Braude and Eagen Falsely Accuse Others of Lying in a BPR Podcast in Which they Constantly Lie

 Sent to: bpr@wgbh.org, info@wgbh.org, ooffice@npr.org and feedback@npr.org

[Since this concerns the podcast hosted by Jim Braude and Margery Eagan, please share this letter with them.]

To Boston Public Radio

I was truly astounded when I listened to the portion of the podcast "BPR Full Show 3/04" Superintendent Priya Tahiliani Says Brockton Was 'A Perfect Match' having to do with the current battle with Iran.

The podcasts contained an amazing amount of misleading statements, misguided statements and outright lies, something of which that the hosts kept falsely Trump Administration officials, particularly the Secretary of State.

As one of the most prominent examples:

"Secretary of State Marco Rubio seemingly let the truth out yesterday about the rationale for attack. It was actually two days ago for attacking Iran. But of course, he very quickly backtracked.

Here are his original statements.

We knew that there was going to be an Israeli action. We knew that that would precipitate an attack against American forces. And we knew that if we didn't preemptively go after them before they launched those attacks, we would suffer higher casualties.

Somebody asked me a question. I said, did we go in because of Israel? And I said, you asked me, are you from the follow-up?

And I said, no, I told you, this had to happen anyway.

Actually, he did not. But why does that matter?”

But, from the transcript of Rubio's press conference:

"QUESTION:  Are you saying the U.S. was forced to strike because of an impending Israeli action?

"SECRETARY RUBIO:  No, first – well, two things I would say.  Number one is: no matter what, ultimately this operation needed to happen.  That’s the question of why now.  But this operation needed to happen because Iran in about a year or a year and a half would cross the line of immunity, meaning they would have so many short-range missiles, so many drones, that no one could do anything about it because they could hold the whole world hostage."

What Rubio said was not "backtracking;" it was explaining an obvious truth. And what Rubio said was actually an understatement.

Another obvious truth, which Marjorie Eagen occasionally seemed to understand but each time got cut off by Jim Braude, is that however this battle proceeds, it will have undoubtedly made America, as well as the rest of the Western world, a far, far safer place.

Even if the Iranian people, who overwhelming want to release themselves from the boot of their evil Islamic overseers, fail to take back their country, the mullahs regime will have been almost totally defanged and unable to rebuild enough to threaten others for a long time.

One wonders why no attempt was made to include anyone who would provide even a scintilla of balance, something that used to be the norm for any responsible journalists and certainly for any outlet that calls itself public radio.

Thus, there was no mention of the way China was supplying Iran with more advanced missiles and was about to supply Iran with weapons that would threaten American ships.

There was no mention of the Iranian strategy of stretching out negotiations, making absolutely no meaningful concessions, as a means of giving it time to rearm itself.

There was no mention of the way that Iran has been supplying Russia with drones, something that the current battle has obviously slowed or stopped, saving lives in Ukraine, and it's unlikely Iran will be able to resume supplying Russia.

There was no mention of the Iranian regime murdering an estimated 30,000 of its own citizens in a matter of days, while no punches are ever pulled in unfairly demonizing Israel for the civilian death toll in Gaza, a toll that likely was lower than that over a period of years despite Hamas' strategy of using its civilian population as a shield and the unprecedented steps Israel took, endangering its own soldiers, to minimize civilian casualties in Gaza.

By the way, I refer to what's going on as the current battle with Iran, because Trump didn't actually start a war. Rather, Iran started a war with the United States shortly after the Islamists came to power, certainly by the time it took over our embassy and held most of our staff hostage for over a year. It's been attacking us, directly and indirectly through proxies, time after time ever since. What America and Israel together wisely started less than a week ago was just one battle in that war. We should all fervently pray that it will be the final battle, with our victory ending that war.

I do admit writing one thing that wasn't completely true: I wasn't really truly astounded by the perversity of this episode, since I have found it basically par for the course for the show hosted by Ms. Eagan and Mr. Braude.

Sincerely,

Alan Stein