Defend Yourself, Then Ask for Help

National Public Radio is one of the Rabider- than- ever- Right's targets. The House GOPers are trying to x them out of the budget, even though they don't get much federal money anymore anyway. There's the usual liberal bias wasting taxpayer's money arguments but fueled this time by a gotcha video earlier this month that got a lot of publicity, and led to NPR firing some of its execs. You may remember reading or hearing about this. What you didn't read or hear--especially not on NPR--is that the gotcha tape was the usual Lying Right distortion-by-editing bullshit.

Which prompted Bill McKibben to write in a NYRB blogpost: "What’s almost as disturbing as the persistent right-wing attacks on an institution respected and relied upon by the broad public is NPR’s seeming unwillingness to stand up for itself."

McKibben notes that NPR is not the radical liberal counterpart to FOX that even the rest of the media calls it. But he nails its true sin: "NPR...is (along with a few non-NPR programs that also run on public radio stations) pretty much the only radio operation actually drawing large numbers of listeners that’s not controlled by the right wing." Which the Rabid Right can't tolerate. So they made this lying video--and they got away with it.

This wasn't supposed to happen anymore--and McKibben correctly brings up the example of Shirley Sherrod, who was libeled for racism by a video like this, until the whole video was seen and the lie was exposed. But guess what? Nobody bothered to look at the entire video this time, not even when the liar himself boldly posted it on his website. Nobody except...a producer for Glenn Beck. And the video was exposed for taking the damaging quotes out of context, etc.

NPR didn't do this. NPR didn't fight back, except to use this as a fundraising tool. Well, that's not good enough. McKibben is right--it calls NPR's commitment to reporting into question more than anything the Rabid Right has done. Of course I still support NPR. But I'd be a lot more enthusiastic if NPR defended itself with the truth.