Tag Archives: NPR

media news

Trump swims in irony

Donald J. Trump likely doesn’t know or understand irony, but man, he is swimming in it with virtually every public pronouncement.

He has defunded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio, he said, because he wants to rid the airwaves of “bias” in its reporting. He would replace it with broadcasters who are favorable to Trumpian policy matters.

If you believe public TV and public radio are “biased” because they report the truth about policy matters, then what are you going to think of what comes from the Trump-sponsored media outlets who will flood our airwaves with propaganda? You want a definition of bias? I have just given you one.

Trump wants to ingrain in our skulls with only those views that satisfy his ego, his vision (such as it is) and his longterm objectives. NPR and public TV are not the incarnation of evil. I have had the pleasure of working with both media and I can assure you as certain as I am sitting here that public TV and radio go out of their way — and each other’s way — to avoid being called “biased” or “unfair.”

Foes of this blog have told me about polling that suggest that most Americans believe that public media are biased. I do not accept those polling results. It is a simple task to skew questions to receive answers you want to fit a certain narrative.

I have said all along that bias rests in the minds and hearts of the consumer. A right-wing MAGA cultist is going to see everything that disputes his or her world view as “biased.” They have swallowed the swill offered by Donald Trump.

The irony of what he seeks to replace public TV and radio is just too rich to let slide.

environmental news, local news, media news

Keep it in perspective

Once in a while, news of the day can render whatever discomfort we are feeling to be irrelevant, if not laughable.

Here’s what happened to me on Monday morning.

I was delivering my weekly run of Meals on Wheels to shut-in residents of Princeton. I left the house wearing just my shirt, a pair of shorts and sandals. I picked up the meals to deliver at a local church and went on my way. I made the first stop, chatted up the gentleman who is always waiting for me.

I drove to the second residence. On the way, it started to sprinkle. The rain worsened the farther along I drove. By the time I delivered my second meal, the sky had opened up. It poured. I got soaked.

I grumbled to myself as I drove to the third location. Damn rain, I wish it would stop … or so I muttered under my breath.

Then the news came on the radio, which I had turned on my truck to National Public Radio. The reporter told me of the suffering in Central Texas. The raging river had killed dozens of residents. Many of the victims were girls attending a church camp in Kerrville, It had destroyed thousands of homes. The deluge roared down the Guadalupe River bed at enormous speed, sweeping away trees, homes, big and small vehicles and presumably people.

That was the moment I realized I was bitching about something that didn’t matter one damn bit. Why am I complaining because I am getting wet from rainfall.

Needless to say, I realized in real time that my concerns about wringing my clothes from the rainfal paled in comparison to the unfathomable tragedy that has gripped our Central Texas neighbors.

I learned my lesson.

media news

Public radio, TV under attack

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Right-wingers’ vendetta against public radio and television would be laughable … if the consequences of this battle weren’t so frightening.

They want to defund National Public Radio, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and the Public Broadcasting Service. Why? Because they contend erroneously that it’s all “fake,” that it’s biased against conservatives and that the right-wing cabal just won’t tolerate it any longer.

Good fu**ing grief!

In in the interest of full disclosure, I will say I have some experience working for both public media. I freelanced for Panhandle PBS and for High Plains Public Radio for a time after leaving print journalism in 2012. And I worked for a time for KETR-FM public radio in Commerce, Texas, for a while after my wife and I moved to the Metroplex.

I have seen their work up close and I can attest to the absolute professionalism I witnessed while working for them.

I long have held the view that bias rests in the hearts and minds of news consumers, not necessarily in those who deliver it.

I recall a conversation I had with an NPR news director once who explained to me the rules that the broadcast network places on those who deliver the news over the air. They must avoid terms, he said, that connote a point of view. One of those words, he explained, is “reform.”

When discussing legislation aimed at changing current public policy, NPR journalists were told to use the term “overhaul” policy, not “reform” it, as reformation means it would be an improvement.

My friend was quite adamant in telling me that public radio takes its responsibility to be fair, neutral and unbiased quite seriously.

What’s more, I have to point out that the founders protected a “free press” from government interference. They set those protections for the only industry functioning then  — and now — in the Constitution.

