I will be out of the office until Aug. 26 and away from my computer. Please feel free to leave comments and/or questions. I look foward to hearing from you.
Alicia Shepard
Ombudsman
NPR Ombudsman
AWAY ON VACATION
Maybe you could call Cokie Roberts before you go on holiday, remind her that Hawaii was annexed by the United States in 1898, that the islands have been an American state for a half-century, and that its residents are American citizens.
What Roberts said today on "Morning Edition" -- calling the city of Honolulu "foreign", "exotic" and "international" -- was insulting to island residents and NPR listeners alike.
If Ms. Roberts is so willing to mischaracterize the political status of an entire state in order to denigrate Barack Obama's candidacy, then she is truly nothing but a partisan hack, and should not be on any of your programs.
I do not understand why there has been no mention on npr of the horror that happened in the home of the mayor of Berwyn, Maryland, that left a trail of innocent victims terrorized by police bursting into home, pets shot, and no remorse on the part of the police. Surely someone at npr has heard of this.
It is not only a tragic story, it is a frightening one. The lack of response makes me wonder how many similiar stories there are out there that we are not hearing about and who in the world in running npr. I feel like I am watching our country become a fascist state, aided and abetted by an institution I had learned to trust for authentic, in depth news coverage, public radio. Now I'm not so sure.
Why did Mara Liasson say on the August 7th that it was ironic for a liberal Democrat to talk about their faith. I am a liberal Democrat with a very strong faith and am deeply offended by that remark.
Also, someone's going to have to sit down with Mara Liasson, who implied -- no, stated -- that a Christian also being a liberal is ironic.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/08/12/npr-correspondent-finds-o_n_118456.html
Liasson, on the August 7th iteration of Morning Edition, segued to commentary from religious-right fixture Gary Bauer by saying, "The irony of a liberal Democrat showcasing his faith is not lost on Gary Bauer, a leading conservative religious activist."
UNACCEPTABLE.
I hope you enjoy your vacation.
I heard the Cokie Roberts comment about Senator Obama's vacation in Hawaii as being too exotic. Her comment was so dumb as to make me wonder about her intelligence. Listeners of NPR expect that commentary be held to a high standard. In my opinion, to criticize Senator Obama for his choice of vacation seems to lower that standard to the gutter.
Nothing like using NPR to disseminate the GOP talking points. How utterly Rovian.
I agree with Donald. Cokie Roberts claim that a state is "foreign" was disturbing and has even led Senator Akaka to issue a public statement to defend his state.
I would be interested to know how those NPR members in Hawaii must feel knowing that their contributions goes to pay the salary of a woman who tells them, much to their surprise, that they are not American. Despite the fact that their sons and daughters are fighting and dying in Iraq and Afghanistan. Despite the fact that their sons and daughters are proudly representing our country at the Olympics. It is an absolute disgrace.
Cokie Roberts is one of the reasons why I have been mulling whether I want to seriously continue to contribute to NPR programming.
A second recent incident is hearing Mara Liasson say that Obama's Christianity was "ironic". I can only assume either that 1) she doesn't know what "ironic" means, or 2) she was using it by it's definition and implying that Obama is actually not Christian at all. Perhaps Muslim?
Consider this listener unimpressed.
Isn't it relevant that McCain's advisers have lobbied for Georgia? I have yet to hear about this on NPR, including during an interview this morning with the Senator, where Georgia was the specific topic.
NPR financial reporting (along with just about everyone else in the business) usually includes commentary from financial experts.
When economic conditions are bad - the only time the economy is really newsworthy - these folks uniformly seem to predict more gloom and doom. I would submit that these predictions are only guesses of what might happen and are of little more value to the general public than Nostradamus.
The only problem is that when engough of these folks get their prdeiction on air their negative views becoming selffuling prophesies. People begin to be concerned and decide not to spend, this causes more bad news, more negative predictions and more non-spending. Pretty soon what was a minor problem grows into a large one.
I would suggest that we had 2 problems going into where we are now. oil prices which is aglobal issue and will require long term changes to achieve a new balance and the housing crisis which was a problem only affecting a relatively small group of people that could have been contained with proper action but the gloom and doom mongers have spread the prolblem across the board.
