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WBUR jumps on the politics bandwagon

WBUR today launched Politicker, headed up by former Globie and Deval Patrick aide Richard Chacon - who of late had been in charge of 'BUR's news strategy:

WBUR Politicker will cover New England’s races the WBUR way, with deep and serious treatment of issues, sound-rich feature reports from the campaign trail, plenty of perspective and context from our signature analysts, and loads of data.

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Comments

Looked at that fast and thought it said that it was called Potlicker.
I like that name better.

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Me too!

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I'm shocked that the latest headlines on the site are about Hillary Clinton "gaining steam" and "rising again." Sad when "Public Radio" seeks to alienate half of the public. At least they admit he's a former Globe/Deval Patrick aide. A distinction without a difference.

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.

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Then on the left the to "Is Capitalism Really Working", yawn.....

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Sad when "Public Radio" seeks to alienate half of the public.

It's sad that Public Radio has set the bar so low. The GOP is proof that you can alienate way more than half. AIM HIGHER, NPR!!!

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Literally, this election the Dems just became the Progressive Socialist Party of America.....

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You might want to learn what Clinton really stands for. She's no socialist.

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Very much so. In fact, on the political spectrum, she's more of a moderate republican. Obama is very moderate as well, though _slightly_ left of center.

The GOP has taken to lying about shit just to win political points. Painting Obama as a radical socialist, when he's not even close to one, is just part of the fear campaign that the right has been waging in lieu of running on things like ideas, real plans for the country, et cetera.

It's all been part of the GOP's moving of the goalposts over the past 40 years. The conservative wing of the GOP is much further from center than even Bernie Sanders, and they've come to call anyone a stone's throw away from a moderate on the right as RINOs, and moderate Democrats socialists, Nazis (WTF?), and the like. And it's pretty scary.

And if your campaign of lies does not work, then redistrict, redistrict, redistrict!

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You mean redistrict like Finneran? That kind of redistricting?

Funny, I never figured him to be a republican.

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Hillary stands for conquest of unlimited personal power and nothing else.

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That is correct and the Bernie Sanders supporters can point that out as well.

Did you not feel the Bern? There's more than one candidate!

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saying the GOP lies to score political points and the Dem's don't do the exact same thing is dishonest and foolish.

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Trey Gowdy editing Clinton's e-mails and the CIA calling him out on it is pretty far out there.

So are all the cheerleaders flogging supposed "Planned Parenthood Documentaries" that have been proven to be complete and total fabrications and lies - and yet we still see them trumped out as "fact".

I could go on ...

But, yes, they both lie, which is why Bernie Sanders is doing so damn well right now.

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""Planned Parenthood Documentaries" that have been proven to be complete and total fabrications and lies"

No they haven't.... They're being pushed by a group with an agenda, but their not "complete and total fabrications and lies."

Also a Socialist isn't going to be elected, not with a record high of 43% of american identifying as independent. People are sick of both sides!

http://www.gallup.com/poll/180440/new-record-political-independents.aspx

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Not even going to touch on that "yes they have an agenda but the videos aren't fake!!!!" nonsense, but here's a nice quote from today's column by Jeb Lund, about that specious "independent" claim:

So it’s on to a potential independent ticket for the former Senator from Virginia. Webb talked up his potential third party bid by saying that, if it comes down to a Hillary vs Trump showdown, “I honestly could see us beating both of them”, which is basically insane. He added, “More people in this country call themselves independents than either Republicans or Democrats”.

He’s right: people call themselves “independent” all the time. They also tell you they donate to charity, plan to learn a second language and regularly work out. In practice, people are actually mostly Republicans or Democrats. Calling yourself an independent is essentially a pointless way of trying to appear sophisticated, like eating popcorn with chopsticks. Nobody’s going to flock to Jim Webb except the hacks who make centrism into a virtue in vacuous defense of the status quo.

Stay vacuous, anon.

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The unedited videos are available, but don't like facts get in the way of your smugness.

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yeah, i thought so.

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CITATIONS PLEASE!

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Very easy to find stuff. You type in words like "planned parenthood video fabrication" and get things like this: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/planned-parenthood-sting-videos-fore...

Or "Trey Gowdy Alters E-mails Clinton": http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/10/18/1434655/-In-response-to-Rep-Cum...

Not sure why you are asking for citations when these things are well known to anyone who bothers to follow the news.

