12/20/17 By Lee Camp
I never thought I’d be the target of an NPR attack piece. Through my twenties I even looked to NPR as an outlet full of good, progressive, thoughtful reporting – You know, the soothing voices occasionally interrupted by music no one really listens to but that sounds good between soft-spoken ivy league journalists over the age of 50. Everything about NPR subtly reinforced the idea, “Everything is fine. You’re probably a middle to upper class white person or you hope to be one day, and that’s just great. Everything is fine.” They might not SAY that, but they say that. And for a long time, I was cool with that message.
Then I woke up. About the time NPR was avoiding Occupy Wall Street – or when they did cover it, acting like those of us who supported it were brainless hippies without a point or at least none that would fit easily into the lives of suburbanites with two kids, one cat, and a robust retirement account. In hindsight I should’ve woken up sooner. I should’ve seen the truth about the time most NPR shows were pushing for war in Iraq, buying into the WMD lie. Or maybe I should’ve realized the truth when Kevin Klose took over as President of NPR in 1998. Klose came straight from a nice seat as director of the US Information Agency, described as “a United States agency devoted to ‘public diplomacy’ (AKA propaganda).” So when you have one of the top government propagandists as your president, one can assume your reporting is slightly biased.
Anyway, that leads me to today. A couple days after NPR’s Weekend Edition hosted by Scott Simon did a rather awesome attack piece on me and my TV show Redacted Tonight with Lee Camp which airs on RT America. I’d like to walk you through how to write such beautiful propaganda, as I did following the NY Times smear job against me, which sounded shockingly similar (more on that later).
STEP ONE: Create a subconscious association to old Cold War Russian propaganda
Scott Simon opens his show with “Russian programming is no longer breathless proclamations about tractor production or accolades to the Kremlin. Look at a show like Redacted Tonight.” This opening sentence essentially tells the listener that everything they’re about to hear is modern Russian propaganda. Sure, he doesn’t use the word “propaganda” yet, but when you say something was ONCE accolades to the Kremlin and is now Redacted Tonight, you are priming your audience, giving them a subconscious opinion of the target before they even know what it is. This would be like saying “American programming is no longer ads where a little girl with a daisy is killed by a nuclear blast. Now it’s the Daily Show.” If you had never heard of the Daily Show, you would assume it must be a modern version of a girl obliterated by a nuclear bomb.
STEP TWO: Lie by omission
Scott Simon knows the truth, but he’s keeping it from his audience. My show is not Russian propaganda. Simon knows I’m an American in America covering American news for Americans. He does slip in that I’m American in the opening sentences, but not until the end does he reveal to his audience that I have never been told to say anything or not to say anything on RT America. And after he says that, he immediately plays a clip of me joking that my show is written by heavily bearded Russian trolls. He seems to play it as if it reveals the truth, rather than being a joke. Furthermore, assuming Simon did even an ounce of research, he knows that I’ve been doing the same type of material in my stand-up comedy act for decades – long before I was every on RT. Saying my show is Russian propaganda would be to say that all the shows on RT America are Russian propaganda including ones hosted by Larry King, Pulitzer Prize-winner Chris Hedges, Governor Jesse Ventura, Mike Papantonio, and former hosts Thom Hartmann and Abby Martin.
I’ve addressed why I do this show on RT America, and you can watch that here. But for NPR’s listeners who have never heard of me, Simon wants to essentially warn them that they are about to hear nefarious neo-propaganda put forward by dastardly Russians.
STEP THREE: Subtly let your listeners know the target is not one of us
In his second sentence Simon says, “The show is hosted and written by an American comic in black jeans with a hipster beard and long, bobbed hair, Lee Camp.” To begin with, I don’t know what a hipster beard is, but I doubt I have one. I guess Scott Simon thinks any beard is a “hipster beard.” I suppose this means Wolf Blitzer has a hipster beard too. I also don’t know what “long bobbed hair” is other than a way of saying, “He’s a fuckin’ long hair!” This description is all basically Simon’s way of letting his elitist older core audience know, “This guy is NOT one of us. He probably doesn’t even OWN a salmon-colored button-down shirt.”
STEP FOUR: Imply that curse words = enemy of the state
Simon next plays a few sentences from my show, bleeping out the word “fuck.” Then he interrupts and says, “A lot of profanity. In fact ONE profanity over and over…” So Simon’s first sentence about me was to insult my clothing and look. His first sentence about my show was to express near horror at the fact I use the word “fuck”. First of all, I take great exception to the idea I only use ONE profanity. My profanity is varied AND prolific. Name another show where you’ve recently heard Congress described as a “Steaming bucket of mangy dicks.” But again this is designed so Simon can let the nice NPR listeners know, “He’s not one of us. He uses dirty language.” Isn’t it amazing that it’s been a half century since the 1960’s and yet the insults against the “counter culture” are all the same – “He’s a long-hair hipster with a dirty mouth!” As George Carlin said, dirty words can “impact your mind, curve your spine and lose the war for the Allies!” Clearly Scott Simon didn’t get the memo that fearing dirty words is not something most of America is doing anymore. Americans are far more worried about where their next paycheck will come from or how to get healthcare for their sick child. If you look at the situation our country is in and don’t say “FUCK” to yourself, then you aren’t paying attention.
