THAT CLOYING, CONDESCENDING FACULTY LOUNGE LANGUAGE.

We devoted one of the lead paragraphs of last Friday's short takes to the palace guard media dealing with the (unsurprising to Normals) report that National Public Radio is neither objective nor journalism.  The head of the organization promptly sang a hymn in perfect liberal music.  "[Chief propagandist Katherine] Maher responded to none of these specific points in substance. Instead, she attacks [whistleblower Uri] Berliner as 'profoundly disrespectful, hurtful, and demeaning' to his colleagues by calling out the company for its political bias."  Their own rhetoric provides plenty of opportunities to mock them, simply by using it.

Each generation, collegians have to rediscover the formula: consider the Dartmouth Review at which Laura Ingraham and Dinesh D'Souza broke into media. There was no Vietnam War to galvanize the left; there were plenty of excessively earnest professors and administrators well worth laughing to scorn.

The argument generalizes to other guilt-ridden sheep, perhaps sheep coerced by the Perpetually Aggrieved on campus, or perhaps at gun-point by the Sillies.

Jonathan Turley, an old-style liberal with a respect for the traditional forms, isn't impressed.

In dismissing the criticism of bias, Maher adopted a spin common on law faculties where Republicans and conservatives have been largely purged. When confronted on the lack of ideological diversity, faculty often express disbelief that anyone would assume that they are biased simply because they continue to effectively bar republicans, libertarians, or conservatives.

Many also insist that there are more important forms of diversity than ideological or political perspectives. The result is the faculties today largely stretch from the left to the far left in terms of diversity.

Yes, but best not crack wise about left-handed lesbians or two Jews and a cripple.

Shannon Thaler at the New York Post reassembled Maher’s deleted postings including a 2018 declaration that “Donald Trump is a racist” and a variety of race-based commentary. That included a statement that appeared to excuse looting.

She is also quoted for saying that “white silence is complicity.” She has described her own “hysteric white woman voice.” She further stated: “I was taught to do it. I’ve done it. It’s a disturbing recognition. While I don’t recall ever using it to deliberately expose another person to immediate physical harm on my own cognizance, it’s not impossible. That is whiteness.”

She further stated “I grew up feeling superior (hah, how white of me) because I was from New England and my part of the country didn’t have slaves, or so I’d been taught.”

In her latest message, Maher refers to the unique (and controversial) status of being a state-supported media outlet. She noted “We recognize that this work is a public trust, one established by Congress more than 50 years ago with the creation of the public broadcasting system. In order to hold that trust, we owe it our continued, rigorous accountability.”

Yet, she made it clear that both she and NPR will not change or alter the course of the company. Despite a falling audience (that is now composed of almost 70 percent self-identified liberals), Maher made clear that she sees no problem in its exclusion of Republicans as editors or its slanted coverage. Reducing the size and diversity of your audience can be a good thing for editors or reporters if you have the government supporting your budget. You can then play to your smaller audience without any push back on coverage or accuracy.In dismissing the criticism of bias, Maher adopted a spin common on law faculties where Republicans and conservatives have been largely purged. When confronted on the lack of ideological diversity, faculty often express disbelief that anyone would assume that they are biased simply because they continue to effectively bar republicans, libertarians, or conservatives.

Many also insist that there are more important forms of diversity than ideological or political perspectives. The result is the faculties today largely stretch from the left to the far left in terms of diversity.

Why ought all of us, the anarcho-syndicalist, Rotarian, or slacker alike, ought be paying taxes to be indoctrinated in things contrary to our individual interests?  The use of public money to support journalism or scholarship is still censorship per se.

And when you make a neurotic Karen, er, Katherine, the manager, good things will NOT follow.

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had "lost America's trust" by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner's five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner's essay for the online news site The Free Press. It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network's coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

An "internal review" sounds about as intellectually inspiring as a Brezhnev era Politburo meeting.  Never mind what Michael Martin says.

Morning Edition host Michel Martin told me some colleagues at the network share Berliner's concerns that coverage is frequently presented through an ideological or idealistic prism that can alienate listeners.

"The way to address that is through training and mentorship," says Martin, herself a veteran of nearly two decades at the network who has also reported for The Wall Street Journal and ABC News. "It's not by blowing the place up, by trashing your colleagues, in full view of people who don't really care about it anyway."

Several NPR journalists told me they are no longer willing to work with Berliner as they no longer have confidence that he will keep private their internal musings about stories as they work through coverage.

As if anybody is listening to soporific Michael Martin anyway.  Presumably David Folkenflik was hoping everybody had fallen asleep by the time he confirmed my suspicions about that Politburo meeting.

Late Monday afternoon, Chapin announced to the newsroom that Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez would lead monthly meetings to review coverage.

"Among the questions we'll ask of ourselves each month: Did we capture the diversity of this country — racial, ethnic, religious, economic, political geographic, etc — in all of its complexity and in a way that helped listeners and readers recognize themselves and their communities?" Chapin wrote in the memo. "Did we offer coverage that helped them understand — even if just a bit better — those neighbors with whom they share little in common?"

Berliner said he welcomed the announcement but would withhold judgment until those meetings played out.

Well, if their neighbors include left-handed lesbians playing left-handed nose flutes, yes.  But it fools nobody.  Power Line's Steven Hayward sums it up.  "NPR Goes Full Gulag."  With a platform item that ought be on the Libertarian and Republican platforms, with strong hopes that it be implemented.  "If Republicans in Congress can’t finally figure out a way of cutting off all federal funding for NPR none of them deserve to be re-elected."  Preferably before the bond traders drop the real debt ceiling on them.

The problem with faux journalism goes beyond public radio.

What’s troubling today is the new ideology that’s taken over newsrooms during the Trump years. Journalism is now focused more on political correctness and political point scoring than on traditional journalistic ethics like fairness, independence and truth-seeking. It enforces a rigid orthodoxy that promotes specific viewpoints while shutting out other voices that don’t stick to the approved narrative. In short, the news today tells its readers, viewers and listeners what to think.

The story is not yet over.  "From the looks of it doesn't appear that Uri Berliner is the type who's going to quiet down and just keep his head down to keep his job, so we'll see how things turn out on this. This is a story that it seems almost inevitable will keep chugging along."  We'll certainly call attention to further developments.