in its coverage of the sting, did talk about the ACORN sting, but left out that the videos were edited to create impression of wrong doing. One word added would have brought to people's minds the whole story of James O'Keefe, but, no, they couldn't find a milisecond to say "edited videos" or, better, "doctored videos" of ACORN. Why not?

I have no idea whether there was any careful editing of the NPR sting tapes, but I do recall that James O'Kefe is on 3 years probation beginning in fall of 2010. Which led me to wonder if his misrepresentations here might affect his probation?

Also, apparently, NPR did some vetting of the donors, and, finding no records for them, turned down the $5M (fake) contribution. Couple questions:

1) An environmentally concerned grad student was just found guilty of placing a bid for a Federal land lease without having the funds on hand (he did manage to raise them, but the court refused to let him enter that as evidence in his trial). I wonder if there's any fraud involved in offering a donation to a federally funded (partially, at least) organization and not having the funds to do so?

2) Why was fundraiser Schiller allowed to meet with these people without the vetting having been done...or was Schiller not told of the results? I would think in future, fundraisers for NPR or PBS will do their vetting ahead of time. And also watch what they say to such donors. Maybe wear a wire...the better to detect crafty editing of any taped or videotaped conversations....

About Vivian Schiller, I don't recall any reason given for her resignation.

of the weakness and uselessness of the "legitimate" American Left. Right-wingers say and do offensive and harmful things routinely; mostly they get a pass. But an ineffectual kiss-ass lefty says something that's not only true, but blatantly obvious, and the corporate noise machine treats it like an real crime.

Can anyone imagine the head of Faux News stepping down after getting busted speaking frankly? Or any other corporate sleazeball, or a Repug politician? Not a chance. But of course Obama would probably toss any one of his people overboard on general principle if they spoke the truth, whether or not anybody was actually offended.

Tea Partiers are racists; we all know that without having to be told. Federal funding and its concomitant strings are detrimental to the quality of so-called public broadcasting. This stuff is not arguable, even if there are some people who don't want to hear it from a presumed credible source.

But this sort of double-standardized bullshit is basically inevitable with an organization like NPR that has sold its soul for some thin broth of perceived legitimacy. I have not forgotten the pulsating propaganda organ NPR morphed into during the aftermath of 9/11 and the selling of Iraq II. That was neither public, nor in the public interest. They tipped their hand in a big way.

If you want integrity in news broadcasting, follow Democracy Now! or just forsake all the broadcast news for a selection of mostly trustworthy, mostly unredacted news and information sources on the Web.

_______________________________________________________________

"There'll be one corporation selling one little box
It'll do what you want and tell you what you want
and cost whatever you got" — Greg Brown

Thank you for the Iraq reminder. Only dispute is DN! is heavily foundation sponsored and they avoid touching the various third-rail issues if they can.

The mainstream left orgs are getting their shit kicked by these rightwing information operations (plannedparenthood, NPR, Acorn, who's next? Who's left??) and the Breitbart machine. I know how these damn tactics work and the squares calling the shots on the establishment/ 'controlled' left are not paying attention or taking it seriously. good grief!

They need to learn how Cointelpro, the Green Scare, assorted prosecutorial insanities against "radicals" work because the same tactics are now privatized and targeting the mainstream big left organizations.

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Hongpong.com

from the Right's playbook. Sitting around thinking "we're nicer than the other side" doesn't seem to make them recognize that "nice guys finish last". In a rational world, decency is important, but the way things are going, I don't think Progressives can afford it - we need to play hardball.
Decency, compassion and honesty are virtues one-on-one, but fatal weaknesses when confronting The Man and his minions.

Retiring Mainframe maven, active curmudgeon, poet, writer.