WDEL’s Alan Lowdel Parrots Right Wing Lies for Delaware Audiences
On today’s drive to work I heard WDEL’s Alan Lowdel say that “Everyone involved in the Libby obstruction of justice trial has been ‘tainted'” and that nobody got through the trial “unscathed”.
Huh???
I thought that it sounded like some naked RNC spin since clearly Patrick Fitzgerald won his case, Libby has been convicted of a serious crime, and the Cheney administration has been exposed for the treasonous bastards that they are.
I’ve gotten used to reading freshly minted right wing spin in ideological stink holes like this, but hearing such pure unvarnished spin on the radio (being passed off as legitimate news) was jarring. So I wondered where Lowdel picked up the talking points that the trial was a lose/lose proposition.
Then this morning I read this:
Mr. Wilson’s case has besmirched nearly everyone it touched. The former ambassador will be remembered as a blowhard. Mr. Cheney and Mr. Libby were overbearing in their zeal to rebut Mr. Wilson and careless in their handling of classified information. Mr. Libby’s subsequent false statements were reprehensible. And Mr. Fitzgerald has shown again why handing a Washington political case to a federal special prosecutor is a prescription for excess.
Hey Lowdel, you slimy RNC spin pimping lowlife, why not give the attribution if you want to parrot right wing talking points? It would help your audience to know that you are a hack and a shill posing as a journalist, rather than a real journalist.
Tags: Local Media Sucks!
Certainly the Office of the VP as well as the Washington DC press come out of this looking incredibly bad. Mr. Fitzgerald, however, seems to be the only winner here. Hope he is not getting a call from Mike Battle firing him because he is not prosecuting enough gun crimes.
This one of the few non-excessive special prosecutor exercise in my memory. He stayed very focused, was clear about the case he had and did not reach for more than he could get. Unlike the spectacular Whitewater boondoggle.
Too many “journalists” are too willing to cop an easy narrative from right wing talking points, and these guys wonder why the press is so distrusted these days.
Whoa! good work doctornick!
Perhaps then, we are to believe that Oedipa is at once an active detective who also is sluggish and reluctant. The novel certainly shows both those sides of her character, particularly toward the end when she begins to stop caring as the mystery deepens unendingly.
– The Crying of Lot 49 Study Guide
More “nobody got out unscathed” spin from the GOP.
You’re smoking crack if you think Loudell is a right winger; but you probably think that of everyone to the right of Al Franken.
He is either a right-winger or too lazy to pass up an “easy narrative from right wing talking points.”
Well, you’re lazy enough to believe Joe Wilson and Tim Russert.
Tell me truthfully; is it tiring defending the indefensible? I imagine it is.
Is it tiring to defend the unpopular? No. It is a bit disheartening to live in a time where a man will be sent to jail because people dislike his boss. This jury suspended reasonable doubt and delivered a miscarriage of justice. Free Scooter! Pardon him now, not on the way out the door like that slime Clinton did.
Thank you for listening (I think!).
You were obviously listening to the brief LIVE segment in morning drive, at @ 7:26 a.m.
I frequently offer a bit of a “press review”… quoting from papers on ALL sides of the ideological spectrum.
Believe me, I get similar vitriol from folks on the Right when I quote part of an analysis they don’t want to hear from The Guardian, The Independent, whatever!
Unfortunately, the time available in this segment is extremely limited.
In this case, the analysis came — as I recall – from the BALTIMORE SUN. (Usually I’ll mention the paper!)
By the way, everyone can get “tainted” or “tarred” by something even if a person is found guilty, and the main onus is on that person.
For the record, I try to be as independent a journalist as one can be. I do not check the “talking points” of any party.
I get to work by six A-M — so I can check out 60+ newspapers and magazines across America and around the world — every morning to try to go BEYOND what people are getting from the main networks.
Funny, the WDEL newsroom just got an e-mail this week complaining about how all my interviews were with “America-haters”, and so on.
I can only plead that I try to give our listeners an array of perspectives, and try to transcend what the average listener would get from a news-talk radio station in a medium-market.
In case you forgot, I left WILM — in part — because I saw that station headed in the direction of mostly nationally-syndicated programming, and all from the Right, I might add. But to be fair, I would have been just as unhappy if Clear Channel had planned to make my last station a repository for mostly nationally-syndicated programming from the Left. Or all middle-of-the-road programming, for that matter.
Although talk radio programmers increasingly identify ideology as a “format”, just like ’70’s album rock, I find that very difficult to swallow philosophically.
Trying to be as best a news guy as I can be, I try to play “devil’s advocate” with most of my interview-subjects.
For the record, I would only say my personal views zigzag across the political spectrum. I don’t see either major political party as philosophically consistent (probably the result of having to hobble together coalitions!), nor do I identify with any minor party! Furthermore, the way my views zigzag is different from many others you’d meet from my generation.
At times, I find it difficult to vote for ANYONE near the top of the ballot, even though I might like the folks as human beings.
If and when I address a group — ANY group from the Right, Left, or Center — I delight in challenging the mindset of that group.
From an early age, I read The PROGRESSIVE on the Left and SPOTLIGHT on the Right.
I can see how BOTH sides of the ideological spectrum can find bias in our media! As a former high-school debater, I could probably debate one side or the other, and have you convinced that I was a disciple of that side.
But I suppose — in the end — I get a bit frustrated because the BIGGEST bias that I see in the media doesn’t get discussed all that much on political blogs:
The bias of catering to the younger demographics, who consultants say couldn’t care less about most politics…
The bias of only doing stories which can directly affect the target listener/viewer, or the glitz of celebrity news.
The bias of U.S. ethno-centrism & parochialism: If it seemingly doesn’t affect America, nobody cares.
You can even see this in evidence on the WDEL website, on the “Allan Loudell” blog, when I occasionally try to bring up international stories that may affect us in the future: Nobody comments, or they go off subject!
Strange… People are much more comfortable talking about bias in the news, than they are in engaging in an intellectual debate about, for example, China/Taiwan; India; Zimbabwe; etc.
Sorry I got this reply in so late… I just saw the post.
Regards,
Allan R. Loudell
News Anchor–Reporter–Interviewer
1150 A.M. — WDEL Radio & http://www.wdel.com
Delmarva Broadcasting Company
2727 Shipley Road
Wilmington, Delaware DE 19810
(V.P., Programs, Delaware Press Association;
Adjunct Instructor, Broadcast newswriting, University of Delaware)
(302) 478-2700 — Extension & Voice-Mail: 161
aloudell@wdel.com