NPR must fire Nina Totenberg
By Brian Kirwin | Tuesday, December 21st, 2010 | PolicyNPR must fire Nina Totenberg. Nothing less will be ok. Nothing less will be acceptable. NPR, funded by your tax dollars and mine, must treat attacks on religions consistently.
Nina Totenberg, correspondent for National Public Radio, took a shot at Christianity on TV (Real Clear Politics).
“And I was at – forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice and people actually were really worried about this,” said Totenberg.
FORGIVE THE EXPRESSION????
Does she consider “Christmas” an offensive word, an untoward word, something she needs to be forgiven for saying?
Remember, NPR fired Juan Williams for saying that he gets nervous around Muslims on a plane. Nina Totenberg just declared “Christmas” an offensive term.
NPR said Williams’ comments were “inconsistent with our editorial standards and practices, and undermined his credibility as a news analyst with NPR.”
NPR certainly wouldn’t take the tact that offending Christians is fine but offending Muslims can get you fired.
Ok, the fact that Totenberg never had a tenth of the credibility as a news analyst that Williams did shouldn’t save her. Will NPR claim that attacks on Christianity aren’t “inconsistent” with their editorial standards and practices? Seems like that would be a fair defense.
Nevertheless, let’s take a walk down Totenberg lane. Nina Totenberg, sweet, innocent, inoffensive, non-partisan, unbaised Nina Totenberg said that God should’ve given AIDS to Sen. Jesse Helms or his grandchildren.
Seriously. Watch the video:
Nina Totenberg said God would give AIDS to Jesse Helms’ grandchildren. “…he ought to be worried about what’s going on in the Good Lord’s mind, because if there’s retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion or one of his grandchildren will get it.”
And Juan Williams was fired.
Of course, Nina Totenberg, NPR’s legal correspondent, had her wedding officiated by Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg. President Obama nominated Totenberg’s sister to be a US District Court judge. While Totenberg was covering the Bill Clinton press conference announcing Lani Guinier as Asst. Attorney General, credible little Nina gave Lani a big hug.
That’s journalism!
Nina was also behind the attacks on Republican Supreme Court nominees Clarance Thomas and Douglas Ginsburg. Somehow, I never found a negative thing she’s written about a Democrat nominee, but I’ll keep looking.
So, NPR, is Nina Totenberg consistent with your “editorial standards and practices?” How’s her “credibility as a news analyst with NPR?”
And what about Christmas does she think is so offensive that she needs to preface saying the word by saying “forgive the expression?”
Nina needs to go. And if NPR can’t treat employees equally, than NPR needs to go with her.
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
Comments
42 Responses to "NPR must fire Nina Totenberg"
Its the libs like her that helped drive me from the democratic party. Al Gore finished the job for me. Firing her does not serve the better interests of aspiring conservatives.
@Turbo, I know how you love your wind turbines. There seems to be a problem with “rare earths”. The Chinese Communist Party Communists seem to have the market corned.
Neodymium is one of the rare earth metals typically used in permanent magnets. Modern high-efficiency neodymium magnets for wind turbines use close to half a metric tonne of the element per turbine. Other rare earth metals used in wind turbines include praseodymium, dysprosium, and terbium.
http://www.altenergystocks.com/archives/2010/12/rare_earth_element_shortages_threaten_global_wind_power_development.html
Disagree, Turbo. Having a foil does not serve the greater good. Right is right and wrong is wrong. In this case, Totenberg is dead wrong and what’s good for the goose is good for the gander. Fire her ass.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bearing Drift. Bearing Drift said: Web: NPR must fire Nina Totenberg http://bit.ly/exnvC1 [...]
JR, Of course she is dead wrong.. let her keep her job but end all public funding for NPR. That is the best solution. The libs have a million more puts’s like her to fill the void.
James, the US Navy depends on rare earth materials for naval ordinance lab activity.. Terbium for instance is solely sourced from China and Navy ships utiliize it for sonar. I am a managing partner of a now defunct company that exploited terfenol (TERbium (FE)iron Naval Ordinance Lab) What is your point?
This is precisely why I get nervous around liberals on a plane.
