Has NPR's Adam Davidson Betrayed His Listeners? Serious Conflict of Interest Issues Exposed

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http://www.alternet.org/has-nprs-adam-davidson-betrayed-his-listeners-serious-conflict-interest-issues-exposed



Adam Davidson is the co-creator and host of the popular economic news radio program Planet Money. On air, Davidson plays the role of an earnest, brainy reporter who’s doing his best to make sense of the complicated, jargon-filled world of finance to report business news in a way that NPR listeners can understand. However, behind the dweeby, faux-naive facade Adam Davidson presents to his listeners, is a shrewd propagandist with a long, consistent history of shilling for powerful and destructive interests—and failing to disclose his financial ties to the companies and industries he reports on.

Over the years, Davidson has boosted for the Iraq War and whitewashed the occupation of Iraq, praised sweatshop labor and "experimenting on the poor," attacked the idea of regulating Wall Street , parroted libertarian propaganda about the government’s inability to directly create jobs, argued for "squeezing the middle class," and shamelessly fawned over Wall Street for allegedly blessing Americans with "just about anything that makes you happy." (Read Adam Davidson's full S.H.A.M.E. profile .)

Adam Davidson gained national media recognition as an on-air personality in 2008, after co-producing an episode for This American Life called "The Giant Pool of Money" about the implosion of subprime lending. Although Davidson's segment was praised for making the murky world of finance easier to understand, his framing of the subprime housing debacle served another purpose: It let Wall Street off the hook for its role in rampant criminal mortgage fraud and predatory lending. Among the show's fans was Treasury Secretary and former New York Federal Reserve Bank chief Timothy Geithner: "Yeah, they did a good job."

As a piece of journalism, Davidson's report on the subprime fraud was a failure bordering on journalistic malpractice. By absolving the role of rampant predatory criminality and spreading blame in a grand false equivalency, Davidson provided a narrative frame that comforted the American Establishment at a time when it badly needed comforting, and was duly rewarded for his services. The mainstream media joined Timothy Geithner in lavishing praise on Davidson's subprime fraud whitewash, and awarded him and his partner with the prestigious "Peabody Award " while New York University's Journalism Institute named the segment one of the "Top Ten Works of Journalism of the Decade." Thanks to the broad acceptance and praise of Davidson's whitewash, he was given his own show, which launched just as the entire financial system began to meltdown.

[HiPointDem]

1. betrayed? no, he's been a tool from day one. if his listeners couldn't figure it out, they're

stupid.

[uponit7771]

2. OMG, his slants are straight out of econ winger notebooks...he acts as if his listeners don't

...notice them.

[loansstore]

3. Nonsense

nonsense

[2pooped2pop]

4. ? what's nonsense? n/t

[pinboy3niner]

5. He's dead, Jim

http://www.democraticunderground.com/?com=profile&uid=288393&sub=trans

[2pooped2pop]

11. lol I suspected he would be

but thought he might hold out a little longer than that. He's ran back to freepville shouting he's been "zotted," no doubt.

[progressoid]

7. Kitteh says,

[AnneD]

9. I've found ....

My new tag line.

[Ken Burch]

6. I think Davidson's presence is part of NPR's strategy for dealing with the congressional Republiban

They can present Davidson as clear evidence that, no NPR isn't "anti-business" and doesn't ally itself at all with those "job-killing" Obama types.

Therefore, his role is intentional on NPR's part, IMHO.

[Warren Stupidity]

10. yeah well they have been pursuing this strategy since the late 80's

and as a consequence NPR has deployed an entire potemkin village of Davidsons. It is quite an effective charade. So effective that I have stopped using them as a news source as all they spew is center-right opinionated nonsense.

[Ken Burch]

13. Well, the objective is simply preserving the institution.

Integrity is usually sacrificed in such an effort.

[The Wizard]

8. Jim Cramer's

evil twin with a face for radio.

[barbtries]

12. i call it NPRR these days

national public republican radio. i find myself shoving in the CD over and over and over. and yelling at my radio.