Memo to NPR and Mara Liasson: You lie down with Fox, you get fleas
One of the reasons Fox News has become such a serious problem is that journalists as a profession have utterly failed in their traditional role of self-policing their colleagues. Journalists need to be speaking out about the truth that Anita Dunn pointed out in October: That Fox has ceased offering even a resemblance of a news organization and has become a propaganda channel 24/7.
Fox has largely been able to get away with it because its money and influence are so sizable that it has silenced with profession with a combination of threats and bribes: If you call them out, you get blackballed. On the other hand, if you play along, you get invited on their shows and get a fat contributor's paycheck.
Among the most disturbing examples of this have been NPR's Mara Liasson and Juan Williams, who have become such regulars on Fox that their identities are increasingly that of a typical Fox commentator. And in the process, they've deeply marred NPR's hitherto-sterling reputation as a reliable source of accurate and unbiased news.
A classic example of this took place in early September (see the video above), when Liasson, in a discussion on health care with Fox's Brett Baier, agreed to go along with the new Luntz-approved Fox talking point that it wasn't a "public option" in the health-care reform package, but a "government option.
So now, according to Politico, Liasson at least is coming under sharper scrutiny:
Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network’s top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.
According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network.
At a follow-up meeting last month, Liasson reported that she’d seen no significant change in Fox’s programming and planned to continue appearing on the network, the source said.
... Liasson defended her work for Fox by saying that she appears on two of the network’s news programs, not on commentary programs with conservative hosts, the source said. She has also told colleagues that she’s under contract to Fox, so it would be difficult for her to sever her ties with the network, which she has appeared on for more than a decade.
As Eric Boehlert avidly observes:
I find it comical that Liasson reportedly thinks that because she's on two 'serious' Fox News shows that that means she's no way associated with the rest of channel's nutty and hateful programming. Apparently, Liasson is able to magically cocoon herself within the confines of two programs. And even though she cashes those Fox News checks she's not really, y'know, part of Fox News.
Gimme a break.
You can't be half pregnant in a situation like this, which means Liasson needs to forcefully defend Fox News in its entirety. But if she can't do that and she still cares about her reputation as a journalists, than she ought to walk away from Rupert Murdoch's money, because the glaring truth is that Fox News jumped the rails many, many months ago.
Any news organization that took its responsibilities seriously would take pains to cover presidential criticism fairly. It would regard doing so as itself a test of integrity. At Fox, by contrast, complaints of unfairness prompt only hoots of derision and demands for "evidence" that, when presented, is brushed off and ignored.
There is no need to get bogged down in this phony debate, which itself constitutes an abuse of the fair-mindedness of the rest of the media. One glance at Fox's Web site or five minutes' random viewing of the channel at any hour of the day demonstrates its all-pervasive slant. The lefty documentary Outfoxed spent a lot of time mustering evidence that Fox managers order reporters to take the Republican side. But after 13 years under Roger Ailes, Fox employees skew news right as instinctively as fish swim.
... Whether the White House engages with Fox is a tactical political question. Whether we journalists continue to do so is an ethical one. By appearing on Fox, reporters validate its propaganda values and help to undermine the role of legitimate news organizations. Respectable journalists—I'm talking to you, Mara Liasson—should stop appearing on its programs. A boycott would make Ailes too happy, so let's try just ignoring Fox, shall we? And no, I don't want to come on The O'Reilly Factor to discuss it.
Liasson can't sit there on a panel on a "news show" -- whose tea-party promotions and slanted attacks on the White House are a matter of public record -- as the token "liberal" with Stephen Hayes and Charles Krauthammer every few days, and more often than not go along with their right-wing characterizations of events, and promulgating the right-wing narratives that are the basic fabric of these shows, and not be tainted by the association.
If Liasson wants to pretend that Fox is unbiased so she can keep collecting it paychecks, then let her. But NPR should move on to someone who actually displays real journalistic standards.