BTW: the sky is blue: http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/blue-sky/en/

The earth is spherical: http://www.universetoday.com/26782/why-is-the-earth-round/

How magnets work: http://www.howmagnetswork.com/

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Hold on, let's simplify things

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Clinton is simply Richard Nixon 2016. An amoral paranoid opportunist who would say or do anything to get or keep the office. And last week's announcement by BO about keeping troops in Afghanistan (Vietnamization, anyone?) had me wondering if he had changed his middle name to Milhous.

Sheesh.

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I saw a HILLARY 2016 sticker on a car in Somerville (might actually have been Cambridge - borderlands!), with the magic marker subtitle "Because Richard Nixon Never Got To Finish".

I nearly fell off my bike laughing.

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An amoral paranoid opportunist who would say or do anything to get

Sounds like Donald Trump to me..

and he pretty much says anything to get people to support him. Even if it's racist, misogynist, idiotic, moronic..

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There are simply too many facts to fit any contemporary conservative narrative. If WBUR was really interested in Being Above The Partisan Fray, they would counter each data-based article with a feeling-based article, ideally the feelings of an old white guy who got uncomfortable when the person who cooked his pizza is suspiciously foreign-y.

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an 'old white guy'?

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(aside from my embroidered French surrender flag and my Garrison Keillor fetish)
I yell at the radio in my car as I'm listening to NPR because they're so slanted to the right but pretend to be progressive. Like being surrounded by a bunch of Portlandia characters.

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And that's really what I am looking for in news reporting, as unbiased as I can get. Partisan news gets real old real fast.

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The tone and content of their programming does not appear to support your statements. Most of the shows are by and large excellent. Your post seems to be a jumble of unrelated declarative statements and a little hard to follow. Do you mean to say that by posting about some locally produced radio show, UHUB is part of some larger media conspiracy to ensure that Hillary Clinton some heretofore unknown official from NY is elected president or were you just free associating?

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Waiting for intelligent commentary from the right-wingers... waiting, waiting, waiting.

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Sorry, they're all busy in the video editing room making their next "documentary."

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Sorry but the 60 Minutes editing crew and the guys behind "Loose Change" have a monopoly on that.

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... you're all Republicans now!

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What exactly are you waiting for?

I think it is correct to point out that a member of Patick's administration taking on a role at a publically funded station is right to raise some eyebrows. But, I prefer to wait and see how he does instead of assuming he'll be partisian. It would be nice if those employed at publically funded news organizations could keep their politics to themselves.

Why is that so wrong - Anon?

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Patricia, I'll give you an example. I appreciate people who are willing to call BS on climate change deniers instead of bowing down and being silenced by right wing screaming fanatics who would rather that we continue ruining the planet, the air we breathe, etc. Taking care of the environment is unfortunately a political issue and whether you want to bury your head in the sand on this issue or not, it is something that cannot be ignored. Here's another example: right wingers in TX are publishing school books meant for children across the country which are erasing history by claiming Africans brought here for slavery were workers and not slaves. Does that bother you, or should this be swept under the rug because republicans would prefer that history be re-written to favor right wing Southern values? Should we not talk about this because it make right wingers uncomfortable? Truth and science must be discussed and taught regardless of your sensitivities because it is the ethical obligation of a thinking and educated society.

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That incident in Texas was corrected when discovered in the text book by the pupils mother. Was it an outright push by Texas Republicans to change each book in Texas to remove the word slave and replace it with worker?
No. And the books were found, removed and correctly reprinted, I believe.

How did it get in the book? Were all TX schools affected? Do you know? I assume not (I could be wrong) but it fits nicely into your narrative.

Please, do correct me if you know how the text books were changed, I'm curious.

If you want to talk Climate Change/Global Warming - I'm not going to because there is no such thing as a discussion.

Are you a Climate scientist? I'm not and I'm guessing you aren't either. But, I find it interesting you picked those two topics.

Two topics that fit your narrative. And you actually think people don't care about the environment because they aren't in your particular favored party is just plain, well stupid to be honest.

You can disagree about environmental bills put forth, but do so logically. Emotional outbursts and emotional accusations just make you look silly.

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Was it an outright push by Texas Republicans to change each book in Texas to remove the word slave and replace it with worker?

I suggest you do some research on the organization that decides what does and doesn't go into the textbooks and texas and report back when your naivete gives way to reality.

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I did actually and the books are being replaced.

As they should be.

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Dim.

Here's what's going on in Texas. The entire mess is intentional and systematic: http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/22/opinion/how-texas-teaches-history.html...

