Notice how Chairman Maher replied. She called Berliner a bigot who hurts people's feelings: "Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning."
Interestingly Maher is very concerned with diversity of appearance but promotes a singularity of thought and opinion. I would assume she is ok with advocacy journalism as long as it is in line with her beliefs and proper group think. She a “white person from New England” proud that her section of the Country didn’t have slaves is perfectly aligned with her Ted-talk about truth and each person’s lived truth. Even New England allowed slavery but that doesn’t comport with her “truth”. Interestingly she a white person, I assume of privilege, isn’t giving up her position to a person of color. It reminded me of a meeting my Dad and Uncle attended in the late 1960’s about the soon to be bussing for racial balance in Brooklyn NY. A very vocal advocate took the floor and proclaimed all those against bussing were bigots. She was from Syosset. No bussing there. But lots of superior indignation at the plebs in Brooklyn who didn’t want anyone’s children to sit on a bus for hours a day when they could walk to school. I was about to enter high school at that time and the city had open high school enrollment. Anyone could go to any high school they wanted to except the few schools that had entrance exams. Ms Maher and the unknown lady from Syosset are kindred “Karens”.
Matt Taibbi apparently beat me to this observation, but Maher's tweets look like they were stolen from Titania McGrath. To the point where the two X accounts could merge, or their authors could cover for one another's vacations, and nobody would notice. McGrath is at least as funny as Maher, so how about we support her writing with our tax dollars?
Your comments about John Warner made me think of my own encounter with him. I was a lieutenant assigned to the Navy’s Chief of Information in the Pentagon. As a collateral duty, I also worked as a CNO briefer. Briefing duty was a week-long affair, coming in at 0400 every morning to sift through intel, ops reports, press reports and create a 0700 morning brief for the CNO. It was a grueling week, coming up roughly every fourth week. The CNO brief was of course open to any and all flag officers in the building plus the Secretary of the Navy and his civilian cohorts. It was always well attended, and Secretary Warner was a regular.
This particular morning I briefed the then controversial Mark 48 torpedo, and the treatment it was receiving in the press, most particularly how it was being reported by the Washington Post’s muckraker in residence, Jack Anderson. It had suffered a series of failures and setbacks – think the development of the new Ford class of carriers – growing pains common with most cutting edge systems. Those were in the past, but Anderson and the press in general was reporting all the problems as current and ongoing.
Warner interrupted me, saying “Excuse me Lieutenant, but everything you’ve said is wrong. You need to be more careful with your facts.”
I drew a breath, and as neutrally and professionally as I could, replied, “Yes Mr. Secretary. You know that, and I know that, but this is what the public is being told and I thought you needed to know that.”
You could have heard a pin drop. There were perhaps 20-30 admirals in the room including the VCNO. Warner stared at me unblinking, for an eternity. And then he said, “You are right. I apologize.”
And after he left the room at the end of the briefing, every admiral in the place lined up to shake my hand. I have repeated this anecdote on occasion when John Warner was a topic because I think it speaks highly of the man.
The most important point you made was in passing: NPR is publicly funded. If they feel no obligation to provide content for half or more of the people paying their salaries, they should be made private and allowed to fend for themselves.
I listened to Bari Weiss’s interview of Berliner, and while I appreciate his willingness to speak out, I found NPR to be insufferable after 9/11. They may have gotten worse in the last couple decades, but they weren’t great before that. I was a regular listener in the late nineties but couldn’t stand them by 2002 or so.
Unrelated question- which city in southwest Virginia? I grew up nearby in Tennessee.
I think Mr. Berliner loved NPR and thought he could change it. He tried internally, but was obviously rebuffed. After reading his article and listening to his interview with Ms. Weiss, I was convinced of this and said so on line.
Here's one reply I got:
"I've spoken to some of his coworkers and this is not true. Uri hated NPR, he was bitter that he did not get promoted the way he thought he should be.
Most of the people I've talked to said he was a major pain to work with."
It would seem that NPRs real problem is the lack of productive argument. The ability to disagree passionately without taking it personally. Everyone is so agreeable that conflict of any sort is actively suppressed.
That is the foundation of an echo chamber. Eventually this weakens an organization so much that all they have left are ad hominem replies. Something like feedback in an audio system which generates an intolerable squeal that drowns out any information content.
P.S. I'd rather work with a major pain in the ass who demanded excellence than a milquetoast.
In connection with your cover art for this story, are you familiar with the work (and life) of Oleg Atbashian, proprietor (uh, “komissar”) of https://thepeoplescube.com?