Yeah they should hurry up and fire her before she goes and actually says something offensive. Way to represent the Christmas spirit… nothing quite evokes the love for the baby Jesus quite like yelling for someone’s head.
I really do not see the problem with her comments. She did not say thet Christmas is offensive (although I know that is what fits the “War on Christmas” meme of the right). She might have been more specific in her language (i.e., she might have said “if you find my specifying a specific religious holiday offensive, I am sorry but I mean no offense by it) but it was a offhanded comment. Those of us who are not trying to motivate an electorate through fabricating outrage saw it for what it was – nothing offensive.
Those of us who are not trying to motivate an electorate through fabricating outrage saw it for what it was – nothing offensive.
@ Troll
Then I assume you are outraged by Pelosi Reid Obama and other Dems and their captive media who did just that kind of fabrication on health care, taxes, financial regulation etc. etc.
The removal of public funding would end this issue for NPR. They could be as ignorant and ridiculous as they want with the funding of their fellow travelers.
valentinus,
Are you saying that there is not problem with our current (pre-Obama) healthcare system, tax cut vs. deficit relationship, or financial regualtion status?
I AM saying that there is no “War on Christianity” for you to manufacture outrage over.
“And I was seated on the plane next to – forgive the expression – a radical jihadist…”
Damned if I can see the difference.
I don’t care whether or not she was saying Christmas party is some kind of a perjorative. Personally, as a Christian, I want my fellow Christians to man up and stop freaking out and taking any slap at our faith personally – we’re to expect that.
But Kirwin is absolutely right here – if what Juan Williams did was so wrong that he deserved to be fired, I can’t see how NPR can justify not doing the same thing here. Both statements were negative statements about a potion of their listening audience’s faith.
Brian,
I couldn’t agree more.
Christians are constantly turning the other cheek – so an “attack on Christianity” is not what this is all about.
This is about taxpayer-funded hypocrisy.
What Juan Williams said was not wrong and NPR acted inappropriately in firing him. And personally I’m all for NPR being solely listener supported. But feigning outrage over an easily dismissed comment is absurd and calling for Totenberg to be fired is blazingly ridiculous. It becomes all the more so to do this draped in some supposed defense of Christ’s birth. All the rhetorically posited questions by Kirwin show the true motivation for Totenberg’s word choice is ambiguous, but that hasn’t halted people willingly jumping to the conclusion that suits them best. There are enough people out of work without adding one more to the pile just to satisfy a grudge.
Shane, thanks for the insult.
I’m not “feigning outrage” – I’m truly offended.
If a christian was on TV saying “I met a few people at, pardon the expression, a mosque” or “I met this woman who was, pardon the expression, Jewish,” that christian would be off the air in no time flat.
I’m sick of liberals excusing themselves by saying they didn’t mean what they said while castigating conservatives whether they apologize or not.
Juan Williams should be treated no differently than Nina Totenberg, right?
BK,
You are right. Question for Shane: did you protest or complain about NPR when they fired Juan Williams? Or, is your new found sympathy for his shabby treatment a case of situational ethics?
Sorry, but NPR must be consistent. Otherwise, they are hypocrites. And hypocrites can’t practice their double-standard behavior when they are being supported with my tax dollars.
“If a christian was on TV saying “I met a few people at, pardon the expression, a mosque” or “I met this woman who was, pardon the expression, Jewish,” that christian would be off the air in no time flat.”
If the commentator was simply trying to be non-religious and it was obvious (which it is is in this case) then it would be wrong to manufacture outrage over that issue as well.
You are obviously free to interpret anything as you see fit but to the normal person this is clearly NOT a moral outrage issue (unless you choose to take it in the way it is obviously not intended). While I understand the hypocrisy side of this issue, and agree that Williams should not have been fired over it, there was no way to take his quote other than how it came out. He was clearly not the victim of intentional misinterpretation for the purposes of manufacturing outrage. The outrage was manufactured in his case based on his word alone.
“You are obviously free to interpret anything as you see fit but to the normal person…”
So, now I’m abnormal?????
Nice, Eric.
Eric…you can remove the “1/2″ has an adjective from your monicker. You’re full-fledged, big guy.
