This is something that mistermix has been telling me for years:
A common question on the left is, “Why is there no liberal talk radio?” That is, no wildly popular liberal version of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Laura Schlesinger. And the answer is: there is. It’s called NPR. When lefties listen to the radio, that’s what they listen to.
In one of the great under-told media success stories of the past decade, NPR has emerged not as the bespectacled schoolmarm of our imagination but as a massive news machine poised for what Dick Meyer, editorial director for digital media, half-jokingly calls “world domination.” NPR’s listenership has nearly doubled since 1999, even as newspaper circulation dropped off a cliff. Its programming now reaches 26.4 million listeners weekly — far more than USA Today’s 2.3 million daily circ or Fox News’ 2.8 million prime-time audience. When newspapers were closing bureaus, NPR was opening them, and now runs 38 around the world, better than CNN. It has 860 member stations — “boots on the ground in every town” that no newspaper or TV network can claim.
I’m not a big fan of NPR news. I find it weasely and annoying, though I do like the stuff from the BBC they run. But it is what lefties listen to.
I wonder if it would be better if NPR broke free of the government and supported itself entirely through private donation. If they fired Juan Williams, Ken Rudin, and Mara Liasson, I’d be happy to start giving them money again.
MikeJ
2% of NPR’s funding comes from the feds. Do you think they’ll get more or less like Fox if they dropped that 2%?
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
NPR rocks. Today, they had a funny story brief on the guy who broke the nearly 20 year old points record for asteroids. He played for three days on one quarter and scored 41 million points. During the segment, they were playing the sound effects of the game. Really brought me back to my youth!
Skippy-san
NPR does something no one else does-they actually take some time to explore their stories in depth. And to tell you the truth, I have never really thought of NPR as “liberal”. They need Juan Williams and Moira Laisson and Ken Rudin. They provide “fair and balanced” in a way Fox will never understand. ( And yes I know that two of the three of them go on Fox-ever watch how much Williams gets beat up on there?).
Add to that NPR has stories by Frank Duford (sp?) and Market Place which is the highlight of my drive home from work.
They just need to get rid of “Fresh Air” and Diane Rheems.
Undercover FBI Agent DougJ
Why? They’re tools.
Radon Chong
NPR is insufferable. This is the organization, remember, that had David Horowitz on to eulogize Howard Zinn.
PeakVT
That is, no wildly popular liberal version of Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity or Laura Schlesinger.
Because liberals are not interested in being told stuff that they already know over and over again. So there will never be a large market for the equivalent.
I wonder if it would be better if NPR broke free of the government and supported itself entirely through private donation.
I don’t see corporate underwriting as an improvement over government funding (which I don’t think NPR receives all that much of anyway).
John S.
I’ve told them this the past two years they have called for my donation.
scarshapedstar
Well, duh, who the fuck ELSE are we lefties gonna listen to? Glenn Beck? The local right-wing screamers?
NPR is no more liberal than CNN. Sure, NPR is generally the only outlet to cover, say, hundreds of thousands of people dying in Africa, and Dittoheads consider this “bleeding-heart liberal bullshit”… but that doesn’t make it true.
I’ll tell you what’s the MOST liberal thing about them, is that they often have these people on talking in funny furriner accents, and they don’t do the condescending CNN-style closed captions for a person with better diction than the average American’s because you can’t do subtitles on the radio. I guess they could dub it over with someone ‘translating’ their Eurospeak it into a nice thick southern drawl, but they’re just too prejudiced against Real Muricans to do so.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I’d add the weaselly PUMA Scot Simon to the “needs to go list.” At this point, I pretty much only listen to podcasts. I still send money, because I’d feel guilty listening to the podcasts if didn’t pay. God, I’m a liberal totebagger cliché. and I like Fresh Air, usually. So I guess I’m a middlebrow, liberal, totebagger cliché. I gotta go watch my DVR recordings of TDSWJS, Colbert, and the Rachel Maddow show, as I sip on a nice Malbec.
Brian J
I can’t say I listen to NPR much, but unless the few times I have in the last couple of months are an exception, the comparison isn’t even remotely accurate. Those on the left might like NPR, but that’s where the similarities seem to end. Is there even one personality who has a similar style and/or influence of Rush or Hannity? If there is, why haven’t I heard of them?
Now, this is off topic, but since pretty much anything involving Michael Steele is funny, I thought I’d share this:
The article might be behind a paywall, but if you can read it, it’s even more proof that Michael Steele is a blessing for the Democrats. Imagine how well they might be doing if they had competent leadership.
superking
I like NPR. Not enough to contribute, mind you, but I like free riding on the contributions of all you idiots. NPR is good for basic information. I actually think it is a nice substitute for a daily newspaper–it gives me nice background information that I can use to understand what is happening on the blogs and The Daily Show.
However, they have a tendency to be a little smarmy and to look for easy answers. The things that annoy me the most is not their political coverage but their cultural coverage, i.e. music, movies, theater, etc. Those all tend toward the interest of older, white, affluent listeners. Their music coverage is particularly bad–I can never believe them when one of their anchors is interviewing a musician, whether that musician is old motown singer, an old jazz musician, or a pre-approved young indie band. Those are pretty much all they cover. It’s difficult to listen to them try to cover that stuff with any sincerity.
Anyway, NPR is actually good for international news, because they do have people in actual field offices.
cleek
NPR can be great. it can also be a face-palm-creating nightmare. when they go off and do a 10 minute piece on something i knew nothing about: great; when they spend 10 seconds glossing over a political issue in one of their attempts to say nothing about something: nightmare.
@scarshapedstar: exactly.
Silver Owl
I stopped listening to NPR in the mornings because they got into the silliness of Cokie Roberts other nonsensical poor performing morons and always featuring one bat shit crazy republican after another with no rebuttal.
It’s okay outside of the morning drive time. During that time it’s republican peter blowing time rather real news. It is just crap now.
Ailuridae
So the liberal response to conservative talk radio is NPR which, on its best days, is centrist and most days tilts center-right?
I think on the demographics point you are right – if liberals are listening to talk radio its likely NPR. Its also interesting that NPR will emerge out of this media meltdown as a near-private analogue to BBC with their radio driving their version of print (which will just be on-line articles.
Toast
Spamming my comment from Drum’s post:
I want to caveat this by saying that I think NPR is going to far recently by going to, for example, a world-class scumbag like Erick Erickson for commentary, but that said…
NPR reflects the liberal mind, which at its root is ideologically ecumenical. Liberals may hew towards preferred outcomes, but we are predisposed to listening to a variety of points of views. Krugman got at this recently, riffing on the fact that liberals don’t reflexively cheer the expansion of government the way conservatives cheer its pruning. Chait got at it in that great piece a few years back explaining how liberals were not, by nature, ideological, but rather were striving for social outcomes without being married to particular means.
This is the *primary* difference between right and left right now, and it’s what makes conversation with conservatives impossible. They reason from fixed ideological axioms that we don’t (and can’t, and shouldn’t) share. Because they’re wrong.
They seem to have a pugnaciously adolescent fervor for Either/Or mentality. The market can’t be good for some things but not others; It is GOOD. The government, likewise, can’t be suited to some tasks but not others; It is BAD. The typical “FDR” liberal, who sees market capitalism as a net positive to society as long as government regulates it at the margins, is a cypher to them. They can’t understand that sort of mixed-mode thinking, so they falsely label us as their polar opposites. They’re Randians, thus we’re “socialists” or “communists”. Again, it makes intelligent discourse impossible.
But I digress. Back to NPR. Their flagship shows, Morning Edition and ATC, *deliberately* sample opinions and ideas from all over the map. They also feature Marketplace every night, one of the only business/economy shows I find listenable because it’s not just a “HIGH/LOW! BUY/SELL! shoutfest”. And during the day they feature – when they’re not offering classical or (barf) jazz – news and commentary and documentary from all walks of American life. You never really know what the hell you’re going to hear on NPR. It’s an adventure, albeit one narrated in carefully-modulated tones. That sort of programming is caviar to the liberal palate but toxic to right-wingers who desperately need to have their worldview shored up every moment of every day.
Undercover FBI Agent DougJ
So the liberal response to conservative talk radio is NPR which, on its best days, is centrist and most days tilts center-right?
Yes.
scarshapedstar
Oh, and needless to say, when I write “NPR is no more liberal than CNN” I don’t mean that either one is remotely liberal.
I mean that they’re both quite likely to feature Cokie Roberts interviewing Karl Rove about how awesome teabaggers are at some point during the week.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: you forgot your arugula salad…
Scamp Dog
I’ve forgotten where I first heard it, but I now think that NPR really stands for Nice Polite Republicans.
