“Public” broadcasting demonstrates how dramatically one-sided it’s by permitting just one aspect of the “LGBTQIA+” debate — as a result of they consider there must be no debate. There isn’t a defensible place in opposition. On Saturday’s Think about This podcast, Nationwide Public Radio spent greater than 11 minutes mourning the Trump administration’s determination to take away transgender troops from service. [Graphic from NPR’s story.]
The star of the story was Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the previous normal answerable for troops in Afghanistan below President Obama — till he ripped the adminstration in a Rolling Stone profile. Then he needed to go. However since then, McChrystal has develop into an opponent of Trump, and endorsed Joe Biden for president in 2020 and Kamala Harris in 2024, so he is good once more. NPR’s headline:
Former prime normal calls army’s removing of trans troops a pricey mistake
Anchor Scott Detrow set the scene: “The Pentagon is now actively eradicating practically all remaining brazenly transgender troops. Within the parting messages, they and their allies say it is just hurting, not serving to army readiness.” Sure, “they and their allies” have been the one ones they discovered value airing. Producer Lauren Hodges started with McChrystal’s ceremony in a civilian go well with and tie:
LAUREN HODGES: The room applauds as 71-year-old retired four-star normal Stanley McChrystal approaches the rostrum. I am unable to consider he is right here, somebody whispers. Nearly as if he heard them, McChrystal says this into the microphone.
STANLEY McCHRYSTAL: First off, we should not be right here.
HODGES: Here’s a retirement ceremony for 5 transgender service members who’ve been forcibly separated from the army below the Trump administration’s second ban. The occasion has been organized by the [leftist] advocacy group the Human Rights Marketing campaign in lieu of a correct Pentagon ceremony.
McCHRYSTAL: When these professionals lastly resolve to retire, it ought to occur on parade fields, in places of work, on the deck of ships, wherever the House Pressure goes, I do not know.
The NPR bio for Hodges relays: “Lauren works on many beats however leans towards nationwide safety, extremism, reproductive rights, poverty and social justice points.” Her story loaded up on the outraged transgender troops:
KARA CORCORAN: It is systematic oppression. It must be the identical normal of care and the identical course of as anyone would have with a shoulder surgical procedure or a knee surgical procedure, which, by the way in which, for all of the surgical procedures we get, the restoration interval is much less, and we’re again within the battle.
Then got here the inevitable nameless sources. NPR loves these, as a result of it provides Creeping Tyranny drama to the story:
HODGES: W is a transgender girl who serves within the Navy. She has requested to solely go by an preliminary as a result of she’s, quote, “stealth,” that means she’s not out as trans. She presents as a person and hasn’t undergone any gender affirmation surgical procedure. She is aware of she’ll lose her job if it is made public. W says solely about 4 of her colleagues know, and people individuals are serving to by asking questions on her behalf so nobody suspects something….
That have is shared by a fellow sailor, A, who can be stealth and utilizing solely an preliminary for a similar causes as W. However, A, a trans man, is stealth differently.
A: It is two very completely different experiences. You’ve got bought individuals like me, who transitioned previous to the army, so there was no change in paperwork after I joined.
HODGES: When A began boot camp, he pulled a sergeant apart to let her know, and he or she organized for separate showers for, quote, “spiritual causes.”
This foyer is something however God-fearing. There was one soundbite of Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, to denounce the Left in phrases the NPR viewers will despise:
PETE HEGSETH: This administration has achieved an awesome deal from Day 1 to take away the social justice, politically appropriate and poisonous ideological rubbish that had contaminated our division, to tear out the politics. No extra identification months, DEI places of work, dudes in clothes.
The story returned to McChrystal on the finish:
HODGES: Common McChrystal says the separations are a mistake and that they are affecting mission readiness, one of many listed values that Secretary Hegseth claims as a precedence for his Division of Conflict amidst a number of simmering world conflicts.
McCHRYSTAL: God forbid, if we had a serious battle and we have to begin calling all people up, I might hope that we might not instantly say we’re solely going to draft individuals of a sure sort as a result of we would not have sufficient.