Can you contain these folks to the facts only?
georgia walked away from the peacekeeping table with russia over the patch of land and humanity it later invaded on the same day it was to grant independence to the same, thereby provoking russia into a predictable conflict it knew it could not win, but could manipulate geo-politically to its advantage.
npr should investigate more angles of a story than just the position statements of american politicians and pundits: randy scheunemann, for instance, worked as a lobbyist for georgia and is now john mccain's senior foreign policy adviser. has the white house met w/ scheunemann? to what extent has the administration green-lighted georgia's act of aggression that started the whole thing?
the in-unison same-narrative chorus in the media re: this issue (russia unholy goliath/georgia spunky little heroic david) is unnerving -- we no longer have decent news coverage of anything anymore.
Hope you aren't going anywhere un-American that's too "exotic" or "foreign" or doing anything "elitist" like visiting your Grandparents, members of your family, and hometown.
There's only two possible explanations for Cokies' comment, stupidity or more likely given her last eight years, of parroting GOP talking points, bias (perhaps spending too much time with NPR's other Fox News employees). Either way this is an example of what passes for journalism at NPR.
How can NPR justify such blatant partisan smearing? Oh, yeah never mind, I've been listing for the last eight years, Tomlinson's "fair and balanced" is still alive and well.
Just had another thought, maybe Juan Williams was on vacation and she was covering for his usual Fox News Obama smears.
I have frequently remarked that Juan Williams seems to always find the dark lining behind the silver cloud when speaking of Democrats. Sometimes Mr. Williams will even employ the "some say" Fox formulation of analysis, maybe with a slight twist (as in, "insiders have told me.")
They love this guy (and Mara Liasson) over at Fox, and always identify Williams as an NPR employee. This helps add to the perceived credibility of what is essentially a propaganda shop for the RNC, Karl Rove, and Rupert Murdoch.
It would better inform your listeners if you would return the favor, and identify the Fox employees on your staff as such. Mr. Williams' dire analysis of the Democratic Party could be understood more clearly if he were not merely identified as "NPR senior political analyst."
Dear Alicia,
If anyone needs a vacation you certainly qualify! Just to step away and take a deep breath after reading all these comment from listeners.
I sense that NPR has a liberal bias, but now I know why people like these listeners are called "bleeding heart liberals". I always thought that the word "liberal" meant someone who is open to new ideas and willing and able to discuss the pros and cons of issues, candidates, etc... But in a recent "Email Political Debate" that my family had, I realized that this is NOT the case at all. Those that were for Obama were not willing to hear anything good about McCain. While those that were not so decided on a candidate were more open to discussing the pros and cons of both candidates. I would call THESE people truly liberal. Webster's dictionary gives many definitions of the word "liberal".
The 5th definition is "freedom from prejudice or bigotry; tolerant". Where is the tolerance of your listeners? Don't they know that NPR's mandate is "Dialogue not diatribe". I understand this to mean views from all sides of an issue.
Dolores Heinze
Please offer some specific examples of the liberal bias you sense.
Can I have a response advising action taken to my complaint about unbalanced reporting of two weeks ago?
Namely the piece on abortion featuring "religious extremists" (presumably fundamentalist Christians who are 20% of the population and/or Catholics - another 35% or so) and other perjorative labels.
FM
Over the past few months I have heard NPR interviewers repeatedly turn to the architects of the Iraq war - the neocons - for opinions. I have yet to hear you interview the people who voiced their opposition to invasion from the start. Where is Ron Paul's voice? Or, Russ Feingold, or any of the thousands of respected people who argued against invading Iraq and who have been proven to be right.
Why does NPR even give these neocons the opportunity to back pedal, fine tune and reinvent history? If you consider this an effort to be unbiased, it is not because I have never heard you interview the anti-war supporters.
There is no such thing as a "liberal" bias or "conservative" bias in the media.
The media is owned, and it's bias is towards mundanity. It has decided that it makes a better living trying not to offend you, because when it does, you complain about it.
Being offended by an opposing viewpoint is a god-given right, and an opportunity to improve your own opinion.
WAKE UP
On your citizen blogger Faye Anderson, who has become the voice of the supposed die-hard Hillary supporters: are you sure that she is not part of the Republican effort to sow discord among the Democrats? That strategy has already been exposed in the NY Times; it is no secret.
I find it ludicrous that we are supposed to believe that anyone who was an actual Democrat would consider voting for the John McCain of 2008, who promises nothing but more of the extremely discredited policies of Bush and his neo-con think tank. A blogger given this much exposure by NPR should certainly be vetted. I would certainly like to know if she is a registered Democrat and if so, for how long has she been one?
Re: Talk of the Nation interviews about Obama and McCain last week.
Another example of NPRs bias to the right.
