Fuck You, NPR

NPR host’s involvement in Occupy D.C. leads to her firing

A public radio host was fired on Thursday after the conservative political site The Daily Caller exposed her role as a spokeswoman for Occupy 2011, the faction of Occupy Wall Street movement occupying Washington's Freedom Plaza.

Lisa Simeone, NPR


You know, NPR, you can throw as many sacrificial lambs onto their altar as you want, they are never going to like you. They are never going to stop attacking you or trying to de-fund you. Do you think that CNN getting in bed with the Tea Party has stopped the wingnuts from referring to them as the "Communist News Network?" (it hasn't)
You could remake yourself as FOX Jr. and it wouldn't matter, because their problem with you has nothing to do with what you actually are or what you actually say. As long as you exist, they can keep telling their brain-dead mob that their tax dollars are being used to promote left-wing propaganda or whatever, and their idiot followers will stay angry and frightened enough to keep buying their books or listening to their radio show or watch their bullshit network, because none of them will ever actually tune in to NPR to see for themselves whether this alleged bias actually exists.

Is this firing an attempt to make up for the Juan Williams firing? Because a) it won't, and b) this is not a similar situation. Juan Williams was allowed to work for the FOX propaganda mill  for years without being fired. It wasn't until he said something offensive about Muslims that he was let go. Lisa Simeone has not been accused of saying anything offensive about anyone. She has merely been accused of participating in the Occupy movement. Look at your own press release:

"We recently learned of World of Opera host Lisa Simeone's participation in an Occupy D.C. group," NPR communications SVP Dana Davis Rehm wrote in a memo to affiliates. "We're in conversations with WDAV about how they intend to handle this. We of course take this issue very seriously."

What the hell is that? You're taking what issue seriously? If someone was to read this paragraph who had never heard of "Occupy D.C." they would think that it must be an organized crime family or some group of skinheads or something. Why would her participation in a peaceful demonstration be something needs to be "handled?" Why is that something that you "take very seriously?" It only makes sense if you begin with the assumption that everyone knows that the Occupy movement is engaged in illegal or immoral activities, and that any association with them would be cause for concern.
Your press release would make sense if Simeone had participated in, say a NAMBLA parade, or had been a spokesperson for the Army of God or something. Then it would make sense to call up WDAV and say "how do you want to handle this?"
Also, Lisa Simeone is not a journalist. She hosts the freaking World of Opera, for fuck's sake. So it's not like you can claim that her participation had compromised her objectivity.

 

I don't know what's worse about this story, the actual firing or the way Yahoo! News chose to cover it.
 Because they chose to say shit like this:

The concern is not entirely sudden. Last year, the radio network former political correspondent Juan Williams [sic] for confessing on Fox News's "O'Reilly Factor" that he felt apprehensive when he would see Islamic passengers in airports. Williams' ouster eventually led to the resignation of NPR chief Vivian Schiller's, and a black eye for its image.

Oh, here comes the false equivalency express, right on time!

And earlier this year, conservative media prankster James O'Keefe captured an NPR fundraising executive on video making disparaging remarks about Republicans and the tea party movement to two conservative activists posing as Islamic donors. 

Okay, that's just a lie. O'Keefe edited the video to make it seem as if they were making disparaging remarks about Republicans and the Tea Party.  And James O'Keefe is not a "prankster." He is a deceptive, dishonest libelous smear merchant.

It's also true that Simeone's role at the network isn't simply limited to opera coverage. According to her bio on NPR.org, Simeone has "developed a loyal following for her unusual mix of programming--classical, folk and jazz, along with provocative reports, interviews and call-in shows on everything from anthropology and neuroscience to philosophy to media criticism."

Oh, not just opera, also jazz and folk music? Oh, yeah she's got to go!

And, as Poynter's Julie Moos noted, this is not Simeone's first stint as an activist. In 1994, Simeone helped organize demonstrations outside a Baltimore courthouse to protest violence against women.

Oh my God! She came out against violence against women? What a controversial stand! Well, I can see why NPR would not want to be associated with such a radical firebrand! It is absolutely essential to maintain an air of impartiality when dealing with a contentious issue like "is violence against women bad?"

 

Well, that's one opinion. Now with an opposing view. . .

Lisa Simeone has addressed her firing in an e-mail to the Baltimore Sun. You can read the whole thing here.

 

But here are a couple of excerpts:

This sudden concern with my political activities is also surprising in light of the fact that Mara Liaason reports on politics for NPR yet appears as a commentator on Fox TV, Scott Simon hosts an NPR news show yet writes political op-eds for national newspapers, Cokie Roberts reports on politics for NPR yet accepts large speaking fees from businesses.  Does NPR also send out "Communications Alerts" about their activities?

And:
What is NPR afraid I'll do -- insert a seditious comment into a synopsis of Madame Butterfly?

Oh, SNAP!
 
So, in summary, fuck you, NPR. I'm glad that I have never donated to you. I'll save my donation dollars for Pacifica Radio, who manage to get by without sucking up for corporate money.