Notice how Chairman Maher replied. She called Berliner a bigot who hurts people's feelings: "Questioning whether our people are serving our mission with integrity, based on little more than the recognition of their identity, is profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning."
Interestingly Maher is very concerned with diversity of appearance but promotes a singularity of thought and opinion. I would assume she is ok with advocacy journalism as long as it is in line with her beliefs and proper group think. She a “white person from New England” proud that her section of the Country didn’t have slaves is perfectly aligned with her Ted-talk about truth and each person’s lived truth. Even New England allowed slavery but that doesn’t comport with her “truth”. Interestingly she a white person, I assume of privilege, isn’t giving up her position to a person of color. It reminded me of a meeting my Dad and Uncle attended in the late 1960’s about the soon to be bussing for racial balance in Brooklyn NY. A very vocal advocate took the floor and proclaimed all those against bussing were bigots. She was from Syosset. No bussing there. But lots of superior indignation at the plebs in Brooklyn who didn’t want anyone’s children to sit on a bus for hours a day when they could walk to school. I was about to enter high school at that time and the city had open high school enrollment. Anyone could go to any high school they wanted to except the few schools that had entrance exams. Ms Maher and the unknown lady from Syosset are kindred “Karens”.
Matt Taibbi apparently beat me to this observation, but Maher's tweets look like they were stolen from Titania McGrath. To the point where the two X accounts could merge, or their authors could cover for one another's vacations, and nobody would notice. McGrath is at least as funny as Maher, so how about we support her writing with our tax dollars?
Your comments about John Warner made me think of my own encounter with him. I was a lieutenant assigned to the Navy’s Chief of Information in the Pentagon. As a collateral duty, I also worked as a CNO briefer. Briefing duty was a week-long affair, coming in at 0400 every morning to sift through intel, ops reports, press reports and create a 0700 morning brief for the CNO. It was a grueling week, coming up roughly every fourth week. The CNO brief was of course open to any and all flag officers in the building plus the Secretary of the Navy and his civilian cohorts. It was always well attended, and Secretary Warner was a regular.
This particular morning I briefed the then controversial Mark 48 torpedo, and the treatment it was receiving in the press, most particularly how it was being reported by the Washington Post’s muckraker in residence, Jack Anderson. It had suffered a series of failures and setbacks – think the development of the new Ford class of carriers – growing pains common with most cutting edge systems. Those were in the past, but Anderson and the press in general was reporting all the problems as current and ongoing.
Warner interrupted me, saying “Excuse me Lieutenant, but everything you’ve said is wrong. You need to be more careful with your facts.”
I drew a breath, and as neutrally and professionally as I could, replied, “Yes Mr. Secretary. You know that, and I know that, but this is what the public is being told and I thought you needed to know that.”
You could have heard a pin drop. There were perhaps 20-30 admirals in the room including the VCNO. Warner stared at me unblinking, for an eternity. And then he said, “You are right. I apologize.”
And after he left the room at the end of the briefing, every admiral in the place lined up to shake my hand. I have repeated this anecdote on occasion when John Warner was a topic because I think it speaks highly of the man.
The most important point you made was in passing: NPR is publicly funded. If they feel no obligation to provide content for half or more of the people paying their salaries, they should be made private and allowed to fend for themselves.
National Progressive Radio.
I listened to Bari Weiss’s interview of Berliner, and while I appreciate his willingness to speak out, I found NPR to be insufferable after 9/11. They may have gotten worse in the last couple decades, but they weren’t great before that. I was a regular listener in the late nineties but couldn’t stand them by 2002 or so.
Unrelated question- which city in southwest Virginia? I grew up nearby in Tennessee.
I think Mr. Berliner loved NPR and thought he could change it. He tried internally, but was obviously rebuffed. After reading his article and listening to his interview with Ms. Weiss, I was convinced of this and said so on line.
Here's one reply I got:
"I've spoken to some of his coworkers and this is not true. Uri hated NPR, he was bitter that he did not get promoted the way he thought he should be.
Most of the people I've talked to said he was a major pain to work with."
It would seem that NPRs real problem is the lack of productive argument. The ability to disagree passionately without taking it personally. Everyone is so agreeable that conflict of any sort is actively suppressed.
That is the foundation of an echo chamber. Eventually this weakens an organization so much that all they have left are ad hominem replies. Something like feedback in an audio system which generates an intolerable squeal that drowns out any information content.
P.S. I'd rather work with a major pain in the ass who demanded excellence than a milquetoast.
In connection with your cover art for this story, are you familiar with the work (and life) of Oleg Atbashian, proprietor (uh, “komissar”) of https://thepeoplescube.com?