NPR has long reflected that liberal myopia. As far back as 1993, the liberal watchdog Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting showed that NPR's guest list was overwhelmingly white and male and its views centric, and few on-air experts were black or women. In 2009 NABJ complained (pdf) that there was only one on-air black male personality on NPR — Juan Williams. The network responded by hiring Keith Woods from the Poynter Institute as vice president for diversity issues. But few can discern a fundamental change in NPR's tone and approach since.

By contrast, I have a broader vision of a multihued NPR, with a range of voices and worldviews not often heard or seen on commercial radio and TV: conservative, liberal, radical, atheist, religious, African American, Latino, immigrant and Native American — all in a glorious rainbow cacophony.

I imagine a news show that doesn't treat the occasional story involving downtrodden African Americans, Hispanic Americans or poor people like a dutiful piece of foreign reporting before reverting to its dulcet-toned narrative of all things white and comfortable. I imagine an NPR that includes black and brown and female experts on the economy, ecology, energy, foreign affairs and everything else, instead of your standard bland diet of the same old tired voices that already pollute mainstream media.

Dreyfuss may be dreaming, but that doesn't mean his ideal isn't something to strive for. I had a friend who consulted on diversity for NPR tell me that people there joke that the only place one can consistently spot black folks in the offices is where Michel Martin's Tell Me More—a show that carries the burden of the network's multicultural coverage—is located.

Video Killed the Radio Star: The bad news continues for National Public Radio, as another hidden-camera tape by right-wing provocateur James O'Keefe shows executives were aware of the phony gift O'Keefe's stunt was pretending to pass along to the network. With the federal budget what it is (which is to say, bad, if not quite as bad as D.C.'s), this scandal probably means Congress will try even harder to cut funding to public radio. Which means more fundraising drives on WAMU. On the other hand, that means more chances for tote bags for listeners. -1

Maryland, Why, Maryland: Gay marriage will remain an only-in-D.C. feature of life in the region—Maryland lawmakers killed a bill to allow same-sex marriages in the Old Line State. Maryland courts may recognize same-sex unions performed in the handful of states that allow them, thanks to an opinion issued a few years ago, but supporters had hoped to get a law passed to allow them in the state. That'll have to wait until next year. Feel free to come visit the District, though! -3

Vigilante Parking Justice: Since the new administration took over, some former city officials have moved on to new projects; ex-Mayor Adrian Fenty, for instance, is keeping busy giving speeches, working for an accounting firm, and advocating union busting. Former transportation boss Gabe Klein, however, is busy enforcing traffic regulations. Alerted to cars parked illegally in the 15th Street NW bike lane, Klein went down, snapped a photo, and tweeted it at the agency he used to run. In response, the Department of Transportation issued 15 tickets. +2

Are You Ready for Some Football Lockout?: Maybe a stultifyingly boring mid-century federal office building wasn't the ideal place to try to salvage the next NFL season. Talks at the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service between football owners and the NFL Players Association broke down this afternoon; the union plans to decertify, the first step in what could now become very lengthy legal proceedings before any pro football is played. The bad news: You may have to find something else to do on Sundays this fall. The good news: The Redskins can't lose any games if they're canceled first. -2

Yesterday's Needle rating: 50 Today's score: -4 Friday bonus: +2 Today's Needle rating: 48

One of the week's big stories in Washington was the quick fallout from the newest gotcha video from James O'Keefe that forced the resignation of two NPR executives. The fundraising scandal involving a fake Muslim organization happened at Georgetown's Café Milano, which has long been a bastion of D.C.'s boldface names, for better or worse. The Washington Post's J. Freedom du Lac, noted in a tweet: "Weirdest thing new NPR scandal: The secret taping occurred at Café Milano. I thought only famous people ate there!"

That's a good observation. It's not like O'Keefe is a household name. Under normal circumstances, the NPR execs caught up in the scandal would never be worthy of a mention in The Washington Post or the countless other publications in our fair city that give a damn about who is eating where. (For those who care, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich celebrated his conversion to Catholicism with a lunch at the tony restaurant on Prospect Street, back in 2009. More recently, Rob Lowe was "spotted" there in January, in town, the Examiner reported, for some shoots for Potomac Fever, a reality TV show which aims to chronicle the lives of "young, driven media people trying to navigate power and love" in the nation's capital. Maybe they'll all hang out at Café Milano and marinate in their egos? Gross.)

Anyhow, not that we're in the business of giving O'Keefe advice, but if he really wanted his NPR scandal to measure up to the city's most shady shenanigans, he should have picked the Ritz Carlton in Pentagon City as his secret-recording venue. It has a long and storied history. That's where Linda Tripp secretly recorded Monica Lewinsky back in 1998 and more recently, where the FBI secretly recorded Louisiana Congressman William Jefferson accepting a $90,000 bribe that would later be found wrapped in tin foil in his Capitol Hill freezer.