The wench is nervous.. she fears that the supreme court will support the new congress.. it may be just that simple.. She is paranoid for good reason because the new congress is not likely to support the NEA and it it goes so does public funding for lib media tax dollars.
This NPR-PBS thing has become so real it is just like a movie.. take the Public out of PBS (Public Broadcasting System) and it becomes BS. Badump bump.
The troll would be outraged if Rush Limbaugh were receiving tax payer support but can’t bring himself to agree to the obvious: remove public funding for politically biased programming whatever the side.
Actually he’s both right and wrong when he says there is no war (by the left) on Christianity. The left has historically (and more ironically than they know) seen religion in general as oppressive and even evil. The left will go after any (other) religion that it feels threatens its hold on government. Here in the US they go after Christianity because it is associated in their minds with conservatism while in France they are going after Moslems because the left fears they are creating a society separate from the French state.
“So, now I’m abnormal?????”
Your interpretation of this statement is…sorry.
V, your characterizations are absurd.
Eric, it isn’t a case about trying to not be religious in a public setting. People actively push a godless view and ridicule those of faith.
I am a Libertarian and I do believe in a seperation between church and state quite strongly. That seperation protects the Southern Baptist, the Mormon, the Catholic, the Wiccan and the Athiest. Just because I don’t believe that religion has a place in our law does not mean I suddenly think elected officials, media personalities, or school children have to be void of religion. Just don’t legislate your religion or legislate against religion. It is just as wrong to force or have tax payers fund the preaching of non-religion as it is to have Christianity or any other religion sanctioned by the government. This includes govt assisted NPR. If Totenberg wanted to personally attack Christmas, she could have, but she needed to do it in a non-NPR capacity and explicitly distance her opinion with NPR policy with a short disclaimer.
What has happend with Bob Marshall is an interesting example. He has done a lot of wonderful things for Virginia and freedom. For that reason, I ignored a few things he has done in the past and hoped he had adopted a different standard for what he thought was legislatively appropriate. I WANT to work side by side with people of faith. I was set to be a worker bee for his bid for the Senate.
Now, Marshall has crossed a line that damages him, the GOP, any attempt to fight for states rights, and the ability for Libertarians that adore the freedom to worship freely to fight along side him. I am afraid I will have to withdraw my support at this time and look elsewhere.
Having expressed my strong disagreement with his recent legislative adventure in regard to DADT and stating that state sponsored religion or alienation of gays is wrong, it is equally wrong to legislate or have the schools indoctrinate acceptance of homosexuality or godlessness. A private school would be an exception because in that case, the parents have a say in how their children are educated.
Eric, you are absolutely wrong if you think that there hasn’t been a concerted effort by many in BOTH parties to alienate people of faith and paint them all with a broad brush as being fanatical loons. Stand for everyone’s freedom, not just yours.
Lets call liberals out on this one folks.. This is intolerance straight up. Libs leverage comes from their influence on the supreme court and they weilded it to tear down long-standing religious traditions, specifically targeting Christian symbols. They have a perverse fear of faith in a higher power other than themselves.
They will be removing the phrase “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance if they can and in some locale this is already underway. Most of you have personally witnessed efforts to disolve the phrase Christmas vacation down to Holiday vacation and to replace Merry Christmas with Happy Holidays. Religious expression by Christian students in public schools can put a child in the principals office..
This is intolerance. It is hypocritical. And it will continue until and unless the center demands this BS stop. As long as this is a “far right” issue or at least as long as it is percieved that way, the war on faith will persevere.
Just my 2 sheckels.
“Political correctness is a doctrine, fostered by a delusional, illogical minority, and rabidly promoted by an unscrupulous mainstream media, which holds forth the proposition that it is entirely possible to pick up a piece of shit by the clean end.”
“This includes govt assisted NPR. If Totenberg wanted to personally attack Christmas, she could have, but she needed to do it in a non-NPR capacity and explicitly distance her opinion with NPR policy with a short disclaimer.”
