NPR misrepresents Dean's Confederate Flag statement...

[AP]

This weekend's Weekend All Things Considered did a segment on the Confederate Flag statement that started with a tape of Dean giving the stump speech version of his confederate flag statement, which he has been giving for months. (This is that begins as a discussion about race and ends with "I don't want the republicans dividing me on race", which is an awkward phrasing of the issue, but eminently true.)

They followed this up with commentary, which was generally critical of people complaining about it. However, they wrapped the whole segment up with a very long interview with Zell Miller who said that Dean doesn’t know what he’s talking about, and that Clinton did in ’92 when Clinton talked about reforming welfare in his campaign, and cracking down on crime (which were shamelessly, covertly racist statements that don’t reflect the truth of Clinton’s campaign and they do not reflect the huge changes in American society in the last 13 years). Zell went on to praise Bush, and then, mercifully, he said that he was 72 and doesn’t even buy green bananas anymore.

So what was so wrong about this?

Well, the reaction this past week wasn’t to Dean’s months old stump speech statement. It was to a recent interview to an Iowa paper in which he was discussing the NRA (not race) and in which he made the substantially different claim that he wanted to be the candidate “for” confederate flag waivers.

So, WATC did the following: they ran a tape of a very reasonable statement, claimed that Democrats were outraged, played a few seconds of people saying it was OK, thus making the democrats who complained seem stupid (and they would have been if they were criticizing the statement ATC played), and then they gave about 5 minutes to a lunatic so that he could praise Bush.

It was awful.

I can’t believe they couldn’t even cite the ACTUAL statement that triggered the debate, and I can’t believe they didn’t use the opportunity to have an informed discussion on the issue. Why not talk to Al Gore or Bill Clinton, or any other Democrat who recently campaigned in the south? OK, I can believe it.

[blm]

1. Good war room for Dean. They provided everyone with Dean's Feb. remark

instead of the actual remark he made last week.

Clever, but, don't think the Rove won't use Dean's ruse against him at just the right time to humiliate the entire Dem party. Dean was kind enough to lie on camera more than a few times about his reason for the remark.

[Classical_Liberal]

2. Since he has been giving the same stump speech for months, so

f-ing what? It is not as dishonest as just quoting the part about wanting to be the candidate for guys with flags on their pickup trucks with out the rest of speech about racial divisiveness that you dean haters have been spinning. On the other hand Zell's statements that he saving the party by getting them to crack down on bad negros should truly piss any good dem off.

BTW, why didn't Edwards, Gephardt, Kucinich, and Kerry stand with the Congressional Black Caucus in protest over the Florida purge?

[DUreader]

5. I can't make sense of your reply.

Are you saying AP is a Dean hater?

I have seen AP repeatedly take NPR to task for their often subtle

biases and omissions typified by this latest.

I have stayed out of these Primary threads.

[Classical_Liberal]

6. Yes, I am.

.

[AP]

7. Nobody complained about the reasonable statement from the stump speech

It was the Iowa quote -- which is very different -- which caused the discussion.

You think it's reasonable for NPR to play a months old quote and pretend that people were complaining about it when they never did?

It was so deceptive and misleading...

[DUreader]

8. AP, do you think this props up Dean?

Or do you see it more as trashing all the Dems, which is what

I get from your post and what I have seen from NPR

[AP]

12. I think it does a few things: (1) it makes Democrats look stupid on the

issue of race -- it makes it sound like they're criticizing something that is reasonable, which, to the average person, would sound like Democrats are OVER-sensitive to race, (2) it gives Zell miller a chance to say the whole bunch of them, from Dean to Sharpton are stupid for even talking about it, and (3) I think it mitigates the damage to Dean for anyone who was inclined to criticize him, but wasn't aware of the truth (ie, that he said he wanted to be "for" those people, which is significantly different from what he'd said earlier).

I think the statement divided up the NPR audience into three groups and gave each of them a subtly different message, all three of which help Bush win next November.

[DUreader]

15. OK , that is pretty much what I got from your original post

Also what I have come to expect from PsyopsNation Radio

[Classical_Liberal]

10. No it was substantially the same

The newspaper just took the quote out of context. Your claiming that because NPR didn't dishonestly take the quote out of context that they are the ones being dishonest.

Also, why didn't Edwards, Kerry, Gephardt, and Kucinich back up the Congressional Black Caucus when they walked out in protest over the Florida vote purge?

[DUreader]

17. CBC needed 1 Senator, just 1. I am still sick from that

[AP]

21. To do what? Help Gore show the world how little he cared about...

...winning the race.

[mzmolly]

11. The 'issue' was supposedly about the "confederate flag."

PERIOD.

Thankfully NPR saw through the opportunistic smoke and mirrors.

[spooky3]

3. Yuk. Glad I missed this, but thanks for the warning, AP.

[quaker bill]

4. There was no debate here.

Just gotcha politics and backbiting.

[mzmolly]

9. Sounds very accurate to me. Sorry I missed it.

:toast: to NPR!!

[AP]

13. People saying this isn't a big deal are being intellectually dishonest,

to borrow the newest, coolest favorite phrase at DU.

[DUreader]

14. NPR is the King of Intellectual Dishonesty, They think for you

and make you feel good about it.

[Classical_Liberal]

16. People who take the quote out of context are being

intellectually dishonest.

Also, why didn't Edwards, Kerry, Gephardt, and Kucinich back up the Congressional Black Caucus when they walked out in protest over the Florida vote purge

[bread_and_roses]

18. That is one of the best questions

I have seen asked on this board. I will be interested to see the answers.

[AP]

19. Uh, we agree? NPR took the quote out of context.

As for the CBC. Yeah, from an ethical standpoint, why?

From a strategic standpoint, what for? Gore gave up long before the CBC tried to fight his battle for him. Had Gore showed any interest in be a willing participant in the CBC's fight, it would have been great.

Gore asked Jackson to go home and not protest in November. The CBC didn't get the memo, but the Senate Democrats could probably see where that strategy would go.

[dsc]

20. You need to complain to the Iowa reporter

I wouldn't have used his quote either without seeing the context in which it was given. That article is so poorly sourced one is left with no idea whatsoever what question Dean was answering (if indeed he was answering any) or what was actually in the interview. Even if they felt no need to make that interview available before the flag flap they sure should have after the flag flap. To my knowledge, and I searched very exhastively and emailed the reporter, they have yet to do so. Using Zell was bizarre though.