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WBUR gets all Crossfired up in Andrea Cabral's grill
By adamg on Tue, 08/17/2010 - 3:08pm
Mike Ball listened to 'BUR's Deborah Becker grill Suffolk County Sheriff Andrea Cabral on Philip Markoff's suicide and thinks Becker ran amok:
Becker started out like a real journalist and quickly went tabloid on Cabral. She clearly came in with her conclusions and was not about to let truth or knowledge interfere.
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Comments
I felt the same way
Usually I like Deb, just because her voice isn't as grating as Bob Oaks, who makes my soul hurt when he puts the "eww" in "news", but she went way off the rails this morning. One thing the blog linked to here missed was when Becker tried to fault the sheriff for not giving Markoff closer observation since he was a medical student and would have better knowledge on how to kill himself than any other inmate. Cabral basically came back and said, "we didn't treat him any differently just because everyone knew his name". Like the writer here, I ended with a greater respect for Cabral who kept her cool, understood her facts, and didn't get flustered at all.
I agree
I heard Becker's interview with Cabrall this morning and felt it was extremely aggressive. Becker seemed to want to prove something and failed to have a fair conversation with Cabrall. I rely on WBUR to stay away from inserting an angle into their news coverage or "making news" and was absolutely surprised that Becker took it this direction. Fortunately, Cabrall did a great job and didn't go on the defensive.
I rely on WBUR to stay away
By this, I can only assume that you generally agree with the angle WBUR inserts into stories.
Typical: thirty seconds on "House votes down money for homeless," and seven minutes, thirty seconds of "Innocent victims of circumstance, down on luck and suffering due to cuts in aid to homeless"
Disagree. If one's on a ship constantly listing to the right...
...coming back to center will be, um, disorienting. I would never claim that NPR is right-wing, but they are far more objective, and substantive, than most sources.
Here's the WBUR-NPR site vs. a leading global mainstream news site. Let's see which sounds likely to present the average reader a more "fair and balanced" snapshot of the day's news reality:
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Cabral on trial?
It sounded like Becker was a prosecuting attorney more than a reporter. I agree with others here that Cabral handled it very well -- especially with the quip about treating Markoff different than anyone else just because it was a high profile case.
(And while Bob uhhhh Oaks can be uhhhhh little annoying, he can't hold a candle to Dolores "I can't read this piece of Paper" Handy.)
What the @#$#@!!!! She is a
What the @#$#@!!!! She is a the head of the jail - she is supposed to be tough. Whatever happened to asking those in power the tough questions. Maybe she should have asked Cabral about the drapes in the jail, if she was having a nice day, or where she was going to go on vacation.... ARE YOU FRIGGIN KIDDIN ME? What don't ask her the tough questions cause she is an african american woman?
Dear "What the @#$#@!!!! She is a",
For me was that it sounded amazingly out of character for Becker.
She did ask Cabral the "tough questions" and Cabral answered them.
Becker's follow up questions sounded like Becker had heard a completely different answer from Cabral that I had heard.
It was pretty embarrassing.
If I had started listening halfway through the interview I would have thought that Becker was badgering Cabral for letting Mother Theresa be killed in prison, not a suicide of an inmate.