Shame on All Things Considered, again!

"Dear ATC-

Linda Wertheimer's report on Oklahoma senator Tom Coburn's effort to change the ethics rules in congress to allow him to keep practicing medicine was long on praise and short on balance.

If not for the many lengthy interviews of seemingly every person in his hometown, there might have been time to include the mention of the Washington Post story last year on Angela Plummer who said that in 1990 Coburn had performed surgery on her to remove a fallopian tube in which a fetus had lodged and only later did she discover he had sterilized her without her consent.

In an interview on Tulsa radio station KRMG he stated in answer to a question about Plummer's situation, "I've done this lots to women who have come in with emergency things who have asked me to sterilize them, underage. When they've already had three babies."

This revelation has a direct barring on his record as a doctor and his political stance against abortion, but was left out of the report entirely..Why?

If Wertheimer's intent was to create an RNR [Radio News Release] for Cuburn's re-election committee, mission accomplished. It does not, however, resemble the high standard of journalism I used to expect from ATC. "

Tom Coburn is also mighty concerned about rampant lesbianism.

"You know, Josh Burkeen is our rep down here in the southeast area. He lives in Colgate and travels out of Atoka. He was telling me lesbianism is so rampant in some of the schools in southeast Oklahoma that they'll only let one girl go to the bathroom. Now think about it. Think about that issue. How is it that that's happened to us?""

8/31/04

The "President's Intern" gone wild!

Today's post from the President's Intern, Nancy Jo, reports on Homeland Security's investigation of a " beluga whale getting lost and swimming up the Delaware River as far as Trenton, New Jersey," that might have had a little Al-Qaeda terrorist inside.

She writes:

"Because George Bush's administration is Bible-based, we know that a man inside a whale is entirely possible. I need say no more than Jonah. Analysts at Homeland Security have been thumbing through the Bible looking for other potential terrorist animals. Obviously, snakes come to mind. Can you imagine thousands of Al Qaeda-trained snakes, each carrying a stick of dynamite, heading toward major American cities? To deal with the threat of animal suicide bombers, the Bush administration will be appointing a Special Director in charge of Alternative Intelligence."

Better known as J. Edgar Pooper, a buddy of the president's dog Barney. (a.k.a. FOB)