NPR does not like Pro-America rallies (or "Pro-Administration" rallies, as it call them). They like Anti-war, pro-leftists rallies. We now live in this 'through the looking glass' world where you will be attacked by the American tax dollar subsidized radio network as a bad guy and a corpoprate criminal if you support a Pro-America demonstration.

Pretend it is 1943 and try to dream up an analagous situation. You won't be able to. It is far too bizarre.

[WOSG]

NPR had pro-Saddam "Voices in the Wilderness" call-in commentator from Baghdad ... ON SATURDAY MORNING 4 DAYS AGO.

'nuff said.

[WOSG]

i noticed that too ... commented to

http://www.marketplace.org

and gave them a piece of mind a few times. to no effect.

[Osage Orange]

What NPR ought to do...is do some real objective informative reporting on who funds the Anti-Bush/Anti-America crowd. Of course..that's never going to happen.

Anti-War Protests Have Big Price Tags

foxnews.com | March 18, 2003

Tuesday, March 18, 2003 SEATTLE — Large anti-war protests come with a hefty price tag.

Money is needed to rent or buy stages, sound systems, permits and portable toilets, and tabs often run as high as $200,000 per demonstration — much more than the average grassroots peace group will ever have in its coffers.

So who is picking up the tab?

"The major anti-U.S. government demonstrations are organized by people who have been around for a long time, particularly the Workers World Party, which has existed for more than 30 years now and has always supported the enemies of the United States," said Herbert Romerstein, a retired agent of the U.S. Information Agency.

The Workers World Party describes itself as Marxist in nature.

Officially, protest organizers are groups such as Not in Our Name and International A.N.S.W.E.R., but the demonstration's sponsors have long histories of backing anti-government causes.

Not in Our Name is financed by the Interreligious Foundation for Community Organization. I.F.C.O. is a million-dollar-a-year non-profit that supports Cuban dictator Fidel Castro and once sponsored a group headed by Sami Al-Arian — the University of South Florida professor being charged with fundraising for terrorist organizations Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad.

A.N.S.W.E.R. is an offshoot of the International Action Center, which intelligence officials say is a front for the Worker's World Party. A.N.S.W.E.R. canceled a scheduled interview with Fox News but a worker in the Seattle field office acknowledged there are ties.

"There are some Workers World Party members in A.N.S.W.E.R.," said A.N.S.W.E.R. coordinator Jim McMahan.

The International Action Center was founded by former U.S. Attorney General Ramsey Clark, who is a longtime public face of the anti-war movement.

The Workers World Party supports North Korea's brutal regime and I.F.C.O. defied U.N. sanctions when it made a trip to Iraq in the mid-1990s. Now, both are sugar daddies to the anti-war movement.

"The American people have the right to know whether stooges of [North Korean leader] Kim Jong Il or Castro or Saddam Hussein are involved in these demonstrations," Romerstein said.

The groups bankrolling these protests say they're spending their money the way donors would want, and protest organizers say it doesn't matter where the money comes from — the message is their own.

Others wonder if knowing the fringe politics of the people paying the bills might keep some demonstrators off the streets.

But anti-war organizers — regardless of their financial backing — are plugging ahead and are actually planning more aggressive action that they say will be hard to ignore, despite the fact that the United States is on the brink of war with Iraq.

"People will step up their actions, there will be active civil disobedience," said Simona Sharoni of United for Peace in Thurston County, Wash.

Direct Action, a San Francisco Bay-area group of anti-war veterans, has been drawing up their own battle plan should there be a war.

They say they will shut down 70 targets in San Francisco alone, including power plants, water systems, the Federal Reserve, oil companies, the Pacific Exchange and the Transamerica Building.

And their hit list goes beyond economic targets.

Some protesters are promising to chain themselves to fences at schools and day care centers so working parents will have to stay home from their jobs. Organizers say this will give others a chance to contemplate how war affects the children of Iraq.

"The civilians in Iraq are losing their lives and one day of work is worth a thousand lives," said Leone Reinbold, an anti-war activist in San Francisco.

Reinbold helped organize the World Trade Organization protest in Seattle three years ago. She blames the violence and damage on anarchists from the radical fringe, not the mainstream demonstrators.

All the same, police departments from coast to coast know that keeping things peaceful won't be easy.

"We know based on the last one that each preceding demonstration has been a little bit more volatile than the one before," said Deputy Chief Greg Suhr of the San Francisco Police Department.

Some protestors are vowing to bring traffic to a standstill, as they recently did on a Seattle bridge. But many wonder if paralyzing the morning commute and engaging in similar disruptions will win converts or make enemies of people losing patience with their tactics.

[m1911]

Fascinating, that audit. Wish I understood more of it. I found page 10 interesting too. Apparently from endowments etc., Pacifica owned $625,026 in "Corporate Securities". Of course, like everyone else they lost their ass on them that year, which of course the running dog capitalists deserved.

[WorkingClassFilth]

I attended the 'Liberate Iraq/Support Our Troops' rally in St. Paul, Minnesota this weekend. The head count was pegged by various sources as being between 15-23,000.

Our local NPR affiliate devoted two sentences to the event the next day and called the turnout at a "few thousand."

What can be said beyond what I always say in my tagline...

[Martin Tell]

BBC ... They're even worse than our public radio.

Agreed. I was living in Britain during the 2000 election and their pro-Gore bias was extremely hard to take. I was so relieved that W won - at last I could come home.

BBC is excellent on business coverage, however.

[Bob J]

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[upchuck]

It make me absolutely sick that some of my tax dollars are being used to perpetuate this Commie sham.

DEFUND PBS AND NPR NOW!!