The right-wing cabal needs to get a grip and perhaps look inward to determine the source of the bias it seeks to eliminate.

media news

Trump got more than he deserves

One aspect of the National Public Radio interview that Donald J. Trump gave deals with the conduct of the interviewer juxtaposed with the treatment he got from the subject of his interview.

I am going to presume Trump agreed to the NPR interview that was broadcast this morning to spread his Big Lie beyond the base of support to which he still clings.

The interviewer, Steve Inskeep, is a professional journalist who enjoys great standing among those of us who love the craft of journalism. Inskeep did a great job maintaining his composure while withstanding Trump’s bellicosity.

He also gave the ex-president far more respect than I believe Donald Trump ever deserved. That’s just me, I suppose, but I believe it to be true.

That’s what journalists do. The speak respectfully to their subjects and give them every opportunity to explain themselves in detail. Trump chose to avoid any detailed explanation of The Big Lie involving allegations of voter fraud, electoral theft and that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” to ensure Joe Biden’s victory.

A lesser man could have exploded at the viciousness of Trump’s lying. Inskeep, though, is a consummate professional. He knows his job is to give the subjects of his interviews the time they seek to explain their positions.

Except that Trump didn’t deliver any sort of detail. He did not attempt to offer any evidence of the specious allegations of vote fraud … because there is no evidence to offer.

Trump hung up the phone on Inskeep after nine minutes of haranguing and hectoring and interrupting him while he sought to ask probing questions.

Through it all, Steve Inskeep kept his composure and acted the part of the consummate professional. He did his job.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

media news

Way to go, NPR!

Steve Inskeep, National Public Radio’s main voice on all things political, deserves a high-five, an atta boy and a round of applause for the way he sought to press Donald J. Trump on The Big Lie he keeps alive.

NPR had secured a 15-minute interview with the former POTUS. Inskeep got about nine minutes’ worth of Q&A in before Trump decided he had heard enough questions about The Big Lie. So, he hung up on Inskeep.

The interview is a classic case of Trump continuing to lie, continuing to evade and continuing to produce zero evidence of what he has alleged: that the 2020 presidential election was “rigged” and “stolen” from him through “widespread voter fraud.”

Steve Inskeep sought to get Trump to explain himself, to offer any shred of evidence for the serious allegations he has leveled. Trump, to be candid, was hideous in his assertion of fraud.

My goodness, he couldn’t even stay on topic when responding to specific questions that Inskeep would toss at him.

‘He’s gone. OK’: Trump hangs up on NPR after host presses him on election lies (msn.com)

It was weird that Trump would agree to talk to NPR in the first place. I mean, he has labeled media that aren’t part of the propaganda wing that promotes the lies he puts forth as “the enemy of the people.” NPR is as down-the-middle as any media outlet one can name. I know what you might think, which is that conservatives consider NPR to be a liberal/progressive media organ. Bullsh**! 

Trump demonstrated why he is so insufferable. Inskeep, meanwhile, demonstrated the qualities of solid journalism, which Donald Trump simply cannot tolerate.

johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

national news

Permanent DST? Hmm, why not?

(Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

This time change thing has produced more debate on whether we should keep it or switch to a permanent time standard.

To be honest, none of this affects me personally all that much, but if I had to make a choice, here is what I would suggest.

Switch to a permanent Daylight Saving Time. Make it national. Pass a law that says that all of our states adhere to the same way of determining what time of day it is.

Texas flirted with the idea of switching to either permanent DST, permanent Standard Time or keeping the status quo. The 2019 Legislature ran out of time to send the issue to the voters.

Now we hear a bipartisan group of U.S. senators backing a notion to switch to a permanent Daylight Saving Time arrangement, according to a report on National Public Radio.

Some Senators Want Permanent Daylight Saving Time | 88.9 KETR

When was the last time you had Democrats and Republicans agree on something? I know. It seems like forever.

Sen. Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican, is trying to resurrect the permanent DST issue. As NPR reports: He cited multiple benefits to permanent DST including potentially fewer car accidents and easing seasonal depression.

What’s more, according to NPR: The effort is supported by a bipartisan group of lawmakers, including Sen. Ed Markey of Massachusetts, who echoed Rubio in highlighting the potential benefits of extending DST. “Studies have found year-round Daylight Saving Time would improve public health, public safety, and mental health — especially important during this cold and dark COVID winter,” Markey said.

