KQED's Forum

NPR in general has really went off course over the years in getting a balanced perspective on different topics, and has heavily invested in the victim complex narrative. Which over time, is extremely limiting, and regressive to the public, and patronizing to the people who they claim to be the victims. With this said, I was very impressed with how KQED covered the post election cycle, in particular on November 8 where they brought in Mike Madrid. Excellent discussion, which is exactly what the public not only needs, but I believe want, especially those wanting to peel back our current landscape we live in.

Posing as a current events discussion show, Forum managed to studiously ignore the largest news story of 2023-present, the so called “Israel-Gaza war.” Zero Palestinian guests were ever asked onto the program, which instead took its cues from the editorial staff of neo-conservative magazine The Atlantic (that same publication that once sold us Bush’s Iraq War, and whose editor recently colluded with Trump’s state department in a private chat about bombing Yemen). When Forum finally began to address Israel’s genocide of Palestinians two years late (after at least 50 thousand dead, most of them children), they did so in such a cynical way— inviting a vocally anti-Hamas, centrist Egyptian American journalist on the air, only to scorn them for not voting for a pro-genocide politician— that frankly, continued silence from this joke of a show would have been more respectful. As a media outpost of the US government— funded by both the Trump and Biden administrations— it’s no surprise Forum toes the line of the US state department. As to their non-international coverage, it is less terrible, ranging from average (their California political coverage) to pretty good (their coverage on cultural topics, and sometimes local politics). If you skip every episode in which a writer from The Atlantic magazine appears (which seems like literally half of them) and only listen to episodes on specifically California-related topics, then upgrade to three or four stars.

Great guests, timely topics. Alex in particular asks great questions. Always worth a listen!

Thank you!