Horrible Scumbag James O'Keefe Claims Another Victim

NPR chief executive quits over hidden camera video

By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press Ben Nuckols, Associated Press – 3 mins ago

WASHINGTON – NPR president and CEO Vivian Schiller resigned Wednesday under pressure, a day after an undercover video showed one of her executives on a hidden camera calling the tea party racist and saying the news organization would be better off without taxpayer money.

I don't necessarily object to NPR executive Ron Schiller (no relation) being punished in some way, because he does flirt a bit with anti-semitism, although it probably is more a case of mis-speaking (about newspaper owners), but Jeezus Christ, every time this little asshole makes a video, some person or organization gets the axe. It's total BS.

Watch the video, (here)  what does the guy say that isn't true?

Tea Partiers are racist?
Duh!


Um, there aren't enough people being educated in America?
Hard to argue with that.

Muslims deserve a voice?
Sounds right.


Anti-intellectualism on the right?
That's been well documented (even by me!)


NPR would be better off without government funding?
That's a matter of opinion.

The mainstream media has a pro-Israel bias?
Pretty obviously, they do.

And I guess we're supposed to be shocked that the NPR folks are sitting down with affiliates of the Muslim Brotherhood? Maybe they are actually educated enough to know that the Muslim Brotherhood is NOT a terrorist organization? (apparently, they were several decades ago, but not now.)

So why does Vivian Schiller need to be ousted?

Schiller said she and the board concluded that her "departure from NPR would help to mitigate the threat from those who have misperceptions about NPR as a news organization."

Goddammit, you gotta stop doing this! Every time some right-wing bullshit artist gins up a complaint about anyone or anything, someone ends up fired. You can't appease these assholes. There is no one that you couls fire that will satisfy their lust for destruction. Do you think that pushing Ms Schiller out the door is going to make them say "well, that takes care of that problem. NPR is fine now, we can stop targeting them." It's never going to happen.



And any news organization who wants to be considered at all legitimate needs to stop running O'Keefe's crap. If you receive a video with some "important investigative whatever" on it, and you see that it comes from O'Keefe, or Breitbart, or "Veritas," throw it in the trash. O'Keefe and his buddies are so pathalogically dishonest, that I wouldn't believe them if they produced a video showing that the sky is blue.

James O'Keefe Continues to be Beneath Contempt

What kind of pathology does it take to be James O'Keefe? What could possibly have gone wrong in this little ratfuck's life to make him decide "I'm going to dedicate my life to defaming and harming people who are trying to do a little good in the world?"

James O’Keefe’s latest victim: A special ed teacher

4:29 pm November 15, 2010, by Jay Bookman

At one point, in a conversation about teacher tenure, Ploshnick told the attentive young man how hard it was to fire a tenured teacher. To prove her point, she told her admirer a story about a fellow teacher who had actually called a student the N-word, but the teacher had merely been demoted, not fired.

As happens with many a bar story, the story itself was apparently false. But in telling it, Ploshnick used the N-word herself.
Ploshnick had no idea that she was being audiotaped. A couple of months later, O’Keefe ambushed her outside her apartment with a video camera, demanding to know whether she’d ever used the N-word. The secretly made audiotape became a central part of an O’Keefe video called “Teachers Unions Gone Wild,” filmed in the same bar during a statewide teachers convention.
(In the O’Keefe video below, the Ploshnick segment begins at 0.25 minutes. The video opens with a secretly taped phone conversation between an assistant school superintendent and an actor who falsely complains that his child had been called the N-word.)

And here's a little somehting about this teacher, Alissa Ploshnick:

(from Bob Braun/Star-Ledger Columnist)

Alissa Ploshnick risked her life to save the lives of a dozen Passaic schoolchildren. She threw herself in front of a careening van to protect her students and landed in the hospital with broken ribs, a fractured wrist, a badly bruised pelvis and glass cuts in her eyes. She could have died.
The president of the United States, Bill Clinton then, sent her a letter. It read:
"I recently heard about your act of heroism and wanted to commend you for your selflessness. True heroes are rare in today’s world. And, all too often, those who are really making a difference in our communities go unnoticed and unrewarded. I am delighted to be able to give you the recognition you deserve. You are an example for all of us, and I applaud you for your sense of duty.’’

 

Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerAlissa Ploshnick, a special education teacher from Passaic, had her conversation about teacher tenure videotaped without her knowledge. It was posted on the internet.

So that's who O'Keefe is targeting this time. A woman who not only spends her days teaching special-needs children, but once risked her own life to protect some of them. And this little bag of shit James O'Keefe, a man with all the dignity and bearing of a volunteer janitor at a Japanese porn studio, this pathetic little man is going after her. And of course, it works:

Ploshnick was suspended by the Passaic district for nine days
and denied a pay raise worth a few thousand dollars.

All because NJ governor Chris Christie has a hard-on for the teachers' union. 

New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, engaged in a political war against the teachers union over pay and other issues, has cited O’Keefe’s videos as evidence that the teachers union is out of control. 