A few weeks back I recall hearing an NPR political reporter say something like “some say that Perot threw the election to Bill Clinton.” That didn’t seem right, so a moment’s Googling found an article saying that exit polls showed that slightly more than half of Perot voters would have voted for Clinton if they didn’t vote for Perot. To top it off, even if the closer states had gone Bush’s way, Clinton still would have won the electoral college.
So either he didn’t know the real story, or he was trying to avoid getting beaten up by conservatives by stating something they don’t like. The “some say” is the tip-off for me to think that he did know.
NPR is better than the rest of the US media, but that’s a lot like being the smartest kid in the special ed class. I’m not impressed.
Mike Furlan
NPR
After 8 years of looking the other way about GW, they decide to “fact check” Obama’s first State of the Union.
Hard to listen to them for more than 10 minutes.
As an alternative try wbai.org for lots of interesting programs. (As well as the loony ones.)
Belafon (formerly anonevent)
Totally OT, but a reply button with the word “Reply” appears in the bottom right corner of the comment I hover my mouse over; when i click on that reply button, I get a reply link.
mvr
Well, that lefty folks listen is doesn’t make them at all lefty. They do have more info than other news sources except maybe the web and some newspapers. But they’re at best center left when they have a slant, and at worst center right. They were, for instance, rooting for Sarkozy as far as I could tell in the last French election. JW, ME & co are all both pretty right wing and pretty boringly conventional in what they say (which fits since the conventional wisdom in the US is center/right).
But some of the other shows, This American Life in particular, run on NPR stations (but funded by the other public radio outfit, if I’m not mistaken), do sometimes present a genuinely alternative perspective. We do, or my wife does, give to our local NPR affiliate. But I do wish they’d get a better team to cover politics and I do wish they’d not let the people work on the side for Fox. Perhaps if they had to quit one of the two gigs they’d go to Fox and we’d get some better replacements. I also tend to enjoy the old-timers more than their younger personnel.
But now I’m rambling . . .
JK
“I’m not a big fan of NPR news”
In that case, you should listen to Democracy Now http://www.democracynow.org
and Free Speech Radio News http://fsrn.org
beltane
I have a love/hate relationship with NPR. Their political analysis is just about as bad as anything on CNN, and is largely unlistenable. However, their reporting on international and environmental issues, when not involving US politics, is top notch.
The success of NPR is a bit of a surprise to me. But since everyone I know likes to discuss NPR stories they recently heard, that should have been a tip as to how many people regularly tune in.
BruceFromOhio
I can always count on the Republican point of view first and foremost in any political story from NPR.
And hearing Cokie Roberts on Monday mornings makes me long for a Jack Daniels hangover, a punk band in the garage after midnight, and the early shift at 6am, because listening to her gasbaggery is that fucking painful.
Yeah, that’s what liberals are subjecting themselves to these days. Good times, good times.
Toast
Crap. My giant comment is stuck in moderation.
demo woman
NPR thinks that tasty lettuce and good mustard is not elitist so they must be liberal.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
@Toast: Can you repost this on facebook (you’ll have to be my friend first) so I can click that I “like” this? Great comment.
mattH
They had a “reasonable” editorial from a former Executive Producer of NPR on last night that was pure anti-unionist tripe. Not liberal now, maybe they’d become more liberal if they weren’t occasionally influenced by having their funding threatened by Republican-dominated Congresses. A big part of why it’s listened to by liberals is the non-national programs like Fresh Air and This American Life.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Mike Furlan:
True, just this morning on the mini-business report they do, an analyst was saying that we need–
–extended unemployment benefits. The reporter dutifully started chirping “…but, but… the deficit!”. That morning report has taken a decided right turn since they changed hosts about three or four months ago.
Ty Lookwell
I have a hard time thinking of NPR staff that I wouldn’t fire.
Scott Simon leads the list. Followed by Cokie, and Juan, and Adam Davidson, and Inskeep, and Guy Raz, and so on. And no more reports from Central and South America from Juan Forero, for dog’s sake. And don’t forget that it usually isn’t NPR operating alone; it’s usually paired with PRI’s offerings, like the horrible “Marketplace” economic reporting.
This:
is one of the reasons that NPR’s radio dominance is so harmful to the political debate for the left (kneejerk center-right, pro-military, pro-Washington DC consensus elitist positioning. Listen to today’s “Talk of the Nation” discussion on the WikiLeaks video to see what I mean, and compare it to the BBC’s World Service reports).
Unfortunately, he’s burnt out, but the blogger who ran NPRCheck for years was doing God’s work.
Taylor
I stopped listening to NPR when they took on Barbara Bradley Hagerty. I used to contribute too. I’m never going back.
There were other things too. During the 2000 presidential election, Renee Montaigne hosted a post-debate focus group made up entirely of elderly white Southern men. They gave the debate to Bush. I shit you not.
I don’t think it’s deliberate bias. Just lazy smug inside-the-Beltway conventional wisdom.
WNYC has some good discussion with Brian Lehrer and Leonard Lopate. Telling that NPR would rather broadcast Diane Rehm, whose show reeks of Beltway CW.
Thank goodness the internet provides the BBC. Although it seems like every British PM at some point mutters, Who will rid me of this meddlesome broadcaster?
Frank
Sometimes NPR screws up really bad, but it tries to provide detailed and accurate coverage.
Heck, I’ve listened to stories on NPR, then read about the same story in the New York Times or Philly Inquirer (used to live in the Philly area) and found no facts in the long newspaper story that weren’t already included in the 10 or 20 minute NPR piece. (Where I live now, any news in the paper that isn’t local is AP. It’s the same paper I grew up with umpty-ump years ago–it was AP then.)
NPR is not liberal, nor is it perfect. But it actually tries to be fair and balanced in substance, not in slogan.
Wait! Wait! Don’t Tell Me!
I guess that makes it Liberal, because truth leans left.
Ailuridae
@Undercover FBI Agent DougJ:
I guess you’re right, to a degree. I’ve never fact-checked Ed Schultz’s claim that he substantially beats Hannity in markets he is allowed to compete in, but if that’s true it seems to hurt the underlying assumption. Somebody is listening to Ed Schultz then, right?
Toast upthread touched on what I think is the larger issue: progressives don’t have a mindset/world view that is nearly as susceptible to constantly being worked up into a frothy fauxrage the way conservatives do.
FWIW, I think NPR as a news gathering organization is better than most but still awful. Their coverage of the lead-up to the Iraq War was nothing short of mindless cheer leading and was considerably worse than the reporting the WSJ did despite the editorial page there producing some of the most over the top pro-war pieces of the time.
I can’t find the links to it but sometime shortly before or after the 2004 election Media Matters (and it was likely David Brock) did a breakdown on the conservative slant of commentators and interviewees on NPR and it was roughly 2:1 in favor of conservatives.
jeffreyw
i used to listen to the local pbs station when I was still driving to work everyday. Since I retired I almost never listen to the radio. Starship Sofa and Escape Pod podcasts on my ipod do me very well. (And they make mowing the yard almost fun.)
Ailuridae
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine:
+1
mr. whipple
That’s just sad. Nice, polite Republicans and tote baggers faux concerned with the dying lifestyles of Portuguese smelt fisherman and frond weavers of the South Pacific.
The tofu of radio. Zzzzzzzz.
Toast
@Gordon, The Big Express Engine
Shoot me your real name on FB at fanmail at twoglasses dot com. I’m pretty, er, liberal about FB friending. ;-)
freelancer (itouch)
@Toast:
Not anymore. And it’s fairly solid in its analysis. You make a lot of good points.
Gordon, The Big Express Engine
By the way, I think it’s a rule that Balloon Juice has to have a “does NPR suck?” thread every few months or so. It reminds me of Cosmopolitan trotting out their “how to please your man” article every fourth issue. Not that I read Cosmo or anything…
Toast
Yes. Exactly.
Sometimes they screw up really badly. I freaked out the third time they had Erickson’s commentary on and emailed both my local affiliates, telling them the checks were going to stop if this shit kept up. But in my heart of hearts I know I’m not going anywhere. NPR is the *only* station I can listen to for news because I know I’m not getting bashed in the face with a fixed viewpoint. Much as I loathe some of the voices they use to achieve that cred, it’s worth it.
