The New York Times thinks NPR has a liberal bias?

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday April 12, 2024 · 10:58 AM PDT

2024/04/12 · 10:58

Today’s New York Times has an article (probably behind the paywall) on the front page of the business section titled “NPR Roiled By Editor Claiming Liberal Bias; A staff journalist publishes an essay complaining of a ‘progressive worldview’.” (The online version of the article is titled “NPR in Turmoil After It Is Accused of Liberal Bias; An essay from an editor at the broadcaster has generated a firestorm of criticism about the network on social media, especially among conservatives.” The change in wording is interesting.)

Beyond that, though, is the nonsensical “people at every level of NPR have comfortably coalesced around the progressive worldview.” Really? The organization we have nicknamed “Nice Polite Republicans”? The one that bends over backwards into both-siderism? Another one of the news sources that can’t wait to mention Joe Biden’s age all the time?

Why is the NYT featuring this on the front page of the business section? What does it have to do with business? Is this a way of getting more people to read it?

The NYT is getting more and more difficult to read. I wind up yelling at every other article. But then, I yell at NPR too.

What about the census?

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday March 10, 2020 · 2:49 PM PDT

2020/03/10 · 14:49

I’m co-chair of my Ward Democratic Committee in Boston. I just got an email from the state party saying that all upcoming caucuses, which are where we choose delegates to the state convention, are temporarily suspended pending advice on dealing with COVID-19. My first thought is, of course, holy shit, what do we do now? My next thought is, will Massachusetts even have a convention, which is scheduled for May 30?

But, thinking bigger:

How do we proceed with the Census, scheduled for April 1? I know that it is supposed to be done on line this time, but there still needs to be major personal contact, to try to include everybody in the count. I also know that the Republicans will look it as an opportunity to hamstring and distort the Census to their advantage. Should the census be postponed? Am I too concerned? I haven’t heard any discussion about this, but it will have major repercussions for the next decade.

Teachers' protest in Oklahoma leads to Democratic activism, and results at the polls

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday May 30, 2018 · 8:01 AM PDT

2018/05/30 · 08:01

The current version of The New Yorker has an article with the in-print title of The Teaching Moment. Read the article; it’ll be well worth your time, and it’ll make you feel better about where we’re going.

The article makes a number of important points:

The march from Tulsa to Oklahoma City, combined with teacher walkouts all over the state, led to: “During the walkout, the demonstration at the capitol was attended by as many as eighty thousand people—more than came to the state for the land rush of 1889.”
In special elections since 2016, Democrats won four out of nine, in districts that Republicans won easily in 2016.
The state and local Democratic party, long dormant, now is seeing crowds show up at meetings, ready to support candidates and the party.
All politics is local. Campaigning on the issue of paying for education pays off. Campaigning on national issues does not.

My interest? I’m co-chair of my local ward Democratic committee here in Boston. Our problems are the inverse of Oklahoma’s; our precincts regularly vote 90% Democratic. But before 2016, our committee was running at half its statutory allotment of members. After that election, we gained a large number of young, energetic new members. They are active in all manner of local activities: voter registration, phone banks and visits to swing districts in competitive states, get-out-the vote, etc.

It wasn’t that surprising that we had a surge of interest after 2016; it is surprising that this is happening everywhere. Maybe people are finally waking up. And, maybe, the wisdom of the beltway pundits is as far out of focus as usual.

"We're going for great - here's what's next"

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday February 03, 2015 · 7:27 PM PST

2015/02/03 · 19:27

I normally toss junk emails from airlines without a second thought, especially when they come with subject lines like this. But American Airlines went way over the edge with this love letter to someone, certainly not me, in the 1%. I was tempted to reply to them, asking "Have you finally gone completely insane?" Instead, I bring to you, below the fold, the entire letter.

Who do they think they are, sending something like this to someone who flies coach and gets treated like, well, you all know the drill. And why should I be impressed with mouthwash and comfy slippers? For that you pay ten times as much, which I am not made of money to afford. Do they think I want to aspire to affording such treatment? Do they realize how contemptuous they are of the rest of their customers?

Bah.

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday November 01, 2014 · 8:05 PM PDT

2014/11/01 · 20:05

Friends of ours reported on an encounter with Scott Brown in New Hampshire. I live in Massachusetts, and I am easily convinced that Brown is a small-minded pinhead, but this story shows a much uglier side of a guy who works hard on his nice-guy image.

As sent to my wife in email:

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 23, 2012 · 1:47 PM PDT

2012/10/23 · 13:47

In the Boston area, we had become used to gas prices hovering at about $4 for the past couple of months, so much to my surprise last week, they suddenly dropped to about $3.70. Then I visited St. Louis over the weekend, and saw prices below $3.20. I even saw people taking pictures of the price signs at the stations.

So, if President Obama was being lambasted by all the usual suspects when the price of gas rose during the summer (which is to be expected seasonally), we shouldn't be surprised that nobody mentions that the price is now plummeting. For sure, we shouldn't be surprised that the media are ignoring the story.

