[Peace] Fwd: [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS

Sat Feb 12 18:04:42 CST 2011

I continue to support NPR and PBS, convoluted (pollluted) arguments to the contrary. Without them the wasteland would increase greatly. They offer more than just news. They offer points of view and stories of interest not covered in other outlets. I feel connected to others that use them. In a world of vituperation I find mostly common ground with others like myself, imperfect, but essentially trying to do what is best for others in a maddeningly complex world. I am with Belden and Mike on this. I am glad they are here. As well as others like them.

To: peace at lists.chambana.net
From: a-fields at uiuc.edu
Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 11:59:02 -0600
Subject: [Peace] Fwd: [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS

Begin forwarded message:From: Belden Fields <a-fields at uiuc.edu>Date: February 12, 2011 11:50:02 AM CSTTo: "C. G. ESTABROOK" <cge at shout.net>Cc: SFcore <sf-core at yahoogroups.com>Subject: Re: [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS
 Well said Mike.  I could not agree with you more.  What NPR brings to  us is at least civil and intelligent discussion of public affairs.   We may disagree with the policy or ideological positions of the  speakers, and we may feel that the range is not broad enough  (fortunately we have McChesney locally), but civility and  intelligence are rare enough over the commercial airwaves that we  should not forsake NPR and PBS,  There is some very good broadcasting  on both of these if one searches it out.  Purity we don't have--and  never willeven on our community outlets.  In fact, I'm pretty sure I don't want  ideological purity.  I will contribute to NPR/PBS, just as I do to  the IMC and WEFT.Thanks again Mike.BeldenOn Feb 12, 2011, at 11:22 AM, C. G. ESTABROOK wrote:
 Efforts should be made instead to tear down the effective  censorship of AlJazeera and promote Link TV, Free Speech TV, etc.
      "I heard them say the revolution won't be televised /      al-Jazeera proved them wrong, Twitter has them paralyzed..."
      --Syrian-American rapper Omar Offendum
On 2/12/11 10:42 AM, Mike Lehman wrote: While I really can't dispute the criticisms of NPR (and PBS) and amregularly disappointed by them, I think it's wholly  counterproductive topresume that the elimination of either would benefit those seekingalternatives to the present system.
Society needs more spaces where something other than FAUX News andCorporate News Network prevail. It may not be a perfect space, andcertainly never enough to justifiably satisfy some critics, buteliminating "public" broadcasting would serve FAUX and CNN, rather  thanweaken the system that make the broader conversations our society  needsso difficult. Neither CNN or FAUX is subject to public pressure,  while"public" broadcasting is, however much it still falls short of whatwould be ideal.
I can see people saying they won't lift a finger to help PBS and NPR.But urging others to join the Republicans in helping eliminate one ofthe few spaces left where a progressive argument at least gets airedfrom time to time isn't something I consider to be an effective  strategyto building alternative media spaces that challenge the status quo.
The masses of teeming apathy have to have someplace comfortable to  starta journey to alternative ways of looking at the world and our  society.Slamming the gate to the path to move from the garden of evil into  thegarden of justice and peace is not going to cause more than a very  fewto look to jump over the fence instead.
And I doubt if either is going away, even if the Repugnicans/Tea  Partyget their fantasy of eliminating both. They'll just become moredependent on corporate cash -- and that will make all the things theyare criticized for worse.
Far better to waste such physic and political energy on betteralternatives so that once people are roused from their sleep, they  havea place to grab a cup of coffee to steel their nerves to go beyond  theconflicted American dreamscape that PBS and NPR offer. Revolution iswhat we build, not what we help reactionaries tear down.Mike Lehman
On 2/11/2011 10:11 PM, David Johnson wrote: I have had no use for NPR ( National Public Radio ) and PBS TV  for quitesome time.
Cases in point....
The propoganda campaign they aired when Reagan died a few years  ago ( mayhis soul rot in hell ) that presented Reagan as an idolized icon,  with NOcounter view of Reagan and his disasterous foreign ( can you say  " warcrimes " ) policy and his disasterous neo-liberal / neo-conservativedomestic policies.
Then there was the coverage of the People's Historian Howard Zinn  when hedied a little over a year ago. The ONLY view about Howard Zinn  presented onNPR was the trash job on Zinn done by David Howoritz.
NPR is nothing but FOX " news " for the intelligencia.
The reason of course for NPR's de-evolution is the ever  increasing relianceover the years on corporate funding.
I could care less if NPR goes off the air.It would be one less corporate news outlet.What suprises me is the large number of seemingly well educated andsupposedly " compasionate and progressive " people who still  listen to NPR'scorpoarte trash and consider it an " opposition " and " objective  " newssource.
David J.
----- Original Message -----From: "C. G. ESTABROOK"<cge at shout.net>To: "Belden Fields"<a-fields at uiuc.edu>Cc: "Walter Feinberg"<wfeinber at illinois.edu>; "Fred Coombs Fred  Coombs"<coombs at rainbowtel.net>; "SFcore"<sf-core at yahoogroups.com>;<sadougla at illinois.edu>Sent: Friday, February 11, 2011 9:01 PMSubject: Re: [sf-core] Fwd: Save NPR and PBS