Because why should the people we entrust with the education of our children be allowed to make a decent living, ya know? So sure, let's smear someone who is trying to make the world a tiny bit better. Fuck her! If her career has to be sacrificed in order to prove a false point in the right-wing narrative, hey all's fair in conservative attack politics, right? 

Someone needs to sue this little prick into the poorhouse. I heard that Shirley Sherrod was exploring the possibility. I don't know why whatever remnants of ACORN are left haven't already done it. This is never going to stop unless slimy little rodent droppings like O'Keefe are made to face some kind of consequences. Consequences serious enough that they outweigh the fun of being a FOXified celebrity.

And why hasn't he been prosecuted for his little stunt at Mary Landrieu's office? 

And why isn't he being repeatedly punched in the crotch? 

Dante' will have to invent a new circle of Hell for guys like O'Keefe. In this circle, he stands naked in a cold room while one attractive woman after another comes in and points and laughs at his tiny penis. (I don't know if his penis is really tiny, but I'm sure the Devil could arrange for a shrinkening) Then once an hour someone punches him in the crotch. And all the pretty women laugh and laugh. 

 

How Much Lower Can This Little Prick Possibly Go?

How is it that James O'Keefe is allowed to walk our streets freely without being subject to multiple crotch-punchings everywhere he lays down his slimy trail?
I mean, it's not like you'd do any time.

"Your honor, the defendant is charged with assault and battery.
"Oh? What did he do?"
"He punched James O'Keefe in the weiner."
"Hmm, James O'Keefe, James O'Keefe. . . oh, the cum-stain on Satan's tighty-whities? That James O'Keefe? Case Dismissed! I'm recommending you for a commendation, son!"

Okay, I don't know how the judge turned into the defendant's commanding officer, but you get the idea.

Fake pimp from ACORN videos tries to 'punk' CNN correspondent

Lusby, Maryland (CNN) -- A conservative activist known for making undercover videos plotted to embarrass a CNN correspondent by recording a meeting on hidden cameras aboard a floating "palace of pleasure" and making sexually suggestive comments, e-mails and a planning document show. [sic]

I don't know what a "Planning document show" is, but apparently he was making it.

James O'Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting,

Okay, stop. Stop it right there, CNN. That was not an undercover video "sting." That was a fraudulent, dishonest, libelous smear job. You'd think now that this little shit-smear has gone after one of your own reporters, you could drop the bullshit "objectivity" and call a spade a spade.

James O'Keefe, best known for hitting the community organizing group ACORN with an undercover video sting, hoped to get CNN Investigative Correspondent Abbie Boudreau onto a boat filled with sexually explicit props and then record the session, those documents show.

What was the point? Who knows? I guess if he could get a video clip of a reporter near some "sexually explicit props," he could run to FOX, show some deceptively-edited clips and claim that CNN can not be trusted because one of their reporters enjoys sex? Or something? I don't know what the point was, but I'm sure it was some sort of deceitful bullshit.

Apparently, a large part of the plan involved having James O'Keefe


Seduce CNN reporter Abbie Boudreau.

Once again, the foolproof plan involved having this guy:


Seduce this CNN reporter:

How could this possibly not work?

CNN has gotten ahold of a 13-page ridiculous plan for what O'Keefe calls his "CNN Caper"


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'Punking' CNN

The following highlights the relevant portions of a 13-page document obtained by CNN outlining a plan to 'punk' CNN. Click through the pages to see more.

And it just goes on like that. You can see the whole thing here: CNN

And if you see James O'Keefe, go ahead and punch him right in the crotch. No jury would convict you.

James O'Keefe does Comedy!

Statement from James O'Keefe

On the Landrieu incident

The government has now confirmed what has always been clear: No one tried to wiretap or bug Senator Landrieu’s office. Nor did we try to cut or shut down her phone lines. Reports to this effect over the past 48 hours are inaccurate and false.

You know, cutting or shutting down her phone lines would actually have made more sense than whatever it is you were trying to do. So would wiretapping or bugging her office. If you weren't there to do any of those thins, why the hell were you even bothering?

But that's neither here nor there, go ahead and do your little comedy routine, Jimmy.

As an investigative journalist,

As an investigative journalist, my goal is to expose corruption and lack of concern for citizens by government and other institutions, as I did last year when our investigations revealed the massive corruption and fraud perpetrated by ACORN.

For decades, investigative journalists have used a variety
of tactics to try to dig out and reveal the truth.

I learned from a number of sources

I learned from a number of sources that many of Senator Landrieu’s constituents were having trouble getting through to her office to tell her that they didn’t want her taking millions of federal dollars in exchange for her vote on the healthcare bill. When asked about this, Senator Landrieu’s explanation was that, “Our lines have been jammed for weeks.” I decided to investigate why a representative of the people would be out of touch with her constituents for “weeks” because her phones were broken.

In investigating this matter, we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office –

we decided to visit Senator Landrieu’s district office – the people’s office –
to ask the staff if their phones were working.

On reflection, I could have used a different approach to this investigation,

It has been amazing to witness the journalistic malpractice committed by many of the organizations covering this story.

The public will judge whether reporters who can’t get their facts straight have the credibility to question my integrity as a journalist.