NPR Still Spreading the Chair throwing Lie abouut Violent Sanders Nevada Delegates
I just went to the convenience store and turned on NPR and unfortunately the panel discusion was about politics, and specifically about the Nevada Convention. And all three commenters, Mona Charen from The National Review, John Nichols from The Nation and good old Mara Liasson (NPR Political corespondent) repeated the same lie that chairs were thrown at the Nevada convention by Sanders' delegates (they weren't) and that Sanders delegates erupted in violent protests to which Bernie gave a "wink and a nod" to use their own effing words, which was another effing lie (see Sanders' statement on Nevada Convention here - relevant excerpt follows):
Within the last few days there have been a number of criticisms made against my campaign organization. Party leaders in Nevada, for example, claim that the Sanders campaign has a ‘penchant for violence.’ That is nonsense. Our campaign has held giant rallies all across this country, including in high-crime areas, and there have been zero reports of violence. Our campaign of course believes in non-violent change and it goes without saying that I condemn any and all forms of violence, including the personal harassment of individuals.
The continued catapulting of this "Big Lie" Propaganda by supposedly neutral mainstream media, our own publicly funded radio network disgusts me. There was no "violence." There were police there but no arrests. If chairs had been thrown there would have been a massive police response, as we all well know. And to date, no one has been charged over the thousands of alleged "death threats" against the Nevada State Party Chair. As the Reno News and Review blog stated, this was "The Riot That Never Was:"
“CHAIRS FLY IN NEVADA,” read the subhead on the front page of the New York Times, describing events at the Nevada Democratic Convention on May 14
They couldn’t print it if it wasn’t true, or so the folklore goes.
But the article by Yamiche Alcindor under that subhead does not substantiate the claim. Nor do reports in other news or polemic outlets like Breitbart News, Associated Press, Los Angeles Times, Rachel Maddow, ABC News, CBS News, U.S. News & World Report, Business Insider, Reason Magazine, and the Hill, all of which reported the claim as fact.
The normal practice in journalism is to attribute such a sighting—“Delegate Mary Doe saw another delegate throw a chair,” something like that. But so far we have not been able to find a single attribution in any publication or broadcast report. The closest thing we found was one Associated Press photo caption that included the term “organizers said.” It did not identify them or say whether they were Clinton or Sanders or convention organizers. [...]
[I]n a ... confined space—a Las Vegas convention hall—apparently there were chairs flying through the air, but the room full of news photographers and people with cameras and phones were unable to capture footage of it. At any rate, we have been unable to find any. To the contrary—there is one piece of footage that shows Sanders delegates preventing a delegate who had lifted a chair from doing anything foolish, then hugging him. We interviewed one delegate who said she saw a frustrated delegate kick a chair against a wall, and some apparently tripped over chairs during the tumult. The more common response was that of Washoe delegate and longtime University of Nevada education professor Stephen Lafer. When asked if he saw chair-throwing, he said, “I did not, and that is the absolute truth. All I experienced was a large group of frustrated people voicing their protests with their voices.”
Democratic U.S. House candidate Vance Alm agrees, and says he thinks the Sanders people were walking into a trap: “Everything that’s out there is complete garbage. … It was a total setup, planned.”
As for the death threats:
First let’s define the term. This is a death threat: “I am going to kill you.” This is not: “You should be killed.” There were no death threats against Nevada Democratic Party chair Roberta Lange. Poor taste? Sure. But this is the United States of America. We don’t have speech codes requiring politeness. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Hugo Black: “It is a prized American privilege to speak one’s mind, though not always with perfect good taste, on all public institutions."
The “death threat” example used by the New York Times, for instance, was (in the Times shortened form) “hung in public execution.” But the caller didn’t say he was going to hang her in public execution. He said, “This is a citizen of the United States of America and I just wanted to let you know that I think people like you should be hung in a public execution to show this world that we won’t stand for this sort of corruption.”
The difference is more than semantic. In fact, the distinction was a factor in the early success of the U.S. Democratic Party.
John Adams requested from Congress and then signed a Sedition Act that made it a criminal offense to criticize the federal government. When Adams appeared in Newark and was given a 16-gun salute, one of his local critics was heard to say, “I do not care if they fired through his ass.” He didn’t say, “I will fire on his ass.” Was it a death threat or political expression? The man was imprisoned and Jeffersonian Democrats were outraged by such actions.
When one of the founders of the Democratic Party, Thomas Jefferson, was elected president, he pardoned Adams’ victims.
And yet they are still spreading this bullshit! All so they can justify using excessive force against Sanders' supporters at the convention in Philly.
As they say, the fish rots from the head down. Well the whole fish continues to stink, and it's the continued lies of the Hillary campaign and the DNC and their minions in the corporate media that are keeping the stench going.