If Liasson wants to pretend that Fox is unbiased so she can keep collecting it paychecks, then let her. But NPR should move on to someone who actually displays real journalistic standards.
Good luck with that.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
She needs to be fired.
No doubt.
I never watch or listen to Mara Liasson or Juan Williams but I would have assumed they were Faux talking heads.
Better yet - "off with their heads" (from Alice in wonderland)
"I know that there are people who do not love their fellow
man, and I hate people like that! " ~ Tom Lehrer (1928 - )
You should have heard Joe Scarborough talking about this, this morning. He said NPR was a far left organization and for them to call out FOX was just awful. He almost got the vapors as he talked about it.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
saw it.....he was almost foaming atthe mouth......he's such a dick
all it takes is all of us
He's pissed. He's sucking as hard has he can and he can't get hired there.
Maybe he should take a dump on Jeff Imelt's desk, then maybe he'll finally get fired.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
To compare NPR to FoxNews is crap. And Mika, "They're calming." STFU. I'm almost cool with the FoxNews and MSNBC thing, because they are mostly about opinion during primetime, although Fox is about promoting the GOP and MSNBC doesn't promote Dems. But compare NPR to,...the BBC or something like that. Then show how the BBC better at journalism when it comes to questioning their leaders.
I don't know if a woman can be a butt-boy but if one can, Mika is Joe's. I thought her job when the show began last year was to have a differing opinion than Joe, but that was just folly on my part.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
FOX 'News' is fairly transparently non journalistic. NPR is stealth, using decades of cred to keep people thinking they are somehow 'liberal,' 'progressive,' or 'fresh.'
That ended long ago.
They employ soothing voices, no ads, classical music and quirky off beat stories to keep the Volvo driving ex-filthy hippie types thinking nothing has changed.
me-oww!
I have to say that the new journalistic climate hasn't been good for most channels. Wouldn't it be good just to hear what is going on in the world? Now it has to have a slant, or guard against having one. They both stink. I stand Neil Conan's Talk of the Nation. He gives Lardbutt Doughboy (or whatever his name is) a platform to spew his crap but cuts off callers who give a Liberal perspective or try to correct Doughboy's puke he's just spewed. The show is a mess. Also...
Lori Klausutis
Didn't see the segment (rarely, i.e. almost never, watch his program) but it sounds as if he's playing a Deflecting Devil's Advocate on purpose. NPR has been interviewing a larger number of wingnuts over the past several months, many times without a strong dissenting voice to counter the propaganda. Juan Williams is no longer as level-headed or fact-oriented in his reports on their news. I think someone at the top has ordered more "balance" to the point it's tipping in the wrong direction. I don't listen as much as I used to.
You have to be kidding me here. NPR is for old liberal grandma and grandpas to listen to because watching the news gives them epileptic seizures. I have to honestly say that NPR genuinely sucks more than Fox news; at least Fox news is deliberate in stating their biases where NPR does their best to conceal theirs. If you really want unbiased reporting, watch BBC news America every night.
I started listening to the BBC by short wave radio in 1969. The BBC was a great news organization until Margaret Thatcher came into power. After her, it was ball-less, still is, much more fluff pieces than hard news. Pre-Thatcher, it was great, just the very best.
for as long as I can recall. Where's the news in this?
Roar!!!!!!!! Oh that's funny.
Nice... Polite... Republicans...
Corruption favors the wealthy.
candy coating
They have to dump Cokie on Monday mornings. She's no analyst. She's an inside the beltway peruser. Get someone who can add some perspective instead of someone who fawns over the nuts in suits.
People watch Cokie in anticipation that her plastic surgery will collapse on camera.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
You have to admit that Cokie can say some pretty outragious things like the time she bitched about Obama visiting his grandmother in Hawaii.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
She's just pissed cause someone dropped a house on her sister.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
:-D
Corruption favors the wealthy.
