NPR Bad for Blood Pressure
By David Beito • Monday December 1, 2008 7:07 AM PDT • 7 Comments
In the past, the half-hour news roundup of NPR was generally free of blatant propaganda. That appears to changing. This morning “newscaster” Jean Cochran ended her 8:30 news report with the following statement (I’m quoting from memory): “Ironically the Bush administration’s reliance on market forces has led to the largest government bailout since the Great Depression.”
Tags: Bailouts, Economics, Money and Banking 
I almost choked on my coffee and drove into a ditch when I heard that in the car this morning. I believe she said “The Bush Administration’s reliance on market forces, and its reluctance to intervene, led to the bailout....” Ah, those brilliant second-hand dealers in ideas!
Peter G. Klein | Dec 1, 2008 | Reply
During my college years, I’d listen to NPR for insights into news and culture. Interestingly, it was listening to Matt Drudge tell his amazing rise to prominence during a National Press Club Luncheon that caused me to give up NPR for good. It wasn’t as bad for the blood pressure as it was for my sanity!
Liberty4All | Dec 1, 2008 | Reply
NPR has gotten worse with the rise of Obama. It’s going to become even more of a full-on propaganda machine for the government.
Patrick Krey | Dec 1, 2008 | Reply
Thanks for the heads up. I won’t waste my time listening to NPR.
-David Carlson
http://www.davidcarlsonpolitics.com
David Carlson | Dec 1, 2008 | Reply
Remember that 2/3 of NPR is PR. That said; Listening to propaganda for an understanding of it’s sources intent,and thinking can be quite informative and is not the same as believing the propaganda. All journalism is biased,clearly IDing the bias is a necessary part of discernment.
This time at least there seems to be a genuine irony unlike the false ironies modern journalists seem to be trained to lead with.
Sam | Dec 3, 2008 | Reply
Journalists sometimes make broad-brush statements like this that don’t stand up very well to close scrutiny; this does not cause me to wish to sweepingly reject NPR, though. The problem is not market forces per se, since these forces have always been present in a market-oriented mixed economy like the US’s, but that the government’s oversight and regulation of the economy has not developed sufficiently to ensure that credit default swaps and other rather risky new types of loan-based derivatives were appropriately regulated so as not to expose the economy to undue levels of risk. While the GW Bush Administration’s Treasury Secretaries and SEC and Federal Reserve chairs bear some responsibility for insufficent oversight and ineffective regulation of derivatives, Congress also bears some responsbility, as well as the previous (Clinton) administration and its Fed chair (Greenspan).
Rather than play a blame game, though, it would be wiser to improve oversight and regulation of the financial markets to make their operations more transparent, to ensure that banks’ lending practices are sustainable and embody sound risk management principles, and prevent a replay of cowboy derivative shenanigans that brought down Lehman Brothers and have damaged economies at home and overseas.
Phil | Dec 6, 2008 | Reply
Are you saying it wasn’t ironic?
Joe Man | Mar 22, 2011 | Reply