Move beyond the squiggle...

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday November 18, 2011 · 7:54 AM PST

2011/11/18 · 07:54

Fred Thys did a report on WBUR this morning, Gingrich Tries To Parlay Poll Lead To N.H. Gains. It includes the following exchange between Newt Gingrich and a Republican audience"

The audience at the Granite State Patriots Liberty PAC forum goes wild when Gingrich takes on President Obama.
“What do you see as the biggest constitutional failing of the Obama administration?” a moderator asks as the audience roars with laughter.

“Not understanding which country he’s president of,” Gingrich replies to loud applause.

When you finish gagging, continue below:

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday November 04, 2010 · 9:12 AM PDT

2010/11/04 · 09:12

I got a newsletter from Scott Brown, who is unfortunately one of my senators, last Friday. I have reproduced the text of the entire thing in a quote box below the fold. (No, I'm not worried about excess quoting of something sent me via email.)

In another post I referred to him as Senator Stupidhead. He hasn't done anything of note in almost a year. This newsletter is the best he can come up with? Compare this drivel with the useful newsletters I get from Bernie Sanders--and he isn't even my senator.

This guy is like a lot of Republicans. He just isn't serious about participating in the hard work of government. He's having a good time, votes the way they tell him to, and screw the constituents.

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday April 06, 2010 · 7:40 PM PDT

2010/04/06 · 19:40

An article in yesterday's Boston Globe, "Health tax may wallop towns," reports, for example:

Framingham has dozens of employees enrolled in two of its family plans at annual premiums of $40,475 or $39,150, far in excess of the threshold. For individual plans, the excise tax threshold is $10,200, and Framingham has scores of employees enrolled in plans with annual premiums of $16,275 or $14,500.

If the new tax were in effect today, Framingham would probably face an additional expense of $4,660 to $5,190 for every employee in the family plans, and $1,720 to $2,430 for each employee on an individual plan.

They follow with numerous other examples.

There's something wrong here, in many ways. Who is bilking whom with that kind of rate? Who's in charge in Framingham and the other cities that are mentioned? I work for a small company in Massachusetts, and my top-of-the-line family PPO plan costs me and my company about $14,000 per year--less than half of what the municipalities are paying. So I took keyboard in hand and wrote a letter to the Globe, with a copy to the reporter:

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday September 30, 2009 · 4:38 PM PDT

2009/09/30 · 16:38

The New Yorker of September 28, 2009, had an article by Adam Gopnik, Trial of the Century, Revisiting the Dreyfus Affair, which made one point which is quite relevant to current events and politics. Does the following sound familiar?

In any modernized country, the backward-looking party will always tend toward resentment and grievance. The key is to keep the conservatives feeling that they are an alternative party of modernity. (This was Disraeli’s great achievement, as it was, much later, de Gaulle’s.) When the conservative party comes to see itself as unfairly marginalized, it becomes a party of pure reaction, which is what happened to the French right after Dreyfus. Instead of purging the anti-Semites, people on the right decided to rally behind them. They came to hate the idea of the Republic itself.

The last three sentences could just as well refer to the U.S. radical right today. Instead of purging the haters, they rally behind them, and they hate the idea of democracy and of the U.S. republic itself.

What's the lesson here? Where do we go from here?

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday August 14, 2009 · 9:37 AM PDT

2009/08/14 · 09:37

My daughter, 21, otherwise healthy, has recently been diagnosed, via symptoms and blood test, with celiac disease, a serious but not life-threatening condition. To confirm the diagnosis, the gastroenterologist recommended an upper endoscopy. However, before she could have that done, she had to fly to San Francisco to begin a months' training for her new job. We found a specialist in that area who could do the test and asked our daughter's physician to request that the procedure be done there. The reply which follows (all names redacted) is a perfect example, in a non-emergency, of everything that is wrong with the way we deliver and pay for health care.

DtheO

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday February 20, 2009 · 9:23 AM PST

2009/02/20 · 09:23

Senator Russ Feingold strikes again: "Proposal Calls For Elections To Fill Senate Vacancies" on NPR's Morning Edition today. The idea is to resolve the conflicting ways that vacancies in the House and Senate are filled:

[Article I, Section 2] When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Executive Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies.

[Amendment 17] ...When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

It's clearly that that last sentence is the one causing the mischief which Feingold's proposed amendment wants to address. The tradeoff is that a Senate seat could remain vacant for months until a special election occurs. But it didn't bother the Framers to do just that for House seats.

Newer
Older

RSS

The New York Times thinks NPR has a liberal bias?

What about the census?

Teachers' protest in Oklahoma leads to Democratic activism, and results at the polls

"We're going for great - here's what's next"

Scott Brown: A Class Act (NOT)

Price of gas drops a lot; no credit for Guess Who

Gingrich accuses Obama of treason

Inside Scott Brown's pinhead

Massachusetts municipalities would be subject to the "Cadillac" tax--why?

Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.

Dear Ms. O----: a cautionary tale on health insurance

Sen. Feingold proposes an amendment, and other musings on the Constitution