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NPR's pro-War reporting
Here is copy of letter sent to NPR regarding their pro-War, dishonest reporting.
National Public Radio
Ombudsman
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
ombudsman [at] npr.org
Dear Mr. Dvorkin
NPR’s reporting about the October 26 Anti-War March in Washington was neither professional or honest. During the airing of Weekend Edition, Nancy Marshall went overboard in disparaging the event. She claimed that, “It was not as large as the organizers of the protest had predicted. They had said there would be 100,000 people here. I'd say there are fewer than 10,000."
Actually, organizer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard told the Washington Post the march was "just extremely, extremely successful." CSPAN, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times all estimated the crowd at 100,000 or more.
NPR’s seems to be walking in lock-step with the pro-war mainstream media. Everything is done to falsely discredit all opposition to the Bush war. Shame on you.
Peace, Guy
Ombudsman
Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
ombudsman [at] npr.org
Dear Mr. Dvorkin
NPR’s reporting about the October 26 Anti-War March in Washington was neither professional or honest. During the airing of Weekend Edition, Nancy Marshall went overboard in disparaging the event. She claimed that, “It was not as large as the organizers of the protest had predicted. They had said there would be 100,000 people here. I'd say there are fewer than 10,000."
Actually, organizer Mara Verheyden-Hilliard told the Washington Post the march was "just extremely, extremely successful." CSPAN, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times all estimated the crowd at 100,000 or more.
NPR’s seems to be walking in lock-step with the pro-war mainstream media. Everything is done to falsely discredit all opposition to the Bush war. Shame on you.
Peace, Guy
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I don't know how NPR reporting an estimated number of anti-war protestors can be construed as "pro-war."
I hope you realize that every time someone from the No in Our Name camp tosses out blantantly inflated crowd estimates (I heard someone claim with a straight face that 500,000 people were on the Mall last Saturday), a small piece of your cause's credibility is lost. This is also the case every time you use smears such as "pro-war" against the only news outlet that will convey your message in-depth and from many angles, that being NPR. Without getting into specifics, I know people who work at NPR and, believe me, they are sympathetic to your cause. Don't smear your allies. You already have enough enemies.
I hope you realize that every time someone from the No in Our Name camp tosses out blantantly inflated crowd estimates (I heard someone claim with a straight face that 500,000 people were on the Mall last Saturday), a small piece of your cause's credibility is lost. This is also the case every time you use smears such as "pro-war" against the only news outlet that will convey your message in-depth and from many angles, that being NPR. Without getting into specifics, I know people who work at NPR and, believe me, they are sympathetic to your cause. Don't smear your allies. You already have enough enemies.
It's pro-war because it is so obviously false and so obviously done with political motivation, which has no place in journalism but only in propaganda.
Now propaganda can be good or bad. When someone in NION tosses out "overinflated estimates" that's propaganda, not because of the estimate but purely because of the source. A speaker from NION is not doing journalism and isn't expected to follow standards of journalism. If (s)he does, great, and more power and truth to them. But NPR is and should be following professional standards of journalism. We don't give them medals for this; it's a *minimum*.
How you can compare "someone" from a political organization with a journalistic organization is beyond me.
Now propaganda can be good or bad. When someone in NION tosses out "overinflated estimates" that's propaganda, not because of the estimate but purely because of the source. A speaker from NION is not doing journalism and isn't expected to follow standards of journalism. If (s)he does, great, and more power and truth to them. But NPR is and should be following professional standards of journalism. We don't give them medals for this; it's a *minimum*.
How you can compare "someone" from a political organization with a journalistic organization is beyond me.
NPR is a sedative for upper-middle class liberals who yearn to feel comfortable with the fact that they HAVEN'T DONE SHIT to combat injustice for thirty years or more.
you hit the nail on the head. I came to work this week ecstatic after the SF protest and my liberal co-worker said that she heard the DC protest wasn't a success because there were only 10,000 people there! So I sent her some articles on what really happened.
NPR really stands for National Pentagon Radio.
NPR really stands for National Pentagon Radio.
Are they based out of 2601 Mariposa in SF? That's where that other "public" station, KQED, is located.
They'd make a nice target for future protest.
Perhaps we could entice one of the clever cowards at NPR out into the daylight for real debate.
They'd make a nice target for future protest.
Perhaps we could entice one of the clever cowards at NPR out into the daylight for real debate.
I just caught the end of an on-air apology on KQED about misquoting crowd sizes in DC. They then reported that organizers really said the crowd size was around 100,000. Im guessing this was NPR's hourly news update but since I didnt hear all of it Im not sure.
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