STEP FIVE: Bring in an “Expert” who clarifies how awful the target is
Next, Julia Ioffe is brought on to explain how horrible Redacted Tonight truly is and why your children should be asked to leave the room and cover their ears until the terrifying thought bombs are extinguished. NPR identifies Ioffe as simply someone who writes critically about Russia for the Atlantic and other platforms. What Simon doesn’t want his listeners to know is that Ioffe is a hardcore neocon neo-McCarthyist who spends her days spouting fake news about Russia, such as this lovely piece of fact-free reporting entitled “How Russia Hacked America.” In the credits of that piece she thanks two private intelligence firms for helping her out – Fidelis Cybersecurity and Farsight Security. Fidelis used to be owned by General Dynamics, one of the biggest weapons contractors riding the Russia hysteria to billions of dollars in profits. Julia Ioffe is not even close to an unbiased critic of my show. She’s quite the opposite – a useful idiot for the weapons industry which collects bundles of cash from the deaths of millions.
And those Russian hacking claims? I covered the reality of those claims on my show with former 27-year veteran CIA analyst Ray McGovern.
It’s very telling that while Ioffe and Scott Simon breathlessly attack dissenting voices, they choose NOT to cover how our 2016 election was ACTUALLY rigged as reported on by the nonpartisan Project Censored here, here, and here. I have also covered all of these stories extensively on my show.
Ioffe is not only a pure xenophobe, seemingly trying to angle our country towards nuclear war, but she also is – apparently – an expert on comedy! Her opening lines – “[Redacted Tonight] is very shrill. Lee Camp is very shrill. It looks like the kind of rantings I would engage in when I was an angry 15 year-old.” Apparently when Julia Ioffe was a mere teen, she was angrily spouting about how unfettered vulture capitalism destroyed Puerto Rico even before the hurricane did, or the unlimited war powers that both Democrats and Republicans voted to give Donald Trump, or perhaps the secret family making billions from our opioid crisis. I guess little Julia was once very well informed. But now, as an adult, she has changed her ways – becoming a good shill for the corporate state, toeing the pro-war propaganda line without a second thought.
STEP SIX: Shrug off or ignore any positive attributes
At one point Scott Simon talks about attending a taping of the show where the audience “laughed and cheered when prompted – but sincerely.” In the audio version the words “but sincerely” drip with disgust. This is about as close as Simon can come to admitting Redacted Tonight has very large, active, and excited fanbase of people who see through the ridiculous mainstream media and want something more, something deeper.
Another positive attribute of my show, in my opinion, is the fact that we’re left of the corporate-owned Democrats. Simon mentions that I mock both Republicans and Democrats but that’s where he leaves it. If he watched more than ten minutes, he knows that I don’t simply attack everything for the sake of mockery. I go after our ruling elite who are bought and sold by massive corporations, soulless people who seem fine with a level of inequality that surpasses even ancient Rome just before its collapse. This is the most important thing any viewer should know about my show, but NPR intentionally leaves it out. The reasoning is obvious – because it would attract a lot of viewers. And when you’re busy making new Cold War propaganda, you don’t want such stumbling blocks in your path.
STEP SEVEN: Bring in another “expert” to simply lie
Scott Simon next asks executive producer of Second City, Kelly Leonard, if Redacted Tonight is funny. Leonard response: “It is funny, but there’s a problem. ” Leonard says the real trouble is that I avoid certain subjects – such as hacking of the election. But in fact, I HAVE talked about hacking the election here, here, here, here, here, here – You get the point. I’ve talked about it FAR more than any other comedy news show Leonard can list. The problem is I don’t talk about it from the false narrative Leonard and Simon WANT me to – the narrative that calls it “hacking the election” even though no one is even accusing Russia of actually hacking voting machines, which is essentially impossible from a foreign country. (Instead voting machine rigging happens right here at home.) The accusations only have to do with hacking emails at the DNC (that showed *REAL* corruption) – and even those accusations have been debunked by experts.
So even if Leonard disagrees with my more truth-based views on the hacking, he still provably lied when he said I don’t talk about election hacking. Either he lied or he’s so woefully unfamiliar with my show that he’s hardly seen any of it. Which is worse? Scott Simon then lets this grand lie go unchecked, or Simon doesn’t know that I’ve covered the hacking extensively. Again, which is worse?
STEP EIGHT: Simply call your target evil
Leonard next says, “I think comedy is a superpower. And a very smart person once said, if it can’t be used for evil, it’s not a superpower. And in this case, that’s kind of what I feel is going on.” Yep, my show is clearly being used for evil. A show which tirelessly fights for a more egalitarian and just society – You could hardly find an episode where I’m not covering those issues and giving solutions for how to get there – Such a TV show is using comedy for evil. …Hence the sinister beard and long hair.
