Writes Steve Fairfax:

NPR’s “Ombudsman,” Alicia Shepard, posted a rather pathetic defense of NPR’s policy of using euphemisms such as “enhanced interrogation techniques” for torture.  Her tortured argument (couldn’t resist) is rather difficult to reconcile with her job description: “The Ombudsman is the public’s representative to NPR.”

Hundreds of comments, almost universally critical, were posted, many times the normal volume of comments.

The formidable Glenn Greenwald dissected Shepard’s arguments and uses them to illustrate “the decay of American journalism.”  Greenwald invites Shepard to an interview on Salon Radio.

Shepard disappears for a week.  The Appalachian Trail was not invoked, but despite an intern’s claim that Shepard is unavailable, Shepard makes a 5-minute appearance on another NPR radio show, “On the Media.”  This provokes many more comments from furious NPR listeners.

Shepard refuses Greenwald’s request for an interview, provoking another good dissection by Greenwald.

Shepard posts a follow-up response today, which I predict will be wholly unsatisfactory to NPR listeners.  She references Greenwald’s critique but does not respond to his points, or acknowledge that she has refused his invitation to an interview.

More or less simultaneously, comments to the original offending post are cut off.  Comments to the new posts apparently are subject to new character limitations.  There are allegations of non-profane but highly critical comments being deleted.

Just to cap the irony, Ms. Shepard teaches Media Ethics in the graduate program at Georgetown University.

Reading the many thoughtful comments is both entertaining and cause for hope.  The fact that NPR is a government megaphone is not news to me.  The fact that so many presumably loyal listeners object so vehemently to their prevarications on disgusting criminal behavior is commendable.  The ham-handed attempts to control the critics will only inflame them.  Both NPR and the Washington powers that fund them have failed to learn the first lesson of escaping a hole: stop digging. Yet she posts a follow-up response today.