Sunday, October 28, 2007

We Have Consensus!

Yes, all those tens of thousands of protesters yesterday were calling for an end - oops, I mean for a strong US presence in Iraq. Those protesters and, all the Iraqis, and all the US soldiers (and National Guard troops), and every US person you could possible poll now agree with the Decider that we will stand down as the Iraqi Army and police stand up. Pretty ridiculous,absurd, stupid - maybe even just a bald-faced lie - except in NPR-world. Here's Lianne Hansen reading the script this morning on Weekend Edition Sunday:
"The question is how long we'll continue to send soldiers and money to Iraq. There's little agreement on the answer, but there is consensus on one aspect of the debate: the US has to maintain a strong presence in Iraq until it's army and police can take charge of its own security...."
Consensus? I swear to God she wasn't kidding!

2 comments:

woodenclouds said...

I know that these comments are pretty bad but who is it that writes the script for these guys? Does Lianne Hanson or Anne Garrels have any imput or do they just read what they are told?

Porter Melmoth said...

Very good question. On-air people at NPR inflict so much of their personalities on us, and most of them are so bland, that it's hard to tell where their 'talents' really lie. I like to praise Philip Reeves because he comes across as genuine. You can tell he does all his own material, and carefully, too. A few others do, as well. But yes, so much of the chatter does seem scripted rather than spontaneous. With so much 'writing' being blabbed out over NPR, surely it takes whole committees to generate the stuff. Shades of Soviet-style propaganda brigades behind the scenes.

Incidentally, this Ken Stern dude who runs NPR (profiled in the WSJ article link, posted by Mytwords a few days back) sounds like your typical generic CEO, who might as well be at Standard Ball Bearings, or National Cement, or Acme Accountants, and who offers profound wisdom tips like:

1. Be fast.
2. Do stuff.
3. Be aware.
4. Make sure you're successful.
5. Etc. etc.

Ken's right about one thing: NPR audiences are aging. Prematurely! You and your bozo outfit are giving me grey hairs, Ken!!!