Bolton, Frist, Propaganda and Irony on NPR

I awoke this morning to a news report on my radio/alarm clock. I set it to NPR because I do enjoy the classical music and because the local news/talk station does not come in well on the little device.

NPR was delivering a report on Senator Bill Frist's presidential ambitions: talking about how he has pledged that as a gentleman/politician, he will retire from the Senate at the end of this term; how he refuses to rule out a presidential run and that, although he will resume his surgical practice, he will also be making trips to South Carolina and other states important in the early 2008 presidential primary season.

The NPR report added how important it was for Frist to establish his credentials by demonstrating positive leadership in the senate.

Still half asleep, I didn't realize I was being set up.

I went off to church services and, as I returned, flicked on the radio and found NPR playing in the truck. I would have changed the station except they were discussing charges from the head of the Public Broadcasting Company that NPR had become a liberal propaganda service, a topic which I discussed a month ago on this blog. The two commentators discussing the topic so coolly with each other for the listener's benefit seemed wholly detached as they noted that a Democratic Senator had accused Public Broadcasting chief Kenneth Tomlinson of being a Whitehouse lackey, and discussed memos which seemed to indicate close coordination between CPB and the Whitehouse undermining Tomlinson's claims of merely seeking to restore political neutrality to NPR broadcasts.

As NPR changed the topic to a Judas Priest rock star who had announced his homosexual orientation, I finally turned the radio off.

I arrived home, fed the children, and turned my PC on. That's when I finally found the story of the failed cloture vote in the Senate. I knew the vote was coming up and that the chances for a Republican victory looked bleak. This confirmed it.

It put the earlier report on Frist in perspective. NPR would naturally discuss a conservative's presidential prospects at the moment that conservative was being humiliated. It puts a nice frame of perspective on the target/subject from a liberal standpoint.

It also put the liberal bias discussion on NPR in perspective. NPR is about as neutral as Tennessee Vol fan on the third weekend in October.

I'm just glad they were a little more subtle this morning. They will be more subtle until the PBC charges are resolved.