NPR's "Undecided Voter" (2004 Flashback)

Les Jones ^ | Sept 17, 2004 | Staff

[jdm]

National Review's KerrySpot looks at a NPR feature that interviews swing voters, and one swing voter in particular: John Ridley, who is also an NPR contributor.

First, isn't getting your "man on the street" from the payroll list a little on the lazy side? It's like Ted Baxter using Bernie as his "common man." And does NPR really think their staff represents a sample slice of America? Next thing you know they'll refer to Cokie Roberts as a "soccer mom" and Click and Clack as "NASCAR dads."

Anyway, Ridley doesn't seem terribly unbiased. He thinks the Swift Boat Veterans for Truth are full of it, but thinks it's too early to tell if the CBS documents are fake. Uh huh. This guy doesn't just work for NPR. He also depends on them for all of his news.

Here's the kicker from OpenSecrets.

JOHN RIDLEY LOS ANGELES, CA SELF EMPLOYED 3/23/2004
Amount donated: $500
Recipient: John Kerry

Los Angeles is a big town, and there could be more than one John Ridley. But if this is the same guy, NPR should be ashamed at trying to pass off a Kerry contributor as an undecided voter. NPR's ombudsman is apparently looking into it.

[jdm]

MORE...

Sept. 29, 2004:

I mentioned a few weeks ago that NPR ran a week-long special interviewing swing voters, including an NRP contributor named John Ridley. People quickly searched OpenSecrets.org and discovered that earlier this year a man in Los Angeles named John Ridley had donated $500 to Kerry's campaign and $500 to Wesley Clark's campaign. You can see the info here.

NPR's ombudsman responded to complaints and confirmed that their John Ridley had donated the money, and that their interview had failed to discover that fact. Ridley claims he gave money to Republicans, but in amounts that fell under the $200 reporting threshhold. At this point, I think the burden of proof is on him to prove it. From what I can tell, and from what Bill Raftery says after reading the transcript, NPR has still not acknowledged the Clark contribution. The National Review has a response to the ombudsman.

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CNN is just doing (on a much larger scale) what NPR was concocting in the lead-up to the 2004 Presidential election (only difference is that the CNNsix aren't employed by CNN, I don't think...).

[Doctor Raoul]

There's ananswer to this journalistic integrity problem at NPR. Defund NPR so they don't have a conflict of interest.

Then they can be unemployed, undecided voters.

[deathrace2000]

What’s the difference between NPR, ACLU, NYT, NBC, DNC, CBS??

Other than the order of the letters, I don’t know, someone please tell me. They must all work their rounds, and then rotate.

[pabianice]

[airedale]

I looked at Open Secrets for the 6 uncommitted people that CNN used and didn’t find anything. Their Democratic credentials are impeccable so I found it very surprising that none of them had contributed a dime to any Democrat in any of the previous election cycles. The Harry Reid intern is understandable because of her age but the rest is really interesting considering the donations that the Clinton’s for example rang out of dishwashers and busboys who maxed out their contributions.