Noelle McCarthy’s patsy interview with Mark Bowden (Jan. 8, 2013)

8 January 2013 at 10:23 am

Noelle McCarthy’s patsy interview with Mark Bowden
“Summer Noelle”, National Radio, Tuesday 8 January 2013, 9:09 a.m.

Most National Radio listeners will know that Noelle McCarthy is a decent person. She has shown in the past that she has the courage to confront hypocrites and liars. She could barely repress her loathing for S.S. man Garth McVicar when she interviewed him in March 2011…
http://thestandard.org.nz/open-mike-09032011/#comment-306178

This morning, she interviewed another advocate of extrajudicial killing—Mark Bowden, author of The Finish: The Killing of Osama. Perhaps because Bowden is far brighter than McVicar, she felt constrained and on edge, but it was still disappointing to hear her let Bowden get away with subtle evasions and distortions, and to hear her accept his use of euphemisms, and to even use them herself. Effectively, this amounts to cynical, willful distortion and apology for state crimes.

Sadly, Noelle McCarthy, who can be a penetrating and intelligent interviewer, was reduced to giving the sort of patsy interview we see on British State TV or Fox News.

More in sorrow than anger, I sent her the following e-mail….

Interview with Mark Bowden was disturbing, and disappointing

Dear Noelle,

It was interesting, and chilling, to hear your guest Mark Bowden try to explain away the use of torture by saying it is something that “was in the water”.

You also several times used the word “rendition” instead of calling it what it is: kidnapping. I am sure I was not the only listener disappointed to hear you had chosen to use this obfuscatory language.

Yours sincerely,
Morrissey Breen
Northcote Point

• Rogue Trooper4.1

  8 January 2013 at 1:29 pm

  I bathe in Summer Noelle some mornings when I cannot climb on top of the Hill
• Populuxe14.2

  8 January 2013 at 4:23 pm

  Obviously Sascha Baron Cohen paid her off as part of his secret plan in collaboration with all of the other Jewish comedians in the world (Mel Brookes was their ringleader for years) to take over the world
  • Morrissey4.2.1

    8 January 2013 at 7:21 pm

    Y’know, your sense of humour is about as lame as your attempt to smear me.
    • North4.2.1.1

      8 January 2013 at 8:20 pm

      Morrissey……seems like those so keen to yell (or at least imply) “anti-semite” are the ones more artful at defamation. Talks more about them than the subjects of their abuse perhaps ?

      Justice the seed peace the flower !
      • Morrissey4.2.1.1.1

        9 January 2013 at 8:48 am

        He and a couple of others have been at this for a while now. Although I do not think anyone would believe any of their smears and innuendoes, I don’t think that’s really their point. What they are trying to do is create a din and thereby turn the thread into a farce.

        It’s something for Lin and the other administrators to keep an eye on. I’ll email the site formally and remind them to watch for this ongoing campaign of sabotage.
  • Rogue Trooper4.2.2

    8 January 2013 at 8:18 pm

    well, I thought Pop was funny 

    History of the World, Part 1
    http://images2.fanpop.com/image/photos/9200000/Marxism-marx-brothers-9268845-2050-2560.jpg
    “A clown is like aspirin, only he works twice as fast”

    -Marx
    • North4.2.2.1

      8 January 2013 at 8:23 pm

      You’re right…….if Gaza’s funny.
      • Populuxe14.2.2.1.1

        8 January 2013 at 11:26 pm

        Of course Gaza isn’t funny – but Morrissey’s monomaniacal obsession with it on a site about left wing New Zealand politics is, and made moreso by his weird conspiracy rants about Zionist Jewish comedians. Now that’s a SCREAM!
        • Morrissey4.2.2.1.1.1

          9 January 2013 at 8:42 am

          …weird conspiracy rants about Zionist Jewish comedians.

          Again, you are trying, ham-fistedly, to smear me. My commentary on Baron Cohen’s defamation of that Christian peace activist in occupied Hebron was just as critical of David Letterman, and the braying sycophants in the audience.

          Your repeated attempts to portray my carefully argued points as a “conspiracy” are as inept as they are dishonest.
    • Populuxe14.2.2.2

      8 January 2013 at 11:23 pm

      Appreciated RT – methinks Morissey picked his moniker well – I assume he hates it when his friends become successful. And if they’re northern, that makes it even worse…
    •