<HTML dir=ltr><HEAD> <META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=unicode"> <META content="MSHTML 6.00.5730.11" name=GENERATOR></HEAD> <BODY> <DIV id=idOWAReplyText87791 dir=ltr> <DIV dir=ltr>My recent ZNet pieice on the insufferable Neal Conan...</DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr><A href="http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=11946">http://www.zmag.org/content/showarticle.cfm?SectionID=51&ItemID=11946</A></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>  On NPR’s call-in show Talk of the Nation, hosted by Neal Conan, it is a <A href="http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1180">rarity to hear a voice from the anti-war left</A>. The spectrum of voices on this program, as is the case with NPR programs such as All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, is almost, entirely filled by representatives of the <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> foreign policy establishment. Typically a ‘discussion’ on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place> would feature a pro-war think tanker promoting war against a ‘cautious liberal’ think-tanker calling for increased troops or a ‘better strategy to win’.  A public radio program thus is rendered one in which voices of the anti-war left are left out of the ‘discussions’ on important matters such as war.               <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Occasionally such voices do make themselves heard;  they are the product of fortunate callers who pass the TOTN screener and are able to suggest a left-oriented critique of important issues of the day. The program framework implicitly deigns left antiwar voices as not worthy of being part of the serious discussion going on among the invited guests. Instead, they are relegated to the role of peripheral ‘callers’. The hierarchy is as plain as can be. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> January 9th’s TOTN  provided a classic example of what happens when such callers do make themselves onto the air.  They are dealt with in a manner far more sophisticated than the brazenly anti-leftist Rush Limbaugh, who would simply shut out or shout down left dissent after hanging up on a caller.  NPR’s format is an ‘alternative’ to the shout-show call-in format of right-wing commercial radio. It calls for discussion that is civil, an worthy ideal surely.  However, it’s an alternative that allows no chance for the left to be represented in its discussion of important national or international matters.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> On issues such as <A href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6764577">“What Next for Iraq?” , TOTN</A> on the 9th , the discussion featured NYT chief Washington Correspondent David Sanger, Washington Post military reporter Thomas Ricks, and NPR senior foreign editor Loren Jenkins.  The boundaries of the discussion stayed within the range called for by the foreign policy establishment at this failed stage of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> occupation of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place>, to maintain present troop levels or to increase troop levels.  A caller, Kathleen from Ohio, proposed to Conan and his guests that large numbers of Americans had already marched in the millions to oppose the initial US invasion of Iraq and, in subsequent marches, against the US occupation and would be <A href="http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3468">out in the streets again in large numbers in Washington on January 27th</A> . The caller then twice extended an invitation to Neal Conan to come out to the streets that day to witness the people expressing their demand that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place> troops come home now.  Conan’s response said it all:<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Kathleen from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place></st1:state>:  So I’d like to invite you [and other news media personalities] to join the people in the streets on the 27th….<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p></o:p> Conan:  Well, I’ll have to break up the poker game to do that… On NPR’s call-in show Talk of the Nation, hosted by Neal Conan, it is a <A href="http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1180">rarity to hear a voice from the anti-war left</A>. The spectrum of voices on this program, as is the case with NPR programs such as All Things Considered and Weekend Edition, is almost, entirely filled by representatives of the <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">US</st1:place></st1:country-region> foreign policy establishment. Typically a ‘discussion’ on <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place> would feature a pro-war think tanker promoting war against a ‘cautious liberal’ think-tanker calling for increased troops or a ‘better strategy to win’.  A public radio program thus is rendered one in which voices of the anti-war left are left out of the ‘discussions’ on important matters such as war.               <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Occasionally such voices do make themselves heard;  they are the product of fortunate callers who pass the TOTN screener and are able to suggest a left-oriented critique of important issues of the day. The program framework implicitly deigns left antiwar voices as not worthy of being part of the serious discussion going on among the invited guests. Instead, they are relegated to the role of peripheral ‘callers’. The hierarchy is as plain as can be. <o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> January 9th’s TOTN  provided a classic example of what happens when such callers do make themselves onto the air.  They are dealt with in a manner far more sophisticated than the brazenly anti-leftist Rush Limbaugh, who would simply shut out or shout down left dissent after hanging up on a caller.  NPR’s format is an ‘alternative’ to the shout-show call-in format of right-wing commercial radio. It calls for discussion that is civil, an worthy ideal surely.  However, it’s an alternative that allows no chance for the left to be represented in its discussion of important national or international matters.<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> On issues such as <A href="http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=6764577">“What Next for Iraq?” , TOTN</A> on the 9th , the discussion featured NYT chief Washington Correspondent David Sanger, Washington Post military reporter Thomas Ricks, and NPR senior foreign editor Loren Jenkins.  The boundaries of the discussion stayed within the range called for by the foreign policy establishment at this failed stage of the <st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region> occupation of <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">Iraq</st1:country-region></st1:place>, to maintain present troop levels or to increase troop levels.  A caller, Kathleen from Ohio, proposed to Conan and his guests that large numbers of Americans had already marched in the millions to oppose the initial US invasion of Iraq and, in subsequent marches, against the US occupation and would be <A href="http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3468">out in the streets again in large numbers in Washington on January 27th</A> . The caller then twice extended an invitation to Neal Conan to come out to the streets that day to witness the people expressing their demand that <st1:place w:st="on"><st1:country-region w:st="on">US</st1:country-region></st1:place> troops come home now.  Conan’s response said it all:<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> Kathleen from <st1:state w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Ohio</st1:place></st1:state>:  So I’d like to invite you [and other news media personalities] to join the people in the streets on the 27th….<o:p></o:p> <o:p> </o:p> <o:p></o:p> Conan:  Well, I’ll have to break up the poker game to do that…<o:p></o:p><o:p></o:p></DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr> </DIV> <DIV dir=ltr>[continued}...</DIV></DIV> <DIV id=idSignature77428 dir=ltr><PRE>Stephen Philion Assistant Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology St. Cloud State University St. Cloud, MN http://stephenphilion.efoliomn2.com/index.asp</PRE></DIV></BODY></HTML>