Known As National Pentagon Radio in Some Circles

 npr building

 

“It’s not just the government’s bum that NPR wipes.” — Geoff Dutton

I have 101 articles in front of me which document the degree to which National Public Radio (NPR), arguably the most popular “political” station in the U.S., is a VERY poor source of news. ZNetBlack Agenda Report andCounterpunch provide three examples of decent attacks on their documentation and agenda, and I’ll be glad to provide the reader with other damning articles on other subjects from various left-of-center sources, upon request.

The scorecard is in on NPR, has been for quite some time. And yet… it’s very difficult to get activists to acknowledge its indiscretions. In general, they’re too addicted to its programming, and the station is part and parcel of the on-the-run lifestyle that keeps citizens from engaging with me about NPR’s serious downsides. “Habit is the great deadener,” said Beckett, and NPR listeners have spent many hours being lulled into a land of misinformation and misdirection for a very long time, as a rule. Groups of fans I’ve addressed tend to circle the wagons… put up impenetrable, unreasonable resistance to my documentation.

In fact, however, I’m not writing this piece to attack NPR from the usual angles. The constructive criticism I want to level, actually addresses an issue which is not covered whatsoever in the 101 articles I cited in my opening above. That is, the issue of Arrowhead and Nestle.

Recently, NPR covered a controversial challenge to Nestle initiated by California regulators. A quick take — which is all most NPR readers and listeners have time for these days — gives the impression that Nestle is being taken to task, at risk of being punished… called onto a rug of sorts… being forced to come clean and do the right thing. Well, we can sing a different tune. For the sins of omission in the less-than-full coverage are many.

That said, permit me to point out just one of the problems with the NPR piece. No mention, you’ll note, is made of the FACT that Arrowhead, the brand of bottled water which Nestle broke the law over in order to fill their product orders, is listed repeatedly as dangerous to your health in a great many sources; see Carly Fraser’s article for starters, where Arrowhead is listed as the Number One bottled water to avoid, and, then, glance at another article in the reputable Collective Evolution which attacks Arrowhead’s dangerous flouride content; I can provide many other examples along these lines, upon request.

What’s going on? Who’s in bed with who here?

I remember the first time that I heard someone refer to NPR as National Pentagon Radio. It was in 1994, right after their hugely popular All Things Considered segment decided to terminate a series with Mumia Abu-Jamal because of pressure applied on the station by the Fraternal Order of Police and members of the U.S. Congress. It was a sad day discovering the depths of depravity to which a “liberal” station could descend.

But all that can be dismissed by too many well-meaning folks as my advocating the wrong kind of politics. What cannot be dismissed so, though, is the FACT that NPR is not concerned about covering crucial facts related to bottled water.

Nestle’s Personal Radio?

Annapurna Tosca Sriramarcel is a member of the Oxman Collective. She can be reached at [email protected]. She enthusiastically invites readers to request the definitive documentation damning both NPR and Nestle on a score of counts which she has in her files.

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