Visited his Grandma? IN HAWAII?
Why the damn socialist, fascist, freedom-hating, pinko-lefty. Does he want the terrorists' to win?
Why does he hate america?
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Cokie thought Hawaii too "exotic" and suggested he visit the eastern shore of the US even though his grandmother didn't live there and visiting his grandmother was the whole point of his trip.
Cokie should hiding out in shame for the rest of her life for saying such an utterly stupid thing in public.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
just another rung on the ladder for many of these so called "journalists".
I guess the pay isn't high enough to be able to afford ten years of hair plugs. You need to advance to PBS to afford that.
Never could stand CokeHead Roberts. Terrible commentator, total inside the beltway, status quo asshole.
Nice headline :)
Corruption favors the wealthy.
transmits the 'fox flu' much worse than the swine flu; it attacks the brain.
Cue the Kabuki....
for the prarie dog community.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
sheep!
Cue the Kabuki....
Aggies are a bigger threat to that strain of domesticated critter.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Her value to Rupert is her association with "respectable" NPR's reputation for journalistic integrity. As such, Mara Liasson mocks that integrity every second she is an employee of both NPR and Rupert Murdoch. The only way for NPR to get back some small measure of its reputation would be for them to fire Mara Liasson and tell the world the truth about her. She is and always has been a right wing propagandist. Same with Juan Williams. Fire them both, or NPR loses even more of its dwindling relevance.
In fact, I can already see Juan Williams and Mara Liasson replacing Brit Hume as Fox's "serious news" anchor. Hume is getting so old and wrinkled, it's time they replaced him with "respectable" former employees of NPR like the two shills in question.
NPR is no bastion of truth. They're just as bad, if not worse than the others, because so many are hoodwinked by their act.
me-oww!
Hume is getting so old and wrinkled,
It's all those years of throwing out the garbage for the Reagans.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
when she started showing up on ABC, and Cokie Roberts was waxing poetic about how NPR had set up gear at her place so she could just roll out of bed and do her commentary in her jim-jams.
NPR started sucking in the early 90s, if not, earlier. When the Thugs battered the public broadcasting system with funding cuts, and it had to whore itself for corporate sponsorship. Everything going as planned as far as they're concerned. Consent manufactured? Check.
me-oww!
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_adDpqxdQZ_U/SQURqdL...
Mara the Beast. Youwzer.
that all the M$M have been taken over by the right wing corporatetists? Thom Hartmann had an interesting segment on Fascism this morning. It's the same thing. I'll see if I can find a link.
They've seemed little different to me than FOX, same consistant conservative biases. The only difference between them and FOX is that they are a lot more polished and subtle in their propagandizing. In truth, though, I think that they may present a greater threat as propagandists than FOX, because they still enjoy residual credibility from the days before it was staffed with conservative propagandists.
It's all a matter of degrees.
I stopped supporting my local public radio stations, because the news and analyses that are reported are no longer credible. I only tune in on rare occasion, to see if anything has changed, and it never takes more than a few minutes for me to turn the channel in disgust. To me, NPR has come to stand for National Propagand Radio.
..they couldn't produce a single story with a positive or forward looking angle during the worst of the recession. Nothing on the future, nothing (I heard) on succeeding in the troubled economy. At least ONE story would've been uplifting. In spite of all of the entrepreneurs out there and all that people ARE coping with, they couldn't do it and it was just bad economy all the time and NEVER once did they home in on the whys and wherefores of the recession.
Mickey: "It was an epiphany. Do you know what an epipany is?"
Keoni: "NOT NOW MICKEY!"
and the point of all that negative coverage is to impugn what a horrible job Obama and the democratic majority are doing. I think that NPR thinks that nobody is noticing what they are attempting to pull off.
Just because they spew the same republican talking points in the face of all reality and the truth, does not mean they are propagandists.