STEP NINE: Refuse to have the target on for a live interview
The number one question I’ve gotten about NPR’s attack piece was about this sentence by Simon, “We asked Lee Camp for an interview but couldn’t agree to his ground rules.” Simon is being intentionally vague here. Saying that we couldn’t agree to ground rules makes the listener think I said, “I’ll do an interview but no questions about Russia, and you have to be dressed as a chicken during the entirety of it!” In fact, what Simon doesn’t reveal to his listeners is that I simply said, “I would love to do a live on-air interview.” That is all I said, and I said it repeatedly over email. NPR cannot have me on for a live on-air interview because that would not allow them to cut out all the things they don’t want viewers to know. It would not allow them to redact certain parts and take things out of context. I was told by the producer of Weekend Edition that they rarely do live interviews – which means they do indeed have the capability. I, myself, have an interview show that is never filmed live because it simply doesn’t air live. So I am not opposed to pre-taped interviews played in their entirety, but NPR is not looking for that. If Simon valued honesty, he should’ve stated, “Lee Camp agreed to a live interview, but we were not willing to do that.”
STEP TEN: Bring back the New Cold Warrior faux expert
Julia Ioffe comes back to call me and my team “co-conspirators” and “useful idiots.” (Which is it? Are we conspiring or are we idiots??) She says we are not creating the show “…for the rights and the lives of the little man or the little person. It’s for Putin’s power.” And although I find it hilarious to respond to a moral attack coming from someone spouting talking points on behalf of weapons contractors, I’ll do it anyway. Ioffe is perfectly wrong in her assertion. I’ve been doing politically minded stand-up comedy for nearly 20 years. Long before I ever created Redacted Tonight, I was speaking about the same issues – endless war, gut-wrenching inequality, environmental destruction – all the topics I continue to cover on my show. When I decided to work with RT America, it came down to one simple thought – I don’t believe we have a lot of time to waste. Our world is collapsing around us – for example the earth has lost half its wildlife in the past 40 years. We have to talk about all these issues, which are redacted from our corporate media. We have to provide information to people in new and interesting ways, and I’ve been trying to do that for two decades. Julia Ioffe on the other hand wants to create war, death, and continued destruction while tearing down anyone who dissents.
STEP ELEVEN: One last parting lie – “No one’s watching anyway.”
Scott Simon closes by saying fewer than 30,000 people are likely watching RT America. He says, “That’s not far from the average attendance at a Milwaukee Brewers baseball game.” But one can assume Simon knows he’s lying. Even without factoring in television views, the average episode of Redacted Tonight gets over 30,000 views on YouTube alone, which does not count Facebook and other platforms. Clips from each episode add hundreds of thousands of more views on YouTube. I have recent web exclusive videos that have over 150,000 views each on YouTube. Assuming Simon can do a simple search, he knows he’s misleading his listeners as to how many people watch my show. If he can’t do a YouTube search, it might be time for him to throw in the ol’ crusty “journalism” towel.
If I really wanted to get down in the mud with Simon, I might mention that he has nearly 1.25 Million Twitter followers and yet his tweets – almost without exception – receive between zero and ten retweets. This either means Simon isn’t saying much of value or his 1.25 million followers aren’t listening to him to begin with.
It’s also a bit comical Simon picks Milwaukee as the city to use in his parting jab. Milwaukee also happens to be the home of Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, which helps fund NPR and therefore receives glowing segments like this in what seems to be a pay-to-play scenario. Even when corporations are not influencing NPR’s coverage, they are still benefiting from what NPR proudly calls “the halo effect” simply by being an underwriter. Basically NPR brags that they scrub clean the image some of the worst corporations in the world, making them angelic – corporations like ExxonMobil, Goldman Sachs, and Wells Fargo.
Furthermore Fairness and Accuracy In Reporting did a study (“Some Things Considered Mostly By White Men”) that included Weekend Edition and other NPR shows and found that most of the commentary is by white men and in recent years there is less and less political coverage. The lack of political coverage is actually by design. NPR’s job is to cast reality in a pro-corporate pro-war light via two avenues, one is by straight up propaganda, such as hit pieces against dissenting voices – anything outside the corporate unfettered-capitalist paradigm. (I covered this in a recent web exclusive video.) Another avenue is to simply fill the airwaves with useless information that makes us feel smart and comfortable but contributes nothing to informing the population about what is REALLY happening. This is why Scott Simon produces pieces like this one about waiting in line. (It has 9 retweets as of this writing.) If you listen to the piece, he actually could have gone deeper and made the segment meaningful. He could have talked about how our system seeks profit over all else, even over the innately fair process of waiting in line. He could’ve discussed how those ideals then become codified in our cultural mindset, creating an immense level of misery and inequality. …But instead he left it as a weak version of Andy Rooney (which is impressive because I thought Andy Rooney was a weak version of Andy Rooney).
When he does cover politics, Simon has proven to be war hungry. Right now he seems to be Cold War hungry – which could lead to nuclear war. In the past he supported the Wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In case it was never mentioned on NPR, the Iraq War killed over one million people according to Reuters. Even in 2003 he reassured his listeners that not finding weapons of mass destruction (the entire premise for the war) didn’t really matter that much anyway because the greatest threat to Iraqis was the regime that the U.S. had taken down. (One assumes he doesn’t mean the greatest threat to the million who were killed during our obliteration of their country.) Simon helped manufacture the consent for such a horrific bloodbath, and I wonder whether that sits with him at all.