SpotWeld
I miss the Bryant Park proejct
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Ailuridae:
Can’t speak for Schultz, but Sam Seder says he was beating Hannity (and I think Li’l Reagan and Michael “Savage” Wiener) in NYC and Portland, and that AAR lost ratings every time it cancelled him. He argues that AAR went down due to fraud at its founding, followed by massive incompetence by the next two owner/managers.
arguingwithsignposts
I don’t have so many problems with NPR per se – the planet money team does a genuinely good job, and I think even some of their anchors are better than the average broadcast journalist, but some of the American Public Radio stuff, specifically “Marketplace” with Megan McArglebargle and David Frum spewing outright lies is something I can’t stand.
That said, the “local stations” can sometimes have the shittiest one-source excuses for journalism I’ve ever heard.
ETA: I don’t know that NPR would just survive on donations alone. 1 local station just cancelled all their weekend programming (lake wobegon, car talk, etc.) because of huge budget cuts to the university that’s partially subsidizing them. That listener-supported thing is partly myth.
Chris Howard
I’m surprised nobody else mentioned Erickson besides Toast. Juan Williams and Cokie Roberts are bad enough, but they’re pretty typical beltway types. Erickson’s a nutjob, as all readers of this blog are already aware. Like others here, I find myself torn. The political coverage makes me want to heave a brick through my radio, but they also do in-depth stories on interesting topics that no one else does on broadcast radio, not to mention the great shows like This American Life, Wait, Wait… etc…
danimal
The left/right divide is asymetric, and NPR fills the needs of liberals in a way that many of you don’t acknowledge. Liberalism, at its’ core, is about making reasoned, compassionate choices based on an empirical understanding of the commonweal. NPR, to a much higher degree than other national media outlets, provides information that allows liberals to make reasoned judgments on the events of the day.
Are they liberal? Not usually, but we can make up our own minds on the opinion pieces and commentators. What we do need is less filtered news, and NPR provides that better than the networks, or cable tv, or most newspapers.
Litlebritdifrnt
@PeakVT:
What you said, I was listening to Hannity today (gawd that man is Shrill) it is the same talking points over, and over, and over, and over again, there is no news, there is no nuance, there is nothing but “Obama is a scary black guy and we have to vote republicans in in 2010” over and over again, that is all it is. In fact today Hannity kept saying how “scared” he was of Obama’s new nuclear weapon policy, I thought he was about to shit his pants, they are popular because they are saying what the rubes want to hear, they will never hear a contrary opinion because their tin foil coated brains cannot comprehend it. They WANT to hear their ideas spouted again, and again, and again.
Dennis G.
Word!
gbear
I’ve been a member forever, mostly because of MN public radio is just too good to abandon, but I can’t remember the last time that I’ve been able to make the three mile drive home from work without reflexively shutting off off All Things Considered due to some insufferably smug bit of crap they think is serious news.
The first thing that MPR needs to do is get their sorry smug insider asses out of DC and back to New York City. Second thing they need to do is fire everybody involved with Morning Edition and All Things Considered and hire a new crew where NO one is making a six-figure salary.
Radon Chong
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: FWIW, I actually completely stopped listening to Air America when they cancelled Seder.
Toast
@danimal
Well put.
SIA
Liberals don’t get juiced up by the venom in the same way as righties. We like our venom refined and original. For this reason, I am often embarassed by Keith Olbermann & Ed Schultz.
arguingwithsignposts
@Chris Howard:
To be honest, I get most of my public radio stuff via podcast, so thankfully I’ve been spared the Eric son of Eric shit. But yeah, that would make my blood boil. Not a “driveway moment,” more like a ditch-on-the-side-of-the-road moment.
clonecone
@Skippy-san: Marketplace isn’t an NPR program. It’s produced by American Public Media.
Toast
BTW, I want to share that I never listened to more than 15 minutes of Air America over its entire run. Not in a day; TOTAL.
Also, while I love Maddow and like Olbermann, I don’t go out of the way to watch them unless someone flags a good segment.
Reason? I find it incredibly irritating to imbibe a passive medium where all I’m getting is what I already know confirmed. My own worldview buttressed. Don’t need it, thanks. I’m an adult.
The same mostly holds in the blogosphere. I don’t read blogs that have an agenda. I read the serious analysts (Benen, Klein, etc.) and sites like this where I know my assumptions will be challenged at least weekly. If I want to know what I know, I read my own blog archives.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
I’m agnostic on their news coverage, although it is vastly better than most tripe you get on TV. But I think the truly great thing about NPR is the programming–Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, Prairie Home Companion, This American Life (yes, I know it’s PRI, but that’s a distinction without a difference), etc which evince a liberal viewpoint through non-reporting means.
Loneoak
I love NPR. Listen all day, donate automatically every month. I guess haters gonna hate, but really? Hate on NPR?
There’s this odd attitude that some people have (exemplifeid for me by DougJ’s post here) that unless some cultural product is perfect it is not worth consuming. Yup, I hate Juan Williams, but I just yell at my radio and wait for a better story. NPR is the ONLY non-written news source that actually does reporting with narrative cohesion, doesn’t have commercials, values their listener’s intellect, etc., etc. Teri Gross is fucking queen of the universe as far as I’m concerned.
This is a bullshit whinge about how they have a couple shitty conservatives and so we shouldn’t ever listen or support. Whatever.
Litlebritdifrnt
@SIA:
Except some times they are so spot on you have to say “yayyyyyyy” or is that just me?
hitchhiker
For years I listened to the Morning Edition while I was taking my shower, but I find that I just can’t stand those knowing voices anymore. So sure of themselves, so oblivious, so annoying. Steve Inskeep is the worst, with his smarmy, self-satisfied laugh — yuck.
Stopped giving them money when they had Rove on to tell all about how he had out-geniused the Democrats.
Out of habit, I do turn the thing on just long enough to make sure the world is still more or less as it was when I went to sleep . . . that’s a holdover from the morning I turned it on and they were saying that the World Trade Center was rubble.
The podcast world has replaced radio almost completely, and I find that the choices there are far more diverse and interesting than anything on radio. The BBC is an amazing world.
Litlebritdifrnt
@Loneoak: I tend to give Juan a whole boat load of leeway seeing as he was brave enough to go on Fox News and cry when Obama got nominated and then when he got elected, despite his right wing creds he was adult enough to accept the history of the moment and he wept for his parents. I give him something for that.
SIA
@Litlebritdifrnt: Oh no, it’s not just you. I often feel the same way, that sigh of relief when they give voice to something no one else is. I give Keith full credit for being one of the first people on TV to speak courageously against the Iraq war and the Bush administration. And I respect Rachel’s disciplined, well-researched programming.
It’s just when KO gets down in the muck with his animus against Fox, O’Reilly, Limbaugh, and other irrelevancies, or when Rachel gets too cutesy and smug, that I have to turn them off.
ETA: As for Ed Schultz, the fact that his voice drains the life force out of my body leaves me unable to listen to him for any reason whatsoever!
clonecone
@The Main Gauche of Mild Reason: It’s not a distinction without a difference. NPR does not produce, fund or distribute Prairie Home Companion or This American Life. Too often I read comments from people defending NPR because of quality shows like This American Life. NPR doesn’t deserve the credit for something they do not produce.
BR
NPR went downhill over the last several years. They’ve had too much unnecessary “balance” on issues that don’t have “two sides” – something they didn’t succumb to years ago but started to recently. It’s the sort of nonsense that keeps me from listening to them anymore, or really watching/listening to any mainstream news…
Toast
@hitchhiker
And yet that segment gave us one of our most satisfying Rove moments. “I have the ‘real’ numbers.” Yeah, right, you fat, delusional, lying subhuman piece of shit. That segment didn’t serve Rove, except perhaps as his epitaph.
Randy G
@John S.:
Same here. I’ll also add Don Gonyea, with his horribly one-sided, often literally, ongoing reporting on the tea partiers.
I used to listen to NPR a lot, but now just for a handful of specialty and local shows.
The Main Gauche of Mild Reason
@clonecone:
Well, yes, but if you’re talking about public support/donations and how many people listen to the radio station–these things are supported all together on the same local public radio stations. Maybe it’s more correct to say “public radio is great”.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@Litlebritdifrnt: He has his moments, but its hard to give him credit when he calls Michelle Obama “Stokely Carmichael in a sleeveless dress”, which is incoherent and obnoxious and offensive on two or three different levels, and his concern-trollery and passive-aggressive commentary on NPR, egged on by Scotty the PUMA, is infuriating. And he was defending Ken Starr way back when Fox News was barely testing the waters as an ideological machine.
Ailuridae
@gbear:
When I lived in MN I was blown away by how much MPR improved the overall product of NPR.
Ked
I can’t believe the conversation has gotten this far without touching on Irrational Public Radio
I mean, what’s the internet coming to these days?
Sheesh.
I now return myself to my regularly scheduled Buffy watching. Gawd I love Netflix + Xbox.
