tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post8850801865076908206..comments2024-03-28T10:16:44.231-07:00Comments on Cliff Mass Weather Blog: KNKX Leader Resigns as the Radio Station Turns to Political AdvocacyCliff Mass Weather Bloghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comBlogger30125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-1944878825377610872021-06-17T01:17:55.689-07:002021-06-17T01:17:55.689-07:00I do think that Cliff does a service with his anal...I do think that Cliff does a service with his analysis. I may not listen to that station, but I am very concerned with how well-meaning people can do harm to rational analysis of our situation. "You are either with us or against us" reasoning has been biasing the public discussion of our climate crisis, something Cliff and I care a lot about. There are now people who will claim that black is really white, just because their political leaders say so.<br /><br />William H Calvinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04258852352882274448noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-90383755885969791962021-06-03T14:01:29.297-07:002021-06-03T14:01:29.297-07:00The "historic claim to land" argument do...The "historic claim to land" argument doesn't wash with me, but for a very different reason than typically discussed.<br /><br />The historic reality is that everyone lives on stolen land, with the only questions being when it was stolen and how many times it was stolen. Anyone who bothers to crack a history book knows it. <br /><br />Modern Israel is a zionist construction that never would've gotten too far off the ground but for the Holocaust. The "progressives" can wring their hands, which would be more convincing if they'd give the Puget Sound back to the natives and clear out. "Who, us? But we're Good!"<br /><br />Modern Israel is a fact of life. Seattle's "progressives" want Israel wiped out. Israel disagrees. NPR also wants Israel destroyed, and Israel disagrees. Placeholderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02967627809480888708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-52956696086317234732021-06-03T07:01:59.808-07:002021-06-03T07:01:59.808-07:00You are missing my point. She is a member of the ...You are missing my point. She is a member of the news staff of an NPR station and they have clear ethics guidelines about social media. Don't tweet about matters and subjects that might be part of the news. That was the problem. She is news staff and was repeatedly tweeting about the middle-east conflict from one point of view.Cliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-6806882380115237842021-06-02T22:45:03.025-07:002021-06-02T22:45:03.025-07:00Ironically, if you read some history and objective...Ironically, if you read some history and objective news like Cliff suggests, you’ll be better equipped to determine who is the “victim” and the “aggressor”... and it turns out both Israelis and Palestinians are victims! History is nothing if not a cycle of violence.<br /><br />The future is more flexible. But it seems that Israel can’t decide what it wants - surely not a one-state democracy - but whether to commit to a two-state solution, or to try pulling off a one-state solution that denies full citizenship to West Bank Palestinians. Maybe Hamas wants Israel to choose the latter, and uses its rockets as tools of persuasion.John Angulohttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14832968010848481031noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-77862661164835764542021-06-02T21:36:34.785-07:002021-06-02T21:36:34.785-07:00Unknown.... I hate to say this...but you are not w...Unknown.... I hate to say this...but you are not well informed about Israel and the conflict. Hamas are the killers, not Israel. Hamas sent thousands of missiles towards populated areas of Israel to kill and maim. You are blaming the victim not the aggressor. Anyway, you need to read some history....cliffCliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-77985098030235456332021-06-02T21:32:19.609-07:002021-06-02T21:32:19.609-07:00Lucas...I appreciate your comments. Keep in mind ...Lucas...I appreciate your comments. Keep in mind that the Jewish people are the indigenous people in this situation. They have been attached and displaced several times over the past several thousand years from groups including the Romans to the Arab conquerors hundreds of years later. Israel would have been content to stay within the 1948 UN boundaries, but the Arab armies invaded anyway. Israel tried an experiment is giving up Gaza. You see how well that went...cliffCliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-79420104513550794622021-06-02T19:01:04.077-07:002021-06-02T19:01:04.077-07:00That station is like anything else. Approval/disap...That station is like anything else. Approval/disapproval is best expressed with your wallet/feet. In other words, if their message is an issue, don't tune in or donate. <br /><br />EVERYTHING is biased and politicized now and the public seek out