Discussing National Public Radio's firing of Juan Williams, Behar pitched the tired line that NPR is actually a middle of the road news organization. Her logic (I use the term loosely): "NPR has been vetted by objective Media Matter-type people and they have found that…NPR is very balanced."
You know it's time to recalibrate your metrics for political neutrality when the far-left blog Media Matters earns the label "objective" (video and transcript below the fold).
Of course if you accept Behar's absurd premise that Media Matters is objective, it logically follows that NPR is also middle-of-the-road. if your political views are so far to the left that you consider those Soros-funded character assassins in any way fair or neutral, then it stands to reason you also would not recognize NPR's lefty slant.
Ironically, Behar's view of NPR is skewed even beyond that of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, the organization that got Williams fired. Ibrahim Hooper, a spokesman for CAIR, told Fox News's Megyn Kelly: "NPR obviously has a more liberal viewpoint."
Apparently Behar's political center is to the left even of CAIR's.
Here is a video and transcript of the segment:
;
BARBARA WALTERS:If you are a commentator and you’re giving opinions, you’re in one category.
SHERRI SHEPPARD: Is that a pundit?
WALTERS: You can call it a pundit. If you are supposedly giving the news straight, you’re not supposed to give your opinions. Now, that’s changed so much. We’re in a whole other time now. Everybody has an opinion. If you don’t make more noise or scream louder or so on, you don’t get the rating. So it is a funny blurred line. they said he’s a journalist, he’s a correspondent, he’s not supposed to give opinions. But when he goes on another cable show like Fox and does it — so it’s a very blurry line. In the meantime, we hope he’ll come on with us and, if nothing else, give Joy and Whoopi 10%.
SHEPPARD: Bring your checkbook if you want.
BEHAR: I don’t need the money. but the thing of it is that NPR has been vetted by objective Media Matter-type people and they have found that –
ELIZABETH HASSELBECK: Media Matters?
BEHAR: I don’t know if it’s Media Matters, but I was just watching, maybe someone could find this out for me. they have found NPR is very balanced, unlike Fox, which is not balanced. Fox has now become the arm of the Republican Party.
Keep this exchange in mind the next time Behar says, well, anything.