Walker
My wife hates, hates, hates NPR. Despite what everyone is saying, about how in depth they are, their coverage actually tends to be very shallow. It is just that people listen to NPR and then believe that they know the story in depth, when they don’t. And it can make some NPR listeners unsufferable.
tim
NPR lost me for good in the runup to the Iraq War, when after a few token stabs at truth-telling, they got right on board with the Bush program and began interviewing troops on the ground through the wonderfully psycho “embed” program, about things like how they took a dump in the sand, and how awesome the war was going to be. I wanted to vomit.
Never listen to their “news” shows anymore; Nichelle Morris and Melissa Block with their cloying, fake, smug tones and knowing little fake chuckles make me, again, want to vomit.
Terri Gross, This American Life are about all I can stand anymore.
The only reason many liberals listen to center/right NPR is because there is NOTHING on the air as an alternative.
Hawes
NPR has something that other news organizations don’t. They have the time to tell more of the story than TV and they are largely reality based in ways that cable news isn’t. Their interviews last longer than a soundbite.
Colin McEnroe has a good show, and some of the other talk shows spend minutes rather than seconds talking about issues.
I don’t love NPR, but it’s better than just about any broadcast news that I can think of.
And it has Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.
Llelldorin
I used to be a loyal AAR listener–I quit when their best host left for the Senate. The oi-yoi-yoi show basically got me through the Bush administration.
Best program intro ever was right after Katrina, when Franken got back from a vacation: “Last week, when I went on vacation, I left Rachel Maddow in charge. Last week, Bush went on vacation, but did he leave Rachel Maddow in charge? HE DID NOT!“
Tazistan Jen
@Taylor:
This. I can’t listen anymore and I used to be a huge fan.
joel hanes
Taylor @ 31
You are insufficiently cynical. And probably young.
NPR was genuinely center-left liberal about thirty years ago.
When they lost the bulk of their public funding, and had to accept major support from the conservative Kroc family foundation, the tone changed rather abruptly; certain kinds of things were no longer covered, certain viewpoints no longer had a voice. And Bush 43 appointed Ken Tomlinson, a corrupt Republican political operative to the parent CPB with the express intent of preventing any actual threat to the Permanent Republican Majority.
Toast
@Hawes I like McEnroe’s NPR show ok, but he’s definitely undergone a weird NPR-ification. I really miss Colin & Bruce on TIC. Great local radio and it got shitcanned for no good reason.
Shafter Wasco
The most insufferable and hacktastic moron of them all is Cokie Roberts. You could take her clips from 1995, re-edit them slightly, and replay them today, on any topic, and no one would know the better. Its always a variant of 1) this is trouble for Democrats, 2) people really don’t like what Democrats are doing, 3) the politicians are all just play-acting – all this partisanship and its consequences aren’t real, 4) its always been like this or 5) wouldn’t it be great if it could be like it used to be.
All inconsistent, incoherent, fact-free “he-said, she-said” and “the truth is probably in between” – “which is bad news for Democrats” – bullshit.
I see three or four others called her out, up-thread, as well.
I no longer listen to NPR, either (as of January) – and find “weasely” a good description of why I couldn’t take it anymore.
Geoduck
@JK:
Just dittoing JK’s comment. It’s not available in a lot of places, but if you want to hear real left-wing news, check out Pacifica’s various news programs.
MikeJ
@Hawes:
Do you ever listen to CBC? BBC? RFI?
There’s nothing special about NPR. Sucking not quite as much ass as the rest of the American media doesn’t mean you don’t suck ass.
hitchhiker
@Toast:
I meant after the 2004 fiasco . . . when he was The Architect, giving himself a victory lap in one of the most depressing months of my life.
hamletta
I work weird hours, so I get Terri Gross on the way in to work, classical music on the way home, “Says You” (love) on the way to church, and “Splendid Table” and/or “Prairie Home Companion” on the way home.
It’s all fabulous!
However, if I have a 10:00 meeting, I’m subjected to the wankfest that is “Talk Of the Nation,” so I feel your pain.
Ailuridae
@Walker:
Yep.
JBerardi
I’d agree with a lot of the criticisms regarding NPR presented here, but that said, they do air some fantastic stuff. Personally I love, love, love the On Point friday news roundtable. It has Jack Beatty, and Jack Beatty is friggin’ awesome (and somehow his name never comes up here).
trollhattan
Lefties listen to Pacifica, not NPR, but I do understand it’s just one big hottub full o’ commie media in the general public’s eye.
“Marketplace” is American Public Media, not NPR.
General public knowledge about who owns and broadcasts what is sorely lacking, but broadcasters also like keeping us in the dark. Remember back in the good old days when the biggest threat from our Kenyan-in-Chief was restoration of the Fairness Doctrine? Ah, good times.
Let’s do it!
Comrade Kevin
@MikeJ:
Most people in this country don’t listen to radio while sitting at their computer, and those outfits aren’t generally available here over the air, apart from some of the BBC programs.
I miss the old CBC Newsworld International cable channel I used to get, which was killed off to create Current TV.
Joe Buck
NPR isn’t particularly liberal, though certainly compared to the AM dial they are. Their 5-minute news summaries generally echo Republican spin, and they officially forbid the use of the word “torture” to describe anything that the US does. Some of their leading political commentators either also work for Fox News; real leftists are mostly invisible on the station.
PBS has Bill Moyers, NPR doesn’t have anyone that progressive.
MikeJ
@Comrade Kevin: I usual listen while hiking/running, so I download stuff.
BTW, if you’re going to watch BBC news, make sure you get BBC International, not BBC America. BBCA is non-stop right wing bullshit.
Bloix
Every morning during the health care debate we had sound bite after sound bite of Boehner or McConnell or some other Republican lying asshole. And just this morning I listened to some sonofabitch telling us how that massacre-by-helicopter was an honest mistake.
And OMG how I hate Scott Simon. Hyuck hyuck chortle hyuck.
some other guy
NPR is about as “liberal” as the Democratic party, which is to say not very.
That said, both are about a million times better than their alternatives.
Tattoosydney
@MikeJ:
I don’t automatically disbelieve you, but this seems incredible – that the English national broadcaster could spout right wing US talking points…
Can you expand on this a bit?
Thomas
I listen to NPR nearly every day at work. I can’t tell you how many times in the past year they’ve done some variation of the “What’s the future of conservatism” story. I’m not even kidding the aggregate amount of airtime has to be in 3 figures of hours spent on that topic since the 2008 election. I think they know many people consider them liberal so they go out of their way, to a fault, to have conservatives on.
Vince CA
I’d give to my local NPR affiliate if I had a full-time job (KQED in the Bay Area), but yeah, TotN has got to show Neil Conan the door (the back door, fire exit preferably).
I’ve learned to love Ken Rudin. Sure he’s a milquetoast, but he’s thrice as educated and actually articulate, unlike any dimbulb they usually have on TotN. I find him charming to Neil Conan’s 1/7th of a menorah.
I used to hate Terri Gross and Fresh Air, but I’ve learned to like that, too. Really, if I had a job, KQED brought back Pacific Time (what a great program! Every one of them in the archive is a gem), and Neil Conan was replaced by somebody who didn’t give rocks about baseball (I know it’s sacrilege, but the majority of the nation doesn’t give two bits about baseball analogies), I’d find $10/mo. again for them, even if it was just for Ira Flatow.
Marketplace is the shining beacon during my weekday car rides. I love that program. They have a slant, they’re upfront about it, and the reporting is eighteen levels above anything else you’ll find in print or online. Wow. And I’m in love with Kai Ryssdal’s voice. Ahh. That man can do the numbers anytime for me.
JBerardi
@Taylor:
Diane Rehm cracks me up, ever since Dana Snyder revealed that he uses her voice is the basis for Granny Squidbilly.
Her show is… acceptable.
Comrade Kevin
@Tattoosydney: In short, he is full of shit.
Anne Laurie
@superking:
You mean, those “older, white, affluent listeners” who actually donate on a regular basis? The ones whose contributions allow you to “free ride”? Let me introduce you to the Golden Rule, my child: Him that gives the gold, makes the rule!
Srlsy, Toast is right about the inevitable liberal-vs-conservative “battle” for any supposedly neutral media outlet. Anthony Trollope talks in his Autobiography about trying to start a “nonpartisan” newspaper that would be open to all intelligent, reasonable points of view; he discovered, to his sorrow, that while liberals would contribute to a paper that carried conservative articles, conservatives would only contribute to (or pay for) a paper that reinforced their prejudices, without exception.
