I have written harshly in the past about NPR’s national security correspondents Tom Gjelten and Dina Temple-Raston, describing them as serving pretty much as mouthpieces for the national security state. I came across this clip from a conference at New York University in 2010 in which from the audience she posed a question regarding Anwar al-Awlaki to Glenn Greenwald who was on the panel that showed how much she is locked into the mindset of believing what the government tells her. The exchange between her and Greenwald is very revealing.
Mano Singham
Just another Freethought Blogs site
Greenwald is an international treasure.
Tom Gjelten seemed to go through an interesting metamorphosis between his Bosnia war reporting days and today. I don’t quite understand it, and it may have been my ignorance back then.
Greenwald writes here:
http://www.salon.com/2012/03/27/what_npr_means_by_reporting/
“NPR national security reporter Dina Temple-Raston does what she (and NPR reporters generally) typically do: gathers a couple of current and former government officials (with an agreeable establishment think-tank expert thrown in the mix), uncritically airs what they say, and then repeats it herself. This is what establishment-serving journalists in Washington mean when they boast that they, but not their critics, engage in so-called “real reporting”; it means: calling up Serious People in Washington and uncritically repeating what they say”
My question for you is do you think this is unique to Dina Temple-Raston? National Security Reporting?
What do you hear at NPR and other media outlets that you buy into uncritically because what they say basically agrees with your worldview and not out of any in depth knowledge on your part or ability to verify what they say is true, AND without listening to opposing viewpoints because you know “those” people are horrible?
if I were D T-R’s boss, I think I’d have to have a little chat with her. This strikes me as personal activism as opposed to reportage.
Lately it seems that America is dividing into two camps -- those who think the Federal Government can do nothing right, and those who think it can do nothing wrong.
@WTF: Yes, that sort of craven reporting is unique to “national security” issues, and has been in the US
for a long time.
Next?