Come for the politics, stay for the snark.

Lick the third rail, it tastes like chocolate!

Not all heroes wear capes.

That’s my take and I am available for criticism at this time.

It is possible to do the right thing without the promise of a cookie.

You know it’s bad when the Project 2025 people have to create training videos on “How To Be Normal”.

the 10% who apparently lack object permanence

Let’s not be the monsters we hate.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

He seems like a smart guy, but JFC, what a dick!

We are aware of all internet traditions.

At some point, the ability to learn is a factor of character, not IQ.

There is no compromise when it comes to body autonomy. You either have it or you do not.

Donald Trump found guilty as fuck – May 30, 2024!

I swear, each month of 2025 will have its own history degree.

In my day, never was longer.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

Red lights blinking on democracy’s dashboard

In after Baud. Damn.

Our job is not to persuade republicans but to defeat them.

The words do not have to be perfect.

People identifying as christian while ignoring christ and his teachings is a strange thing indeed.

Text STOP to opt out of updates on war plans.

Humiliatingly small and eclipsed by the derision of millions.

Mediocre white men think RFK Jr’s pathetic midlife crisis is inspirational. The bar is set so low for them, it’s subterranean.

You are here: Home / Politics / Politicans / David Brooks Giving A Seminar At The Aspen Institute / Nice polite Republicans

Nice polite Republicans

by | 67 Comments

This post is in: ,

I love my local public radio station (WXXI, 88.5), and they do a very good job of covering local political issues. But…there’s no question that NPR’s political coverage is dogshit. They kow-tow Republicans because they’re afraid of getting accused of teh librul bias, and of getting their gubmint funding cut. Here’s the thing, though: 2% of their funding is federal, the other 98% comes from shmucks like you and me. So fuck Steve Inskeep with a rusty totebag:

Reader Interactions

67Comments

  2. 2.

    Baud

    People aren’t going to give up on NPR any more than they’ll give up the NYT. Our side likes to talk tough but folds in the face of a summer’s breeze.

  3. 3.

    J R in WV

    Learned that WV Public Broadcasting raised and spent millions of dollars to invest in a state-wide radio network, which is indeed wonderful. There is no other state-wide information source at all.

    But they never budgeted a nickel towards replacing any of that equipment as it aged out of reliability and supportability. So now they need to replace it all, as the state sinks into poverty. Not only is the government broke, all the rich people are looking at the end of that sweet coal money. Land owners with leases paying them a tiny percent on every dollar of coal mined, nope, not any more, coal’s almost all gone!

    Don’t know where they’re going to get funding to replace those transmitters in rural locations. We’re close enough to Charleston to receive the signal from HQ, but they have transmitters on mountain tops all over the state, to reach the mouth breathers who voted in a Republican legislature and a pseudo Dem Governor who switched parties before all the ballots were settled to the floor.

    That’s a little unfair, there are smart Dems everywhere, mostly listening to Public when they have to … I’ve started listening to jazz on S-XM sat radio instead of local public, though. There are places in WV where you can be driving and the hills block the sat radio, which surprised me!

  4. 4.

    Yoda Dog

    Baud is correct but I’d like to report that I have indeed cut ties with them both since 2016 and am the better person for it.

    ‘Fuck Em’ -efg

  5. 5.

    matt

    I think the more these stories come out and prove that people are paying to be abused and lied to, the more support will erode.

  6. 6.

    Schlemazel

    I seriously doubt 98% comes from private parties. The majority comes from those ads they run. Sure, they don’t call them ads but the large corporations and trust fund bullshit funds cover the majority I bet & they get what they pay for. That NPR is the best available is damning to the news media in the US

  7. 7.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @Baud: Hell, I would guess half of “our side” thinks Friedman is a wise man, and Douthat and Stephens “make interesting points, even if I don’t always agree with everything blah blah blah”.

    On the brighter side, I can’t remember the last time I heard anyone quote or even refer to Maureen Dowd, except for her (incredibly dishonest) pot column and that’s probably two years ago now

  9. 9.

    burnspbesq

    Living with Steve Inskeep or living without Jason Bentley, Anne Litt, Steve Chiatakis, Madeline Brand, Gustavo Arellano, Raul Campos, and Travis Holcomb? In KCRW-land, we know which is the lesser of two evils.

  10. 10.

    West of the Cascades

    I have mixed feelings – NPR is horrific but OPB (Oregon Public Broadcasting) does some very good, honest reporting and has a strong state-wide network. OPB’s salary structure (from skimming its 990 tax form) is flatter than a lot of public broadcasters around the country, another reason I feel good supporting them. But if I’m listening to it in the car, I often find myself tuning out mentally at the top of the hour and tuning back in four minutes later when the local Oregon news comes on …

  13. 13.

    gene108

    @Baud:

    People aren’t going to give up on NPR any more than they’ll give up the NYT. Our side likes to talk tough but folds in the face of a summer’s breeze.

