To be fair - about marriage of reporters

[question everything]

Many here jumped when Campbell Brown married Dan Senor who is associated with the freeps.

In today's strib there is a profile of NPR Michelle Norris who is married to an attorney who is a former Clinton and Kerry associate.

We know that the freepers claim that NPR is part of the "liberal" media while we, of course, praise their shining lights on all things considered. But what we will say if they will use this marriage as a "proof?"

As I said when the first news about Campbell Brown wedding - let's give her the benefit of the doubt and judge her reports on the merit.

[blm]

1. Except Campbell has shilled for BushInc long before her marriage to Senor.

Her marriage isn't going to change her one whit.

I've noticed her RW editorial style since 1999.

Or shouldn't her RECORD matter anymore, because of a LESS heard and LESS INFLUENTIAL reporter with ties to Democrats?

Geez - try some real-life perspective and not that all is equal crap that ALWAYS benefits Republicans.

[MADem]

2. Public Broadcasting is rapidly going the way of the DODO....

And its extinction is being aided and abetted by the GOP in active fashion. If I were single and worked at PBS or NPR, I'd be aggressively looking for a companionable spouse that pulls down a good paycheck, too. Unemployment SUCKS!

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0505-22.htm

It is in Mr. Tomlinson's engineering of top appointments, however, that his urge to mimic the Soviet style approaches parody. Having ousted the former C.P.B. president, whose ideological leanings were deemed suspicious, he replaced her with Ken Ferree, yet another Republican placeholder. But Mr. Ferree is merely an interim appointee, soon to be replaced by Patricia Harrison -- a State Department official and former co-chairwoman of the Republican National Committee.

No, that isn't a misprint. Led by Mr. Rove, the Republican commissars are placing the C.P.B., with executive authority and $400 million in federal funding, under the control of a former party leader. Imagine the horrified screaming from the right if, as President, Bill Clinton had dared choose a former Democratic Party chair to oversee public broadcasting. Every right-thinking pundit and politician would howl for the immediate and total defunding of C.P.B. and the appointment of a special prosecutor, while making nasty comparisons with Soviet Russia.

The excuse for all this partisan abuse and cronyism is that favorite old conservative myth of the "liberal media." By right-wing arithmetic, Mr. Moyers alone outweighs the copious conservative programming that has graced PBS for nearly four decades, dating back to William F. Buckley's inaugural broadcast of Firing Line in 1966.

Indeed, the list of conservative and corporate-oriented shows aired on PBS over the ensuing years is quite impressive, including The McLaughlin Group, Peggy Noonan on Values, Ben Wattenberg's Think Tank, Adam Smith's Money World, Wall Street Week, National Desk featuring Laura Ingraham, Fred Barnes and Larry Elder, and Tucker Carlson's Unfiltered. (The latter is truly quality television, hosted by the same urbane wit who once said that "grouchy feminists with mustaches" run the Democratic Party.)

Ahhh, but wait, there's more--Good ole GOP "starve the beast" mentality at play:

Several denounced the decision by the panel, which has 10 Republicans and seven Democrats, as payback by a Republican-dominated House after years of complaints from conservatives who see liberal bias in programs carried by the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. Broadcasters noted, for example, that the 25 percent cutback in next year's CPB budget was a rollback of money that Congress had promised in 2004.

PBS, in particular, drew harsh criticism in December from the Bush administration for a "Postcards From Buster" episode in which Buster, an animated rabbit, "visited" two families in Vermont headed by lesbians. And programming on both PBS and NPR has come under fire in recent months from Tomlinson, the Republican chairman of the CPB, who has pushed for greater "balance" on the public airwaves.

A spokeswoman for NPR, Andi Sporkin, directly blamed Tomlinson for yesterday's action, saying, "We've never been sure of Mr. Tomlinson's intent but, with this news, we might be seeing his effect."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902283_pf.html

Oh my, cartoon rabbits visiting lesbians...the world is ending!!!!

[wishlist]

3. NPR prevented Norris from covering the 2004 Presidential election

Because of the possible appearance of a conflict of interest and to avoid accusations of liberal bias due to her husband working with the Kerry campaign, NPR management restricted Norris from conducting political interviews or providing stories about the 2004 Presidential election.

I am not aware of any similar restrictions by any networks barring coverage by reporters or commentators who are married to Republican officials or staffers.

[jrd200x]

4. Carville and Matilan. That debunks it all

That's what you tell them when the freepers try to use their "proof."

btw, Cambell Brown was also doing Rush Limbaugh for a while.