See THIS is my point. I agree with most of your Libertarian viewpoints, BH. And I also agree that NPR should not have treated Williams the way they did and I EVEN see where one could try to argue hypocrisy in NPRs response to this (or lack thereof) but not REALLY because Totenberg did NOT attack Christians, Christianity, or Christmas with her comments. She was merely trying to be sensitive to people of other religions (or PC if you like). There is NOTHING wrong with that and the Right is WRONG in trying to manufacture outrage and insult out of every attempt to be religiously neutral by public figures. This is OBVIOUSLY the case here and attempts to paint it otherwise are lame and transparent (and getting tiresome to boot).
HR,
You DO realize that the shouting of “War on Christianity” over every comment that is overtly religiously neutral is nothing more than an attempt to manufacture another (this time right tilting) political correctness, dont’ you?
Eric,
Protesting fallacious political correctness is a form of political correctness? Thanks for proving my point–that really is picking up a POS by the clean end.
Eric you may have made a point about some people trying with good intentions to be PC. Some people are deluded into thinking that political correctness is neutral. It isn’t.
Totenberg’s words apologize for using the word “Christmas” during her statement. That in itself is an absolute negative and paints Christmas and Christianity in a negative light. Why so? Because of the need to apologize. It is almost like apologizing for passing gas. So, no wonder people were offended by Totenberg. It does not in effect provide neutrality or respect. Being at a Christmas Party is a factual representation describing where she was. Really no need for an apology. I guess she could have referred to it as a “Holiday Party” . Bending over backwards to apologize, intended or not, (probably was intended imo) is a slap in the face to Christians and even secularists that don’t see reason for such a commercialized holiday to have it’s name changed. There probably are some non-christians that were raised on Santa Claus and wonder why the name of their favorite holiday is now an obscenity.
I would like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas. Even Nina Totenberg. May God bless all of you.
And……I don’t apologize for that either.
Uh-Oh, you must have been watching Fox Noise again and got yourselves misinformed, as usual. Read on boys and girls:
Posted at 12:05 AM ET, 12/22/2010
For the record, Nina Totenberg loves Christmas; Blogs portray NPR commentator as combatant in War on Christmas
By The Reliable Source
Breaking news: Nina Totenberg does not hate Christmas!
The NPR legal correspondent created a web frenzy with a seemingly dismissive reference to the holiday on “Inside Washington” last weekend. During a debate about tax cuts and the omnibus bill, Totenberg threw in an off-hand anecdote:
“I was at — forgive the expression – a Christmas party at the Department of Justice,” she said, going on to explain how guests there were worried about the impact of spending cuts.
“Forgive the expression”? Another salvo in the War on Christmas! Conservative bloggers jumped all over Totenberg, accusing her of a liberal, politically-correct agenda: “Totenberg and her ilk.?.?.are making a conscious and deliberate effort to scrub the religious meaning from the winter holidays, because Christmas instills confidence in a particular religious movement they fear and despise,” opined John Hayward on the Human Events blog. Many noted suspiciously that her comment aired during Friday’s broadcast of the show on public television — but disappeared by Sunday’s rebroadcast on WJLA.
Let’s go to the video tape: Totenberg’s quote comes in the midst of a complex examination of the federal deficit with fellow panelists and moderator/executive producer Gordon Peterson. “I didn’t even notice it,” he told us Tuesday. The reason her remark didn’t appear on Sunday’s show? Panelists tape additional commentary for the public television version that is routinely edited out to make room for commercials on Sunday. Happens every week; no conspiracy here.
Plus, added a puzzled Peterson: Nina adores this season. Years ago, when they taped the show in a studio with a piano, she and Carl Rowan would belt out carols every December. “I know she loves Christmas,” Peterson said. “I’ve seen her at Christmas parties — if you’ll pardon the expression.”
Then we reached Totenberg herself during her “Christmas vacation” (her term) in Jamaica. Turns out her critics got it completely wrong: She was, she says, defending Christmas. The DOJ celebration was officially dubbed a “holiday” party, and she was gently mocking that generic designation. “I think that’s kind of silly because it’s obviously a Christmas party,” she told us. “I was tweaking the Department of Justice. It was a touch of irony at the expense of the Justice department, not at the expense of Christmas.”
As for the bloggers who were so quick to judge — without bothering to ask her what she meant: “Jeesh, these folks need a life — and perhaps a touch of the Christmas spirit, as well.”
So sorry that the truth does not confirm your biases by then again, you are Fox watchers.