echo chambers for affirmation of their already solidified, unwavering beliefs. Certainly not for information or to learn anything new. The USA is simply not interested, thus media outlets are what they are. BAMCIShttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05285865892838328830noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-49061408407451771912021-06-02T18:49:30.006-07:002021-06-02T18:49:30.006-07:00Cliff, I empathize with the Jewish people as I do ...Cliff, I empathize with the Jewish people as I do with all indigenous people around the world who have lost their homelands due to invading hoards, genocide, and persecution. (The Native Americans come to mind. I actually support many of their land claims. But returning territory to all these groups surely would displace many other people now. While I support Israel's right to exist, I also understand the grievances of the Palestinians.Lucas Flandershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06416847474915558548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-67724861255273649672021-06-02T17:26:24.980-07:002021-06-02T17:26:24.980-07:00When I was a professional journalist, it was verbo...When I was a professional journalist, it was verboten to engage in political activism, regardless of the direction, and NPR's rules say so, although like most partisans, they will enforce it against only those who don't live up to their "progressive" requirements.Placeholderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02967627809480888708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-44411275383443795972021-06-02T13:50:02.402-07:002021-06-02T13:50:02.402-07:00I was a professional journalist for 11 years. My f...I was a professional journalist for 11 years. My father was a reporter in the 1950s. I was editor of my high school paper, and worked on the college paper while freelancing to a ouple of general circulation dailies. Educated at two of the country's top journalism schools in the 1970s, and went on to work for three daily newspapers. Having been raised with printer's ink in my veeins and then toiling in the salt mines for quite a while, I know what I'm talking about.<br /><br />To be crytal clear: The media have always been a mixed bag. To quote one of my editors, "Ours is the product of daily dissatifaction." Anyone who's been in that business has cringed at this or that story they wrote, kicking themselves for the flaws. I sure as hell know I did. Even worse were the times when I had to write a correction. I took those very seriously, no matter how trivial. They were my failures, and I didn't like to fail.<br /><br />That said, the standards of the profession did hold a great deal in check. Those basic standards no longer exist, and everyone is poorer for that. And then the Media Worthies wring their hands over the growing lack of trust in their output? Give me a break!<br /><br />Who do they think they're fooling? It's not only the one radio station. I look across the media landscape, and sometimes wonder if they have a figurative death wish. Credibility is at the heart of "the news," and it rests on a commitment to facts, the use of logic, and the pursuit of objectivity. Abandon those, and collapse WILL follow.<br /><br />The media increasingly are nothing more than websites, shoving out opinion to like-minded readers and viewers. We'll survive the demise of some NPR station, but the demise of all four broadcast networks, all of the cable channels, the major national print operations (AP, NYT, WaPo, Bloomberg, Reuters) is another matter, not to mention the ongoing tailspin at what's left of general circulation newspapers.<br /><br />If you think it hurts now, just wait. It's going to get much, much worse. An old song captures it well.<br /><br />https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2595abcvh2MPlaceholderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02967627809480888708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-45150895662933723862021-06-02T13:47:27.752-07:002021-06-02T13:47:27.752-07:00The reason NPR is more left-wing in today's wo...The reason NPR is more left-wing in today's world is because guess what, it's better to take the side of the people who are being killed than the killers! People deserve to live! Please, it doesn't matter if NPR is supposed to be "politically neutral" or whatever, while people are dying because Israel is killing them! And before you say Palestine is too, Israel is killing far more, to the point the UN called it an APARTHEID. Yes indeed the UN said that, look it up if you don't believe me. So I wonder who's just doing self defense and who's the bad guy here.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00727965100661212298noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-30739922050408495932021-06-02T13:18:47.016-07:002021-06-02T13:18:47.016-07:00Full speed ahead, Cliff! I don't agree with yo...Full speed ahead, Cliff! I don't agree with you about some things (mainly global warming) but I have a huge degree of respect for your scholarship, integrity, and courage in the face of outrageous attacks by Seattle's racist, violent "progressives."