If you don't believe me, just turn on any MSM television station or a.m. radio source, and see for yourself if you think I am kidding.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
That just places them squarely in as an integral member of the corporatist/rightwing propaganda machine that is the MSM.
. . . then no one's a Republic propagandist?
I believe that's what you're saying, and I don't think you're right. Rather, things are exactly as they seem: if everyone's a right-wing propagandist, then everyone's a right wing propagandist.
Yeah but does NPR have a Glenn Beck? If not, Fox wins for the station with the most nuts in their sack.
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
Can I use that on unlimited free license?
You can use it for anything you like including to line your bird's cage. ;)
Say what you mean. Mean what you say. But don't say it mean.
I don't think it's any secret NPR has been heading in a right-wing direction the past few years. Journalistic integrity has been falling apart over there ever since their last blood-letting a few years ago. The news is increasingly of the "info-tainment" variety and hosts like Scott Simon make no bones about their leanings with the amount of snide comments, peppered in with stories. The only one I've noticed with any sort of journalistic integrity is Steve Inskeep, who has done some good work via Morning Edition - but he's the minority over there now, and that really is a shame. Cokie Roberts slid off the rails years ago and no doubt her father, the much respected Senator Hale Boggs is no doubt spinning in his grave as the result. Liasson and Williams started out with integrity many years ago, as junior reporters. Something has happened to them - they have lost relevance. NPR needs a major overhaul.
"Cokie Roberts slid off the rails years ago and no doubt her father, the much respected Senator Hale Boggs is no doubt spinning in his grave as the result."
That ought to be on All Things Considered! Hale Boggs was never in the Senate and when his plane disappeared over Alaska, his body was never found.
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
HEY! It's almost 4PM EST...where's the Lieberman thread?!?!
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
is not enough?
“Why would anyone with a functioning brain believe this guy?”
Some guy with an eating disorder
Williams is on Faux and NPR, and he regularl defends O'Reilly, Limbaugh, and many of the other right-wing slime merchants. He needs to be brought into reality as well.
FOX is well known for its token gestures.
Vote GOP and move forward to the 18th Century.
"The glaring truth is that Fox News jumped the rails many, many months ago."
*Months?* As in 156 or so? Did Boehlert watch Fox during the Clinton and Bush administrations? Fox was NEVER on the rails -- it was conceived and launched as right-wing propoganda and is no worse [or better] now than it was 8 years ago.
the rest of the MSM are playing on the same team as Fox, the 'differences' are just there for those obsessed with Kabuki Theater.
stating the situation. I don't see any differences of substance either. And now that NBC/universal controlling ownership is held y comcast, I expect the few token liberal/progressive voices on that network will shortly be silenced.
They need to put someone young in charge. Get some fresh ideas. NPR is the aural equivalent of bland Starbuck's interior design.
unexpunged teen-age fatuousness at it's best...
I don't know when Liasson and Williams went to FOX, but I've been listening for more than 7 years, and NPR sucked then, too. They trembled under Bush's foot for 8 years, pointlessly gutless.
For many years I was a regular contributor to NPR. It's not perfect but it's the best we have. I stopped sending them cash a few years ago. As I tell NPR every fund raising cycle there are two reasons I no longer contribute. Juan Williams and Mara Liasson.
The pinheads at NPR aren't even bright enough to read the McKlatchey papers to find out the stuff that they themselves won't research. They want to be thought unbiased, so they won't poke holes in anybody's lies.
Mara Liasson and Juan Williams are just two of the the reasons I don't listen to NPR with any regularity anymore. Here in New Hampshire we also have Lisa Peeks the least informed interviewer in the history of radio. But even that isn't enough, it's crap like Marketplace, that drives me away. Marketplace and Selected Shorts - Man that show sucks.
I guess it depends on what you mean by "hitherto." How long ago is that?
NPR has been a reliable voice--nearly the house organ--of the Village for 15 years, at least, and a dependable stooge for corpoRat america longer than that....
