NPR running a hit piece on Obama RIGHT NOW

[dailykoff]

Listening to some interminable "story" about how Obama won his Illinois state senate seat by backstabbing his own mentor (Alice Palmer) and sucking up to rich and powerful strangers to get ahead. . .

Good fucking grief, can't they be happy with being a WH talking point dictaphone without pretending they're doing "background" stories on the Dem candidate?!?!

Still on... still a hit piece.. how I hate those simpering trolls... :grr:

"How Chicago Politics Shaped Obama"

"We always say there is a little bit of gangster in everybody who's from Chicago," Cobb says, adding it's a point of tremendous pride.

So how did Obama's time in Chicago shape him as a politician?
The story of Obama's first election could be called: "The Political Execution of Alice Palmer."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=95797455

p.s. exciting part 2 tomorrow :puke: :puke: :puke:

[ShortnFiery]

1. Since GOP operatives took the reins of NPR, it's just a different flavor of the Corporate M$M.

RIP NPR :(.

[mucifer]

2. that was all in the New Yorker article that had the terrorist cover.

[dailykoff]

3. None of it is remotely new.

I've heard it all before. It's just repackaged as a hit piece on the state-sponsored "news" show. I'm not surprised, just disgusted.

[FVZA_Colonel]

12. Supposedly he "stabbed her in the back" because he didn't drop out when she asked him to

when she lost a Congressional Primary to Jesse Jackson Jr, so that she could run for her old spot again.

[jbnow]

18. She got knocked off the ballot when signatures were challenged

She had to get them in a rush since she hadn't been planning to run for her old seat and the filing deadline was near, maybe that is why she (or whoever rounded up the signatures) did such a sloppy job.
So many signatures were disqualified she didn't have enough so she wasn't in the primary. It was all legal, just "rude". When I first learned about it I was glad he could be that tough, though word had it he had very mixed feelings about it.

She campaigned with Hillary during the primaries.

[BrklynLiberal]

4. NPR has almost become a total repuke tool..

I hope this can be changed when Obama takes office.

[canoeist52]

5. NPR and PBS seeed to have moved to the Right. They called me

and wanted to know why I hadn't sent in my donation this year. I told them that except for Bill Moyers, they seemed to have moved too far to the corporate right wing. They were astounded by my statement--said most people said the opposite.

[kath]

22. That's because most people are absofuckinlutely stoopid.

Ignorant beyond belief, and damned proud of it. :banghead: :banghead:

[roody]

6. No Problem Radio

has been declining for a long time.

[dailykoff]

7. Now they're comparing Paulson to FDR.

Wow.

[Mimosa]

15. Tell me you're joking?

OH Noooooooooooooo.

[PSPS]

8. I gave up on NPR for good once they began being cheerleaders for torture.

I was utterly disgusted with NPR's Anne Garrels' on-air endorsement of torture.

[deutsey]

9. I stopped listening to (and supporting) NPR back in 2000

That's when I began listening to and supporting Pacifica.

[undeterred]

10. I lived in Obama's neighborhood and never heard of him

till he ran for Congress in 2000. All this is so overblown.

[Ikonoklast]

11. It *is* Chicago politics

Very rough and tumble, you cannot be timid and expect to do very well. Obama is no shrinking violet, his mastery of political strategy was formed in those campaigns.

So far, it has served him well, after all, he went up against an entrenched Democratic political machine in the Clinton campaign, and bested it in the primaries. Pretty impressive feat for a first-time presidential campaigner.



Sometimes, however, you do throw allies under the bus.

It's not personal.

It's politics.

[Heather MC]

23. There is nothing wrong with play tough within the rules of the game

If those people had legitimate signatures, then they would not have had a thing to worry about.

[hulklogan]

13. When is NPR *NOT* running hit pieces on Obama?

Their constant quest for impartiality or whatever it is they're doing now has led them to completely distort this entire election. Either they don't report things so they can seem "fair", or they fail to cover the real stories. Their coverage of the debates has been terrible.

[Mimosa]

14. Eeeek: glad i don't often hear NPR

I never listen to talk radio these days. I'm not missing a thing, am I?

[TreasonousBastard]

16. Calling that a"hit piece" is one of the more idiotic things...

this week, unless it's all lies.

Or, if one's concept of "news" is simply making up funny names for Republicans and only telling half the story about Democrats, particularly Democrats who figured out how to make it from state senator to President in a few short years.

I grew up surrounded by Tammany Hall and eventually spent a fair amount of time dealing with New Jersey machine politics, both of which I assume to be similar to Chicago. This story about Obama is more heroic than hit, and shows me that someone can rise above the sewers of Chicago politics free from the stench of corruption.

(Kinda like how telling of Truman's dealings with Pendergast are in no way a hit on Truman.)

Give your local NPR station some more money-- they deserve it.

[dailykoff]

19. "In order to fulfill his own ambitions, Obama would have to kill his friend's political career."

It was a total hit piece. NPR is biased as hell but I still listen their news in my car, and I am rarely surprised by their sneaky little puffs for W and the boys. But this wasn't even sneaky, it was out and out spin -- on the news show.

[TreasonousBastard]

20. A hit piece in your own mind. You want just puffery on..

Obama? Or maybe he's too fragile to stand up to his past.

You don't like the way they worded it, but it looks more like the editorial choice was made not to trash him but show that he made a tough decision-- his political survival or hers. It happens.

(That's how you get respect from the people who run things, btw. Show 'em you mean business and go for it when you have the chance.)

[JonLP24]

25. Here's the thing

She endorsed Obama to take over her seat when she ran for Congressional primary. She lost and she wanted her seat back. He declined, you can't just give something to someone and suddenly ask for it back. So she ran against him but the validity of the signatures where challenged as well as his opponents so he ran unopposed. He was just following the rules that had been set up like he said. To say he "backstabbed" her is a hit piece.

[JonLP24]

17. Alice Palmer backstabbed Obama!!!!

Obama ran for State Senator when Alice Palmer decided to run for Congress in a 1995 special election, and he received her endorsement.<2> After finishing third in the primary, which was won by Jesse Jackson Jr., Palmer returned to request that Obama drop out of the race and let her run again for the seat.<3>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illinois_Senate_career_of_Barack_Obama

edit: Backstabbing is probaly a too strong of a word but saying
'Hey you can run for my seat, I got higher interests in mind' then loses and says 'I want my seat back!' is hardly a backstabbing at all by Obama.

[SteveisSellars]

21. NPR

Wow, that's nice.

[Kitty Herder]

24. I gave up on NPR a while ago.

They're just corporate tools.