<br /><br />Thank God you have tenure! You certainly put yourself on the Seattle Times's enemies list by single-handedly destroying their dream of winning a Pulitzer for that phony series about ocean acidification and Puget Sound's oyster beds. <br /><br />Iron Law: You can always tell a Seattle "progressive," but you can never tell a Seattle "progressive" a single thing. They think they know it all.Placeholderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02967627809480888708noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-12854900099265141102021-06-02T13:17:47.977-07:002021-06-02T13:17:47.977-07:00Going up from KNKX to NPR at a national (network) ...Going up from KNKX to NPR at a national (network) level, it has always had a liberal skew, and as a left-of-center moderate, I was fine with that. But in recent months, NPR as a whole has "gone woke" and I find myself listening less and less.<br /><br />For example there has recently been a ridiculous virtue-signaling over-representation of guests and story subjects from "marginalized communities"; a recent specific case is that in 2 out of 3 consecutive weeks in May, the featured guests on the comedy program "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" were trans individuals ("Symone" on May 8 and Jenny Finney Boylan on May 22). Is including persons of unconventional sexual identification and expression on programs a valid aspiration? Sure, but in proportion to their share of the population, which surely does not mean 2 weeks in 3.Kwa829https://www.blogger.com/profile/14726893384023790637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-31186952511916074012021-06-02T10:27:26.122-07:002021-06-02T10:27:26.122-07:00Thanks for this a very detailed account. I like K...Thanks for this a very detailed account. I like KNKX because I like jazz but I do think local reporting is necessary, and KNKX staff should not be tweeting their own political opinions. Just a minor comment here, I thought the statement you said called for the end of Israel appeared to call for the end of Israel as a Jewish state, which is different. It's hard to say exactly what the writer was thinking and I wouldn't want to speculate.<br /><br />Your blog post from last summer comparing what happened last year in downtown Seattle to Kristallnact makes sense as an analogy, but it seemed KNKX took it literally. While you were treading tricky territory there, I'm really sorry they took your weekly weather spot off the air. They should not have done that.Amateur Urbanisthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17931543312011917453noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-5271201904954492082021-06-02T10:05:00.349-07:002021-06-02T10:05:00.349-07:00I believe KNKX was wrong to fire you over your pos...I believe KNKX was wrong to fire you over your post about the CHOP district. It showed they favor a specific viewpoint, and punished you for yours.<br />But you have done the same with your criticism of Lilly Ann Fowler. Her post showed news items, such as the fact that Ikea published an all male catalog to appease religious fanatics, She was reporting something I didn't know - the very definition of news, and you want to punish her for reporting news you personally don't favor.willforestwaterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11773791970488581196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-20391725017855180202021-06-02T07:36:10.380-07:002021-06-02T07:36:10.380-07:00Alex.... there are substantial values judgements i...Alex.... there are substantial values judgements in the several tweets she has made..... most negative about Israel. This is entirely inappropriate for NPR news staff, and contrary to the NPR ethics guidance....that is my point..cliffCliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-90780528527579455262021-06-02T07:33:10.098-07:002021-06-02T07:33:10.098-07:00Branden....this is not being hyperbolic. My point...Branden....this is not being hyperbolic. My point is that calling for Israel to be ended and replaced by a unitary country is a HIGHLY political stance, inconsistent with NPR ethics guidance and inappropriate for NPR news staff to be tweeting....cmCliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-78205385053724833872021-06-02T07:30:35.270-07:002021-06-02T07:30:35.270-07:00Fleetwood, the point you are neglecting is that NP...Fleetwood, the point you are neglecting is that NPR news staff should not be tweeting about political matters. It is against the NPR ethics requirements. Regarding old scores, clearly I believe KNKX has gone off the rails and has been politicized. My blog was not an analysis of the Israel/Palestinian situation. But I did note that calling for a unitary state is a HIGHLY political statement...and not appropriate for NPR news staff to be tweeting.Cliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-38957833133325190632021-06-02T07:26:06.210-07:002021-06-02T07:26:06.210-07:00What