Tim Graham: NPR Drops Bombs on the “Hard-Right Republicans in Congress”
My maxim regarding the media’s use to ideological labeling in the media is: “The epic political battles of our time are between the ultraconservatives and the nonpartisans.” Journalists view Republicans as an entire group as ultraconservative or as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the ultraconservatives.
Journalists firmly on the left think of themselves as the sensible center, so their ideological allies are described in positive, nonideological terms — “women’s rights,” “LGBT rights,” “civil rights,” “environmentalist,” etc. They skim even use “liberal” It’s because conservatives use it negatively. They don’t recognize anyone on the “far left” Oder “hard left” Oder “radical left.” Alexandria Ocasio Cortez has been elected to the House of Representatives “progressive.” These are her most radical ideas. “extreme.” They’re “ambitious.”
A recent Exhibit A appeared on the National Public Radio talk-show “Fresh Air” Terry Gross, the host. Her Jan. 18 program headline was “How will the hard-right Republicans in Congress wield their newfound power?” Gross began: “Now that Kevin McCarthy has assumed his new role as speaker of the House, a position he won after making concessions to the far right of his party, what can we expect?”
NPR doesn’t expect that Republicans will cut funding. They expect Republicans support their rhetorical beat.
Catie Edmondson was the guest, a young reporter for The New York Times. NPR is a natural partner with the Times against Republicans. Edmondson stated that “the hard-right flank of the party … have a couple of different aspirations in mind. One is that they do want to leverage their newfound subpoena power and their power in the majority to enact vengeance, essentially, on the Biden administration … And you also have Republicans in that hard-right flank who really want to use their power in the new majority to enact deep spending cuts.”
She mentioned the so called weaponization committee, which was established by “election denier” Jim Jordan. NPR doesn’t call any Democrat an “election denier” and no committee — especially the Pelosi-picked Jan. 6 panel — is ever about “vengeance” Or partisanship.
Gross was asked. “Is one of the goals of the far right of the Republican Party to impeach President Biden?” Edmondson replied, “That is certainly a goal of many of the hard-right lawmakers.”
This festival of extreme labeling went on for many more. NPR host “far right” She introduced the guest nine times in an hour. “We’re talking about the new Republican-controlled House of Representatives led by the new speaker, Kevin McCarthy, who made many concessions with the far-right members of his party in order to get elected speaker.”
Edmondson, for her part, used “far right” Six times “hard right” 17 times in 44 minutes of interview time. It adds up 32 “far right/hard right” Labels” all.
This is not unusual. “Fresh Air.” Terry Gross interviewed Anshel Peffer, an Israeli journalist, on Jan. 12. She began: “Israel recently elected the most right-wing government in its history, becoming another democratic country that many observers think is moving toward authoritarianism.”
Gross used the following interview: “far right” nine times, “ultra-nationalist” eight times, “ultra-Orthodox” 13 times, “very extreme” Once and For All “extremist” twice. Gross was matched Pfeffer by four uses “far right,” Six “ultra-Orthodox,” One “ultra-right,” One “radical.”
Nexis was my first stop to search NPR transcripts for the past two weeks. I searched terms such as “far left,” “hard left,” “radical left” And “ultraliberal.” There were none “Fresh Air,” They have no newscasts.
NPR is a fully owned subsidiary by the radical left. However, Republican taxpayers continue to foot their fair share of the bill.
Tim Graham is the director of media analysis for the Media Research Center. He also serves as the executive editor of NewsBusters.org. Visit www.creators.com to learn more about Tim Graham, and see cartoons and features written by other Creators Syndicate writers.
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