Seriously Now, My Internet Provider Is Literally Headquartered In A Log Building And The Setting Amongst The Trees Is Actually Quite Beautiful.
I Concur With All Of These Statements: “CSA…you need to come into the 21st century.”
“It may not have anything to do with CSA.”
“you could listen on a smartphone. That’s an expense I choose not to incur, but it’s an option.”
“CSA: the common sense answer would be to get satellite internet, if you really can’t stream audio over a dialup connection. Another expense I choose not to incur.”
If it’s not one dxxn thing, it’s another. I just try and maintain an even strain. I have to choose my battles. I’ve got too many things going on besides computers, radio shows, and phones. Having kids (and wife, too), six or seven cars, boats, etcetera, really is like having a bowling alley installed in your head.
Would they can anyone for attending a tea party rally?
Yes.
You and others in this thread are confused about free speech. Free speech is a restriction on the government’s ability to stop us from expressing ideas. You do not have free speech where your employer is concerned. If you’d like an example of that, go stand outside your workplace and badmouth the business to passersby. See how long you stay employed.
NPR as a journalistic operation has decided to adhere to the tenets of journalistic integrity by making sure that their employees and programs don’t so much as give the appearance of bias. Attending a liberal protest (or spouting conservativespeak on Fox News, as Williams discovered) clearly give the appearance of bias, and therefore violate NPR policy.
In this case, its one step farther removed from employment since Simeone doesn’t even work for NPR.
But just because its legal doesn’t make it right. Yes, we probably did better than most at trying to minimize tyranny exercised by the state. But we went ahead and/continue to let other kinds of organizations run amok. I don’t want my private “legislated” - whether by the state or any organization I work for or am affiliated with.
So isn’t that my “choice” then? Well, only sort of. Lets not pretend that little teeny individuals can in any way be of the same standing as very large organizations - public or private.
The rules change when you get into media. When I was a journalist, I couldn’t express opinions publicly myself. It goes with the territory. If I hadn’t liked it, I shouldn’t have gone into a job that required that.
That NPR chose not to air a program hosted by someone who showed bias is simply in keeping with their policy (which in this case makes it especially interesting that people keep accusing them of being a liberal mouthpiece).
That policy has been in place for a very long time. She knew what she was doing, and did it anyway. She made her choice, and left NPR with the choice to either follow their policy or prove to the world that, just like Fox News, they follow tenets of journalism only when convenient. I, for one, am glad that they chose the former.
Your argument, btw, that your employer should have no say in what you do in your private life would be welcome to the schoolteachers who have been fired for being strippers on the side.
You’ll be back listening in due time. Anytime someone quits something because they supposedly don’t play by the rules, they always return.
Be smart enough to know what battles to fight. I don’t like the liberal bile that’s spewed out by CNN and the networks but I can separate that from programs that bring a little entertainment.
Please don’t compare Lisa Simeone to Cokie Roberts. Cokie Roberts is a respected journalist who has maintained an apolitical stance in her views on government. Lisa Simeone participated in a protest that took a political stance, abandoning her objectivity and journalistic integrity.
For the record, I agree with what the “occupy” protesters are trying to accomplish, but when a journalist forgoes the attempt to maintain political objectivity, he or she is no longer a journalist, and instead, has become a pundit. If she was employed as a pundit, and not a journalist, she shouldn’t have been fired. If she was employed as a journalist, she deserves to be fired.
Her show was carried by a journalistic organization that has set standards for every show that they carry. If the shows don’t uphold the standards, they get dropped. Car Talk would be dropped too if the Brothers went around stumping for political causes.
Car Talk would be dropped too if the Brothers went around stumping for political causes…
Don’t you think it would be more accurate to say “Car Talk would be dropped too if the Brothers went around stumping for political causes that was contrary to what NPR espouses.” Not badmouthing NPR but they all do that.
but when a journalist forgoes the attempt to maintain political objectivity, he or she is no longer a journalist,…ah, the good old days. That is the way it’s supposed to be but now days all journalists take a side. Some will even admit they are supposed to take sides.
meaneyedcatz: “That is the way it’s supposed to be but now days all journalists take a side.”
Really? I would love to see a single example of a real journalist, like George Stephanopoulos for example, taking a side. Since Stephanopoulos ended his political career and became a journalist, I’ve found him to be very impartial.