Comments
Amy Goodman mentioned it
the other day on Democracy Now!. NPR doesn't surprise me since they sold out to Koch.
There is no such thing as TMI. It can always be held in reserve for extortion.
NPR, Mara Liason ( Faux News) Cokie Roberts
NPR no longer exists.
I if you want a good laugh, look up the salaries: Scott Simon, can't remember name of woman who did something like "lets talk" - all way way way up in the 6 figures.
Gone. Done. Toast. Sellouts
Accusation of Violence are rather ironic.
Considering the DNC and their ilk are perfectly willing to engage in violence to achieve their ends. Destruction of votes that don't go their way, harassment/chemical weapons used on protestors, active smearing of political opponents with falsehoods...
The list goes on and on. At this point, It's more, "They're DARING to fight back." (Not that we are, but any reasonable person would fight back against this kind of overwhelming violence. The fact Bernie supporters AREN'T says far more about us than the MSM would be willing to admit. They've got their Martin Luther King Jr. for this election cycle. They keep pushing and they're GONNA get their Malcolm X.)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
In the words of the man himself:
"The one who is the author of injustice is not qualified to lay the ground rules to you and me on how we're supposed to go about removing that injustice."
Malcolm X
Solidarity
We need a bunch of people with cameras
stationed BEHIND the police lines.
Life is strong. I'm weak, but Life is strong.
Our local rag (Star Tribune, MN)
Condemned the 'violence' in Nevada in a recent editorial. Seems the centrist establishment is closing ranks around Her Worship.
Gëzuar!!
from a reasonably stable genius.
NPR doesn't read their own ombudsan, it seems.
Snopes
http://www.snopes.com/did-sanders-supporters-throw-chairs-at-nevada-demo...
You would think that maybe
the Clinton campaign would save the dirty tricks for the GE.
Maybe they are pissed off that progressives didn't roll over and show their bellies, so that Hillary could start positioning herself on the center-right.
yes, they have set it up to
yes, they have set it up to break out the troops on sanders support protests, the teargas and tasers and zip-ties are likely to be plentiful so that they can have the drama of needing to suppress "violence" in July. It is totally disgusting.
So long, and thanks for all the fish
Received a fundraiser email from WNYC. Here's what I wrote back,
explaining why I am unsubscribing:
Like TOP I don't miss them at all. Something has changed for many of us. The mask has been ripped off. The ruse has been exposed. I don't think we politically-active liberal progressives are alone either in this awakening. People understand this on many levels.
The NY Times front page headline was a shocker, as much as I've shunned all forms of corporate media. Saw it walking by a newsstand and almost gasped, like I was living in some dystopian novel like Sinclair Lewis's "It Can't Happen Here." Along with everything else that has been happening it's fair to see we're looking at cataclysmic shit in terms of the fundamentals of government and how it is perceived.
I've been saying since Occupy that what we need is a cataclysmic event to shake people out of their somnambulism. Could it be happening now?
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Exactly. The mask has been ripped off
and the lies and corruption of the Democratic Party has been exposed.
Not only for not supporting the candidate that represents what the party tells us that they stand for, but also how far they will go to not let that candidate win.
What Boxer did in Nevada was inexcusable. First she spoke out of turn and then shouted " Let's go Hillary!
She should have stayed neutral, and when the Bernie supporters booed her, she kept egging them on.
She left the stage smiling, but is now saying that she had never been so scared in her life then when the Bernie's supporters got angry. What utter bullshit.
Then there's the other Clinton surrogates like McClaskle who state things about Bernie that aren't true.
Mask gone for good and the party exposed.
Which AIPAC/MIC/pharma/bank bought politician are you going to vote for? Don’t be surprised when nothing changes.
Voting is like driving with a toy steering wheel.
The Dem establishment has gone full GOP with its propaganda.
Make the lie simple. Keep repeating it. "Sanders supports are violent!" Or "The Sanders people rioted in NV." See? That's all a manipulator like the 2016 Democratic Party needs. The Rethugs have been doing it for years. Throw in a lazy/complicit media? Voila!
"Just call me Hillbilly Dem(exit)."
-H/T to Wavey Davey
National Propaganda Reporting - Doing what it does best
Lying.
Vowing To Oppose Everything Trump Attempts.
NPR did a rebuttal of Howard Zinn's obituary
So fuck them. Haven't listened to their shit since.
Why would anyone listen to them??
There is NO journalism in the USA. Aside from Democracy Now! with Amy Goodman.