Since Weekend Edition did a poor job of finding guests who could speak intelligibly on the issues at hand, I did it for them. Author Max Blumenthal said of this segment, “NPR only interviewed neo-Cold Warriors, giving figures with no expertise on Russia a platform to hold forth on Russian meddling, and offering figures with no experience in comedy a platform to criticize Redacted Tonight‘s comedic value. NPR interviewed Lee Camp’s fans but no media professionals from the left who could have offered a nuanced perspective on RT. And they deliberately obscured Camp’s principled left-wing positions by claiming that he bashes the GOP and Democrats equally, with the Dems as a stand in for the living, breathing left social movement that Camp is part of. If anyone is looking for slanted propaganda under the guise of news, look no further than this piece by the semi-official radio outlet of the US government.”
And Scott Dikkers, co-founder and longtime head of The Onion publicly stated to Scott Simon, “I was disappointed you thought it necessary to tar [Lee Camp] as little more than a Putin Stooge. He happens to be a talented and hard-working comedian on the populist/left end of the spectrum.”
This is the second major attack piece on me and my comedy show in recent months, one on NPR and one on the cover of the NY Times Arts section. These smear jobs are similar in nature, and I’m far from the only one experiencing such attacks. Many dissenting voices have been attacked, suppressed, and maligned, and it’s up to those of us who value truth and open debate to stand up and demand better. The good news is that corporate media and the profit-over-people they uphold are right now fighting for their lives, and the only way of maintaining their power is by drumming out those of us calling attention to the reality.
(If you like my writing, please become a member in the sidebar to the right and/or share this post. Thank you.)
“Scott Simon closes by saying fewer than 30,000 people are likely watching RT America. ”
If he thought that were the case, he wouldn’t have bothered with the hit piece. Someone who reaches that few people isn’t worth attacking. It is a laughable claim on the face of it.
NPR and PBS are public media organisations, very important for our world. I have respect for the NewsHour and many NPR programmes like All Things Considered. One emblematic anchor, Robert Siegel, is retirin’ this month. A loss for public radio. My tween nephew Gabriel grews up with WGBH’s Curious George. And I’m very interested in news from a public media outlet like NPR and PBS. Public television is educational and unbiased. Always uncut, with the best programmes like WGBH’s FRONTLINE and Boston Public Radio. My favourite is the scientific programme #novapbs, for 44 years the emblem of science on public television. #FrontlinePBS is the best for 35 years on investigative journalism. That’s a kind of a very interesting — quote, unquote — “makeshift” on public media. I have many respect for @JudyWoodruff and his colleague in NYC @hari — devoted to news. #ThisIsNPR #PBSNEWS #NPRAreRealNews #PBSAreRealNews
Fuck those guys.
They hate you because they ain’t you. These corporate stooges must feel ashamed of what they are when they encounter someone doing REAL work and bringing TRUTH to the American people.
Thank you, Grant!! I’ll keep fighting if you will.
Keep Fighting, Sir! NPR has fallen to cultural bias and habitual disregard of both International and US law (does NPR even care that your work is protected by the 1st Amendment of our Constitution?). Minute-for-minute, Redacted Tonight offers more illuminating journalism than I have ever heard from NPR, and I listened to them daily for years. Your team sheds light on critical issues that NPR and corporate media simply do not cover, and you go over the top to deliver it with bold humor that catches our attention. I saw your live comedy show in Seattle recently and it was head-and-shoulders above the usual comedy club fare. Thank you for being one of the best journalists of our time and for the perfect example of meaningful, effective satire!
If they are attacking you then you are doing something very right. Let the attacks keep coming. They just make themselves look more irrelevant. Keep up the great work. Since cutting cable and corporate news out of our lives all together, your show is one of the few things on YouTube we still watch.
Best political satire show! Someone should make a copy of Lee to deconstruct all the manufactured paranoia and lobbies in Europe, or client-state behaviour in foreing policy of many EU countries. Plenty of material.
Thank you and your Redacted Tonight team for all the good work!
Dear Lee, I read on the Weekend Edition page that there would be a story about Redacted Tonight. I expected it to run at the end of an hour segment as their reporting on artistic and out of the mainstream subjects usually does. I was feeling pleasantly expectant. I knew something different was up when the story jumped out right after the opening headlines, a story that moved quickly to become a full frontal attack. Only fear could provoke such an irrational assault. I was stunned by the reports’ obvious assumption that most listeners knew nothing of you and that their acceptance of NPR credibility would ensure they would decide that you are a bad person. When it was over I immediately emailed them a comment. I accused them of ignoring Bernie Sanders’ amazing following in 2016 and asked them who they thought was more responsible for the Trump presidency, Russian or US media. Keep fighting. Your show is the high point in my week. Wendy Lane
I haven’t listened to your show, but I became curious when I heard Scott Simon’s repulsive piece. NPR is a center-right propaganda machine, and this story is a prime example. Almost fact free, smug, self-important, and devoted to policing the boundaries of acceptable political thought. I will be joining your 30,000 listeners.
