Rude Awkening

I was awakened this morning to the voice of Robert Redford on my clock radio tuned to National Public Radio (NPR). That's the only radio that I generally have tuned to that station. It helps me get up in a hurry, in order to turn it off. Mr. Redford was saying that obviously we cannot trust a corporation to tell the truth about not polluting, and incidentally about not breaking the law. This seemed a self-evident truth to the speaker and the interviewer, Mr. Bob Edwards.

Mr. Redford made remarks regarding the arts, public broadcast, oil companies in Alaska, etc. Of course he did not understand why our government did not support the arts as other nations do. Instead, some people even try to cut off funds to public arts and broadcasting. He also described the environmental destruction that would occur with oil drilling in Alaska. Mr. Edwards took a compliant stance. He did not questioning anything that was said, regarding veracity, sources, or opposing views. He didn't opine that we needed to get oil somewhere. Whatever this peculiar type of interview was, it was not investigative journalism. It is characteristic to public radio.

Most radio talk show hosts (Rush Limbaugh for example) refer to Mr. Redford and NPR, among others, as the Media/Hollywood Elite useful idiots. They are described as unbelievable naive, complete morons, hopelessly biased and indoctrinated, and illiterate regarding anything of substance. I cannot recall Mr. Limbaugh's more colorful phrases. I do know what I often hear from Hollywood stars and on NPR. I have also read about energy needs and Alaskan drilling. In the final analysis, if I had to choose between Redford's generalizations about corporations or Limbaugh's about Hollywood and NPR, I would pick Limbaugh's as the more supported by evidence.