cognitive dissonance
triciasullivan)One more reason why I like living in New England. The Connecticut Department of Homeland Security is apparently one of the donors to our local NPR station.
(For non-Americans, or Americans who get their news from CNN, National Public Radio is a privately-run not-for-profit agency, not a government-controlled broadcast arm, and not a crown corporation like the BBC or CBC. [I have a British friend who does not believe me on this point, but there you go. It's paid for by the listeners.] Public radio stations get about 2% of their funding by applying for grants, and that percentage keeps shrinking; most of the money comes from corporations trying to appear to be good citizens, philanthropical organizations, and community members with some extra dosh. Memberships run about $35.00 a year at the base rate.)
Anyway, NPR is one of the better news sources around, although they are fairly frequently accused of having a liberal bias. (This generally means that they're slightly to the left of Richard Nixon, by American political standards.)
The announcement of sponsorship was in the same station break as a promo for "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me," a humorous news quiz show generally devoted to mocking President Bush and Vice-President Cheney, and whatever incidentals might happen along in the interim. This particular promo went something to the effect of, "Now that President Bush has the power to detain and torture anyone he likes, today's broadcast of Wait Wait Don't Tell Me will be replaced with an hour of patriotic music."
...in Yankeeland, even the fascists support mocking the government.
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