Quoted on NPR
=============

Kiriakou keeps a Google alert on himself, and says he always has.  Two days before the broadcast it returned something that surprised him. 

The citation

NPR had quoted the programme. Kiriakou reports the wording as "Ted Rall, an editorial cartoonist, and CIA whistleblower John Kiriakou discussed", and says he was shocked enough to save the item and had meant to send it to his co-host. 

He pulls it up live and struggles with the paywall and a bot check before reaching it. The piece, he reports, is titled "In Gaza, more Palestinians are killed while awaiting food."  What it drew from the show was the discussion of the unfolding famine. 

The reaction

Neither man treats the citation as routine. Rall's response is to thank NPR on air and to offer both of them as guests; Kiriakou's is to keep repeating that it is shocking.  The joke they settle on is the gap between the show's actual standing and the citation's implication, "like we're a mainstream news source that NPR turns to." 

Why it registers

The surprise has a history behind it. Kiriakou's relationship with NPR is not neutral; he has described walking out on the network before, and his appearances in mainstream American outlets since his conviction have been sparse enough that he tracks them by alert rather than by invitation. 

The item is also a small measure of where his commentary now circulates. The show is a daily independent broadcast that, by both hosts' account in the same episode, does not cover their rent; the material NPR took from it was two men talking about Gaza on a livestream. 

See also

- The NPR walkout
- The Sputnik shutdown
- The concealed carry advertisements