Not everyone is on board, according to NPR: Opponents of permanent daylight saving time note that winter mornings would be darker, with children more often having to wait for the school bus in the dark.

I happen to prefer the longer afternoon and early evening daylight, which DST brings to us. Remember, too, that one of the selling points of DST is that it would conserve electrical energy, given that we don’t turn our lights on so early at the end of the day.

I am not going to lose any sleep over this, no pun intended. I’m just delighted to see Democrats and Republicans agreeing on something … for a change.

local news, media news

Time of My Life, Part 51: A new beginning

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By JOHN KANELIS / johnkanelis_92@hotmail.com

I understand that Scripture tells us about new doors opening when one slams shut.

It happened to me in 2012. A career in print journalism came to a screeching halt in August of that year. I was adrift for just a little while.

Then a friend from Panhandle PBS got in touch with me. Linda Pitner was general manager of the public TV station — affiliated with Amarillo College — at the time. She wanted to know if I would like to write a blog for the stations’ web site.

Would I? Of course I would! With that, a career that came to an end got restarted in an entirely new form at Panhandle PBS. I was doing things for public TV that my former employer at the Amarillo Globe-News didn’t think I could do. I had joined the world of online journalism.

I have to say that I had a serious blast writing that blog and doing the kind of video blogs — such as the one I attached to this brief post. The gig didn’t last an overly long time. Panhandle PBS brought in a new GM eventually and he decided that my services no longer fit the direction he wanted to take the station.

We parted company. That didn’t end my blogging time.

A local CBS affiliate GM asked me the same thing Pitner did: Would I like to write for KFDA-NewsChannel 10? Of course I would, I told Brent McClure. So, he hired me as a freelancer to write features for the website. I would write them and then the on-air news anchors would introduce the features in a brief segment during the evening newscasts. They would assemble video presentations to complement the text I had submitted to the website.

That, too, was a seriously good time for this longtime print guy. The KFDA gig, though, came to an end when budget constraints kicked in. No worries for me.

My wife and I gravitated from Amarillo to the Metroplex in 2018. The fun continues.

Another friend of mine — who is news director at KETR-FM public radio — gave me a shout. Mark Haslett and I worked together at the Globe-News for a time; prior to that he was an executive at High Plains Public Radio in Amarillo, so we knew each other pretty well.

Haslett asked if I would — you guessed it — write a blog for KETR, which is affiliated with Texas A&M University-Commerce. Why, yes! I would! So I have been writing a blog for KETR and once again am having the time of my life.

That’s not the end of it. When we settled in Princeton, just east of McKinney and just a bit northeast of our granddaughter in Allen, I put a feeler out to the publisher of the Princeton Herald. Did they need a freelance reporter? The publisher, Sonia Duggan, said “yes.” So … she and I agreed that I could write for the Farmersville Times, which is another weekly newspaper in a group of weeklies Duggan owns with her husband, Chad Engbrock.

Therefore, I have come full circle. I am now covering city council and school board meetings for a weekly newspaper, along with banging out the occasional feature article.

It’s where and how it all began for this old man.

And I am still having the time of my life.

local news

GOP looking for another Trump toadie

BLOGGER’S NOTE: This blog was published originally on KETR.org, the website for KETR-FM public radio based at Texas A&M/Commerce.

John Ratcliffe is likely to be confirmed as the nation’s next director of national intelligence.

How and why that will happen is a mystery to me, given that he was nominated to the post in 2019 but then pulled out when questions arose about his resume, his background and intelligence-gathering credentials. I don’t believe Ratcliffe is any more qualified now to become DNI than he was a year ago … but that’s out of my control.

Meanwhile, the Fourth Congressional District of Northeast Texas that Ratcliffe represents needs to find a successor to Donald Trump’s fiery defender.

Republican activists have set an Aug. 8 election to select a successor. They have their favorites in mind.

The Fourth Congressional District is a reliably Republican stronghold. I am fascinated by that factoid, given that the district once was represented by the late, great House Speaker Sam Rayburn, the legendary Texas Democrat who mentored many members of Congress from this state, including one of them who later became president of the United States … a guy named Lyndon Baines Johnson.

That was then. The here and now suggests that the next member of Congress from this district will be a Donald Trump loyalist. The three favorites to succeed Ratcliffe, according to the Texas Tribune, are:

Jason Ross, Ratcliffe’s former district chief of staff who is campaigning on continuing in Ratcliffe’s footsteps, promising to “stay the course with a principled conservative and proven leader.”