 National Propaganda Radio? Why?
NPR reports on Obama's war in the Mideast probably don't differ  formallyfromofficial Russian accounts during their invasion of Afghanistan.  They wouldhavediscussed how can we get victory, how can we destroy the  terrorists, willthistactic work, will that tactic work, we're losing too many  soldiers and soon. Weassume that no one in the official Russian media asked, Do we  have a righttoinvade another country? And of course NPR doesn't do that either.
But NPR has far less excuse. With media under totalitarian  control, if yousaidthe wrong thing you'd go off to the gulag. Here it's just willingsubordinationto power. The result is no main-stream journalism - even  (particularly?)NPR -that goes beyond the college newspaper cheering for the home team.
Chris Hedges prefaces his important new book, "The Death of the  LiberalClass,"with a passage from Orwell's suppressed introduction to Animal  Farm:
       "At any given moment there is an orthodoxy, a body of  ideas which itisassumed that all right-thinking people will accept without  question. It isnotexactly forbidden to say this, that or the other, but it is 'not  done' tosayit, just as in mid-Victorian times it was 'not done' to mention  trousersin thepresence of a lady. Anyone who challenges the prevailing  orthodoxy findshimselfsilenced with surprising effectiveness. A genuinely  unfashionable opinionisalmost never given a fair hearing, either in the popular press  or in thehighbrow periodicals" - and, he might have added, on highbrow  radio.
During the presidential campaign Obama said that the spectrum ofdiscussion inthe United States extends between two crazy extremes, Rush  Limbaugh andNPR. Thetruth, he said, is in the middle and that is where he is going  to be - inthemiddle, between the crazies.
Obama has a way of telling the truth about his right-wing politics,certain thatno one will hear him.  NPR certainly won't tell.

On 2/11/11 7:55 PM, Belden Fields wrote: 
Begin forwarded message:
 *From: *Troy  Burks<burkstroy at yahoo.com<mailto:burkstroy at yahoo.com>>*Date: *February 11, 2011 1:28:18 PM CST*To: *A EL- Jamal<sbygrace at yahoo.com<mailto:sbygrace at yahoo.com>>, AaronAmmons<livingsoul at sbcglobal.net<mailto:livingsoul at sbcglobal.net>> ,AndreArrington<aarrington at DMBGC-CU.ORG<mailto:aarrington at DMBGC- CU.ORG>>,AngelaBarbee<evansbarbee at yahoo.com<mailto:evansbarbee at yahoo.com>>, AnnaHenry<aphenry27 at gmail.com<mailto:aphenry27 at gmail.com>>, Arthur Culver<culverar at champaignschools.org<mailto:culverar at champaignschools.o rg>>,Barbara kessel<barkes at gmail.com<mailto:barkes at gmail.com>>,  BarbaraGillespie<bggillespie at sbcglobal.net<mailto:bggillespie at sbcglobal.net>>,  BeldenFields<a-fields at uiuc.edu<mailto:a-fields at uiuc.edu>>, Ben Rothschild<rothsch2 at gmail.com<mailto:rothsch2 at gmail.com>>, Benita Gay<bgay at communityelements.org<mailto:bgay at communityelements.org>>,BerniceHarrington<bharring at illinois.edu<mailto:bharring at illinois.edu>>,  Bill<hardheadent at vzw.blackberry.net<mailto:hardheadent at vzw.blackberry.net>>,Brandon Bowersox<brandonbowersox at gmail.com<mailto:brandonbowersox at gmail.com>>, Brian Dolinar<briandolinar at gmail.com<mailto:briandolinar at gmail.com>>, Byron Clark<byroncl at gmail.com<mailto:byroncl at gmail.com>>, carol ammons<carolammons at gmail.com<mailto:carolammons at gmail.com>>, Carol  Inskeep<carolinskeep at yahoo.com<mailto:carolinskeep at yahoo.com>>, Charlie  Smyth<csmyth at sbcglobal.net<mailto:csmyth at sbcglobal.net>>, Chris  Hamb<chrishamb at chrishamb.com<mailto:chrishamb at chrishamb.com>>, Claire Cape<claire.kirkcape351 at gmail.com<mailto:claire.kirkcape351 at gmail.com>>, Cope Cumpston<cope.c at comcast.net<mailto:cope.c at comcast.net>>, "Craig Walker cwsierramar at aol.com<mailto:cwsierramar at aol.com>"<cwalker at Brv-llc.com<mailto:cwalker at Brv-llc.com>>, Crystal Thomas<crystal_s_thomas at hotmail.com<mailto:crystal_s_thomas at hotmail.com>>, CU Greg Square<gsquare at parkland.edu<mailto:gsquare at parkland.edu>>, CU Toriano Harvey<t.harvey.4 at hotmail.com<mailto:t.harvey.4 at hotmail.com>>, Danielle Chynoweth<danielle at prometheusradio.org<mailto:danielle at prometheusradio.org  , DanisPelmore<Danispelmore at comcast.net<mailto:Danispelmore at comcast.net>  , DebarahMcFarland<DMcFarland at DMBGC-CU.ORG<mailto:DMcFarland at DMBGC- CU.ORG>>,DennisRoberts<drobertscitycouncil at yahoo.com<mailto:drobertscitycouncil at yahoo.com>>, Diane Marlin<marlindiane at gmail.com<mailto:marlindiane at gmail.com>>*Subject: **Fw: Save NPR and PBS*