Vince CA
And I should follow up with: my wife loves Pacifica, even gives to their pledge drive. I find them to be a bit like the kool kids at kos: I love ’em, but man, it’s doing nothing for my brain or my politics.
The Jim Leher News hour that KQED carries and it’s stupid corporate affliliates is such a P.O.S. Honestly even if I had a job and $10/mo. to spare, just the fact that they air that show (and Brooks and Dione, my god, what a waste of air!) is enough to make me want to listen to the Herbal Highway on KPFA instead.
Liberty60
What I find interesting about radio, is the tone of the voices.
Listen to drive-time AM radio, and NPR, with it so low you can only hear the buzz of conversation-
The NPR deejays have that patented slow, oddly stilted cadence, rising and falling in a soothing smug self satisfied drone, repeating facts and figures like a college professor.
AM deejays always have the Rush-inspired tone- bristling, with barely suppressed rage and exasperation, sounding always like a scolding parent to a wayward adolescent- tapping papers on the desk, voices rising into a fever pitch, dripping with sarcasm and cynicism.
It doesn’t matter the issue, or facts- they are always, wildly angry, furious and outraged about everything.
This was true ever since Rush pioneered his AM angry white-guy schtick back in the 90’s.
Which is part of why so many people explain the Tea Party as not a coherent organization with ideas and goals, but just a group powered by tribal rage and resentment. these are the ones who have been listening to AM deejays for 20 years.
Liberty60
What I find interesting about radio, is the tone of the voices.
Listen to drive-time AM radio, and NPR, with it so low you can only hear the buzz of conversation-
The NPR deejays have that patented slow, oddly stilted cadence, rising and falling in a soothing smug self satisfied drone, repeating facts and figures like a college professor.
AM deejays always have the Rush-inspired tone- bristling, with barely suppressed rage and exasperation, sounding always like a scolding parent to a wayward adolescent- tapping papers on the desk, voices rising into a fever pitch, dripping with sarcasm and cynicism.
It doesn’t matter the issue, or facts- they are always, wildly angry, furious and outraged about everything.
This was true ever since Rush pioneered his AM angry white-guy schtick back in the 90’s.
Which is part of why so many people explain the Tea Party as not a coherent organization with ideas and goals, but just a group powered by tribal rage and resentment. these are the ones who have been listening to AM deejays for 20 years.
Jon H
Real liberals listen to the BBC.
With the RadioBOX app on my iPhone I can even listen to the various radio streams that way, without being tied to my computer or dependent on the local NPR station’s schedule.
Sounds good, too.
john b
i like diane rehm. she don’t take no shit.
now when it’s being guest-hosted and it’s not kattie kay, it’s no good.
Wile E. Quixote
I want to destroy NPR, not only because they hire useless Republican twats like Juan “Professional Negro” Williams and Mara “Just Another One of Rupert Murdoch’s Ass-Whores” Liasson but also because they’ve been waging a war against low powered FM stations for years because they’re afraid of the competition they would provide. NPR isn’t an alternative to corporate radio, it’s just alternative corporate radio.
I’ve thought about how I would destroy NPR and if I had the money I’d get licenses for a bunch of radio stations and have them rebroadcast the BBC World Service and the CBC. Within 6 months NPR would be as dead as Jerry Falwell, and good fucking riddance.
Jon H
What I hate about NPR is their apparent policy of hiring people with scratchy monotone voices.
The woman who reports from France drives me up a wall, but it’s not just her. Steve Inskeep seems to have the style of “my only inflection is to TALK LOUDER”.
The BBC has me spoiled, I admit it.
Cain
@Ty Lookwell:
I actually like listening to MarketPlace. Each to his own I guess.
In general I like NPR. I never listen to their political commentary, but they cover items that you would never find on any tv. Whether cruising down the bayou with the sound of insects in high fidelity where you it seems your car transformed into a boat to the sounds of war in Afghanistan. Nobody can give you that experience other than NPR.
When nobody was covering it; NPR repeatedly went back to New Orleans and kept covering that story, and the recovery. Kudos to them. NPR makes me happy. I think some of you have a purist mindset and the fact that you find good things and bad things is probably a reflection of what you’re most sensitive too. Bullshit abounds I agree, send em mail.
cain
Jon H
@Vince CA: “I used to hate Terri Gross and Fresh Air, but I’ve learned to like that, too”
Her interviews with Gene Simmons of KISS(mp3), where Simmons was an ass, and the later interview of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, in which Triumph spoofed Simmons (I’m pretty sure without her prior knowledge that he’d do it), were awesome radio.
petorado
When W got into office and placed his moles into the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, that was the beginning of the end. News coverage was no longer brave, but instead turned meek like the rest of the major news outlets. Dutifully, NPR always made sure to get the right’s point of view on everything, featuring voices of any other perspective less and less.
Now, Republicans control only the Supreme Court, but NPR defers to the right’s perspective in all matters. It’s as if no other voices are worth listening to. If you took a drink every time NPR had a political story where only Republicans were featured, you’d be plastered before the end of Morning Edition.
When they do their pledge drives, they should give donors dashboard-mounted salt shaker with large holes so listeners can take their drive time political coverage with the appropriate large grains of salt.
Wile E. Quixote
@Ked:
I had never heard of Irrational Public Radio before. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have enriched my life.
Tattoosydney
@Comrade Kevin:
That may be the explanation – I can accept that BBC America might invite right wing nut bags on air through some sense of “balance” (and note from their web site at least one interview with Jonah Doughpants).
However, if the suggestion is that the Beeb – that government owned paragon of British respectability and objectivity – might be broadcasting “non-stop right wing bullshit”, then that needs a bit more justification than a simple assertion.
Cain
@arguingwithsignposts:
OPB has been kind of up and down. I do however love to listen to “Think Out Loud” which has given me perspective on things that I never had before. Especially when we have police shootings. Everybody shows up on there and we get a very polite, respectful airing of viewpoints between protesters and police.
cain
MikeJ
@Tattoosydney:
BBC America isn’t the English national broadcaster. They’re just another outlet trying to sell ad time. The ads they run during the news that aren’t PI[1] stuff are all upscale, and their news coverage is tilted towards what old, rich, white people want to hear.
As an example, in the 2008 election, they decided to see what “real America” is like. They went to Culpeper, VA (population 10k) and talked to old white people. They decided that there was no way Virgina was ready for a radical soçialist like Obama. Obama won VA by over 6%.
Then in November of 2009, they went back to the same town to see how “real America” was coping with the tragedy of having a black guy for president. They talked to a bunch of old white people. Guess what? They don’t like Kenyan soçialists. This means that they were tricked into voting for Obama, even though none of the people they talked to voted for him in the first place. It’s odd to do a story on buyer’s remorse when none of the people interviewed bought.
vaux-rien
I listen to NPR all the time; there’s plenty I don’t like, Prairie Home Companion, Diane Rehm, Tavis Smiley, that “religion” show that celebrates every flavor of woo under the sun equally and I agree that their notion of political balance is as shallow and pointless as anyone else’s but all in all it’s pretty good listening.
I also really like listening to Ray Taliaferro, maybe it’s only in the Bay Area that a screaming liberal could last on the radio for decades but I do think Air America missed a bet by not hiring him. It seems he’s been stuck on the Catholic story lately but I’ll check back with KGO in a couple weeks or so.
And stop giving KQED money, they have more money than any other station in the country and don’t produce shit, KALW all the way.
MikeJ
@MikeJ: My footnote: [1] I meant to define PI. Per Inquiry. I.e., you get paid based on how many people call the 800 number. Generally run very cheaply, usually only run by stations that can’t sell ads that they get paid up front for.
It’s bizarre to see such a combination of luxury products and “dollar a holler” spots. Obviously, some companies are sold on the idea of BBC attracting upscale audiences, but they still can’t sell out their inventory at any sort of decent rate.
Mark
I’m a little late to the party, but f- NPR. Seriously. And I say this as someone who probably listened to 50+ hours a week of NPR as late as 2002.
I shut those a-holes off the day after the 2004 election when they pretended that the United States should do something other than hang its collective head in shame.
For years, NPR has subscribed to the “split the difference” philosophy. That is – there are two “valid” opinions out there: one held by the Democrats and one held by the Republicans. Rather than spend five minutes trying to figure out what’s right, they just say “maybe the Dems are right, and maybe the Rs are right. Who can say?”
Every time I think it’s safe to give them another chance, they immediately disappoint. The last time I tuned in was in August, and the host was badgering Sen. Menendez of NJ for not doing a good enough job of selling universal health insurance to the American press. Really? Because it wasn’t clear that it’s something we need?