Does no one remember when Michael Harrington had a weekly spot on ME? Robert Seigel won't even permit the NAME of Noam Chomsky even to be uttered on ATC...
Ann Garrells, who waxed nearly orgasmic in detailing the torture of prisoners at Abu Ghraib...
David,
Thank you for making a post about Fox News' responsibility for propaganda. Keep it up. This needs to be a topic for long-term discussion. We have every right to hold them accountable for lying.
It's important to note that Republican voters/followers are equally at fault for passing on lies of their own (like the Palin crowd) or for simply believing lies.
Democrats do not have to give any time or consideration to Republican arguments made with untruths or cynicism, like we saw recently in Karl Rove's latest comments on Afghanistan military policy. Shamefully passing on any fault for the Bush administration's mistakes - as Rove did on Fox News - to the current administration isn't acceptable. Yet it was done with outright contempt for Fox News' viewers: because he knew they will believe the lie.
If people who call themselves Republican would reject this practice it would stop. Yet they reward Fox with ratings. They reward the Palin crowd with book sales. Anything Rush says is believed no matter how racist, disgusting or just plain dishonest it may be. They reward the lies with votes and support.
Fox News' audience must turn off their TV sets and start calling the station to complain. Or ask for honest coverage instead of propaganda.
It's not enough that the left points it out. Strangely no matter how right we are this only serves to bolster the lie. Responsibility and power very clearly lies in those who feed the beast with their continued support.
However, I submit that changing Fox News' audience will be as difficult as ending slavery in the south. Some people hang on to things they want even if the evil of such desires is so obvious as to make a mockery of the ones who hold them.
For Fox News viewers this means a desperation for hearing what they want to hear instead of what is true. To define their reality based in fantasy instead of rationality. Ideologically speaking this same behavior is expressed by the tactics they use against Democrats, or any opponent for that matter. No lie is too great if it works. No evil too evil (torture) if they think it works.
How can civilized alternatives possibly change an institutional and group-accepted form of intellectual dishonesty of this scale?
Logged in to note that this is a really good topic.
It must be quite the ego-boost among reporters to be able to pontificate on teevee, and to be invited onto programs.
Any criticism of Fox seems to be met with a 'poor me, those mean, nasty DFH's don't like me, when I'm wonderful and they're wrong' kind of whiny crybaby reaction.
When Rachel Maddow has guests on, she often looks at them AFTER her intro and asks them -- on camera! -- 'was I accurate? do you have any problems with what I just said?'
That keeps things clean; when she interviewed Tom Ridge, he said that he had some concerns about several sub-topics that she'd mentioned in her intro; they discussed these briefly, then moved on to the main interview. They both acted like adults.
The Fox personnel (and audience) seem so profoundly alarmed and frightened by some of what is going on that they go straight into 'us-them' mode.
Fox is no longer interested in the question that Maddow poses: "Was I accurate? Did I convey accurate information?"
Whether anyone likes Maddow, or dislikes Maddow, that's one way that she shows fidelity to accuracy.
On Fox, the question that seems to engage them is: "Are you for me, or against me? Will you be blindly loyal to my view of the way the world works?"
Those are two very, very different questions.
The fact that Liasson can't recognize that Fox is asking and responding to how well guests, issues, and idea correlate WITH THEIR IDEOLOGY -- rather than with the world as it exists -- is seriously scary.
The fact that Liasson can't seem to take the initiative here only makes it all the more sad and embarrassing. Her bosses shouldn't be pointing out Journalism 101 to their own 'national' reporter, for Chrissakes.
People don't watch Fox for information. They watch it for emotional and psychological reinforcement.
NPR needs to decide whether it wants to inform listeners, or simply make them 'feel good'. If the former, then Liasson goes. If the latter, she'll be promoted.
