I am a great fan of Public Radio. I even did some of my own programmings for a few years (you can check out a few samples here). So maybe that makes me a little bit more of an acerbic critic when I hear some lousy programming. I was especially bothered this morning and listening to Scott Simon’s interview of a Republican Illinois congressman on the subject of Donald Trump’s cancellation of a retributive airstrike against Iran over the disputed taking down of an American drone.
Congressman Adam Kinzinger, who is apparently an Air Force reserve pilot, insisted in this piece that Trump should have authorized the mission and should not have backed off once he knew the likelihood it would have resulted in perhaps as many as 150 Iranian casualties. It is clear and the piece that the congressman season equivalency between 150 human deaths and an expensive American drone. No problem at all for this piece of moral excrement that sits in the US Congress. As for Simon, who is often a softball interviewer who likes to be chummy with his subjects, he needs to get a pair. He did briefly put the question of the equivalency to the congressman—the question that is at the center of this goddamn issue—and then let him skip off. Way to go Scott, twisted metal equals dismembered children’s bodies. Or, weren’t you able to fashion that image into a follow-up question?
Here’s the link to the segment.