What accounts for this inappropriate fealty to a political operation that is no longer in office or in power? Anybody?

Inertia.

If torture is enhanced interrogation

and and interview with the calm and rational Gleen Greenwald is a shouting match,

then it follows that this

•An ombudsman (English plural: conventionally ombudsmen) is a person who acts as a trusted intermediary between an organization and some external constituency while representing the broad scope of constituent interests.

is a person who acts as a cowardly and untrustworthy mouthpiece while representing a narrow scope of organizational interests.

Despite the fact that the organization is called National Public Radio.

Btw, and OT, I have discovered that Charles Krauthammer has an uncanny resemblance to a giraffe.

So my question now is, "Why does the discredited and out of office Bush administration still have complete control of this issue throughout the American mass media 'news?' What accounts for this inappropriate fealty to a political operation that is no longer in office or in power?"

Anybody?

-- Ché Pasa

I realise you only pose the question to prompt the neophytes to deeper thought, and that you know the answer already, but here it is anyway:

Only a very small number of different people are in office; the very same political operation is in power.

They thought "Ombudsman" is someone who meditates on beer.

"So my question now is, "Why does the discredited and out of office Bush administration still have complete control of this issue throughout the American mass media 'news?' What accounts for this inappropriate fealty to a political operation that is no longer in office or in power?"

Anybody?"

Barack Hussein Obama.

Different face, same voice.

We have a new crime boss, same as the old crime boss, this time from Chicago instead of Texas.

Yep, there's gonna be a lot of changes.

But the business stays the same.

Why should a successful criminal enterprise change a thing?

They own us.

We let their MSM do our thinking for us.

What are people going to do, think for themselves?

Which provoked an even stronger desire than usual to call NPR National Corporate Radio.

NPR has become progressively righty and corporate from the moment Reagan took office. It can never bend over far enough to its corporate and political bosses.

During the deepest abyss of the bushista years, the only dissenting voice on public radio was Garrison Keillor. But then, "Prairie Home Companion" is PRI, right? Whatever. I still salute Keillor for his honesty, his anger, and his courage -- and his clever exhibition of same. No one else showed any.

Perhaps you missed GK's piece on Salon urging everyone to "look forward".

Ah, such creepy Orwellian Newspeak, in the low, golf-announcer voice of fm radio. In Alicia's world, words can hurt, so why use them? I would say that her narcotized blandness makes her the ideal spokesmodel for NPR, just as Dana Perino's relentless perkiness made her the perfect spokesmodel for the administration Alicia continues to defend.

If that's what her defensively emphasized 30 years of journalism has produced, I'd rather hear from an intern.

What are people going to do, think for themselves?

When men yield up the privilege of thinking, the last shadow of liberty quits the horizon.

Thomas Paine, Reflections on Titles [May 1775]

If you are not spouting the Democrat Party Line or the Republican Party Line,...

-- something stinks

Serious question for you. In the sentence above you are disparaging both the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. But at the same time you are doing that you are using the grossly childish insult that the Republican Party, and their numerous mouth pieces, have created for the Democratic Party.

My question is: are you doing that out of ignorance, in that you think that the name of the Democratic Party is the Democrat Party? Or, even though you are expressing equal distaste for the Republican Party in your comment, are you gleefully using the made up insult provided to you by the Republican Party, even though you know that they made it up, and even though you dislike them equally as much as you dislike the Democratic Party?

I can't imagine anyone getting the better of Glenn in a debate except by shouting, so maybe Shepard was referring to what she has done or would have to do in an interview.

It seems to be fashionable for media to have "ombudsmen", but I haven't seen any which come close to doing real criticism of the outlet.

Ms. Shepard's column is so badly written, so poorly edited and with such flimsy and panicked excuses, she misrepresents one of the most prolific and excellent reporters, Scott Horton, as writing for The Atlantic.

Idiot.

Glenn, kudos on calling out NPR and Shepard on the doublespeak and propaganda peddling.

I'm sorry to post such a graphic passage, but the point needs to be made:

"Yasser tearfully described that when he reached the top of the steps 'the party began…They started to put the [muzzle] of the rifle [and] the wood from the broom into [my anus]. They entered my privates from behind.' ...Yasser estimated that he was penetrated five or six times during this initial sodomy incident and saw blood 'all over my feet' through a small hole in the hood covering his eyes."

–Physicians for Human Rights, Broken Laws, Broken Lives: Medical Evidence of Torture by US Personnel and Its Impact

Full article at sig

Remember people...these were SUSPECTS in the War on Terror. The article goes on to state that this suspect was raped on at least eleven occasions, made to drink urine, and beaten regularly. He was made to go to the bathroom in his underwear, and not change them for months. He was sickened, beaten, assaulted, raped, humiliated.

Now, how would you describe the treatment he received while in custody as a FUCKING SUSPECT?

Enhanced Interrogation Technique?

Americans RAPED, TORTURED and MURDERED SUSPECTS...as a MATTER OF POLICY.

It is the duty of the media and the engaged citizenry to demand accountability for these horrible crimes. Instead, the ombudsmen of NPR refuses to even use the word torture. Pundits across the dial are defending torture and now preventative detention? Are you kidding me? Voices like Glenn's are vital to the health of our democracy. The M$M is gone. The blogosphere is one of the last bastions of the first amendment remaining.

Thanks for shedding light on this Glenn. As PDA said, this topic needs to be discussed MORE, not less.