Floyd McLendon, the runner-up in the March primary for the Dallas-based 32nd Congressional District. McLendon, a former Navy SEAL, finished behind Genevieve Collins, who narrowly won outright in the five-way primary, capturing the nomination to challenge U.S. Rep. Colin Allred, D-Dallas, a national GOP target.

A third candidate is TC Manning, a Navy veteran who unsuccessfully ran in the March primary for the Houston-based 18th Congressional District.

Here is my major takeaway, though, from the Tribune’s reporting on these candidates. Two of the three top individuals are, dare I say it, “carpetbaggers.” McLendon and Manning ran in districts a good distance from the Fourth Congressional District. So they have decided that with an opening about to occur in Northeast Texas, they must figure it’s time to jump into the fray in a district where they might – or might not – have any knowledge of its specific needs.

Unless, of course, the prevailing “qualification” for service in this GOP bastion is a candidate’s commitment to Donald John Trump.

State news

Texas AG to California: Butt out of our affairs

BLOGGER’S NOTE: This item was published initially on KETR-FM’s website, ketr.org.

I am inclined as a general rule to oppose Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s world view on most matters.

However, on the issue of seeking to remove one state’s non-essential travel ban to Texas because of our state’s strong stand in favor of “religious liberty,” I believe he is onto something.

What constitutes “essential travel”? I suppose one example would be in the event of a natural disaster emergency, in which firefighters or other first responders travel from California to Texas to lend aid.

Here’s the issue: In 2017, Texas legislators enacted a law that, among other things, allows foster-care agencies to prevent same-sex couples from adopting children. California responded by banning non-essential publicly funded travel from California to Texas, citing what California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called a discriminatory policy against gay Americans. It falls under the religious liberty doctrine, of which Paxton has become an aggressive advocate.

At one level, Becerra has a point. I don’t like the Texas law either. I believe – on this point – that gay couples are fully capable of being loving parents to children who need a home. As one who believes homosexuality is a matter of genetics rather than upbringing or of choice, the Texas law looks to me to be an overreach.

However, so is the California response to this state enacting a law that comports with its residents’ generally conservative world view.

Paxton has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene on Texas’ behalf. He is asking the highest court in the land to overturn the California travel ban, saying that California is trying to police how other states conduct their affairs.

“California is attempting to punish Texans for respecting the right of conscience for foster care and adoption workers,” Paxton said.

As the Texas Tribune reports, this latest salvo is just the latest in a long-running feud between the states, with California and Texas being the country’s top Democratic and Republican strongholds, respectively. Do you remember how former Gov. Rick Perry would venture to California to lure businesses from that state to Texas? Critics of that effort – and I was one of them – called it “job poaching.”

Paxton – who is in the midst of another fight involving his own indictment for securities fraud – has now joined the battle.

Texas is one of 11 states that have received travel bans from California, which to Paxton’s eyes is acting like a state run by busy-bodies. One of those states, Oklahoma, responded by banning non-essential travel to California from Oklahoma. I suppose Texas could respond accordingly.

Paxton is likely to have a friendly audience if the high court decides to take up the case. It has a solid conservative majority. Yes, it’s only 5-4 at the moment, but the five conservative justices – with the possible exception of Chief Justice John Roberts – are inclined to stand solidly behind GOP policymakers’ point of view.

I will say that I think Paxton makes a solid argument that California need not intrude into the affairs of other states governed by politicians who don’t hue to that state’s political leaning.

media news

Trump’s media demonization continues

Donald John Trump just loves to demonize the media, even though they merely are doing their job.

There was the current president today, standing next to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Trump dropped the name of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, prompting cheers and applause from the Trump-friendly White House crowd gathered at the White House.

Trump then decided to launch a brief riff on Pompeo’s recent dust-up with National Public Radio reporter Mary Louise Kelly. “I think you did a good job on her, actually,” Trump told Pompeo, who was in the room.

What he did was decline to answer a direct question from Kelly about how he has defended former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch. He then summoned Kelly to a private room and lashed her with f-bombs. He didn’t like the questions she asked.

That’s the “good job” to which Trump referred.

Trump’s ignorance over the media’s role in reporting on government and the officials who run it simply is stunning in its scope.