11.18.2010

words fail

"They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don’t want any other point of view. They don’t even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda."

FOX News chairman Roger Ailes, referring to NPR.

This from the guy more responsible for the dumbing-down of American political discourse than probably any other single individual in the history of the republic. This from the guy who practically invented cable-news-as-propaganda. This from the guy whose channel's signature look is lots of flags and banners, eagles, blaring martial music, and a nonstop scroll of on-message "news items", whose personalities routinely refer to this country as "The Homeland" and opine on which subset of the population constitute the "real Americans".

(And you know what? I hold Ailes responsible for the steaming pile of shit that is MSNBC, too.)

NPR should seriously consider voluntarily divesting itself of the tiny fraction of its budget it gets from the federal government, just to take this insane talking point away from raging fuckwads like Ailes.

7 comments:

RW said...

I am hearing things I said about "the establishment" in 1969 co-opted by fat cats and arch-conservatives and repeated, only altered with the clever trick of reversing the targets.

I think I said the exact same thing about Nixon once.

It's just a little spooky now, guys, ok?

chris said...

Cable news stations are like the different factions of wrestling. The news stations essentially align more or less with one side or the other of the two-party system. Are you on the side the Four Horsemen or the nWo? In any case, it's all make-believe.

Coke vs. Pepsi? I'll have a Dr. Pepper.

Gino said...

i'llone up you,B...
NPR divests itself from all public sources, state and local as well as federal.

and then it wont matter what they put out there to anybody who doesnt like it.

Brian said...

That is much easier said than done, depending on how you do the accounting. NPR (the network) is not the same entity as its various affiliate stations. NPR receives programming fees from the stations (this is one of its main sources of support) which in turn may be (most are) receiving some portion of their funding from state or local govt's. But state and local govt's do not support NPR directly...nor, technically does the federal government. ~1.5% of NPR's budget is grants from federal agencies like the CPB and the National ENdowment for the humanities. There is no line item in the federal budget that is "NPR" despite what various congresscritters would have you believe.

Trishymouse said...

Brian, this is a voice from your past...LOL Seriously, I wrote for Boileryard and was perusing tonight and see it is long gone. What happened to it? I loved the site design, and the opportunity to have a voice on a team blog. Refresh my dementia-laden brain, please...

Brian said...

Hey Trish--Nice to hear from you! RW is blogging here:

http://version53.blogspot.com/

Gino (I think he went by Ginuz at the time) is here:

http://inshredz.blogspot.com/

Vas is around somewhere, as is Agent Bedhead/Sadie Mirth, but I haven't talked to either in a long time. I have no idea about anyone else, but RW might be able to let you know.

Trishymouse said...

Thanks for the info - Vanesa and I are old friends and still in touch so I got her info if anyone wants it. Since you last heard from me, I resigned my federal job and moved to the boonies - rural, northern Minnesota - and am living the self-sufficiency/homesteading lifestyle and become a librarian. Just another chapter of my crazy life. You can read about it at http://billswoman.blogspot.com (PRAIRIE WOMAN) Just think Green Acres. (except I originally came from the country, but was away so long it's reverse culture shock again...lol)