Sorry to say I had not heard of you before reading your outstanding piece (tweeted by Jared Beck)– will watch you for sure now!
Your account her reminds me of a talk given by former NPR correspondent Sarah Chayes. She was reporting from Afghanistan and was chastised by a big-wig at NPR because her story did not “fit with the narrative” NPR had adopted about the US role there. She recounts it in her book The Punishment of Virtue and touches on it in this interview transcript:
http://www.reclaimthemedia.org/journalistic_practice/sarah_chayes_on_afghanistan_and_leaving_npr.html
I often wondered if the big-wig was Scott Simon. He was a Quaker back in the day, but has become a cheerleader for war since 9-11. This young Quaker calls him out on the willful blindness:
https://gregnjenn.wordpress.com/tag/smedley-butler/
But if Simon were to pull a Sharyl Attkisson, and choose Truth over Comfort, well, he’d likely lose the com$fort. Maybe one day his conscience will get to him, as it did for Smedley Butler, and he’ll realize he’s become a cheerful servant of brutality. Takes a lot of courage to face that truth.
Thanks much, Lee, for your insight.
For your integrity and dedication to sharing truths with the world, I thank you. Keep going, keep doing it, and keep telling everyone when the Corporatocracy tries to hamstring you.
Redacted Tinight / Lee Camp hosts an excellent show with informative analysis on a wide variety of issues. It’s comic parody on serious news issues but in these times we have to be able to laugh at the train wreck of what we’re witnessing. Keep up the good work and informative videos.
Mindless consumerism is what is wrong with this country. To see what America could be like if we were all educated, cultured, and with a thirst for knowledge, you listen to NPR. It is for those who take the red pill and wake up in reality, except that red pill was a fake and you’re still in a simulation. NPR doesn’t even attempt to show you how deep the rabbit hole goes. They might hint at the existence of rabbits and at the existence of holes, but go to great pains to distract the listeners that there is a connection between the two.
Classic ‘flak’ towards a ‘common enemy’ – constructed by the minds of idiots.
Good for you Lee Camp! Any “news organization” that can vilify a talented young Left Comedian, but refuses to do a live-interview with him deserves to have their funding cut! Why should we stick our neck out for Anti-Communist Torture Supporters to collect fat pay checks and propogandize the public against their own fucking interests? I’d just love to hear a Reason-Based, Evidence-Based explanation of that one. Maybe PBS and NPR “ought” to be what they used to be, but I’m gonna be an “adulting realist” here and say they aren’t and they won’t be. We need independent media like RT and the Real News, and numerous other outlets to fill the void they have left behind. I for one do not want to listen to Craven Moraless Liberals Lob Softball questions at Louisiana White Supremacists ever again:
FUCK YOU ALL!!! Keep up the good work at Redacted Tonight (please tow the Communist Line as much as possible, it’s the best out there) and tell Jimmy and his Co-Hosts I said hi, and to get their asses off that mess of a network ASAP and onto RT where they will be given full editorial control to support the Green Party as much as they please!
RT is causing panic in many circles especially NPR especially after they found out how their the preferred TV news outlet of their listeners was RT. Yes, NPR is now the overt hand maiden of the new US elites…techies and such, towing the US information service (an oxymoron) line in a hip way, sorry to say, after decades of listening to NPR>. They don”t want to learn about what makes RT successful in terms of veracity and simple presentation they want to trash and diminish those who are making RT succeed and show them to be evil geniuses. Yes, pre Iraq days of NPR are long gone and it is the same old garbage presented in hip style and smart ass formats.
In regards to my last comment. I’m not at all supporting what NPR said,
they’re the same centrist type media source.
But the point is, what RT is all about, what they’re pretending to be,and what they actually are.
Camp made some good points as how media twists what is said, or slightly says something to go into one’s subconscious.
This is all true. And libertarian media is great at that.
They’ve been telling everyone about how media works, and hitting on mainstream media, the problem is they leave themselves out of it.
They say don’t trust news, don’t trust mainstream media, but trust us.
They’re playing quite the psychological mind game.
I’m not sure exactly when it was that I realized NPR had become just another propaganda outlet for the plutocracy (albeit a more subtle, more restrained, and more urbane one). It was probably a boiling-frog kind of process. (According to what I’ve read, frogs actually *do* jump out of the pot when the water gets too hot. Hopefully that’s true for Americans as well, even when the people cranking up the heat are yelling at them — or in the case of NPR, calmly reassuring them — that the water’s just fine.)
Supercilious hit pieces in the likes of the New York Times and NPR are a sign you’re having a disruptive impact. You should wear them as badges of honor. The next step in attempting to discredit you will be to feed you an irresistible but demonstrably false story and hope you run with it, as Dan Rather was suckered into doing at 60 Minutes. Keep on your toes for that.
