The Newshour is not neutral at all

 

With the exception of Miles O'Brien's segment on Opioid Treatment, yesterday's Newshour was a continuous attack on Trump and his administration.  This was unabashedly led by Judy Woodruff who fed the pack all the leads they needed to maintain the attack. 

The Newshour gave the mayor of San Juan a lot of time for her clearly political diatribe against relief efforts in Puerto Rico.  the woman has no clue as to the logistics of a disaster like the one in Puerto Rico and is evidently unwilling to listen to the Democratic Party affiliated governor of the territory or other territorial officials who do not share her passion for attacking the relief and reconstruction work.  It would be interesting to see her phone logs.

Additionally, the Newshour gave a lot of time to Maduro the emerging tyrant in Venzuela by enabling a propaganda barrage at an energy conference in Moscow.

There was a time when the Newshour was the gold standard for US TV journalism.  That time is long gone. 

Without Lehrer's guiding hand the Newshour has become an instrument of neocon and left wing propaganda.  Mark Shields will be on the show on Friday.  Watch him to see what the Newshour is about now.

Does this program receive public funding, and if so, should it?  pl 

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/episode/pbs-newshour-full-episode-oct-4-2017/

Comments

[Eric Newhill]

Many of the same foundations that donate to PBS also were recently leaked as donors to Antifa - this includes the Ford and Kellogg foundations and, of course, a Soros foundation.

I went to school with some of the Fords and they lived in my hometown. One of them turned the original Henry Ford mansion into a Hari Krishna commune.

[Walker]

The Newshour was no shining light when Jim Lehrer was at the helm. In 2002 it was pro-Iraq invasion all the way. I haven't made a donation to either NPR or PBS since then.

[Generalfeldmarschall von Hindenburg]

Maduro isn't anything to worry much about. Chavez, who had genuine mass support did very little to groom a successor. No one could share the spotlight. By all appearances, what support Maduro enjoys is more due to how the poor will fare when the neoliberals push their way back in and create another free market paradise. Aside from that, he seems singularly hapless and bumbling, responding to the usual American pressure with harmless ranting.

[Laura]

I don't know if it is less "objective" or if we are all just so polarized. I watch it because, right or left, it is the ONLY program that practices long-form journalism on a nightly basis. They still pack more info in than anyone else and even their "fluff" is so much more serious and completely reported than the cables or the networks.

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

Even though Newshour is on every night here, I agree with your post except for the use of the term “left wing”. No way. They are neo-liberal/neo-conservative establishmentarians. They are the middle as defined by corporate sponsors and their donors; the top 10%. For example, they studiously avoid mentioning that the opioid epidemic, increased maternal death rate and lower life expectancy are due to the bottom 90% being tossed aside without healthcare and good paying jobs that can support families.

[turcopolier]

VV

They have a week long series on opioid addiction this week. pl

[raven]

Oh wel that proves it now doesn't it?

[1664RM]

I would not have a clue if programmes such as PBS Newshour receive public funding.

But that would hardly make a difference.

The media is absolutely complicit in the 'soft coup' that is being forced upon your country by those corporate entities & 'individuals at large' who pull the strings of power & influence across the entire spectrum of government & industry.

I won't go as far as to state that they 'live in the shadows' because quite frankly all of this is happening in plain sight, all ine has to do is open ones eyes.

For the record it is not just an affliction upon you Nation, its not even contagious, its everywhere in the so called 'Western World'

[turcopolier]

outthere

I think the Venezuelans should be left alone to starve under their tyrant. pl

[turcopolier]

Walker

I was on the Newshour a lot in 2002 - 2004 as a well paid military and ME consultant. Do you number me among the warmongers in re Iraq? pl

[turcopolier]

Laura

they are no longer a "long form journalist" group. They are an anti-Republican Democratic Party propaganda group. You like the content" That is fine but don't tell me it is objective. pl

[paul]

if it makes you feel any better to anyone younger that 30 or so PBS is fairly irrelevant.

the only reason i ever use PBS in any way is a safe link to all of bin ladens fatwahs,(as in noone would click on www.al-qaeda.jihad or what ever, but anyone would click on pbs.com)

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

Yes, they also had a segment on American women dying after childbirth.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/american-women-dying-childbirth/

It blames hospitals for not having a set of protocols and standards in place for rare emergencies. Not a privatized “for profit” medical system that is leaving rural America behind and is loath to spend money that will cut manager bonuses and shareholder value. The USA has the highest maternal death rate among developed countries.

