Stuck in the car this morning without a disc, I was forced to endure a few minutes of NPR. They informed me that al-Sadr is “rethinking his strategy” as a result of the success of the surge.
Gotta say, it’s pretty fucking impressive that our fine media experts have such incredible powers of mindreading. I mean, the reporter who announced this never said anything about why she has this impression. No one was sourced, and I’m not entiredly sure she actually left the Green Zone to determine this. No opposing viewpoints were presented, no Iraqis asked to assess the accuracy of the statement. She didn’t say if she was fluent in Arabic or had reviewed intelligence assessments supporting her claim. Nope, none of that silly stuff that we don’t need to hear anyway. Just 15 minutes of talking time for a former Reagan official, who was never challenged or even really engaged during his diatribe, describing why we should consider the surge a great victory which will cinch peace and freedom for all Iraq forever, followed by the reporter’s contention that the surge is so strong, even al-Sadr is quaking in his boots.
Reporting: more about mindreading than we all thought! Seriously, Lambert- I don’t know how you do it. The 911 coverage on the drive back was even more vomit-inducing. It’ll be a cold day in hell before they ever see my money, that’s for sure.
Front page
How about a little escapism?
Here.
We. Are. Going. To. Die. We must restore hope in the world. We must bring forth a new way of living that can sustain the world. Or else it is not just us who will die but everyone. What have we got to lose? Go forth and Fight!—Xan
Ew, lambert. Kinda eliminationist, doncha think?
[rimshot]
Nice concept—I particularly like the air-dry—and anything which reduces the use of paper products is to be encouraged. In fact this could be a big seller in rural areas where septic tanks are easily clogged with such.
However, the way this feeds into the American aversion to any mention of excretion is sort of amusing. Neurotic to an amazing degree mind you, but amusing.
Those with such money as troubles their pockets should invest in one of these Wishy-Washlet things and send them to Sen. Larry Craig, and/or the Minneapolis Airport maintenance department.
no more! NO MORE!
oh, god, lambert. that was just too much, i have to go and try and be Serious
at the senate and now that’s going to be in head all day.
[rimshot, laughter]
and xan’s right: there’s a lot to seriously analyze in that, and i could only watch a few minutes. like: note how the black woman is the ’voice of (customer) service’ and the old white guy is the ’this is a luxury product that establishes you’ve made it’ voice. when indeed, the more correct presentation would by the old white guy talking about how nice it is not to have to worry about making a mess and getting rashes that you can’t feel.
anyway, i’ve got to run, but not the runs…
[groan]
and when i come back i expect plenty of reasons to retitle
this thread “national pottymouthed republicans.” c’mon people, lambert has already dropped the load of having to be serious.
[ok, ok, i’ll stop]
CD, the reporter in question
was reporting from some neighborhood base. She wasn’t in the greenzone.
She was still full of shit, though. The Sunni neighborhod she reported from was safe, as was the mixed neighborhood just north of her position. She made no comment as to just how many US soldiers were on location, keeping it safe.
Like someone said, if our half trillion $ Army can’t keep a few neighborhoods in Baghdad quiet, what is it good for?
Jake
Washing away my - errr - sins
That’s really a grotesque idea for a product. Is it environmentally friendly? How many extra gallons per day of our precious water resources can we look forward to flushing away? Can I get some sort of soap infusion attachment so I have to use twice as much water?
Clenis Happy?
Oh, Clean is happy….
I find some of the
I find some of the criticism of NPR rather reflexive and unfair. The reporter was Anne Garrels who has done a lot of good reporting from Iraq. She said that she was talking about one neighborhood and that she had spoken to local commanders and local Iraqis.
Tom Bowman, on the other hand said that the progress in Anbar had been in progress since well before the surge. And he brought up the point I have not heard before that one reason the Sunnis in Anbar started fighting against Al Qaeda was that they were cutting into their oil money.
It’s more likely that NPR could cease to be than say, CBS or ABC or NBC. Do we have to cut off all sources of news that are not exactly what we would like them to be?
You wanna get pissed, write Night Line. Martha Raddatz did a puff piece on Petraeus that looked like he was running for office. No discussion of the issue involved at all. And she has made some very critical observations about Iraq on talking head shows, but never on network reports.
i don't do mainstream TV, hobson
that would make my head really explode. but i do expect a taxpayer supported news service to tell the truth. that’s not so much to ask, is it? you note that she was in a ’hood and spoke to “commanders,” all i’m asking for is more details about that.
i cut into the story midstream, so i missed some details. i did hear all of the other stories on that drive; none of them satisfied me in terms of sourcing, background or detail. and honestly, in the car i don’t expect that much.
Hobson's right. NPR/PBS need rescue, not knives
My understanding is that, among other activities, the true Dark Lord of the last 7 years’ cataclysm, Lynn Cheney, has made it a personal project to turn the “taxpayer supported” public airwaves into 24-7 Republican promotion services.
This is the underlying philosophy that is really so big as to have almost escaped notice. They no longer want to shut down public radio and TV, as they told us for so many years (“There are so many channels that, if these shows are any good, somebody will put them on the air. And sell commercials dammit, like good capitalists should.”)
Nope, they figured it out. Just take them over and put your people in charge of operations, then live off the reputation for quality and fairness built up over decades and indeed generations. While still bashing Public Air for being “liberal.”
So they leave a token Bill Moyers and some artsy-fartsy stuff on the air to make that last claim believable, and concentrate their efforts on the “news” shows.
Sigh. Anyway, Hobson’s right on this one, imho. Document the atrocities because whoever gets assigned to straighten the mess out will need the background and a scorecard to work from.
If I had a better memory, I
If I had a better memory, I could point you to Anne Garrels reporting from Iraq, but I don’t, so I can’t. But as I have said before, I can remember that NPR has been the only news agency I know of to cover New Orleans continuously for the last two years.
And there are the Car Guys. And Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. I thought the show where they had Patrick Fitzgerald on and gave him a scooter was hysterical.
I hate PBS. I can’t stand Suzie Ormand or Wayne Dwyer. I’m sick of their fund raising shows where they have replaced Lawrence Welk with old rock stars playing to late middle aged audiences, on seemingly 24/7.
But I wouldn’t call Bill Moyers a token. Where else are you going to see him or NOW or Wide Angle which has been having fabulous shows you won’t find anywhere else in this country?
Did anyone see the program on Malalai Joya last night? Or the Dishing Democracy show on the four Arab women who have a talk show like The View on middle east TV? I doubt if they’ll be on Chris Matthews anytime soon.
Just sayin.