Letter: Left, Right and Center

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Letter to the Editor

“Left, Right & Center” is a long-running weekly political talk show on KCRW, 89.9 FM in Los Angeles. Recently, on the Sept. 14 show, one of the guests, Juliette Kayyem, a former assistant secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and CNN contributor, incorrectly suggested that the Coast Guard and FEMA were created after 9/11—and nobody corrected her. This might be unremarkable if it hadn’t also happened before with Lawrence O’Donnell, host of “The Last Word” on MSNBC in November 2017, when he warned of “a potential nuclear conflict with North Vietnam.” To this day, I have not heard or seen any corrections for these blatantly false and misleading statements on two separate occasions in print or on air.

What could possibly be the reason why the host and other guests would not immediately correct the speakers on these two occasions?

Can you still call it a reliable news source when people involved in the show don’t feel obliged—if not obligated—to correct someone when they say something that is obviously false or misleading? 

What is the responsibility of a news outlet like KCRW to correct blatant factual errors in these instances?

And why should a local public radio station like KCRW, be broadcasting political opinions and attitudes that can be heard on several mainstream news outlets like MSNBC and CNN every day of the week anyway?

Doesn’t a public radio station have a greater obligation to cover local political news with local guests and hosts espousing local opinions and attitudes?

First, we get banks too big to fail. Now, KCRW is giving us false statements too outrageous to correct. 

LRC has officially become “Left, Right & Lame.”

Michael Zeno