Hardly a week goes by in which neither Bernie Sanders, Patrick Leahy, nor Peter Welch appears on Vermont Public Radio’s noonday program known as “Vermont Edition.” The widely listened to news interview show is replayed each evening at seven o’clock.
As the leading Vermont spokespersons for the American Empire, it is important that their voices be heard ad nauseam by VPR’s elite listening audience. They are treated by VPR reporters with a deference reserved only for royalty. VPR adheres to two strict rules when it comes to interviewing members of the Vermont Congressional Delegation. First, only softball questions are allowed. Second, never ever challenge anything they have to say.
Take Pentagon Prostitute Patrick Leahy, for example. While pretending to be opposed to the war in Iraq, Leahy supports every new military appropriations bill, every Vermont based defense contract, and every deployment of Vermont National Guard troops overseas. He always votes with Israel and supports all of its acts of genocide against the Palestinians. VPR never utters a peep against Leahy’s bellicose, militaristic stance. Criticism of the Vermont Congressional Delegation is not considered to be politically correct behavior by neoliberals. Good Vermonters don’t judge others.
And then there is the darling of Vermont Progressives, Bernie Sanders, who cultivates the image that he is a socialist, which he is not. Sanders loves to rail against Corporate America, but then does nothing to limit its power. Currently he is trying to convince a nuclear weapons systems company to move to Vermont. He always stands behind Israel’s “right to defend itself” against the helpless Palestinians. No one at VPR would dare challenge anything Bernie does or says. He is beyond reproach. Above all, Bernie knows that only the Federal Government can solve all of our problems all of the time.
Since 2007 an out-of-state, left-wing, hate mongering group known as the Southern Poverty Law Center has been waging a CIA style smear campaign against the Second Vermont Republic accusing it and its founder of racism. The frivolous charges leveled against SVR are based on outright lies, half truths, and guilt by association. SPLC is the left-wing equivalent of the John Birch Society. Just as the John Birch Society used to find a communist hiding behind every bush, so too can the SPLC spot a racist a mile away. A racist is defined as anyone who does not agree with SPLC’s brand of technofascism.
But the real issue has absolutely nothing to do with racism, but rather the state of Israel. The SVR website frequently posts essays challenging the U.S. Government’s support for Israeli terrorism against the Palestinians. Any organization which confronts Israeli genocide is fair game for the SPLC. The SPLC understands very well that the only thing which keeps Israel afloat is the American Empire, and SVR advocates the peaceable dissolution of the Empire. Need we say more?
Only one statewide media outlet in Vermont has given any credence whatsoever to the SPLC smear campaign waged against SVR – Vermont Public Radio. VPR talk show host Jane Lindholm could hardly wait to go public with SPLC’s savage, 10-page 2008 attack on SVR. The Harvard graduate accepted every word of the report verbatim – no questions asked. SVR needed to be taken out, and VPR was there to do its part!
What is this all about? Why is there such a cozy relationship between VPR and the SPLC? During its seven-year history, SVR has been treated fairly by every statewide media outlet but one – Vermont Public Radio, the voice of the American Empire.
Given the amount of national and international media attention generated by the Vermont independence movement, we are often asked whether we have been noticed by the U.S. Government? The Feds are far too sophisticated to engage in a direct attack against SVR, knowing full well that such action would virtually guarantee our success. Instead, they use CIA like surrogates such as SPLC and VPR to smear SVR.
VPR is affiliated with National Public Radio, truly a world class apologist for an empire owned, operated, and controlled by Corporate America, Wall Street, and the Israeli Lobby.
The BP oil spill serves as a dramatic reminder that the American Empire is the most materialistic, most fossil fuel dependent, most environmentally destructive empire in history. To quench our ravenous thirst for oil we have become the most militaristic and most violent empire of all-time with 1,000 military bases in 153 countries. We are currently engaged in immoral and illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, both of which are all about oil. Vermont’s prorata share of the Pentagon’s military budget is over $1.5 billion annually.
NPR’s list of corporate sponsors reads like Who’s Who In Corporate America. The list includes Bank of America, Citibank, VISA, British Petroleum, Dow Chemical, CNN, Fox Broadcasting, and Apple. Names of private donors are a closely guarded secret. It’s called “public radio,” but they clearly do not want us to know who is paying for it.
Contrary to the image which VPR successfully projects, VPR is not the benign, kind and gentle, community based voice of the Green Mountain State but rather the voice of an unsustainable, ungovernable, unfixable empire which has lost its moral authority. A financial contribution to VPR helps promote capitalism for the rich and powerful, illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Israeli inflicted genocide on the Palestinians.
As Vermont gubernatorial candidate Dennis Steele often says, “The Gods of the Empire are not the Gods of Vermont.”
Imagine…Free Vermont
Thomas H. Naylor
July 12, 2010