One of the persons (folks to some) on the show about Mr. Obama was Dan Rutherford, an admitted opponent of Obama. All those interviewed on McCain show were pro McCain.
It is time for Neill Conan to move on.
About a week or two ago, NPR ran a story, whether on Morning Edition, All Things Considered, or some similar program, purporting to be an interview with a "political science professor" from "Colorado College", or something like that, in the State of Colorado. It never occurred to me that a story on NPR might be bogus! At any rate, this alleged political science professor said, "Out here in the West, we don't care much for 'leftwing liberals'". Either the professor was a dunderhead who watches too much Fox Noise or listens to Rush Limbaugh, or the whole story was a hoax! Perhaps Westerners could care for "rightwing liberals", or "leftwing conservatives"! Please check the authenticity of this story. The integrity of NPR or the reputation of the college in question is at stake. Thanks.
We're only 16 hours into NPR's coverage of the DNC and already the coverage of the Clinton-Obama divide is getting tedious, redundant, and distracting. Monday night's interview with Walter Mondale was nearly entirely devoted to the subject. The bulk of Morning Edition's coverage of the DNC was devoted to the subject, both in news and features stories. Is this what we can expect for the next three nights? The next three months? In more than 10 years as a listener I've never complained about NPR news coverage -- this overinflated focus drove me to write though. Please stop exploiting fringe conflicts at the convention for the sake of a sexy story. As I type, "Some of her delegates are still upset about her loss ..." C'mon NPR. Let's have balanced coverage of this convention.
I wanted to comment on the Democratic convention coverage. Andrea Seabrook takes every opportunity to hammer away on the notion of divisions in the party unity yet everyone she interviews gives her a similar message of embracing the future and voting for Barak Obama. Give it up already!! It's embarrassing.
A Republican speaks, you ask a Republican to comment. A Democrat speaks, you ask a Republican to comment. We could use some of that liberal bias I keep hearing about.
I'm wondering if you could do a column explaining whether and how the ATC hosts are expected to hold accountable your regular commemntators like E.J. Dione and David Brooks. Brooks told a whopper today when he said Palin gets global warming(she questions the science on sea ice and polar bears even though her own state marine agency person says it's happening). Just what is the duty of the host to question assertions by the commentators? It all seems a bit too chummy at times. This is a an election, not banter with Stephan Phatsis over the Yankees bullpen.
I realize this is a labor day holiday, but come on. I am astounded that the raids by the FBI and local police to defuse potential "rioters" at RNC convention has been ignored by NPR and ATC.
This is not an issue of people being "offended" or bias on the part of reporters. When the Feds become involved in infiltrating leftist groups and terrorize them based on a preemptive ideology-this should be a no-brainer news story.
Given the reach of the internet I find it impossible to believe that a reporter or an editor didn't stumble on this story. Tho we did get many reports of the pregnancy "issue" which developed after the raids.
There will always be "bias" issues when people get "offended" by silly comments. I am not sure what you as an ombudsman can do about those complaints. However, this ignoring of a substantive story does betray a basic editorial problem at NPR. Instead we get countless rehashing of pregnancy and political handicapping. Not to compare NPR to the BBC, but they would have covered this story.
Need a vacation? Wow, nutin personal but you don't post all that much. To write a blog once a week doesn't require that much thought or work.
I think Sarah Palin is really Patty Faulkner. What do you think?
I must say that your coverage of both conventions has got to be the worst I've ever heard. You present the poor listener with a cacophony of pundits and NPR people yaking on about nothing, often raising their voices to be heard over the actual convention speakers.
If you want to cover the convention then let us hear what people there are saying, otherwise go back to your studios and yak with your pundits sans all that conventions noise. I had to turn off NPR and go watch online.
please have a show about the oil market. please answer the question, if we drill in anwar won't that oil go into the workd market supply and china could buy and use our anwar oil?
Why can't NPR and Mandalit del Barco leave Miss Palin alone? Using her pregnancy to lead a worthless story about the epidemic of teen pregnancy in this country is cruel. You should be ashamed.
I am very angry that you cut off your interviewees to go on to the next format. Why bother to invite commentary when you so rudely follow this practice. This morning you cut off David Fromm during the peak of his comment re: this latest attempt at a VP, Sarah Pallin. We know little about her and we have just 2 months remaining.
I'd like to hear as much pro and con regarding her as I can and you chose to put on the "Take Me To Your Leaders" project. I don't find the "Leaders" that important. Isn't there some way you can stop doing this? It's rude to both the listeners and the person speaking.
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