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Kenya, illegals, repeal everything, guns, more guns, pro-obesity, pro-pollution, Newtown is the price of freedom, slavery never happened, Moses wrote the constitution, keep the government out of my Medicare, less regulation, freedom is being able to drive 100 mph shooting your guns out the window while drinking moonshine and eating fried twinkles, states rights for everyone except the Gays, blacks and people that don't look like me.

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the middle class, guns are evil, gender pay gap, pay your fair share, the evil 1%, the big banks, climate change.

See, anyone can play the "enemy talking points" game.

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just somebody's crazy uncle.

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Shut up, you explained.

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has become "chickified"

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sorry just have to post this.

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I consider myself a bit of a centrist, but that means to the left and right on things, and since I'm not a libertarian, I guess that makes me a right-winger.

Honestly, I heard a story about a WBUR poll of New Hampshire voters and of course thought "oh, they must have meant WMUR, since that's a serious political reporting outlet." Yes, BUR does what it does well, but I wouldn't consider them to be a good, unbiased source of political news. Yeah, if you believe what they believe, your thought would be to disagree, but call me corny, but I like to find out that there are in fact 2 sides of an issue.

And that, in case you were wondering, is why I would never watch MSNBC or FoxNews to find out something on an issue, which in the end means I don't watch them at all. So politically, WBUR gets lumped in with WRKO or whoever does the right wing stuff, except that they have shows like Wait Wait... That's some good listening.

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I agree, I wouldn't watch MSNBC any more than I'd watch Fox. There used to be two sides to issues and my family would spend hours in political discussions, but that was then.
Now there is only one side and if you're not up with the latest meme and talking points - or even worse, hold a different opinion - than you're a ________fill in the blank.

And to think things are just heating up for an election a year away.

God help us.

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Most of WBUR's national reporting is the stream from NPR, and I am fairly certain that most of the conservative Republicans out there think NPR is part of the great liberal media conspiracy.

Local reporting I think is a different issue - and this might be me thinking that a lot of the local stories don't always have a left/right agenda to them, they are just stories that impact Boston and the general area. The election is obviously an exception, but in the limited several hours a day I listen to WBUR, I haven't heard anything remotely close to the bias seen on Fox News or MSNBC.

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I think of NPR as been less biased than a lot of other news outlets, but I don't fool myself by into thinking it is without bias.

The most obviously biased show is Open Source. Local, but a strong left leaning show. Not that it is presented as anything else.

On Point tries to be more balance. Generally they work to have someone strong on both sides of an issue and both sides seem to get equal time. Still there are times it left leaning ways can really show.

I don't know that you can limit yourself to one news source and expect to get consistently unbiased news.

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On Point is a great example - when Bernie Sanders was on the show a few weeks ago people were crying foul that Tom Ashbrook was too mean or too right-wing so therefore the whole program is too right-wing, but change the topic of discussion to Islamaphoba and all of a sudden the same show with the same host is now totally leftist and liberal.

If a host is able to stay more or less neutral and have a thoughtful program with varied guests that one group of people think is too right-wing and another group too left-wing, then you are probably right in the middle.

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:')

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You know, someone can also post infighting between those on the left. What does it prove? nothing.

I'm sorry but I'm so tired of this "side picking" and doing anything and everything to support "your side". Anything to fit your own little narrative.

Our political system is just about broken.

There is not one front running presidential candidate Americans should be proud of.

Im so tired of this already and the election is a little over a year away.

Canada does it all within 72 days, no wonder why people seem happier up north.

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72 Days of campaigning - a record for them. And now they get to look at Justin Trudeau for a few years.

Not bad!

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Alas, we have what we have. Citizens United has ensured catastrophic electoral dysfunction for however long it takes to repeal the decision, if that ever happens.

But in the meantime, what's wrong with laughing heartily at people supporting any of the nutbags running for the GOP nomination (and, of course, at the nutbags themselves)? If you honestly support any of the 259682098762057896 people running, I'm afraid you're a loon. They're all objectively terrible, regardless of their politics.

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Let me ask you; is it OK if I include Sanders in your mix of nutbags?

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In doing so, can you cite reasons that his policies are unsound, or that he's been ineffective/hypocritical while in any of the offices he's held? Disagreeing with a policy doesn't make it unsound, for the record.

Meanwhile, on the right: Ben Carson is a fool, Donald Trump is a troll, Jeb Bush is a non-starter, Carly Fiorina is a failure, and the rest are pretty lackluster as well, but they're so far from having a shot at the nomination that they don't even warrant an eyeroll.

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You are not even remotely a "centrist". You have skewed to the right on virtually every topic you have ever discussed here,

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