Photo by Flickr user Todd Huffman using an Attribution 2.0 Generic Creative Commons license

TO: WASHINGTON CITY PAPER STAFF

FROM: MICHAEL SCHAFFER, EDITOR

RE: STEWART/COLBERT RALLY

Colleagues—

Several of you have asked me about this coming weekend’s satirical National Mall rallies featuring Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert. As you probably know, at least one other news organization, NPR, has forbidden news staffers from attending. Others, including the Washington Post, have reminded staffers that newsroom policy permits them to witness events, but not to “participate” in ways that could call into question their impartiality—i.e., by chanting, waving signs, etc.

At a time of grave concerns about our economy and our national security—not to mention a period of tumult in our industry—it is obviously crucial that all media organizations develop appropriate guidelines for staff attendance at mock-political public appearances by cable-television celebrities. After significant consultation with Washington City Paper’s expensive outside team of professional ethicists, we’ve settled on the following guidelines. Please read and follow them closely:

1. You may attend the rallies in a non-participatory fashion.
2. However, because the rallies are comic events, you may not laugh.
3. The act of not laughing, though, can be just as politically loaded as the act of laughing. Therefore, staffers are advised to politely chuckle, in a non-genuine manner, after each joke.
4. To avoid any perception of bias, please make sure to chuckle at all jokes, whether or not you find them funny. As journalists, we must make sure to not allow our personal views of “humorous” or “non-humorous” to affect our public demeanor.
5. Likewise, it could be devastating to our impartial reputation if our staffers were seen laughing at something that was not intended as a joke, thereby appearing to mock the entire event. If we are lucky, the comedians will have a drummer on hand whose rim-shots may be used as a cue for when to politely chuckle.
6. If no non-verbal cues for laughter are available, please observe audience members around you. If they are laughing, imitate their laughter with a non-genuine polite chuckle. If they are not laughing, remain stone-faced. Whatever you do, do not apply your own personal cognitive skills to determining the humorousness of any particular clip. Such an approach exposes us to charges of bias.
7. On the other hand, a situation could arise where partisan foes of the Comedy Central hosts laugh at them in a derisive manner unrelated to the timing of their on-stage jokes. In this case, your failure to join in the mockery could potentially be interpreted as a sign that you disagree with the derision—an equally distasteful indication of bias. Please follow the above guidelines and also chuckle politely, but not genuinely, at any instances of counter-comedy.
8. In our experience, public appearances by comedy figures also draw audiences whose members frequently make jokes amongst themselves. These attempts at humor might not necessarily fit into the rational example of protesters versus counter-protesters outlined in the guidelines above. However, you could nonetheless indicate a great deal about your personal biases via your decision as to whether or not you laugh along when the person next to you riffs about, say, marginal tax rates. Please make sure to follow the above guidelines and respond via polite, non-genuine, mild guffaws to the jibes of amateur comics in the audience.
9. We’re also aware that the large crowds expected at the rallies could produce a cacophonous din, one in which you are unable to discern which jokes are being made by audience members, counter-protestors, or the day’s main attractions—and, worse still, where observers may think you are laughing at an anti-Republican joke when you are actually laughing at an anti-Democrat joke. To protect our cherished reputation against such a danger, I have arranged for each of you to be issued a pair of earplugs. Should the event grow too raucous, please insert these earplugs immediately. Once you have inserted the earplugs, please chuckle politely, and non-genuinely, every 74 seconds, to maintain the appearance of non-biased and appropriate responses to the event.
10. You are free to laugh heartily and genuinely at any jokes that target the terrorists.

Please feel free to see me or Mike Madden should you need any further clarification.

Best,

Mike

Former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest-serving Republican U.S. senator, died in a plane crash in a remote part of Alaska. He was 86. NPR posted said news on their Facebook page and 32 minutes later, 113 people already "liked" the news. Come on, folks! No more respect for the dead?

It may not come as a surprise that the 24-year-old District woman who allegedly stabbed 20-year-old NPR intern Annie Ropeik multiple times and for no particular reason Wednesday morning is mentally ill. Recently filed charging documents say Melodie Anne Brevard has been diagnosed as having Bipolar Type II disorder. Brevard was supposed to be on the psychotropic drug Abilify but hadn't taken it for a month, the documents say.

The description documents provide of the 9:30 a.m. attack in Chinatown is chilling: "Without any provocation, the defendant stabbed the complainant with a knife in the left collarbone, upper back, lower back, and right side. The stab wound to the complainant's right collarbone pierced through the complainant's back."

A  witness told police that after the stabbing occurred the witness yelled: "This lady just stabbed someone" and Brevard replied: " Yes, call the police."