"Love One Another" ~ George Harrison
From TYT
some pretty good analysis on how the Media and the H-Campaign
are flat out lying -- in order to push Bernie out of the race:
Debbie Wasserman Schultz Doubles Down On Bernie Lies
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0YT03p6qqQ
CNN Hosts Yell At Bernie Sanders Supporters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRH5p2KN54w
IOW, Bizness as Usual.
Thanks Steven D, for the post.
Thanks James
For those you tube links. I hadn't seen them before. Can you imagine Walter Cronkite acting like that? But then he was a real journalist not just a face on TV reading a script.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
that kind of Journalism
... has left the building.
One positive thing on PBS
On PBS Newshour Friday - in the David Brooks/Mark Shields discussion I heard Shields go on about how Bernie went from nothing a year ago to where he is now and said it was amazing. He said Sanders has earned the right to stay in the race and get concessions. Said he saw no problem it would cause. He was very full throated about Bernie and what he has accomplished. I loved it!
Saw that too. And while Shields was commendable in his response
it was a rare moment of clarity for these two same old pundits trotted out to explain things within the very restrictive parameters of NPR/MSM, which have been revealed in this election as one and the same. Shields has interesting liberal credentials though, think he was part of RFK's campaign or something.
Brooks is a disconnected, smug, soft elite professional pundit out of touch with everything. He's the poster boy for everything wrong with corporate media, lapdog journalism and cronyism.
"If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC"
- Kurt Vonnegut
Counterpunch Smackdown Follow-up
After a quick review of the chair that was not thrown, the author gives us this conclusion:
http://www.counterpunch.org/2016/05/20/why-hillary-clintons-camp-should-...
"They'll say we're disturbing the peace, but there is no peace. What really bothers them is that we are disturbing the war." Howard Zinn
Heard that exact same segment
Turned my stomach. I remember listening NPR last year, talking about how great the Sanders campaign is. My how things change when they allow themselves to be purchased by private interests.
Hillary's right wing conspiracy
...will hopefully come true this week with lots more information about that first Judicial Watch Lukens deposition. JW says more information will be released soon, hopefully a transcript of it. And then, there are even more juicy ones scheduled, including the whole gang and then the queen herself.
False Flag Operation to Set Up The Convention
I fully expect HRC, the DNC and others to use this false story to set up a scenario where they can sick militarized police on Bernie supporters at the convention under the guise that they are "Violent"
It worked for Hitler why not for Hillary
Education are hard
Perhaps it is a sign of the times that someone over seventy, such as I - someone who prides himself on being intelligent and informed as well as street-wise and immune to flim-flam artists, is rudely awakened to the Reality that he has been suckered, long-time. Two years ago I was saying (use mildly haughty tone): “NPR is about the only thing I listen to; at least you get some liberal perspective” Same gullible country-boy-come-to-town loyalty to The Democratic Party has now been stripped away. Golly-Gee, Ya'll. I thought ya'll was at least a bunch of Harvard Liberals. Oh well, can't git fooled again more than twice, by Jingo!
I also believe that this whole chair-throwing meme is preparation for Philly. In Chicago in '68, the excessive violence by The Pigs was not condemned by the general public because everyone “knew” that the protesters were all just hippies high on pot who, if asked, “What are you rebelling against?” always answer, like Brando in The Wild One, “Whadda ya got?”
defaultcitizen
George stephanopolis tried to do the same thing this morning
During his interview with Bernie. a Bernie was masterful in his uncompromising PUSHBACK. It was quite entertaining
Then I switched to meet the compromised press.. Where the panel did nothing but make excuses for why HRC is not doing well against trump... They seem to agree its because BERNIE refuses to drop out lol
If Bernie would just drop out everyone would have to vote for HRC. According to the American media
Orwell was an optimist
NPR sponsored by the Kochs
and has a Koch board member too. Both NPR and PBS have gone corporate. I've wondered if we couldn't move to take them back? They are airwaves reserved "for the people" to provide a non corporate voice.
My concern is now about the net. The powers that be understand our movement can exist because of the internet. I think they may move to control it the way they do MSM and keep everyone under their thumb.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
I agree
Wouldn't be surprised to see Hillary propose a bill to end net neutrality.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
If they think that was bad, wait 'til Philly
I suspect a lot of you weren't alive when the '68 convention was in Chicago and the party totally short-circuited the primary process because they were scared shitless of Gene McCarthy, so they installed Hubert H. Loseritis instead. That begat the Nixon AND Ford administrations and extended the war by many years.
I HOPE for violence like Chicago because it was violence at home that ultimately ended the war. Those of you who have never really experienced the fiery anger of the '60s leftists simply cannot fathom the depth of hatred the left had for Hubert. The dlutocrats never had a chance.
Bring the riots. Bring the French Revolution. Get out the guillotines. Death to the oligarchy.