You only need to look at what has happened to poor PBS to see the endgame for NPR. Infested with neocon apparatchiks, sponsors like the Koch family underwriting programming, it's frankly amazing they're able to swing to the left at all.
And STD's.
Diabolus est Deus Inversus
That "sterling reputation as a reliable source of accurate and unbiased news" was deeply marred a LONG time ago ..
When Archer-Daniels-Midland became a corporate sponsor of NPR I knew it was all over.
ADM is the agricultural conglomerate that took over all the family farms in the MidWest that had been bankrupted by the banksters during Reagan's administration.
They not only put hundreds of thousands of people off their land and out of work, they also destroyed many of the protections put in place after the Dust Bowl of the 30's. For instance it was discovered that by planting rows of trees along the edge of fields the wind-erosion that had created the Dust Bowl could be eliminated or at least kept in check. All those rows of trees have been cut down to allow more space for the massive machines that do the work. A Dust Bowl waiting to happen.
When will government of the people, by the politicians, for the corporations perish from this Earth?
Not soon enough!
...and since NPR programming is such a staple of public radio, ever notice how many "super-criminals to the world" like ADM and, well, most of the American defense industry underwrites programs like Gwen Ifill's "Washington Week." It's amusing (and infuriating) to watch the villagers come together and try to be fair and balanced on the McDonnell Douglas/Boeing/corporate mining dime. What a bunch of horse shit.
NPR's unbiased and "centrist" programming is a myth, Williams and Liasson are blatant right wing stooges that howl with outrage every time they are called out for their political bias. If NPR was smart they would dump these two incompetents and stop being such slaves and lackeys to their corporate sponsors.
"We will find fulfillment not in the goods that we have, but in the good we can do for each other."
Robert F. Kennedy
Among the most disturbing examples of this have been NPR's Mara Liasson and Juan Williams, who have become such regulars on Fox...
The ONLY reason Liallot and Don Juan get on FAUX NOISE is because of those three little letters, "NPR". This is FOXs' way of pretending it is fair and balanced, by having those socialist NRPers on.
Without those three letters, neither Liasson or Williams would get paid any attention by anyone. They're double dippers, just one more reason I gave up on NPR years ago.
...I noticed a number of years ago that every morning's opening news broadcast starts with an item about the president (whoever he is). We've been told for so many decades that other countries' leaders are treated like gods, or holy emperors, but I bet that only the most authoritarian (like N. Korea) start their daily news with a report of the dear leader's doings. But NPR does. It takes a rare event, like a Space Shuttle crash, to knock the Pres off as the first item reported.
Why is this? Because our mass media, even the so-called liberal media, is controlled propaganda, self censoring, well right of center, all of it.
Stopped listening to NRP a few years ago--don't miss it at all.
...but when I do, I include a statement that I refuse to listen to "Mourning Addition" (which is really all blather and speculation about things that haven't yet happened that day anyway) and All Things Conditioned due to the clear, unrebutted acceptance of Republican talking points.
NPR began to show its true colors a few years ago when Bob Edwards was replaced by the local news equivalents of Mr. Glib and Morning-Sing-Song Woman. Edwards did his homework. He was a great interviewer.
As for Marred Lies-on, I seem to recall she was the network's constant shrill voice hounding Howard Dean during his presidential bid, criticizing his positions every turn even prior to "the scream." It went beyond simply reporting the facts. NPR is dead to me.
Anita Dunn was exactly right-on to call Fox on its bullshit claim to be a real news organization. Then she'd turned around and played straight into the wheelhouse of Glenn Beck and every other wingnut by holding up "Psycho" Mao Zedong as an inspirational figure to high school students. Not only did Mao kill tens of millions of his own people during peace time out of paranoia and megalomania, he espoused a system that was our number one enemy during the cold war.
Way to fuck up, Anita. Thank you so much for helping our enemies.
Sorry, but the word is "semblance," not "resemblance." Jeebus, the language is taking a beating.
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