omg poor Cokie Roberts

this is almost unfair! :rofl:

http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2216890

Each Monday, NPR Senior News Analyst Cokie Roberts trades four minutes of on-air blather about politics, the economy, and world events with whichever unlucky Morning Edition host has drawn the short straw.

If Roberts' vacuous segments seem phoned-in, it's probably because they are. She does them from her home. In 2000, she told the New York Times that her "dog barking during a show" presented the "biggest problem" doing the early-a.m. spot, adding that her pup's NPR airtime had made him "something of a cult figure."

If only the dog barked a little more—the segment might have more going for it. I can think of no comparably sized media space that's as void of original insight and information as Roberts'. Her segments, though billed as "analysis" by NPR, do little but speed-graze the headlines and add a few grace notes. If you're vaguely conversant with current events, you're already cruising at Roberts' velocity. Roberts doesn't just voice the conventional wisdom; she is the conventional wisdom. Give a listen to her March 9, 2009, chatter:

Some say the president is doing too much, what he's doing too much about things they don't necessarily want him to do right now—healthcare, education, energy. And they're worried that he's using this crisis for big changes that they don't want. And, of course, that is the case. The administration will try to do that. But they go between saying that he's a socialist, and the president did seem to feel the need to call a New York Times reporter after an interview this weekend to say he's not a socialist. And the Republicans are saying he should—some Republicans—that he should nationalize the banks. So it is, you know, it is all over the place.

And then some say he should be doing more. Others say he's mortgaging our children's future. So I think that they're just trying to get their voices out there, mainly trying to drown out Rush Limbaugh's voice as the voice of the Republican party.

If you can find an original thought in there, you're welcome to it.

Don't despise Roberts' journalism just for what she says but for how she says it. The most irritating of her collection of tics is declaring a specific news topic "interesting," "very interesting," or "really interesting." Yet her declarations almost never signal the approach of anything notable: It's her way of squid-inking the waters so she can say something completely superficial and escape before the listener can think it though. Examples:

Hands down.

Don't you wish you were Cokie Roberts?

and spending 2 - 3 hours in studio taping intros.

And "our" congress raised the minimum wage to a whopping $7.25?

The tortured souls of all prior newsmen and women - the ones who earned the title - are waiting for her with tar, feathers, pitchforks and fact-checkers, or so I've heard from reliable sources inside the Administration.

Seriously Cokie, what it really worth it? What did you get for your journalistic integrity?

...........The administration will try to do that. But they go between saying that he's a socialist, and the president did seem to feel the need to call a New York Times reporter after an interview this weekend to say he's not a socialist.............






:smoke:

f- her.

I wrote better pieces while working for my history degree than that waste of trees book.

Seriously it is.

She probably got a business major to do it. No self-respecting history student would put their name on it.

And I mean no disprespect to business majors. There is a lot involved with researching historical themes that they don't teach you in business school.

I find most Business majors more schooled in a single ideology with little thought to contextual frames and even less concern with primary sources that contradict their viewpoint. At absolute best they seem to be more concerned with a History channel education.

She's bouncing around the country promoting the 10th Anniversary edition which has been updated to include Nancy Pelosi and Laura Bush. I never read the first edition. Doubt I'll read the 20th Anniversary edition.

She's one of those reporters who do well in one medium but not another. Of course she's still looking for a medium to do well in. Maybe she should try blogging?

I dread Mondays solely due to her. When I gave NPR part of my tax rebate check last year, I told them I'd appreciate it if they turned Cokie out to pasture. Ugh.

Haven't listened to her since...

:P

Around the time Lorena Bobbit cut the prick's dick off. I remember because Cokie laughed at all the males who were squirming and wincing in their seats. Soon thereafter I stopped watching her, but not for that reason. I just thought I'd mention something we thought we'd forgotten. That's what I always think about whenever the subject of Cokie comes up.

Two more boring and predictable people are hard to find. Their morning conversation over coffee would put both back to sleep.

they could play "Bill and Monica" sex games. Tweety could watch. :thumbsup:

He would probably fall asleep, too.

That was unbelievably revealing about her mindset, and the way she tries to pander to the idiocracy.

Media Matters:
On the August 10 (2008) edition of ABC's This Week, ABC News political analyst Cokie Roberts criticized Sen. Barack Obama -- who was born in Hawaii -- for "going off this week to a vacation in Hawaii," which she said "does not make any sense whatsoever." Roberts stated: "I know his grandmother lives in Hawaii and I know Hawaii is a state, but it has the look of him going off to some sort of foreign, exotic place." Roberts continued: "He should be in Myrtle Beach, and, you know, if he's going to take a vacation at this time."

Cokie doesn't have a dog. That noise you hear is just one of her personalities.

get a real job? I do think there is some hope for Anderson Cooper.

strike back in 90-whatever it was. Yes, Kookie, they all phone it in from their mansions . . . oh wait, that's you.

And just the other day I heard her talking about how Obama has too much on his plate already and he wants all this torture stuff to just go away.

Really? How does she know that? Maybe, she just wants it to go away?

went to the dark side of ABC mickey mouse gnews. i don't listen to her anymore.

but her brother heads one of the biggest DC lobbying firms, Patton Boggs. She's not an apologist for the Establishment, she IS the Establishment.