I’m really glad I happened upon Redacted Tonight before Google started downranking dissident news and opinion as “fake or unreliable news” in its search results, and I’m doing my best to let other people know about it in my own small way. Keep up the good work!
Lee. Would you support a New Independent working Class Party? BGWJ.
Lee, all I can say is Illegitimi non carborundum
Your show and your (and your colleagues) thoughtful and insightful reporting on the current state of affairs are priceless. Literally, beyond price. We need all of this we can possibly get in the U.S.A. and it is being taken away from us by the corporate state at every chance they get. I am a 76 year old Vietnam era veteran and a participant of Woodstock and the counter-culture, so I guess that makes my opinion worthless in many people’s (NPR listener’s ears)… but I care for my country and it’s future (and the future of my grandchildren)! The main fact that Scott Simon and NPR and the NY Times totally overlooked in their reporting is that you care so deeply about our country that you are willing to go out on a limb every week to defend our democracy and point out where we have gone wrong and how we can improve. We need so many more people who are willing to be as passionate as you are about our freedom and our democracy.
Keep on Fighting!
Love ya.
Just keep doing what you’re doing Lee! The #CorporateMediaShitheels will do anything for publicity. This was a desperate attempt to boost their ratings. I can’t even listen or watch any of them! TheI propagandist bullshit is just so fucking lame!
Those who listen to you know who you are and where you’re coming from. We know who they are too. There will be those that listen to them. But out of curiosity they’ll tune in to hear you. And they’ll hear the truth of what you say because it cannot be denied. Those that need to hear you – will. As long as you keep speaking out.
They are fucking scared of you and your ilk, Lee. You should proudly wear those two hit pieces as badges.
Just watched your end of year show, and heard your comment about NPR. So I read the NPR transcript, and then your response.
BBC was once independent, and reported the news, not the official government line. No more. ‘The government had purchased the safest possible cladding for Grenfell Tower, so they can’t be blamed.’ Ditto NPR. Strictly the official US government line.
As NPR pointed out, only RT was declared a foreign propaganda channel, no other channel. Strange. Why not Press TV? (Because the Powers that Be haven’t noticed Press TV?)
The official version is that Obama said Trump colluded with Putin to pilfer the election from St Hillary, and Obama cannot tell a lie, so Obama’s having said it is irrefutable proof that it’s true. And in January, 17 Obama appointees said they had proof, but it’s classified TS/SCI/BBR, so don’t ask. What more proof does anyone need? (Most Americans accept this, since the press all tell them that they must.)
Anyway, great show, great rebuttal, and I hope more people see both.
Lee, how come my comment didn’t make it past moderation. I was trying to show my admiration, and was only joking about fighting you for Elanor. it was only a joke and an expression of support.
One day, these maggots will pay dearly for smearing you and other voices of truth. We love you Lee. Keep your head up and your “bobbed hair and hipster beard” down! 😉 😉
Lee, like you I grew up listening to NPR including Scott Slime-on. I stopped listening years ago when they stopped saying anything relevant but I am glad you drew attention to the trash “journalism” they are now putting out. Keep up the the good fight- I watch your show every week.
Well Lee, you probably don’t remember but I told you this would happen. I knew they would try to discredit you. So keep it up. I will see you next time I am in town. Have a nice drunken Xmas.
Dr. Jim in Vegas
PS when did you get the .com url? My favorite Korean porn site is gone? Wtf?!
If you only had 30,000 people paying attention, the big knob suckers/ bootheal lickers wouldn’t be swatting at you as if a dirty fly. It would be funny but it’s to sad and scary to make me laugh. Keep it up. They are scared of you. As has been said above more than once; it will get worse. They are trying to cling to status quo.
Thank you, Patti!!
I don’t want to oversimplify, but it does seem there’s been a shift in how the U.S. establishment is trying to manage dissent.
After a few decades of simply ignoring non-conforming voices, hegemonic opinion seems to be returning to the post-WWII/1950s mode of active attack and repression.
Of course, it’s always been necessary to take the knives out from time to time – as for Gary Webb – but a phase change seems to be underway. Even if this proves to be a positive sign, it may get pretty ugly.
LEE CAMP DO NOT LET THEM BRING YOU DOWN. The work you do is amazing and without your show I’d be clueless. Like you always say, keep fighting
You’ve done a few shows this season that were SO excellent, they deserved Emmy nominations! Opening monologues that were so well crafted, so spot on and so absolutely hilarious, I watched them again and and again! – you really are the best weekly comedy show on YouTube! I always look forward to FRIDAYS and Redacted Tonight! Thanks Lee so much. Merry Solstice and Happy New Year!
CONGRATULATIONS ON A JOB WELL DONE
If the establishment is so scared of you that they attack in both the NYT (which also dissed Bernie in shorting his election coverage) and National Propaganda Radio, the preminent fake liberal media, then i must issue you hearty congratulations on a job well done.
People are listening, most especially activists, the people who might actually create change. Keep up the great work.
Lee Camp for President
I didn’t block you. But I’ll try to look into unblocking you.
