Robert Reich Thinks NPR Is Perfect With Frum and No Irrational Conservatives
At The Huffington Post on Friday, liberal professor and former Labor Secretary Robert Reich lamented ” The Triumph of Dogma” at National Public Radio, apparently represented by David Frum's decision to resign his right half of commentaries on the business-ish show Marketplace. “I respect David's decision but I disagree with his understanding of his job on Marketplace. And I find his decision to leave a sad commentary (no pun intended) on what's happening to public discourse in America.” When liberals lament the tone of “public discourse,” what they often mean is: Why must we allow a polite liberal-to-centrist statism consensus to be ruined by the unpleasantness of those annoying conservatives in their Tea Party tri-corner hats? Reich explicitly asked: “Why exactly was it necessary for David Frum to 'represent' the views of conservative Republicans?” He finds they're too extreme to have a place on taxpayer-funded radio. Reich claimed he's non-doctrinaire like Frum: I don't feel any obligation to represent liberal Democrats. Over the years I've argued, for example, in favor of getting rid of the corporate income tax, creating school vouchers inversely related to family incomes, and extending free-trade agreements — positions not exactly favored by liberal Democrats. The American public doesn't want or need to hear “representatives” from the so-called right or left. It wants insight into what's best for America. Yet over and over again — on the radio, on TV, in print, in the blogosphere, and all over Washington — political ideology is substituting for thought. It's mighty rich when liberals go around lamenting that conservatives substitute “ideology for thought.” Liberals, as a species, are so non-doctrinaire? Reich is talking about NPR, the network that fired Juan Williams for daring to be non-doctrinaire and confess traditionally-dressed Muslims on planes make him nervous. Fired! I don't remember the Reich editorial lamenting that “triumph of dogma.”
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on October 15, 2011. Filed under