Technically, Le Pen Senior is entirely correct in his statement about the Nazi gas chambers, which is remarkable only due to the collateral 'detail of history' that he has been imprisoned several times in France and Germany [and expelled from his own party] for making it, but Mr Damon pointedly neglects to mention that part.

This raises interesting questions:

1. Bullets and bombs were used to kill a lot more people in WW2 than gas chambers, but a quasi-religious legal fetish has yet to be made of that fact in order to suppress free speech in Europe. Has WSWS ever analysed this fascinating subject?

2. Given that no position is taken here in defence of free speech, can we presume that WSWS approves of this form of its suppression now being extended into North America and/or worldwide?

3. What is the official SEP/WSWS position on freedom of speech?

Quit listening to NPR back in the early 1990s. Main reason: Nina Totenberg's "reporting" on the U.S. Supreme Court. Obsessive coverage of "landmark" free speech cases involving whether Carlin could use words prohibited as obscene by FCC in his comedy skits or whether 1st Amendment protected the Smothers Brothers from being censored for discussing "bird poop" in theirs. Fawning over liberal icons Brennan and Marshall while these gentlemen were gutting Federal Securities laws which might have prevented or mitigated 2007-8 financial collapse. Understand and acknowledge at one time these two gentlemen really stood for something. Sorry to offend anyone who still regards them as icons.

Who are the experts that Marketplace's Tracey Samuelson interviews? Ray Kelly, former commissioner of the fascist NYPD. Who else? Matthew Levitt, a former Treasury official, now with the Zionist institution, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy.

http://www.marketplace.org/...

At one time, I listened to NPR regularly and even donated money to them. I stopped in March 2003, during the preparations for Bush's invasion of Iraq. Virtually all of the stories it aired were pro-establishment pieces that accepted the rationale for the reasons given for the invasion without critically questioning any of it. There were interviews with members of the Bush Administration and the military, human interest features on the difficulties of deployment on military families, and so on ad nauseum. There were a few stories thrown in on the anti-war demonstrations, but the coverage was so one-sided it was sickening. Since then, it's only been getting worse. Recently, their website featured an article titled
"Was Kunduz Attack A War Crime? Legal Analysts Say It's Difficult To Prove". Not difficult at all, actually.

Siegel and NPR's other right-wing hack, Tom Ashbrook, are despicable and are thoroughly disgusting to listen to. Especially Ashbrook, who is in the habit of repeating his ridiculous questions 3 times in different ways, and runs roughshod over anyone who puts up a dissent to his highly biased propaganda. Ashbrook also likes to rudely interrupt his guests or callers with, "OK we got it..." before they finish what they're saying.

They're nothing but Fox News Lite. NPR soft-peddles its pablum to what remains of their radio listeners, who are under the delusion that NPR is still a liberal news and discussion outlet.

I was rather shocked myself to discover just how illiberal LIBERAL NPR has become. Now I know I am not alone in smelling a pseudo-progressive rat. I was recently rebuked -not deleted - by a NPR moderator for referring to Democrat presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as " Harpy Hillary ". To this I added that at least I did not call her a MARXIST. .
And NPR has the nerve to request listeners to SEND US A CHECK . To help them maintain their inspiring independence ( from the ruling class ? ).
I will sooner send my socialist friends here a check- just as soon as I win the state lottery.
But NPR might still endorse Bernie Sanders, after all . Sanders represents SOCIALISM for advanced liberals-without backbones.

Thanks for running this. I happened to catch the local PBS station right in the middle of a long, rambling, nationalist right-wing sentence by a woman speaker, in muted French, with an English voice-over. I said to myself, "This can only be Marine Le Pen." When I heard Robert Siegel's smug, self-satisfied voice asking the next some-say-this-what-do-you-say question, I switched it off in irritation.

Robert Siegel and his fellow NPR commentators are fully up to the task of passing off the US military as paragons of virtue and selfless altruism in bringing the blessings of democracy to a benighted world. They are right up there with the New York Times, which they invariably use to set the tone and kick off any discussion.

I quit listening to NPR years ago.

It just goes to show that the once "alternative" NPR has lurched so far to the right that it would fawn over this rabid fascist. Now we understand that NPR doesn't serve the public but, instead, is another voice in the clattered din for the elite. I've not listened to NPR for about 12 years. The last time was just before the the second invasion of Iraq, when Robert Siegel interviewed Colin Powell, who opined that the invasion would bring peace and stability. The effect of hearing this pack of scurrilous lies was that I threw my thankfully cheap radio out of the window. It's a goo thing I stopped listening to NPR, even for the sake of bemusement, because I suspect I would have done the same thing.

Some say NPR stands for "National Pentagon Radio."

Sadly, however, we do need to stay abreast of what the capitalist media are saying. I mean, we are free to decide whether we want to consume the likes of NPR and the NYT, and obviously there's no obligation. But there's an argument to be made that we who are politically conscious should know what lies, distortions and right-wing propaganda are on the menu today.

Don't get me completely wrong. I still read the major newspapers, suchas the New York, Times, the Washington Post, and even Wall Street Journal. But I'm also cognizant of the capitalist bias, so I make certain I also read other media sources, such as the World Socialist Web Site, Truthdig, and various international sources, some of which are more mainstream than others, but are still important sources so as to get the most comprehensive view as to what is really happening in the wider world. I also read a number of foreign-language newspapers, such as Le Monde, El País, and Der Spiegel (it really does help to have a reading knowledge of more than one language). About the only radio I listen to these days is the BBC World Service. The rest of my free time is occupied by readng books and writing commentaries(occasionally) on my blog. so when I hear that NPR thinks Marine Le Pen is a swell, I think back to that moment when I threw my radio out of the window as a reminder as to why I no longer listento it.

I should have added at the end of my comment "and my mental health improved immediately."