Jon H
@MikeJ: “They went to Culpeper, VA (population 10k) and talked to old white people. They decided that there was no way Virgina was ready for a radical soçialist like Obama. Obama won VA by over 6%”
Um, who won Culpeper?
“This means that they were tricked into voting for Obama, even though none of the people they talked to voted for him in the first place”
What’s this “tricked” shit? You’re clearly imputing all kinds of nonsense.
mai naem
I read this thread almost all the way through and almost at the end somebody finally mentions Neil Conan. Ooooh, fire his ass first. At least Juan Williams wasn’t around long enough to totally ruin Ray Suarez’ TOTN. But, Neil f#$$ing Conan’s managed to do it.
I have satellite radio which doesn’t carry ME or ATC but I get a bunch of others – Brian Lehrer should have gotten Neil f#$$ing Conan’s job. Also too, John Hockenberry, Takeaway, To the Point,Here and Now, Fresh Air, Tell Me more, Radio West, WWDTM, What do yah know?,It’s Only A Game, Harry Shearer, From Scratch, The World, Radio Times, Marketplace, TAL, The Bob Edwards Show. There’s just a lot of good stuff in there.
Also too, you don’t have to donate to NPR but you could to PRI which does TAL, WWDTM, PHC, The World and some of the others.
momster
Since I moved away from the Bay Area I now listen to KGO radio on the internet. John Rothman is the most compelling, intelligent, liberal radio host on the air. I wish he could be syndicated nationally for the good of the nation.
MikeJ
@Jon H: BBC are the ones who decided that Culpeper was a microcosm of Virginia, rather than going to Alexandria or Fairfax. And yes, they did frame their return to Culpeper as a year after Obama won VA, what do people think of the person they voted for.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/programmes/newsnight/8342586.stm
“There were those who were others, prepared to give him a chance who are fed up with his policies and especially with his propensity to spend an awful lot of money.”
I put it to you that none of the people BBC talked to who were “fed up”with Obama’s policies were prepared to give him a chance.
Polar Bear Squares
This is a really good point.
I just don’t think there will ever be a popular liberal radio host in the vein of Limbaugh, Beck or Hannity. These guys are more entertaining than informative. If there weren’t doing politics, they’d be doing fart jokes.
I just don’t think there is a liberal counterpart who has the ability to out-juvenile the juveniles. These guys are really, really good at being assholes. It’s like an art to them.
Angry Space Cadet
There isn’t a left wing equivalent to Limbaugh and Hannity on the radio, because you would have to go find some sort of orthodox Marxist-Leninist or Maoist to match their ability to create an alternate reality according to authoritarian dogma. You would be hard pressed to find that sort of thing even on Pacifica,
Kelly
Marketplace is not NPR. NPR is public radio, but not all public radio is NPR (thank God).
Rishi Gajria
Listen to NPR and its affiliate (WPR) when I am driving for about 20 minutes a day. Otherwise, its the music shows that I listen to via podcast. Musicheads, WFUV Music Review, Sound Opinions, and All Songs Considered.
Lots of opinions about NPR – Nice Polite Republicans, Opiate for Liberals here –
http://www.google.com/search?q=%22nice+polite+republicans%22
A Thousand Faces
Haters gonna hate. Frankly, the constant bitching and deconstruction is getting a little tiresome. NPR does great work. In depth stories and decent international stories. BBC also does great work, but it’s pretty much just a loop of “headlines”. I can’t imagine being so pissed off at the fact that “polite” right wingers are allowed to talk that I would discount everything NPR does. And the many posts about the smarmy and condescending hosts are the epitome of irony. Combined with the earlier piling on about how Americans are all morons who ignore their psychopathic soldiers, the seat on top of the horse has been steadily growing higher.
Rishi Gajria
Read this post by Bill Scher of Liberal Oasis about NPR –
http://bloggingheads.tv/forum/showpost.php?p=136645&postcount=50
Calouste
@Tattoosydney:
BBC America and BBC World News in general are a commericial operation, only tangentally related to the BBC. Mostly they exist to sell Dr. Who and Top Gear.
The BBC World Service and the BBC in the UK are publicly funded, by a grant of parliament and the license fee repsectively. If you want news that you can be somewhat certain to be unbiased, either listen to the World Service or BBC Radio via the web. And even then the reporting on American politics is hardly different from the American MSM.
A Thousand Faces
To be a bit clearer, reading this post and the ensuing comments was exactly like listening to music douchebags try to outdo each other by citing ever obscurer bands while bashing the band they “discovered” b/c it’s too “corporate” now. We get it, you’re way better informed and generally intellectually superior to all the “mainstream” sheep. Street cred affirmed. Can’t we just have more posts about tea partiers/Sarah Palin/libertarians being morons and less ZOMG!!! the media totally sux!! posts.
shecky
I like NPR. Completely acceptable broadcast news. The real tragedy is that there is no real alternative to NPR/public radio. AM talk simply isn’t in the same class.
Pacifica just sucks. Unlistenable. Sorry, dudes, but for the most part, it’s just a leftist version of AM broadcast outrage. Once Democracy Now finishes, the rest of the news/talk programming is unbearable.
My local NPR station, KCRW, does some good content creation, both creative and news oriented. And back in the early 90s, they had perhaps the most entertaining show ever hosted by a whacked out right-winger. David Horowitz did a weekly show where he would interview someone who was usually a media/creative type plugging their stuff. Typically, the person seemed generally non-political, unaware of Horowitz’s politics, thinking they’d be interviewed about their recent book or movie. Horowitz would always start by reminding the world that he was a former leftist bomb thrower turned right wing bomb thrower, talk about the person’s reason for being interviewed, and then sucker punch them by spinning the interviewee’s work into some huge right wing affirmation. And this wasn’t a subtle spin. It was a really whacked out reinterpretation, Horotwitz’s real skill being able to toss out laughably ridiculous interpretations of any scenario you can describe. You could often hear the interviewee squirming by such blindsiding, trying to be gracious and clarify that the work was not quite as Horowitz described. But to no avail. Horowitz only gained momentum as the half hour rolled along, monopolizing the conversation. The most amazing thing is that he routinely got guests who really didn’t seem to know his politics or his mania. Man, that show was a hoot. It really was no surprise that his show got the axe after a year or two. I’ve wondered whose brilliant idea the show was in the first place. But it was also genuinely entertaining, in a Borat kind of way.
moe99
Guess my earlier post was eated, but I tried to say that NPR is governed by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which is still controlled by Bush appointments afaik. And it is/was those appointments that succeeded in fundamentally changing NPR’s approach to news. Bob Edwards was an early casualty. He’s back now on Sat. mornings, but through another agency.
Paula
Well, chuck me into the wagon for whom Pacifica also does little. They’re the ones I listen to when I want my particular worldview to be confirmed. I think that their focus on the ignored and marginalized stories is vital, but if we’re talking about journalism that challenges ideas that we hold, I don’t think their reporting meets that criteria for me any more than NPR does for mainstream reportage.
Tattoosydney
@ MikeJ and Calouste:
Thanks. That makes sense to me now. Still find it very odd the Beeb would put itself in that position, but who can resist the lure of the once mighty US dollar?
asiangrrlMN
I only listen to my local affiliate MPR (they rule), and I am a sustaining member. There are a few programs on NPR I enjoy (Click & Clack), but not most of them.
Buck B.
Hey everybody, let’s mercilessly trash the single best source of broadcast news in the country! And then a magical media pony will come along and report the news in exactly the way we want.
Wank, wank, wank all day long around here.
BethanyAnne
@Ked: O.M.G. Thanks for linking that – it’s fantabulous.
geg6
NPR blows donkey dicks. I haven’t listened since the roll up to the Iraq War and the cheerleading there was as giddy as anything you might hear on FOX. Wrote the local station that they could kiss my donations goodbye forever. And that they still refuse to call torture what it is keeps me happy with that decision. I listen to music in the car and office. Makes me a much happier person. That said, the local PBS station (the legendary WQED) is wonderful and their locally produced political talk show is the best on any tv station/network in the whole country. If NPR had a single show as good as “On Q,” I might be lured back. But they don’t and I won’t.
bob h
I no longer listen much to NPR news programs, after about 30 years of dedicated listening. It got so bad during the healthcare debate that I bought a Zune, and am now rediscovering music during my dog walks.
Mal Carne
I really don’t get it. NPR sucks because it doesn’t mirror FOX thoroughly enough? You really think that it ought to be “our” FOX on the Left? Seriously?
The problem with FOX isn’t its ideology per se; it’s its methodology. It’s propaganda that does a rank disservice to its viewing audience. It concentrates on the vacuous, enshrines the cult of personality, and promotes an agenda in every story.
