NPR can be truly maddening. On the other hand, a show like 'All Things Considered' can be read as an unfiltered look into the disinformation machines, operated with great skill by politicians of all stripes. ATC's Melissa Block is an especially helpful conduit, considering that she never asks the obvious or departs from a script that is so narrow that it, itself, seems like it might have been crafted by Eric Holder. Listening to Block's interview with Rep. Hoekstra, my expectations were low:the idea of an experienced Republican politician being given a platform by the credulous Ms. Block made me think of the sound waves turning into a deceptively calm sewage canal.
 Then, suddenly, I heard something that bubbled through the sludge
BLOCK: So Congressman, Eric Holder, the attorney general, was clear yesterday that this investigation will be limited to those who are acting without legal authorization, without the legal guidance. So it's not nearly as broad as you seem to be portraying.
Rep. HOEKSTRA: Well I'm not portraying it, I think you're right. We - they're looking at the ones that operated outside the law. These people have been evaluated and dealt with. Eric Holder is going back and reevaluating them. But one of the things we've learned with special prosecutors is the original parameters don't necessarily always define the scope within they act. All you need to do is ask former President Bill Clinton, all you need to do is ask Scooter Libby, these special prosecutors tend to develop a life of their own, an independent voice that doesn't report to anybody. And I think that's one of the things that we need to take a look at and we need to be aware of.
BLOCK: Congressman Hoekstra, thanks.
Rep. HOEKSTRA: Hey, thank you.
BLOCK: That's Congressman Peter Hoekstra of Michigan. He's the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

   What bubbled through the sludge was, of course, Hoekstra's invocation of the prosecution of President Clinton as an example of a 'special prosecutor' gone wild. 
Consider, first, that this prosecutor gone haywire induced the House of Representatives to impeach him. Consider, next, that the man denouncing Kenneth Starr's witch hunt voted to impeach the President as a result. This is a matter of public record, and if Block did not know offhand Hoekstra's voting record, she could have asked him if he voted for the President's impeachment. No, the man's total hypocrisy went unchallenged by this journalist. The opportunity was lost to discredit him, by the asking of a quite simple question.
If this happens on NPR, it must be far, far worse on other news outlets.