--- On *Fri, 2/11/11, Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org Political Action/<moveon-help at list.moveon.org<mailto:moveon- help at list.moveon.org>>/*wrote:

      From: Daniel Mintz, MoveOn.org Political Action      <moveon-help at list.moveon.org<mailto:moveon- help at list.moveon.org>>      Subject: Save NPR and PBS      To: "Rev. Troy A. Burks"<burkstroy at yahoo.com<mailto:burkstroy at yahoo.com>>      Date: Friday, February 11, 2011, 7:07 PM

<http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/? id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=1>"Congress      must protect NPR and PBS and guarantee them permanent  funding, freefrom      political meddling."      <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/? id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=1>

      Sign the petition      <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/? id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=2>
      Dear MoveOn member,
      I guess we shouldn't be surprised.
      With Republicans back in charge of the House of  Representatives,*funding      for NPR and PBS is in grave danger.* Again.
      The Republicans just released their budget proposal, and  it *zeroesout      funding for both NPR and PBS*—the worst proposal in more  than adecade.^1
      They probably think that no one will notice these cuts  in the midstof so      many others. But the millions of listeners and viewers  who rely onpublic      broadcasting for "Sesame Street," "All Things  Considered," andindependent      journalism will notice.
      We need to tell Republicans that cutting off funding wasunacceptable last      time they were in charge, and it's unacceptable now.
      Add your name to the petition to save NPR and PBS      <http://pol.moveon.org/nprpbs/? id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=3>
      The petition says: "/Congress must protect NPR and PBS  and guaranteethem      permanent funding, free from political meddling./"
      Thanks for all you do.
      –Daniel, Amy, Michael, Wes, and the rest of the team
      1. "Beyond Reason on the Budget," /The New York Times/,  February 10,2011      http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/11/opinion/11fri1.html
      Want to support our work? We're entirely funded by our 5  million      members—no corporate contributions, no big checks from  CEOs. And ourtiny      staff ensures that small contributions go a long way.  Chip in here
<https://pol.moveon.org/donate/email.html? id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x&t=5>.

----------------------------------------------------------------- ---------------      PAID FOR BY MOVEON.ORG POLITICAL ACTION, http:// pol.moveon.org/. Not      authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.  This email wassent      to Rev. Troy A. Burks on February 11, 2011. To change  your emailaddress      or update your contact info, click here      <http://moveon.org/subscrip/coa.html? id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x>. Toremove      yourself from this list, click here      <http://moveon.org/s?i=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x>. Web Bug  from      http://open.moveon.org/o.gif?id=26078-17377114-0nf7g3x

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