-By Gary Krasner
Last evening, during the Oct 10th broadcast of the PBS News Hour, a devastating attack occurred on the mindset and sensibilities of the correspondents and production staff at the network.
According to reports, a balding, gray-haired man in a business suit wandered past security and into the studio during the segment on Trump’s announcement to roll back Obama’s EPA plan to limit greenhouse gas emissions.
The viewers first saw PBS correspondent John Yang interview Gina McCarthy, Obama’s EPS Commissioner, who was critical of Trump’s plan. This was normal PBS procedure.
But then the crisis became apparent when Yang introduced someone with the opposing view. On occasion, the program will air counterpoint, just enough to show that they’re unbiased.
But when they do, the supposed opposing view is some moderate Republican who often ends up agreeing with his opponent on some of the issues, and then ends up being critical of the Republican president. Some of the more squishy such Republicans appear as regulars. Nothing is left to chance.
Except last night, apparently. Because John Yang next introduced Bob Murray, of the Murray Energy Corporation, for the counterpoint, unaware that Murray is a real conservative.
Murray discussed the merits of coal and fossil fuels generally, including it’s much lower cost for budget strapped consumers.
But it wasn’t until Murray posited scientific challenges to global warming did the staff become alarmed, as it was information that’s been carefully excluded from the program previous to Murray’s slot on the show.
According to reports, regular viewers of the program called to complain. Some of the staff at the News Hour were provided with psychological counseling to deal with the trauma.
“I feel like I was raped”, said sound technician Aissa Bishara. “it was psychological rape, and I couldn’t stop it!”
“I wanted to stop it, before it did any damage”, lamented Yang afterward, shaking his head in disbelief. “We have measures in place to prevent this. I just don’t know what happened.”
PBS announced that there will be an investigation and assured listeners that such a lapse in security will never happen again.
The segment with Bob Murray begins at the 22 minute, 40 second mark at this stream: (Disclaimer: The video contains frank language and may not be suitable for young people and residents of liberal echo chambers.)