The same goes for Cokie Roberts. I’ve seen her express her opinions on what the overall consensus is in Washington, DC, or among the people, but it’s based on her analysis of polling data and interviews, not her political beliefs. If you can find a single example of a time when Cokie Roberts has taken a side on a political issue, I would love to see it.
Real journalists like George Stephanopoulos and Cokie Roberts have political beliefs, but they keep them private. I challenge you to find a single example of a time when one of them has expressed a political or partisan opinion that was their own, and not someone else’s.
Don’t you think it would be more accurate to say “Car Talk would be dropped too if the Brothers went around stumping for political causes that was contrary to what NPR espouses.”
No, that would be a neo-con talking point which is especially senseless here since the neocons are constantly haranguing NPR for being “librul” and yet they’ve dropped a show because its host supported a liberal cause.
I think they should fire the director who said after the 2008 crisis that nobody could have predicted the crisis. She was clearly either ill informed-ignorant or stupid…or lying. Generally I did resent, and will not forget, how slow NPR has been in 2007-2008 to think and look at the financial data… it is not for lack of emails containing a lot of “useful” links from a lot of people I know. I realize finance is not a natural interest of a lot of NPR journalists, but when it is of pivotal importance to really understand the data and not parrot what some “authorities” say (who cares!!) then it is time to take responsibility to make sure you understand. And if you don’t just say so.
Naomi, you’re stating one of the reasons I left the profession. Journalists no longer understand how to be journalists, and trying to do the job right is swimming upstream these days. Journalism has largely become (and NPR is guilty of this as well) watercooler gossip. “That guy says global warming exists and that guy says it doesn’t. There we go! That’s your balanced coverage!”
And that is about 75% of why news coverage these days is so vapidly empty of actual journalistic merit.
Whitey…Since Stephanopoulos ended his political career and became a journalist, I’ve found him to be very impartial. The same goes for Cokie Roberts…
Holy cow Whitey, don’t be such a nit picker. When I said “all” did you actually think I meant 100% of them !00% of the time? Surely you realize that when people say “all” that can mean most, some, several, etc. It’s part of speech that may not be completely accurate but those who read it know the meaning or intent or idea. Your a person that verbalizes ideas so you and I both know even you have used this in expressing ideas or feelings before. Take for example dry rot. That is a plant condition but everyone knows what it means for a tire to suffer from dry rot, not completely accurate but everyone knows the idea (that may not be the best example but I assume your sharp enough to get it). I did not mean to hurt your feelings when I did not single out George & Cokie. From know on when I use that term I will not include George & Cokie in my thoughts.
Shadowfax: What do YOU mean by “neo-con”? I consider NPR liberal leaning but don’t think of myself as a neo-con.
“No, that would be a neo-con talking point which is especially senseless here since the neocons are constantly haranguing NPR for being “librul” and yet they’ve dropped a show because its host supported a liberal cause.”
I would suggest that they were burned so badly by the Juan Williams debacle that they felt they had to drop an outside-produced show (which didn’t bring in a lot of contributions) because its host supported a political cause. Remember the person who fired Williams lost her job. So this balanced the ledger at little cost. Or so some would say.
Whitey:
Obama: “Let’s not play games. What I was suggesting – you’re absolutely right that John McCain has not talked about my Muslim faith. And you’re absolutely right that that has not come.”
Stephanopoulos: “Christian faith.”
Other than that I agree with you. I wish he hadn’t gone to the morning show.
It’s always a treat to see Cokie and Steve at the Georgetown Grille on the weekends.
meaneyedcatz: “Holy cow Whitey, don’t be such a nit picker. When I said “all” did you actually think I meant 100% of them !00% of the time? Surely you realize that when people say “all” that can mean most, some, several, etc.”
Sorry, I didn’t realize I was nitpicking. When someone says “all,” I give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he means what he says, and that if he meant “most,” he would say “most.” My bad.
I can come up with more examples if you wish, but George Stephanopoulos and Cokie Roberts were the first two to pop into my mind.
littlemouse, I am not sure that reflects a bias, but for the sake of argument, I’ll agree it was a slip-up. He probably would have corrected McCain if he had made a similar mistake though.