Both of them tied into the Lousiana political machine which changes parties according to which party is the most corrupt and therefore the easiest to use as a source of "supplemental income" as both a politician and as a lobbyist which in Lousiana is usually the same thing.

. . . is really part of the beltway bubble.

sends chills up my spine when I hear her voice and dribble.

a pass here. I like Cokie. :shrug:

She is a child of wealth and privilege that never lifted anything heavier than a fork in her life.

Her political commentary is sophomoric and pedantic, at the very same time. She defends the power structure of the Old Guard at every turn, no matter what the issue.

She would be a Tory defending the rights of royalty and decrying the rebels as scum, in a previous life.

Beneath the appearance of old Lousiana elegance she's just plain old Louisiana swamp trash. The Boggs from the bogs as they were called.

Her father opposed desegregation and opposed the Civil Rights Act. He changed his positions only because it was politically advantageous to do so. Only because the Civil Rights Act had been passed and signed into law. That of course changed Louisiana politics. A number of Republicans decided to become Democrats. For the votes of the new voters.

Someone once commented that Tom De Lay was the Republican equivalent of Hale Boggs. That probably sums up Hale Boggs better than anything else.

William CC Claiborne, the first American governor of Louisiana. I can't speak about the Boggses, but the Claibornes are bona fide plantation gentry.

The official bios claim everyone loved William CC Claiborne but not everyone did. Under the new governor of what would eventually become the new state of Louisiana what were known as "free blacks" suddenly were no longer so free and slaves, who had some rights such as the right to inherit and own propery under what was known as the Code Noir, suddenly found they no longer had any rights at all and weren't free either.

The Claibornes are a prominent family particularly with regard to the settlement of the colony of Virginia and also a large family. Among Cokie Roberts' various cousins are Liz Claiborne and the late Claiborne Pell. They were landed gentry in Virginia. And then they lost the land.

She's also related to the de Marigny family through the marriage of William CC Claiborne's daughter. The de Marignys were one of the wealthiest of the French families that settled in New Orleans.

I may be wrong but I believe much of the land her family has was given to them by the de Marignys including the plantation where her mother was born. In any case, the Claibornes of Lousiana did indeed become landed gentry again. If you want to call plantation owners landed gentry.

Prominent is not always illustrious. Among the various Claibornes she's also related to is William Floyd Claiborne. Also known as Billy the Kid.

on NPR and I kind of like her breezy style. I don't care if she was raised in privilege.


Suum quique.

Her airtime is a total waste.....

late 90's, she had her winter coat on, but she was standing in front a green screen with the capitol in the background in the studio.

so every time the Daily Show does that, they're making fun of her? :rofl:

not late 90's as i thought but 1994. "green screen" technology hadn't been invented yet!


Network news has flirted with similar technological issues once before. In 1994, the use of a fake backdrop caused an outcry in 1994 when the ABC journalist Cokie Roberts appeared in front of a picture of Capitol Hill. Peter Jennings, the ABC News anchor, introduced a report from Ms. Roberts, and said that she was reporting from Capitol Hill; Ms. Roberts, wearing a coat, appeared in front of what looked like the Capitol. But without the knowledge of network viewers or even Mr. Jennings, Ms. Roberts was actually inside the ABC News Washington bureau with a photographic image of the Capitol projected behind her. Ms. Roberts and Rick Kaplan, then the executive producer of ''World News Tonight'' and now the president of CNN, were both reprimanded and the network apologized on the air.

http://www.nytimes.com/2000/01/12/business/on-cbs-news-some-of-what-you-see-isn-t-there.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all

is Martha Mary Coreen Morrison Claiborne Boggs Roberts.

Her brother Tommy Boggs couldn't say "Coreen," so it came out "Cokie" instead.

She'll be 66 right after Christmas.

at some obscure cocktail party with the rest of the "c" list in DC.

As far as I know she's never been on the list that matters which is the list in Georgetown. Neither has her brother. I repeat conversations I heard too. The difference I heard them. Maybe NPR should hire me?

:beer:

then her husband was shafted (sorry that I forget the facts) and kind of went into hiding. She got cancer, was treated, and now is what we hear. I'm sad about it, due to her great background.

PS, I live near Chevy Chase! LOVE to drive thru. and not many MANSIONS in the area; there are size restrictions due small size of the area generally. Sorry.

http://www.featurebank.com/?title=Bio:Cokie+Roberts+and+Steven+V.+Roberts

Molly Ivins they ain't.

She said, "the President's approval rating is 75%!", or WTF it was, and then she turned to the audience and egged them on to cheer that statement. Revealed her agenda in one cheapshot moment.

These people do nothing but regurgitate the news, they don't analyze jack.
Daniel Shore hasn't said one thing that wasn't blinding obvious to the most casual news geek,
in 20 plus years I've listened to NPR

Someone made the decision to subsidize her sofa time. Perhaps the vapid nature of her "commentary" escaped notice by being no more so than the rest of her work.

"Tired Old Whore".

Yep, that's about it.