Having NPR ape FOX’s methodology would be colossal disservice to the Left. Give me news that takes its time on stories and occasionally tells me things I don’t like to hear. Give me news that provides me with the tools to form my own opinions. A pox on any “news personality”- Glenn Beck and Rachel Maddow alike – who tries to form my opinions for me.
brantl
NPR is only the least suckish of radio that I can get. Their entertainment programming is quite good, their news sucks shit through an 8 inch pipe. Everybody else’s (that are nationwide and available to me), sucks shit through a 10 inch pipe.
I have heard NPR news say any number of things that I know are factually inaccurate (from AP stories and other credible sources), and they do the same “these guys said this, and these other guys said the opposite” without any fact checking just like the shitty larger news outlets do. They are slightly less shitty, but only a little. And Moner Lierson (I didn’t misspell that) What-a-jack-off-Williams, and Coked-up Roberts need to take their delusions to the curb.
stuckinred
@A Thousand Faces: well said
El Cid
Sure, some people may not be able to stand Pacifica.
I’m not one.
I regularly podcast the best morning discussion & analysis show on air — KPFA’s “The Morning Show”. It’s a 3 hour show, and, of course, on the podcast, you can skip the half-hourly news updates and segments you don’t have interest in.
A typical discussion with, say, a single expert, may go 20 minutes, with a truly informed and intelligent host, and not a ‘panel’ where each guest gets to say comparatively little. And yet it’s not inane and filled with Beltway crap like a Charlie Rose show.
If you like actual ‘angry’ left rabble-rousing and investigation, check out KPFA’s Dennis Bernstein’s “FlashPoints.”
For a great left view on economics, each Saturday WBAI (& indirectly KPFA) hosts economic journalist (he of the Left Business Observer) Doug Henwood’s Behind the News. It won’t be comfortable for people seeking to be reassured about current government economic policies, but then, it’s probably a good idea for most people to hear some of that perspective.
I’ll listen to this ‘sucky’ Pacifica programming any day over NPR news’ bland, calmer version of reading NYT reports.
That said, the single best broadcast news program in English I’ve ever heard is the BBC World Service’s NewsHour, airing at 1200 and 2000 hours Greenwich Mean Time.
Michael D.
Do a little bit of research before you say things like this. I’m an avid NPR listener, and NPR gets a tiny, TINY portion of its finances from the government. It doesn’t have to WEAN itself off the government. WEANing is something you have to do when you’re basically addicted to something. NPR operates as though it won’t receive anything from government.
My impression of them in the 8 years I’ve been listening is: “We’ll take that TWO PERCENT funding we get from the government, but if it went away tomorrow, we’d do fine.” If the Right ad DougJ want to spew the line that NPR is government-funded, then let them. NPR no more needs to be WEANed off government funding than the person who writes off their charitable donations every year and gets 25% of it back.
I’m not sure why you find it weasely and annoying. I’ve always found NPR to be a calm, rational, in-depth look at what is actually going on in the world. And they cover the stories you don’t hear about on CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and the networks.
Do lefties listen to NPR? If they want to listen to the only unbiased news organization left they do. Even Juan Williams, Ken Rudin, and Mara Liasson do good work on NPR. You know they tilt right, but they’re still good.
NPR is worth $50 a month to me and I’m happy to give it to them. Morning Edition, All Things Considered and The World are the three things I miss every day because I take transit to work. I actually have to listen to the recordings later.
toujoursdan
I don’t listen to NPR much anymore. If I do, it’s mostly for “TOTN Science Friday”.
These days, I listen mostly CBC Radio One’s “As it Happens”, “Quirks and Quarks”, “The House” and “The Current”; BBC World Service “NewsHour”, BBC Radio 4’s “Thinking Allowed”, Deutsche Welle English, Radio Netherlands “The State We’re In”, Radio Australia’s “Asia Pacific” and “Pacific Beat”, ABC Newsradio Australia’s rolling news and Radio New Zealand International’s “Morning Report” and “Dateline Pacific”.
I use software like Replay AV or Radiotime to record it on my PC and then sync it to my iPod.
ChrisS
Having NPR ape FOX’s methodology would be colossal disservice to the Left. Give me news that takes its time on stories and occasionally tells me things I don’t like to hear.
I don’t think that most people want a lefty FOX news. They want a legitimate news source, which NPR does a decent job of, but could do better. They often do lapse into the “GOP says this and the Democrats say this and it’s all so confusing” template for news stories. Cokie Roberts does little but parrot the Beltway Elite talking points.
The problem is that there is very little FM (or AM) radio that is actually listenable. In a sea of garbage, NPR is a little john boat. It ain’t a 38′ Bertram, but it’s better than nothing. I listen to WFVU (Fordham U), KPIG outta Sana Cruz (non-NPR), and Pandora online mainly because they play a variety and range of music I can’t find anywhere else. In the car, for short trips it’s the local NPR station because A) they don’t have the (I’M SHOUTING AT YOU TO BUY MY STUFF) commercials and B) because they don’t depend on sophomoric DJs playing a music library of 500 songs. For longer trips out comes the iPod.
The woman who reports from France drives me up a wall
I actually love her voice. And Wade Goodwyn sounds like the guy that did the narration for all those hokie Disney movies about animals back in the 60s and 70s.
El Cid
@Michael D.: After the Reaganites went on their ‘defund the left’ anti-public resource campaign, NPR and PBS very quickly learned new approaches, including a host of both new funding sources along with making sure not to offend the right in any way. They grasped very quickly that the right would forever more hold any public funding over their head to the extent they couldn’t eliminate it.
geg6
@Mal Carne:
Who the hell said that anywhere in this thread? I read through the whole thing a second time and don’t see a single post that even implies this.
NPR’s news and opinion shows suck because they have bought into the whole false equivalency crap that the entire U.S. media has bought into. They suck because they don’t stick to facts, don’t fact check, and refuse to call reality reality. It’s all summed up by their excuse for not using the word “torture” to describe what is, by any definition anywhere, torture.
http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/06/harsh_interrogation_techniques.html
http://www.npr.org/ombudsman/2009/06/torture_round_two.html
If you feel fine supporting a network that says shit like this:
then bully for you. But I refuse to do it and I extend not an ounce of respect for it or anyone who appears on it. It is a detriment to the country (perhaps to an infinitesimally lesser degree than FOX, I’ll grant) and there is no way around that.
Gregory
I’m late to this party, but as others have pointed out, NPR already does get the vast bulk of its money from private donations. The problem is that it’s donations from big corporations, a fact that is obviously not lost on NPR. I don’t think NPR is liberal at all, but they’re certainly not big on rocking the boat.
Lisa
I love NPR. I am a contributing member of my local station for many many years and have my totebag. I listen to Morning Edition, All Things Considered, Diane Rehme, and Fresh Air every day. I also try to catch This American Life, Weekend Edition, and Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me, if I can. I love their BBC coverage early mornings too. I actually contribute to both the local Baltimore NPR channel and the DC channel because I listen to them both so much (when one is playing annoying bluegrass, I just flip over to the other).
I haven’t actually watched TV news since the early to mid 1990s unless I am watching a clip online (or watching Rachel Maddow).
I love love love love NPR and don’t know what the hell I would do if it went away suddenly. I do notice (like others have pointed out) that they seem to culturally cater to the type of person who is affluent, white, and wears turtlenecks with little kittens embroidered on them. Also, Cokie Roberts is a babbling idiot. Also, Juan Williams and Maura Liasson suck.
But Alex Blumberg, Nina Totenberg, and Lourdes Garcia-Navarro (and Kenneth Turan, the best movie reviewer EVER) make up for Juan, Cokie, and Maura.
Mr Stagger Lee
I am glad to live in Seattle where the liberal talkie station beats out the two conservative stations. Thom Hartman is one of the best of the group, as well as Mike Malloy my favorite firebomber.
DanL
Why would anyone want liberal talk radio? Talk radio sucks.
Conservatives and liberals tend to want their news delivered to them in different ways. It’s why Fox’s Daily Show ripoff was never going to work and why the majority of Air America’s programming sucked so badly.
While I loathe much of the political commentary on NPR, a lot of the programming is top notch, and their in-depth news reporting is stll better than any other major outfit in the US. (Unless they try to talk about sports. NPR sports reporting and commentary is just painful.)
Tim I
I stopped donating to NPR over Williams and Liasson. They’ve added Rudin to complete the shift to the right. I do wish they would dump Williams and Liasson – the deal with Fox is very messy. They could easily win me back.
