Whatever morning rituals other people have, mine involves waking up with NPR's Morning Edition, which this morning, in its first five minutes, managed to piss me off in three ways.
1) A new poll commisioned by NPR shows support for the war, the president, the president's party and anything related gets lower every day. Is this a surprise? Does anybody still hold out hope for "victory" in this thing anymore?
The details of this report were related without comment, but NPR is as culpable as any media outlet in neglecting to ask the tough questions before this quagmire started, and continues to present "on one hand this, on the other hand that"-style stories about the damn thing, as if there are two sides to this. Sorry, but no. There is only the truth and lies, yet NPR continues to give equal weight to both.
I could go on for awhile here--are you surprised?--but instead I'll move on to ...
2) NPR found it necessary to include an update on those climbers trapped on Mt. Hood in the top-of-the-hour newscast. Not to sound harsh, but why should I give a rat's ass about these guys? Aside from the fact that I can't sympathize too much with people dumb enough to climb a mountain in the middle of winter--you take the risk, you pay the price--this falls into the same category as the guy who died when he went looking for help for his family stranded in the snow, or any of the numerous missing and presumed dead young white women of privelege that the mainstream media trots out periodically under the "human interest" rubric.
Fine, but you know what? People die every day. Why are the individual miseries and misfortunes of some people considered more interesting than others? Coverage of stories like this is the type of thing I expect from network morning shows, not a supposedly respectable news-gathering organization like NPR.
3) Also in its first newscast of the day, NPR ran a brief story on the death of music-biz genius Ahmet Ertegun. Co-founder of Atlantic Records, producer, songwriter, talent scout and all-around guru, Ertegun had a hand in some of the best music ever made, including great tracks from Charles Mingus, Ray Charles, The Drifters, Ornette Coleman, Ben E. King, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Dusty Springfield, Sam And Dave, The Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and so many more. But in this brief story, what Atlantic-based group did NPR choose to highlight? Yes. And the only song we got a snippet of was Owner Of A Lonely Heart.
People are routinely sentenced to death for lesser crimes.