Both attacks from NPR and NYT indicate that you’re doing something right and getting your message out to enough folks, causing concern for the powers-to-be. Tells me your message is resonating with the masses and your voice will continue to be heard, independent of what the media mongrels do. Would love to see a Redacted t-shirt in your merchandise line…one more way to share the outrage at what we-the-people are experiencing daily.
Redacted Tonight is also shown in the UK, and is a must see, far better than ‘Have I Got News For You’.
Wouldn’t have expected such an article on NPR, but it seems even they can’t handle a progressive truthteller … also reminds me of a Jimmy Dore quote: when you find someone who’s liberal, yet you’re more left-leaning than them and you’re also correct ~ they hate that … https://i.imgflip.com/1ecieu.jpg
PS, to Lee Camp, if you see this post, please unblock me on Facebook.
News we get is what sells. It’s not real it’s fiction. They sell it. Use that attention and make your name bigger.
This article was excellent. I knew something was fishy when NPR mindlessly repeated the lie that there was violence at the Nevada Democratic Primary last year without any mention of the corruption the DNC was caught doing. Good to know I’m not the only one who noticed NPR became another propaganda outlet for the establishment.
You are so relevant, I post your vids to facebook all the time – people who don’t watch it are usually people who are intolerant of being yelled at – something I personally don’t mind, but I do wish you could speak in a way that broadens your audience appeal because what you are saying is really important from politics to consumerism to just calling out lies. I love it all.
And then there is the latest from NBC News: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/why-are-senate-russia-investigators-interested-jill-stein-n831261
must admit i seldom watch your program.
think i’ll be watching it in future.
The very first line of the NPR show is…
“Russian programming is no longer breathless proclamations about tractor production or accolades to the Kremlin.” Well first of all your show is an American show starring Americans and secondly Russian programming inside Russia ) looks like this episode of the URGANT SHOW from 19th Dec https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sml8qkG8Z20 .
Someone needs to tell NPR the Soviet Union ended when I was 27 years younger than I am now.
You’ve scared them. Simple as that. The powers that be are terrified of of a “Western Spring” where like in early 90’s Eastern Europe enough people woke up one morning and thought “I’ve had enough of this sh*t!” The 1% have run the numbers, they know they have to get the 99% under tight control before we take our stuff back. They will do everything to clamp down on dissent.
As mentioned above, it’s going to get a lot lot worse! However, we are many.
If you look up Scott Simon on Wikipedia, you learn nothing about what he was up to from around 1968 until 1977 when he started with NPR.
Seeing myself as a friend [although in turn I’m “provably”? seen as a black fan? or worse or lesser?], I’m responding to your article at 4:30 a.m. till longer and I want.. partly venting but all in the hopes of giving you perspective others will not – which I hope in some way helps you – particularly in combating systemic sensory of your point of view – particularly those which might tend to threaten to undermine corporate government propaganda..
I’m recalling how Lee Atwater and Nixon Administration did the smear campaign on anti-war folks and dark-skinned Americans (politely? Normalized .. ) smeared as African American or blacks – whereby millions of people were associated with crime and drugs night after night on The news as part of government policy – not just one or two articles.. I used to post a quote on Facebook before I ran into online racist harassment.. reported it.. and was censored by Facebook while the racist using a clown face not his real image was allowed to continue and I was forced to block him rather than Facebook deeming his activity as against “Community standards” – which if honest is judeo-christian white male supremacist standards.. also you did a show on the [i think] Lee Atwater quote:
” we knew we couldn’t make it illegal to be either against the war or black, but by getting the public two associate the hippies with marijuana and blacks with Heroin. And then criminalizing both heavily , we could disrupt those communities. We could arrest their leaders , raid their homes, break up their meetings, and vilify them night after night on the evening news. Did we know we were lying about the drugs? Of course we did.”
Point being that it’s not that it’s not simply Scott Simon or Julia Lofee [whatever] or even NPR for that matter directing a campaign of propaganda against redacted tonight & you – I’m pretty sure it’s built into American government defense industry intelligence industry corporate policy.. (30000 views was probably the threshold needed to gain their attention against you – a way to insult your ego yet congratulate you for gaining their attention lol – it’s like that old saying ‘that’s too much power for one negro to have’ sort of thing…)
So now on to or back to the venting..
(and hoping you see parallels that are helpful and or positive in a good way – I hope nothing is misconstrued or misunderstood – although clearly the communications of the ideas will be awkward and likely not expressed as clearly as one might using English..)