Randy P
@Toast:
Then you must be much better informed than I am, because I listen to Maddow to learn stuff. One of the things she is exceptionally good at is summarizing a complex story and the differing points of view. This is something she typically does in the 30 seconds before interviewing a guest from either side of the political spectrum.
Typical exchange:
Rachel: I’d like to introduce my next guest, Guest X
Guest X: Thank you, Rachel. A pleasure to be here.
Rachel: Here is my understanding of the story as it stands now — [long exposition]. Is that about correct?
Guest X: That is exactly correct and an extremely good summary.
Those expositions are worth more than a month of Newsweeks. And it goes without saying they’re worth more than the equivalent attempt to summarize stories in your typical daily paper or on CNN.
But if you don’t get anything from them, more power to you.
Colin Laney
Scott Simon, host of NPR’s Saturday morning news, is about as right wing as anyone on Fox. He’s just a little more sophisticated in his delivery.
tesslibrarian
As I said in the last NPR thread about a month ago (or less?), if your local station is good (mine is great–WUGA), donate to them. It’s the ONLY way to get decent local news in Athens, and Mary Kay Mitchell has done a great job over the years making sure that there is local coverage of more than the University.
I also donate a minimum amount (though I used to give a lot) to GPB and specifically tell them that it’s for Nina Totenburg. This year, I’ll include the 3-part series they ran on ATC about the bail bond system.
But I also let them know they’d get more if they hadn’t fired Bob Edwards and replaced him with odious Renee Montaigne and Steve Inskeep. (Cokie’s always been there, always been part of the problem. If you time your alarm right, you can hit snooze and miss her plus get an extra 10 minutes of sleep.)
Michael D.
@Tim I:
Good point. I stopped donating to the homeless shelters and womens’ shelter and the Humane Society because I don’t like a couple people who work there, too.
Vince CA
@Jon H: That one was classic. I’ve listened to it twice! Her reply to the prostitution was great. I think Simmons did it on purpose though to generate publicity, seeing as nobody cares about KISS’s shtick anymore.
What initially turned me off to Fresh Air was it’s emphasis on entertainment news. I thought it was just “People” but in audio format. I rarely see movies and watch maybe one television show a year, and don’t really care if Jim Carrey is a vax denier. He was great in ESotSM, and I don’t ask my doctor for what movie I should see.
But her interview almost a decade ago of Paul Simon made me realize that this was good radio too. Simon is just as high and stupid as he always was, no fault of Teri Gross, and Gross still got some great digs in. Just a delight to listen to.
Ty Lookwell
@Rishi Gajria: That Bill Scher (of Liberal Oasis) comment is absolutely right on. It’s everything I believe about NPR and wish I’d said myself.
pablo
My local NPR outlet, KPBS, insists on telling me their “News Matters” between each segment by Cokie and the gang.
Is it news if it’s bland and achingly misses the mark of engaging the listener? Well, to me it doesn’t ‘matter’ any more. I podcast from a variety of sources and points of view, because I need more than the white bread centrist-at-all-costs take on things. And I can get BBC from podcasts as well. Terrestrial radio?
brantl
@A Thousand Faces: If you haven’t figured out NPR sucks, it’s because you haven’t paid sufficient attention.
snds4x4
Maybe I’m just too liberal, because I don’t listen to NPR that much any more. They have gone conserative. Maybe conservative light, hence the new nick name ‘Nice Polite Republicans’.
Jon H
@Vince CA: “I’ve listened to it twice! Her reply to the prostitution was great. I think Simmons did it on purpose though to generate publicity, seeing as nobody cares about KISS’s shtick anymore.”
Actually, Simmons had his lawyers ban NPR from offering the segment online, which makes it hard to get publicity, especially since his fans probably wouldn’t have heard it on air. Of course, 90% of people who appear on the show are there for publicity for their latest release.
“What initially turned me off to Fresh Air was it’s emphasis on entertainment news.”
Yeah, I get annoyed when it turns into “new release promotion radio”. And even moreso when they re-run a segment because a book is coming out in paperback, or a movie is coming out on DVD. That’s just lame.
What I love about the Triumph interview is that he makes Terry snort a few times.
Jon H
Other things about NPR, or at least morning edition that I don’t like.
1. A lot of superfluous segment music. It’s fucking 2010, we don’t need goofy music leading into a science story.
2. A lot of the time it seems that they’re spoon-feeding the listener. I feel like the BBC is talking to me as if I were intelligent. Not so much NPR.
3. There seem to be a lot of awkward, superfluous verbal segues when they’re shifting topics.
les
NPR news may be the best available flavor of corporate media, but they are corporate media. Balanced? How? Who’s their leftie equivalent of Cokie and Juan? “In depth” went away in the Bush admin, if not earlier; and since they moved to Washington, they’re as insider beltway as anyone. They covered the last presidential election like all the other horse racers; endless chat about the effectiveness of this ad or that statement, with no word on whether anything was true, false, misleading, etc. In the HCR debates they had to have a special occasional segment on fact checking–which once was a regular part of their reporting, which once was the reason I listened to them. The refusal to say “torture” has been covered; they can’t refer to Moqtada al-Sadr without saying “anti-American cleric”, as if their is a significant pro-American cleric; it’s just a signal to discount the statement.
NPR may well be the best of the readily available radio news, but that’s damning with faintest of praise. Left leaning alternatives aren’t easy; KC has a second public station, that does some Pacifica, carries Democracy Now, carries some “look at the media” programming, some labor and union programming–that is, actual liberal point of view. But, they don’t have national/international bureaus, reporters, etc. Wadda ya gonna do?
Jon H
@Calouste: “And even then the reporting on American politics is hardly different from the American MSM.”
Except I suspect on the BBC the attention given to wingnuts is driven to some extent by “OMGWTF Hey World, Look at the wingnut freaks!”, rather than the American MSM’s “These are serious important people whose opinions matter most”
memory
I wonder if it would be better if NPR broke free of the government and supported itself entirely through private donation. If they fired Juan Williams, Ken Rudin, and Mara Liasson, I’d be happy to start giving them money again.
It’s called Pacifica. Pacifica largely sucks, except for Democracy Now!
Actually, Democracy Now! is superior to NPR’s news programming.
http://www.democracynow.org/
Frank West
I’ve been listening to NPR for almost 25 years; indeed, I used to work for an NPR affiliate in Chico, CA. I love Science Friday (which typically does not put up with uninformed guests or perspectives; to Science Friday and Ira Flatow, global warming is real — it’s not a theory).
I am deeply annoyed, however, by many of the other NPR offerings, especially when the dialogue goes something like this: “30,000 climate scientists say this about global warming… But Sarah Palin says this… Hmm, it’s a conundrum!” Why don’t they truly try to determine which perspective is more accurate? Do they believe that their listeners will do this? (Many listeners do, but there are those, I suspect, who scratch their heads and fill in the “undecided” box on the issue.) And why does EVERY Mara Liasson story have to be a pro-Republican piece? (The answer is, of coure, that she leans far right.) NPR’s insufferable ombudsman keeps denying that NPR has a right-leaning slant. Add my voice to those who say NPR leans right. I still support it and love it, but I do wish they’d add some more neutral voices.
Jebediah
NPR may be less shitty than lots of other shitty shit, but it is constantly frustrating. The other day they were doing a story about the debacle-tastic anti-Net Neutrality court decision, and the “expert” they were talking to was condescendingly chuckling about how yes, it is technically possible that ISP’s could – but NEVER WOULD, because the Free Market, Blessed be it’s Sacred Name, would never allow it – do things WE HAVE ALREADY CAUGHT THEM DOING.
Too often, I think I am only partway through a piece because we haven’t gotten to the objective, fact-checking part of the story – but the story ends, no factual context for the rightwing framing of the question, nothing.
If a listener thought they were getting objective news, and had no other source of real information, I guess they would end up buying all the “we are a center-right nation” crap.
The Raven
NPR is moderately to the right of the US center at this point–they are just not completely insane. For real lefty radio, try the Pacifica network.
Dick Hertz
I just don’t listen to the radio anymore. NPR stands for Nice Polite Republicans, it is boring and puts me to sleep. The monotone voices, well modulated speech, and penchant for bland content would kill me driving a car and fail to wake me up as an alarm clock.
Lisa K.
Two words:
Car Talk.
I rest my case.
Joe Smith
@Ked:
Well hey Ked, thanks for listening. Glad you dig. We’re about to release more (lnog overdue) podcast episodes :)
– Joe
creator, IPR
Joe Smith
@Wile E. Quixote:
Well heck Wile, thanks for listening. Glad your life has been enriched :) We’re about to release more (long overdue) podcast episodes :)
– Joe
creator, IPR