One of the wounds damaged Ropeik's spinal cord. She is "currently paralyzed on the left side of her body below the rib cage." A statement from NPR says Ropeik is in stable condition.

Maryland court records say Brevard has been arrested before. She was arrested in Montgomery County for a second degree assault in 2007 for which she pleaded guilty. Then, in 2009, she was picked up by Prince George's cops for an alleged assault on a police officer. The charges were dismissed.

Also interesting:  Brevard appears to be an aspiring model. A profile on the site ModelMayhem.com seems to belong to the assault-with-intent-to-kill suspect.

"I am using this site for networking, exposure and modeling opportunities," the profile says.  Brevard mentions that she is open to fashion shows and print modeling. Under credits, she lists that she appeared in Jet Magazine in October 2005. The site displays a portfolio.

Brevard's aspirations would seem to be at least temporarily derailed. Things could be far worse for her, given what can happen to the District's mentally ill.

Ropeik is a junior at Boston University and is a classics and philosophy major.

Take the first letter of each word on each line, and you'll see it spells the following:

F(or)-u(nnecessary)-c(are)-k(icks)-y(et)-o(verwhelmingly)-u(nnecessary).

That's "Fuck you"!

Schwarzenegger's office claims it was just a random "coincidence" of letter positioning. Which seems really, really believable. But a cryptologist from Goucher College in Baltimore, Robert Lewand, actually ran some numbers. He told NPR that the chance of those letters appearing in those places was less than impossibly slim: 5.5 in 1 trillion, to be exact. Memo writers, take note.

According to the Examiner, more than 100 people wrote to District Court Judge Ellen Huvelle vouching for his character, including high-profile Post reporter Brigid Schulte. She described him as an "extraordinary" and "tortured" soul who was raped early in his life and kept that trauma a secret. Malakoff, who—according to this bio—lives in Alexandria with his wife and three children, says the rape occurred under the Taft Bridge in Rock Creek Park. A childhood friend remembers the rape happening to a boy they were with.

Among 150 images of child porn found on the computer of the editor and former correspondent was a video of a preteen girl being raped by her father, according to a court document. The woman, now 19, also submitted a letter and asked that it be read in court.

The Washington Times' evolving credibility, the Motorhome Diaries, the Veterans Administration, and more after the jump.

• Last month I applauded the Washington Times for covering the Chas Freeman story, and argued that thanks to Eli Lake (formerly of the New York Sun), the paper is developing a formidable archive of enterprising foreign policy reporting. Fishbowl DC announced on Wednesday that the Times had snatched up Pulitzer prize-winning reporter Chuck Neubauer, formerly of the Los Angeles Times–no small feat for a paper that runs scripture in its op-ed pages on Christmas day. Perhaps with a little more time, people will learn to ignore the Washington Times' strange founder (just as so many Beltway liberals are capable of cheering The New Republic while bashing Marty Peretz, the magazine's "racist" owner and editor in chief; and just as sophisticates across the country barely looked up from their Kellogg's Cinnamon Toast Crunch when the the New York Times announced it had accepted a cash injection of $250 million from a corrupt Mexican oligarch) and judge the paper by its merits alone.
• Speaking of the shit human beings will tolerate, someone needs to raise a fuss about this: "David Schultz, a reporter for the NPR affiliate WAMU in D.C., had his microphone, headphones, and a digital recorder seized by police and PR reps from the Veterans Administration when he interviewed veteran Tommy [Canady] at a public town hall meeting in D.C. yesterday....[Canady] was attempting to tell Schultz about the poor treatment he says he's been getting from the VA hospital. VA officials claim Schultz didn't identify himself as a reporter, failed to obtain a VA-approved waiver before speaking with [Canady], was both exploiting [Canady] and violating [Canady]'s right to medical privacy." That's from Radley Balko at Reason, who also writes that "the VA still hasn't returned Schultz's equipment." One Reason reader wasn't very sympathetic towards Schultz:

"Back in my college days a friend of mine who was a reporter for the college rag refused to leave an (improperly) closed session of some policy-making body, and then when they demanded he leave, he taunted them to have the cops drag him out of the room, as he wasn't leaving any other way.

If he knows where to take a stand, what the fuck is wrong with "adult" reporters and their news outfits that they capitulate so easily?"

Great question!

• Speaking of Radley Balko: If you give two shits about police raiding the home of a watchdog blogger, a police chief who retaliated against officers for participating in internal affairs investigations, and "police officers facing civil rights lawsuits" who plead ignorance of the law as their defense, then I suggest you add the Agitator to your RSS reader.
• And please, check out the Motorhome Diaries: Searching for Freedom in America.

That's it for me folks, I'm off to find a new front rim.