Comparing not equating – but somehow I’m taking part of what you were saying in your article to express how I might have defended myself differently from the “ban” (since I think I was more shocked at that response especially with regard to invoking police and The Coincidence of the me-too campaign and the overall anti-black culture throughout Society especially in so-called White family and real socio-economic political friends..):
Create a subconscious association to ‘black sexual behavior’ – that kind of behavior that is “unacceptable”? (attending a show open to the public where no one is at the door collecting money or tickets and no one is asking for tickets inside [in fact someone unlock the door for me and Lead Me Up stairs to the show without saying a word to me..- although I believe the carpet was red it did not appear to be rolled out but it was inviting], seeing the show, then choosing the cheapest transportation available to go home but running into one of the performers, daring to speak to them and inform them of what happened and even offering to remedy the economic misunderstanding but having no control over the social and political implications of what was done by attending and not actively seeking out someone to pay on the premises prior to being free to leave and go home by subway.. [that is not a Maserati chasing stranger down Mulholland Drive..{movie reference: white folks run into each other all the time and white men are always depicted as following white women to their homes even and it being looked at as a coincidence or protective measure or non threatening even romantic incident -not as stalking.. unless the movie is meant and framed in the beginning as some sort of thriller or horror..}])
So that encouraged romantic interest becomes old black man stalking..stealing comedy – owing money for where he’s been and explanation for activities – essentially having been placed in the false light long before he went anywhere or did anything..
Which is similar to your situation here – you are marginalized in the first place – you attracted the attention of Fox News but when you spoke truth to them in an Artful way displaying comedy and opinion except there Community standards didn’t allow for that and you were banned not only from Fox but apparently All American News outlets and Corporation funding.. so silently everybody [who is anybody who could welcome your point of view on American media Outlets] betrays you or implies that you did something wrong – that threatens Fox News or its audience or America herself – certainly the social order – white corporate male Supremacy – even over news propaganda and facts or what is fake or not..
Anyway.. trying to get back on track but not know where I’m going but want to end this rambling. . Free flow..
We are all sick tired and wasted..
And the things you talk about are the things we are sick and tired about.. but the government and corporations don’t want us to be sick and tired they want us to conform to their community standards…
And now they’re going to try to get you or redacted tonight wasted – on their Drip Drop demonize villainize marginalize defund sensor and defame campaign.. kind of like they did the so-called blacks under Lee Atwater Richard Nixon POTUS Congress and scotus plus the media since throughout the time even before they started inviting blacks in on big ships..
Guess I should throw an LOL in there ..I mean I did chuckle
So NPR is taking the news from behind.. but their sponsors are telling them that that’s not appropriate behavior lol¿ and the internet has to be taken over more controlled by wealthy white corporate male American order – using all of its government and corporate intelligence apparatus and knowledge how to put facts in a false light to win the hearts and Minds necessary to keep their Enterprise going..- we are like the old lady who’s scarf got caught under the large Stone being pushed Along by slaves to build the Pyramid – except Moses is not going to order the slaves to stop in order to save her from being crushed.. because America I mean Moses is bought off by corporate interests that do not want to lose money or time to have that white male supremacist Corporation I mean Pyramid built..
If any of that make sense..
But whatever Rebel is left in Americans who hear that hit piece on you might make those Americans tune in to redacted tonight rather than shy away from it..
You should watch it sometimes – the guy’s pretty inspiring – uplifting like a quickie❤?- somehow galvanizing you to keep fighting!
Well now I have to watch your show.
Must say l’m shocked. Don’t think I’ve ever heard them do a piece like that.
And yes it’s still my go to driving station. And not happy they cunt seem to cover the #DNCFraudLawsuit that I was sure Amy Goodman was going to cover…
Oops. I digress. Its not a tweet. But sounds like you might need to do a Prairy Home Companion gig for kicks on one of your next shows… Knockm down one at a time!
Lee this is a wonderful perceptive article. Saw you at Left Forum a few years ago and you were funny and perceptive.
Thank you Lee. You give us a voice. We will back you all the way.
Lee, thank you for being amazing and seeking the truth at all obstacles. As a journalist, fresh out of college, it makes me a little more hopeful when people like you stand up for truth and what you believe in. I will crusade for you and your show until the end, and make sure to let everyone know how absolutely fucked NPR is.
Remember that NPR is a propaganda machine based on psychological tricks. Step 1 through 11 is a summary of the tricks used by NPR. They are experts in 1) manipulation, 2) demonization, and 3) exaltation. These the three basic elements of a news brief. First, you manipulate the information, then you demonize your enemy and then your exalt your master. This is done all the time for the Palestinians. Now it is time to do it for the Americans until we all become good Germans 1933.
Good stuff!
Stupid fucking fingers…
In this time of public policy bereft of vision and compassion, a land of locked doors and undercover ICE agents, and a system of regressive tax policy and callous exploitation, I can think of no title* to be more proud of than “Public Enemy”.
Keep fighting the good fight. A single comedy troupe trying to get a fire going in a dark, oxygen less cave using a lighter and a copy of the NY Times Style section is worth more than a thousand “journalists” trying to make money by capturing and sequestering the evermore powerful topics of wealth, government, and our obligation to each other.
I’m not going to repeat Gandhi here for probably the thousandth time you’ve heard the quote, but the effect of what you are doing is directly proportional to the amount of vacant vitriol and logical fallacies they throw at you trying to get something to stick. You should be very proud of what you have done and hopefully will continue to do in the future.
In this time of public policy bereft of vision and compassion, a land of locked doors and undercover ICE agents, and a system of regressive tax policy and callous exploitation, I can think of no time to be more proud of than “Public Enemy”.
Keep fighting, as this will only get worse.