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In reply to the discussion: Diane Rehm Presses Sanders On Whether He’s US-Israel Dual Citizen [View all]MADem
(135,425 posts)125. Combative, much?
I am not endorsing, excusing or excoriating her actions. I barely am aware of this woman. I have heard her program a few times.
I realize she has a chronic condition that makes her voice shake and change timbre, I'd know if I was a regular listener. To be frank, if the interview isn't compelling, I'm changing the station, as that timbre isn't easy on the ears. If I hear her at all on my own accord, I'm in the car. If I hear her in a home setting, it's at the house of a family member who has NPR on around the clock.
I'm looking at the simple facts here and this is what I come up with:
--She is an older woman. Is she internet-savvy? Did she retrieve that material herself, or was it handled to her? If it was handled to her, who did that? Could she have been "Dan Rathered" ahead of the general election, to silence one of the few remaining liberal voices at NPR?
--She is a Arab Christian whose parents emigrated from non-Arab Turkey (what brought them to Turkey, I wonder?). Does she labor under ancestral biases that inform her perspective? What are those biases, if they exist? Were her ancestor Arab tenants in Palestine under an Ottoman landlord, for example? That could be a basis for formation of a point of view.
--She has apologized, used the S word (sorry) and said that she made a mistake. She did that quickly, too, no shilly shallying or trying to suggest she was misinterpreted. Is that enough, or should she apologize to every American of Jewish heritage? Was she confusing Right of Return laws under the Israeli constitution with actively-sought out dual citizenship, or was she being deliberate, and will she explain how she came to pursue this line of inquiry with Senator Sanders?
That's where I'm at. I'm not here to bury her, or to praise her. My pitchforks are staying in the barn for now, and I'm not lighting any torches either. I need more details as to what she was thinking, and how she came to think this angle was productive. The GOP are very good at getting their enemies to eat their own, and I'm not going to rush to judgment yet.
One thing that this incident does highlight is the reaction that people will naturally have when it's THEIR ox being gored. I've noticed, often, too, on this board and elsewhere how people with objections are told
--How they are supposed to feel, how they are supposed to think, and why their reactions are "wrong" or unfounded, or
--What the person saying the offensive comments/doing the offensive things actually MEANT, as though one's eyes or ears were somehow deceiving them.
I'm not in that club. That shit is a two-way street, too, so people who are concerned about this matter should take pains to keep their "empathy" caps close to hand when they see others upset about perceived slurs on the basis of gender, orientation or race. Very recently I have observed some people with hair on fire over this perceived insult who played the "Get over it" card when snarky remarks were made about Caitlyn nee Bruce Jenner, and when a crude spoonerism was lobbed at SOS Clinton. We all need to walk a kilometer (hat tip to Linc Chaffee) in our neighbors' flip-flops every now and again.
Sooooooo. ... No rush to judgment--we've got plenty of time to figure this out.
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Who work for the Koch Bros. They are spending big money to try to stop Bernie. She's just doing her
sabrina 1
Jun 2015
#67
On occasions I am surprised to see Koch brothers sponsor a program on PBS
question everything
Jun 2015
#138
A person is an anti-Semite for asking a public official if they're a dual citizen of Israel?
truth2power
Jun 2015
#5
That you do not see anything wrong with your post is really sad (nt)
question everything
Jun 2015
#139
yep. The "dual citizen" stuff is very popular with the extreme conspiracy theory crowd.
geek tragedy
Jun 2015
#21
That may give her a pass she does not deserve..she has been in the business a long time.
Jefferson23
Jun 2015
#28
Right now I am not buying the internet gaffe. She is a seasoned professional and it is too
Jefferson23
Jun 2015
#94
diane channels mcarthy “I have here in my hand a list of 205 [State Department employees] that ..
Romeo.lima333
Jun 2015
#15
I guess if she screamed "dirty Jew, dirty Jew" she'd be fired, but this was code for that.
NightWatcher
Jun 2015
#18
Ms. Rehm needs to apologize for asking such an ugly and libelous question./NT
DemocratSinceBirth
Jun 2015
#25
Sen. Joe McCarthy: "I have in my hands a list of card-carrying communists in the State Dept.
Divernan
Jun 2015
#55
Glad to see people rejecting this nonsense, but the dual loyalty canard is routinely employed here
tritsofme
Jun 2015
#63
The Koch Brothers keeping their promise to take him down. NPR receives funding from the Kochs now
sabrina 1
Jun 2015
#64
Haven't been keeping up with the Kochs, but we have. Nothing surprising at all about them doing
sabrina 1
Jun 2015
#74
See my OP for details on what is being offered as the official reason for why she did this:
sabrina 1
Jun 2015
#102
It certainly had nothing to do with the TRUTH. So someone was trying to smear him
sabrina 1
Jun 2015
#107
the Kochs are more likely more anti-Hillary than anti-Bernie, because they think Hillary...
CreekDog
Jun 2015
#95