Maine Owl

Local NPR station's flagship news program Maine Things Considered exhibits low reporting standards on Collins smear of Rep. Tom Allen and the peace movement

National Public Radio and its Maine affiliate have a long and on occasion deserved reputation for excellent, fact-based reporting with a human touch. They certainly have the ability to cover a story in depth and with scrupulous fairness. That is, until pro-war messages Republican officials wish to transmit without excessive scrutiny are involved.

The example from the past I would bring up is the Charlotte Renner Albright interview of the late Caspar Weinberger, first broadcast in June 2004 and rebroadcast upon his death in 2006. I wrote HERE that the Weinberger interview contained "highly controversial, unabashed pro-war views about the invasion and occupation of Iraq" that were presented without that "balance" for which public broadcasting is supposed to be known.

Now, we have on display a four-minute report during the February 12 edition of Maine Things Considered where reporter A. J. Higgins "investigates" the vile attack ad against U.S. Senate challenger, Rep. Tom Allen, that incumbent Senator Susan Collins has approved. I heard this yesterday and prepared to drop everything and write a long post about it. But Gerald at Turn Maine Blue has done the work!

I've gone ahead and clipped out the radio report by Higgins, LISTEN TO AUDIO HERE:



Gerald writes,

How not to write a news story
by: Gerald - Tue Feb 12, 2008 at 23:35 EST

There was a time when journalists actually did some research when writing a story, but those days seem long gone - perhaps they never were. Today, what stands in place for reporting is asking each side of an issue what they have to say, and then calling it a day.

This Maine Public Radio report by A. J. Higgins about the recent ad from Susan Collins in which she attacks Tom Allen and MoveOn.org is one such example. ...

Without ever talking to either Collins or Allen, one would think that a reporter would first view the ad several times with a critical eye, looking for statements of facts to check for veracity, and also inuendo implied through context. Mr. Higgins certainly watched it at least once, for he describes the beginning for his radio listeners, noting the "controversial" Petraeus ad, a screen shot of Tom Allen on the MoveOn.org website, and then this:

The video then disolves into flag burnings, war demonstrators, and a woman with bloody hands confronting Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice.

What Higgins fails to note, and this is very important, is that NONE of these images has ANY association with MoveOn.org. It is hard to know when and where the image of the flag burning took place, for example, and the woman pictured confronting Condi Rice is Desiree Anita Ali-Fairooz from Group CodePink. (The confrontation took place on 24 October of last year, at a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.)

I believe that there is so little attempt to analyze the obvious non sequiturs because NPR/MPBN actually believe themselves the smear of the peace movement contained in this ad, that is in fact worse than the smear against Tom Allen. They sure didn't talk to us. When the peace activists in this state are covered, they are always treated like they are a little unhinged, and always are carefully "balanced" with some kind of military representative. Militarism on the other hand, is allowed to run rampant while its proponents can say anything without scrutiny.

Gerald concludes that in public radio and A. J. Higgins, the Collins campaign has found a "friendly" voice they can count on. Absolutely.