Excerpt:
Imagine you're a typical NPR listener, tuning in as you sip your Starbucks Cafe Latte - made with skim milk and a shot of cinnamon - work the New York Times crossword puzzle, and think about how great it is that you don't have to stop for gas on your way to work this morning because you drive a Prius. Suddenly, you're jolted out of your comfortable morning routine by the unimaginable: a segment entitled "Conversations with Conservatives."
Choking on your latte and misspelling "pestiferous" on your crossword, your head begins to spin as Rev. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, discusses the status of evangelical voters. But surely it's just an anomaly. An early April Fool's Day joke. Yeah, that must be it! And fortunately, it was only seven minutes.
But the next day, you hear Grover Norquist, founder of Americans for Tax Reform, talking about which fiscal policies appeal to Republican voters. And the day after that, radio talk show host and CNN personality Glenn Beck discusses core conservative values. And on the last day of February, you are treated to David Keene, chairman of the American Conservative Union, blathering on about the challenges that Sen. John McCain faces when it comes to proving himself to the conservative base.
If there's a reason to abolish Leap Year and February 29, then having David Keene spoil your Starbucks experience surely must be it. Who can you call? There has to be someone. The Washington Times reports that for daring to air the views of conservatives on its morning drive show during the final four days of February, NPR fielded "more than 60 angry e-mails and phone calls.... calling the programming `shameful' and a `lovefest with radical, right-wing nuts.' There were only a few . that praised the series as `refreshing' and `articulate,' among other things."
National Public Radio is funded in part by federal tax dollars. The last time I checked, both liberals AND conservatives are required to pay federal taxes. So what's wrong with having four seven-minute segments out of the year where conservative ideas are brought forth? You know, throw them a Milk Bone once in a while to pretend you care about them while you spend their money on things like Garrison Keillor's "Prairie Home Companion."
The problem with many liberals is that while they say they espouse tolerance, love for your fellow man, and discussing problems instead of resorting to fisticuffs, when they're actually expected to "walk the walk," things get ugly. To them, just listening to conservative ideas is akin to Dracula finding out about a nationwide tainted blood supply. It's painful when liberals realize that not everyone thinks the way that they do: that there are unenlightened souls out there who don't recycle, who go to church once in a while, who respect our military, and who don't think that the sun shines out of Barack Obama's nether regions.
So, being the enlightened, progressive types that they are, instead of listening respectfully to what the other side has to say - and possibly learning something new - they stick their fingers in their ears, chant "I can't hear you," and complain to the person in charge about how awful the experience was. It's sort of like the people who believe that vandalizing and bombing military recruiting stations is a great way to get their message of peace out to the masses.
More here
Posted by John Ray. For a daily critique of Leftist activities, see DISSECTING LEFTISM. For a daily survey of Australian politics, see AUSTRALIAN POLITICS Also, don't forget your handy-dandy summary of Obama news and commentary at OBAMA WATCH
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4 comments:
Oh my gosh! 60 angry e-mails! Libruhls must be on the warpath! 60!
the inside of your head may be too painful for you to bear, but try and make some sense of your twisted, reality-free opinion before you let it seep out... it make you look foolish and it waste our time.
just two quick points: the vast majority of NPR funding comes from 'the listeners themselves' and if you think "more than 60 angry e-mails and phone calls" is frightening then i imagine your phone and email account must be rather silent
Conservatives have always been interviewed and profiled by National Public Radio. Unlike the screaming, idiotic trash you are used to calling news, the folks at NPR interview everyone newsworthy. They have thoughtful, insightful conversations with all of their interviewees.
William Kristol has been interviewed many times on NPR. As have Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz, Norquist, both Poderetz's, Schlafly, Reed....the list is endless. I recently heard a wonderful interview with a very clever man who runs a conservative blog called "Protein Wisdom". You name a conservative, and they have been on NPR.
I am not sure what silly fantasy you are dreaming up here, but conservatives being profiled and interviewed on NPR is not new.
You start with a cliche-ridden stereotype of the latte-drinking, prius-driving liberal, then, having established your own bigotry, move on to criticise all of the millions of people who listen to NPR because there were "more than 60 angry e-mails and phone calls" in response to their series of interviews. Wow . . . more than 60! I checked, and the NPR morning program "Morning Edition" (the program on which these interviews were broadcast) has a weekly listenership of nearly 14 million people. So that means that only one out of every 233,000 or so of these listeners was "choking on their latte." In other words, 99.9996% of NPR listeners handled this interview series just fine. But why let facts or simple arithmetic get in the way of a good scold about "The problem with many liberals . . ." One has to ask: who's the intolerant one here?
In any case, I think you have it backwards. While many liberals undoubtedly listen to NPR, the question is, if it's true that a lot of conservatives don't listen to it, then why not? Do conservatives demand to be catered to with non-stop propaganda like they get with Rush Limbaugh or Michael Savage? NPR is undoubtedly the best news and information radio network in the nation. Conservatives should listen to it too, and they can still get their daily dose of propaganda from the usual sources if good, in-depth, straight-ahead reporting doesn't meet all of their needs.
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