Re: Fwd: Talk Radio (was LTAR)

[Donna Halper <dlh@donnahalper.com>]

>  Dave Faneuf wrote:
>>  case in point the on-going boycott of WBUR by
>>some former corporate underwriters because of the Israeli-Palestinian
>>conflict.  To WBUR's credit the station has not caved to the economic
>>pressure.

Umm, as somebody who sort of knows the inside story on this one, it seems 
to me to be a fund-raising ploy, and not a very honest one, given that it 
feeds into anti-Semitic myths about "Jewish money" and "Jewish influence on 
the media".  NPR gets hammered on a regular basis by hundreds of advocacy 
groups who dislike its stands on various issues, and people threaten to 
with-hold their pledges if they don't like a certain stance the local 
station takes.  So what?  Nobody is forcing anybody to give.  But I was a 
bit puzzled why NPR suddenly went public with the 'story' that two Jewish 
business executives had cancelled their support of NPR due to their belief 
that NPR is pro-Palestinian in their middle-eastern coverage.  Rather than 
debate whether NPR/WBUR is or is not anti-Israel (I happen to agree that 
often their coverage is slanted and that some pieces more so than others; 
see www.camera.org for their take on this issue), I am more curious about 
why WBUR's strategy seems to be going to Emily Rooney's show, "Greater 
Boston" and putting out the story that now WBUR is suffering and it's all 
because of... well they never do come out and say "the Jews" but they use 
enough coded language to get the point across.  Call me hyper-sensitive, 
but that's how it looks to me.  Oh, and plenty of other groups are still 
supporting WBUR.   Also, not all Jewish people with-drew their support, and 
as for the two businessmen who did, that was their decision and why is it a 
news story?