GET OUT: US politics November 2020

Wait what's actually so bad about NPR? Besides that one comment.

lady if you have to ask

all media is biased but there isn't a single outlet in existence that is more condescending and smug in its house tone

NPR often has excellent reporting, but the way the commentators introduce and thereby shape the coverage represents one of the last bulwarks of #bothsidesism.

xxxp good thread here:

i have given up on @NPR on this particular point. Still a member, via @WNYC, still a supporter of public radio. But I can't listen any longer, and cut it out of my morning routine. https://t.co/lHEx8RHQfN

— Jay Rosen (@jayrosen_nyu) January 24, 2019

npr tone is also just a personal bugbear and most people seem fine with it so ymmv

Please don't misinterpret this, but while they should have added a qualifier--theatrically disputed, pointlessly disputed, falsely disputed, insanely disputed--if one of the two participants are disputing the results, aren't they indeed disputed? Nothing to do with the NPR or Trump or anything except language.

it's the lack of a qualifier that's the issue, aiui

I feel like it's like saying the results are "in question" -- I guess formally you could say that if someone has questioned them, they are by definition "in question," but there's no denying that in practice it reads as saying "are uncertain."

People will hear that differently, and I guess that's the problem. I simply hear "Trump can't accept the results," but his cult would hear "in question."

Gonna be a fun day!

RUDY jumping in to represent Trump camp at Tuesday hearing in longshot case to disrupt PA election results. Case was already going off the rails before Giuliani indicated he'd be joining the legal team https://t.co/np5nXWr0z5

— Tierney Sneed (@Tierney_Megan) November 17, 2020

I actually think NPR has done an okay job in recent weeks correcting and pushing back when faced with outright mistruths, imo, and when reporting about the current election challenges they've sometimes come across downright dubious, even sarcastic. Like, they have to report it, because it's news, but they haven't given it any weight beyond acknowledging its existence. Beats the incessantly hystrionic breaking news! tone of most other outlets.

xpost Oh shit, is there a place to stream that?

"This American Life is not an NPR show" It's made by Chicago Public Media and runs on NPR stations so I don't know what makes something an "NPR show" to you but that qualifies it IMO.

It's a show that runs on NPR, but I don't think it necessarily reflects NPR's own in-house voice. If anything, I think the influence of This American Life has been far more annoying, insufferable and insidious than any other show on NPR.

Btw whenever I read any story about Rudy I immediately think of the Mr Show sketch about the chimney sweep at the four-star restaurant hired the wipe people's butts.

While I hate that any of this disputation shit is happening in the first place, I do approve of the decision to hand the legal reins over to the Cryptkeeper. But surely there was someone even more challenged and incompetent Trump could have chosen.

Graham tells reporters he’s also spoken to election officials in Arizona and Nevada

— Igor Bobic (@igorbobic) November 17, 2020

isn't this shit a felony

But he said he wuddnt doin nuthin wrong

https://thehill-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/thehill.com/homenews/senate/526240-graham-denies-pressuring-top-georgia-elections-official-to-throw-out-some?

About that Arizona claim

This is false. I have not spoken with @LindseyGrahamSC. https://t.co/Cy9iUvrg3K

— Secretary Katie Hobbs (@SecretaryHobbs) November 17, 2020

Ah yes, cleanup

GRAHAM told @igorbobic that he spoke to @dougducey in Arizona, and he “can’t remember” who he spoke to in Nevada. https://t.co/zgHztOU7sz

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) November 17, 2020

rudy is gonna bring the lolz in court, can't wait

He might not be able to:

Here is a screenshot of the DC Bar's membership listing web page for Giuliani: pic.twitter.com/ngPzkCYF7m

— Benjamin Wittes (@benjaminwittes) November 17, 2020

lol I'm so glad you posted that because it reminded me that I have to re-register for the bar in like 10 days and complete my CLE credits.

lmao rudy i love you buddy

xpost haha well happy to help, then!