[turcopolier]

paul

congratulations! You come here to laugh at the old people? pl

[turcopolier]

VV

You are right. I am adding neocon propaganda. pl

[ISL]

Dear Colonel,

Its been years since I felt PBS (or the mainstream media in general) were worth my time as an information source. I tend to look at drudge or counterpunch or zero hedge or the intercept or alex jones to see what is of burning interest in the world of news at the moment, and then search for and watch clips on the topic on youtube. When I listen to NPR in a rental car by default I find myself switching to sailor talk about their ancestry and what kind of an idiot they take me for, which raises my blood pressure. And then I change to a music station.

90% of time the BBC is okay or even enjoyable, exceptions being Ukraine and Syria and how glorious neoliberal economics is.

[Alves]

Estimates put the number of venezuelan refugees in the northern part of Brazil between 30k and 100k people. They came here to escape Maduro`s regime and/or because they were trying to escape hunger.

The problem is that that part of Brazil is isolated (jungle), among our weakest economy, has low population and the venezuelans are a mixed bunch. We find there from judges to indigenous people that do not even speak spanish, portuguese, english or even the indian languages that are used in Brazil.

In other words, it is a train wreck.

An USA intervention on this case could actually help Venezuela a lot and I doubt that it would have to be much more than a military and civilian leadership decapitation.

[TV]

PBS an arm of the Democrat party?
Since forever.
Just like the rest of the media.

[Bandolero]

pl

Watching this I'm astonished to how close German state TV is to PBS Newshour regarding style and content.

Regarding the German state TV I'ld refer to it as publicly paid hasbara. It's because of news like when Israel shot dead a Palestianian activist trying to cross into Israeli occupied Golan from Syria, 1st German state TV news has shown a video from the funeral of that activist claiming that to be an anti Assad protest due to te killings by the Assad regime. And that was while poeple able to read arabic could clearly read the name of the activist written on the coffin in the very same internet video shown on 1st German TV. There don't care to correct such "mistakes" and when confronted they prefer to simply block people asking questions about their falsehoods. In Germany these publicly financed hasbara channels get billions of Euro of public money. Their official justification for living from public money is that they are a "lighthouse of truth" in the darkness of "unreliable information" from private media and the internet.

As Germans regarding media imported almost anything from the U.S. I wouldn't wonder if the situation in the USA would be not so much different.

[ked]

the US gov has propagandized itself and our broader society for many years - usually with some transcendent rationale of internal improvement via good works. the distinction of the PBS News Hour was its assertion of principled objectivity - novel from a gov channel, accomplished... and none too long-lived. be patient, it will be a target captured by its ideological opposites. prepare for News Hour becoming Alt Reality News... even if it takes far longer than our pres' attention span allows. on the other hand, the audience will shrink to nil. don't fret, that's entertainment.

[ked]

"the troops will be home by Christmas!"
every year.

[FourthAndLong]

I agree with you. My dad also couldn't stand the New hour from way back. And he was basically a more or less liberal democrat when it didn't involve too mush hypocrisy or political correctness.

[Irish John]

I have been watching PBS News hour for thirty years.MacNeil Lerher report was slightly left but centrist,fair and honest and good journalism.Over the last couple of years they have become obsessed with race and gender.Simply being politically correct doesn't account for their far left agitation.

[Mathiasalexander]

"Neocon AND left wing propaganda" That's a wide range of opinions to propagandize for.
Where's the info about Ford and Kellogs fundingAntifa?

[NancyK]

It is difficult to be objective in this divided time. My husband and I use to watch the News Hour when the 3 Colonels were on, you were our favorite. We gave up TV years ago mainly because the news is no longer news and we hate commercials. We do listen to the BBC.