you say is quite wrong. Israel is NOT an apa...What you say is quite wrong. Israel is NOT an apartheid state. It is the Jewish homeland. Its roots go back thousands of years. The UN created modern Isreal and there has been attempt after attempt to destroy it. <br /><br />Regarding my blog. I have always used about 1/10 of my blogs to discuss other matters. This is my personal means of expression. If you just want to read weather-related blogs skip the ones that don't interest you. KNKX is not a personal blog. It is a PUBLIC RADIO STATION with a news operation that is supposed to be objective. VERY DIFFERENT.Cliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-72838369965493458452021-06-02T07:20:25.496-07:002021-06-02T07:20:25.496-07:00Rob.... not hyperbole at all. Being pro-Palestini...Rob.... not hyperbole at all. Being pro-Palestinian is NOT being anti-semitic. Yes, both groups have the right to peace. But a one state solution is certainly the end of Israel as a Jewish homeland. Period. And the key point you are missing is that NPR News staff should NOT be making political tweets. Against NPR ethics rules. That is my point.Cliff Mass Weather Bloghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13948649423540350788noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-45666294200129677232021-06-02T07:18:20.967-07:002021-06-02T07:18:20.967-07:00It seems like Mr Martinez is viewing diversity as ...It seems like Mr Martinez is viewing diversity as to not include whites. This is wrong. Any movement toward diversity must include whites. Anything else is racism. He is advantageously using this current movement toward equality for a leg up and a hand out. The problem is he, among with many others, is more intent on settling scores and excluding and demonizing an entire race to swing the pendulum the other way, rather then actually seeking true diversity which is done through equality of opportunity. Scott8https://www.blogger.com/profile/11336860679244375664noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-45419967821706630622021-06-02T07:00:43.959-07:002021-06-02T07:00:43.959-07:00Equating seeking a one-state solution with "e...Equating seeking a one-state solution with "ending Israel" is hyperbole. A pro-Palestinian view is not by definition anti-semitic. Both Israelis and Palestinians have a right to live in peace. Stick to the weather, Cliff. Rob Tallonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00153520447076020789noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-62566137257356773862021-06-01T17:35:09.181-07:002021-06-01T17:35:09.181-07:00Cliff: KNKX chooses to wade into politics as do yo...Cliff: KNKX chooses to wade into politics as do you in your wonderful weather blog. Politics may detract from both. Regarding the Israeli and Palestinian situation, it is heartbreaking. I would actually like to see a total embargo of weapons to the Middle East. Demilitarize the region as much as possible. Instead, the US sells huge quantities of weapons to Israel, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt. This is great for the defense industry, but disastrous for the people of this region such as those in Yemen, as well as those in Gaza and Israel. <br /><br />The only way to get past the race/religion issue is to acknowledge the devastating impact prejudice is having both in the Middle East and here at home. You can't will it away. The fact that Israel has little choice but to exist as an apartheid state if it wants to exist at all is a sad commentary on the state of human affairs. Lucas Flandershttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06416847474915558548noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-46318368829823827282021-06-01T16:04:05.450-07:002021-06-01T16:04:05.450-07:00I;ve been one of your fans for years. But you may ...I;ve been one of your fans for years. But you may have gone too far. There is a difference between holding Israel accountable and calling 'for its end' as you say. That old trope must stop. Israel and Palestine got there together. Each has a part to play in any solution. Sometimes that means Israel must be held accountable too. Or even, heaven forbid, criticized! It's not hyper-political nor is it calling for the end of Israel. I found her comments very mild. <br /><br />It seems you're in this to settle some old scores? Maybe you should let go of all that? Fleetwoodhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02307265277969303479noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7478606652950905956.post-35762916289089360702021-06-01T15:47:06.096-07:002021-06-01T15:47:06.096-07:00What am I missing? The tweet about IKEA doesn'...What am I missing? The tweet about IKEA doesn't include any value judgements, it just factual reporting that IKEA issued an all-male catalog for the Orthodox community and that there was backlash. Reading that tweet I have no idea how Lilly Ana Fowler feels about the issue.AlexHhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08248399279657566781noreply@blogger.com