I used to listen to NPR back when I had a commute, at least until it (NPR) drove me crazy and I couldn’t listen to it anymore. They try to project this sort of smug, chill, privileged, coffee-house liberal vibe- which I guess I can deal with. But that’s just the vibe. When it comes to content and analysis, it’s always- “President Trump declared today that his enemies must be imprisoned or executed. For more on this, we’ve invited a conservative policymaker to give his party’s talking points on this matter.” Then the conservative dude spews his bullshit talking points with little or no pushback from the interviewer. Then, just when you would think they would cut over to someone with a liberal or at least sensible point of view to counter this, you realize it’s over and they have moved on to something else entirely.

Yeah I can't stand them anymore.

NPR drives me crazy for all the reasons mentioned above, but on road trips through the deepest blood-red parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, I'm glad to be able to find its smug centrism on the radio ... needless to say, most listeners in those parts of the world regard it as socialist propaganda funded by the deep state with stolen tax dollars

I would 1000% prefer to listen to NPR than conservative talk radio, yes.

Four years ago on Morning Edition they were interviewing a former colleague of Mike Flynn’s when Flynn was announced to be part of the administration and the person was trying to tell them Flynn is terrible and the NPR guy picks up only on that he’s disorganized and not the other stuff the caller is trying to say and the host is like “haha he’s like Pigpen”.

It's been months since I heard anyone close to a conservative nut spouting complete nonsense on NPR (unless you count David Brooks?), and whenever that was they literally stopped them multiple times to point out and correct their lies. Now, I guess you could argue that those people should never be on NPR at all, ever, and that's true, but if the entire US government is packed with insane partisans, what are you going to do, literally ignore the entire administration for 4 years and just pretend they don't exist? Even we can't do that, and it's not even our job to pay attention.

Who listens to This American Life in the year of our lord 2020 that is some 00s flashback.

Ok I know Ira Glass and the stereotypical NPR tone are universally derided, but TAL did make an effort at some point to switch their game up, and it's not as twee and banal as it was in the '90s/'00s. They've had some episodes that are actually really worthwhile & legit journalism.

I like NPR. I'm kind of surprised that Trump & Co. have never gone after them, but he may not even know it exists.

TAL does interesting journalism maybe 1/10 episodes, although even there I sometimes feel like they use narrative in a manipulative way.

Yeah honestly I remember them always pushing back hard when someone starts to lie or mislead.

xxxp

Despite the recent allegations of #Bothsidesism, I think it's generally regarded as pretty left-leaning.

I guess I would say that when TAL takes on a serious/news subject, they tell interesting stories about it but I would be very wary of listening to a TAL episode about something and then believing that you understand it or know the deal with it as a result.

NPR drives me crazy for all the reasons mentioned above, but on road trips through the deepest blood-red parts of Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, I'm glad to be able to find its smug centrism on the radio ... needless to say, most listeners in those parts of the world regard it as socialist propaganda funded by the deep state with stolen tax dollars

― Brad C.

otm

i have now matured into my "NPR _actually_ sucks" phase of my life. but growing up, NPR was like a far-left bastion of news, literally the only reasonable thing on the radio, surrounded by nothing but christian radio, right-wing radio, christian right-wing radio, AND THE POINT: ONE OH FIVE POINT SEVEN ALTERNATIVE RADIO

in those areas, NPR might be the only station on the dial that is acknowledging that trump lost

i'm not even joking

drive through the middle of illinois

it fucking blows and everyone is an uninformed moron

then you cross over into missouri and it's the same except it smells worse and everyone's even more racist

i can say that because i hate missouri

what does Nebraska smell like

Cowshit

never gonna leave the coast...

Never gonna let you down, and hurt you

except for people who live in nebraska, no one has ever set foot in nebraska, apart from airports and gas stations

never gonna smell manure
never gonna get much bluer

Didn't people make pilgrimages to visit Burroughs?

(Nevermind, that was Kansas)