Dwight,
Anyone who reads Reliable Source for factual information has no standing to belittle Fox News.
This explanation is baloney. Nina Totenberg is typical of the Hate America liberals. Sure, she loves Christmas, but feels compelled to constantly apologize for being a Christian and for all things that relate to the celebration of Jesus Christ. Just as she loves America but feels constantly compelled to apologize for our country and its policies.
There is no way to put a spin on this–she apologized for using the expression “a Christmas party.”
BTW, Merry Christmas.
Dwight, why don’t you just quote the Huffington Post and expect us to accept that as objective?
If Totenberg was making a sarcastic remark at the expense of a politically correct DOJ, she would have been heralded by those evil Fox viewers as a breath of fresh air. It might have even brought some new fans to check her and NPR out.
Further, if she was truly taking a jab at DOJ, the context would have been easily read. Her facial expressions and tone would have been more exagerated as to point out how silly they were alledgedly being.
You can btw, truly appreciate the non-religious aspects of the Christmas season and still deride those that use non-PC terms and take religious aspects seriously.
Pssst.. uh.. HisRoc, she isn’t apologizing for being a Christian.
Never, from the headline and article on down, has so much jibberish been written and responded to on this forum. Let us all resolve to do better in the new year.
On Totenberg:
Never underestimate the Dark Side. The subtle ways of the cultural ad hominem are strong with this one. That comment was but one bite from a million mosquito bites meant to identify, label, and marginalize those dastardly religious right people.
For Mike Barrett:
Don’t count on it. We’re just that “draconian”. We can’t help ourselves.
Well Britt, the point is, with the predominance of Fox and talk radio, those on the other side have as much complaint about…”one bite from a million mosquito bites meant to identify, label, and marginalize those dastardly (religious right people) progressives.” I still hope that Bearing Drift will avoid the drivel represented by the original headline and article on this forum.
Yeah, Mike…let’s talk about light rail.
Mike I understand what you’re saying. Global Warming people are routinely portrayed as kooks. I will admit Sean Hannity has made me want to scream before and some of Glenn Beck’s shows make me feel like I am in church.
But…….there’s a difference. They don’t work for a government paid entity. They are not making fun of Barney Frank with your tax dollars.
In the end, you’re right that it is pretty much a wash, but it is easy to get excercised about this because tax dollars are being used to attack people of faith and that conflicts with the spirit of the first amendment……..my opinion. That and the mere idea that they try to pass themselves off as not being offensive. I don’t think your conservative talking heads exactly deny that they engage in biting commentary with regard to groups they consider to be fringe.
Not adverse to light rail or Rapid Transit Rail. Wonder how many billions of dollars it would cost?
Time to end federal funding for PBS, could use the money for RTR. I have made many donations to PBS over 30 years. However not happy with some of the things they do; so if they want my money, I would like to see a few changes.. Like a weekly show on Virginia Politics hosted by Brian Kirwin.
“Today’s mantra is climate change or man-made global warming”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/ufo/8216394/Armageddon-in-2012-The-truth-behind-the-doomsday-theories.html
Some people consider the terms -climate change, global warming and man-made global warming- to mean the same thing. I consider each term to mean something different.
I do not consider a trace gas that is 0.04% (4 cents out of a hundred dollars) of the total atmosphere to be capable of causing runaway warming.
When someone wants to raise trillions of dollars in new taxes based on the opposite view, I have some questions.
The Pickens Plan of a couple years ago suggested using America’s natural gas to replace imported oil as a transportation fuel in addition to its other uses in power generation, chemicals, etc. For some reason that seemed to make sense to me.
James, Re Natural Gas aka cng for vehicles, it makes sense in a limited number of vehicle applications but will never be practical as a prime mover. I worked for quite a while developing cng technology because it made snese to augment our energy security. I never felt that CNG would make enough of a difference on green house gasses. The Pickens Plan would have made a lot of libs very wealthy and not much else.
What does that have to do with shutting off the spigot to PBS?
Perhaps one of the reasons to shut off the spigot to PBS is their one sided approach to supporting liberal causes such as man-made CO2 will cause runaway global warming. Water vapor is a green house gas. For the rest the evidence is rather dicey at best.
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