    What is the alternative? Our side does not have any billionaires batting for us, let alone any willing to sink their vast fortunes into taking over media.

    We can write and complain, but we don’t have the money behind us to do more.

    NPR has a lot of good programming, outside of the news shows.

  14. 14.

    Barbara

    @Jim, Foolish Literalist: Dowd passed her sell-by date a long time ago. Every once in a while — like once in a blue moon — you can tell when she has honest convictions about a subject, for instance, her outrage when the Catholic Church started an inquiry into the bona fides of U.S. orders of nuns. In all other cases, she is phoning in the same thing, over and over again, whether it’s Obama, Clinton, Trump or Bush that she is talking to. Her last book was a complete joke. I just wish the joke weren’t so frequently on the rest of us.

  16. 16.

    gene108

    @Schlemazel:

    I listen to those “brought to you by…” acknowledgements and an increasing number seem to be from the Koch brothers.

    Why can’t any billionaire trust fund babies, like the Koch’s, turn out to be liberals, instead of crazy right-wing reactionaries?

  18. 18.

    Baud

    @gene108: What @schrodingers_cat says. Or do without. Or view the stories for free without subscribing to them.

    Unfortunately, there is no media that feels like we are a market. And maybe we’re not. But WaPo seems to be doing a somewhat decent job at it, so I’m not sure why others ignore us.

  22. 22.

    germy

    you literally linked your donation with a story coming out your way. That’s not what your donation is for. Ever.

    But isn’t Inskeep full of shit? Because during our public radio fund drives (as well as our public tv fund drives) they always link donations to whatever is playing. “If you want to keep car talk on the air, give now! If you value what Terry Gross is doing, donate now. It’s the only way we know you want to keep these shows on the air” etc.

  24. 24.

    sharl

    Thanks for front-paging this Doug. I ran across this twitter exchange while enveloped in a nice post–Dad-prepared holiday breakfast buzz, and it harshed my mellow a bit.

    I mostly like those senior NPR news program hosts, but to me it seems these biggest screw-ups happen somewhat regularly with the weekend editions. I’m guessing that this specific episode (disclosure: I haven’t listened to it) was prepared before the holiday, and I’m also guessing that a segment preparation support staff was involved that was over-stretched and/or lacking in experience, which is also what I think happens with some of the weekend segments.

    I got all over Scott Simon’s case once on twitter, for bringing on as an expert a nonsense-talking, hoary, tenured Georgetown U. neocon warhorse to talk about the role of encryption in facilitating a terrorist attack in Paris in November 2015. The dude got that issue wrong, but somehow also managed to bring up the old canard that the same terrorist organization that attacked the U.S. from Afghanistan also threatened us from Iraq (i.e., one of the big lies that was used to gain public support for our glorious Iraq invasion). I recommended a better informed expert on the topic – Bruce Schneier to be specific (though there are other fine candidate experts out there) – and Simon did have Schneier on sometime later (I’ll take credit whether I deserve it or not ? ). I cc’d the Georgetown dude during all this, which earned me a block of course (fine by me).

    I’m glad Vic Berger pushed back hard on this. What I’m also glad about is that Dave Weigel retweeted Berger. That implicit endorsement from another big name in the reporting biz may make a bigger impression on Inskeep than Berger’s original complaint.

  26. 26.

    James E. Powell

    @Baud:

    We are a market, but we’re not a market that anyone needs to be afraid of losing. Continued patronage of the NYT & NPR being two pretty good examples.

  28. 28.

    Starfish

    My tiny library branch gets all the new books, and they have a small shelf of new political books. Maureen Dowd had a book on that shelf. The title may have been interesting, but then I saw the author’s name and just passed it by.

    I brought home a book by Chelsea Clinton and Devi Sridhar called “Governing Global Health.” Judging by the number of tables in this book, it looks a little bit nerdy.

  29. 29.

    germy

    @smintheus: Amusingly enough, the guy that runs our local public radio station has said on air that he hates most of the programming NPR provides.

  31. 31.

    smintheus

    @gene108: The solution is to tie your donation to a local affiliate to their agreeing to stop airing NPR’s craptacular news – and explain why the news is bad. If enough people fed up with NPR news did that, the smug twits at ATC might hear the message.

  35. 35.

    germy

    And I’m very disappointed in the PBS News Hour. I used to tune in thinking it’d be an alternative, but I’ve caught them reporting news that was clearly republican talking points.

  37. 37.

    smintheus

    @germy: So do I. Except for a few bored evening commutes and once in 2003 when I painted my living room, I haven’t tuned into an NPR program for at least 25 years.

  40. 40.

    germy

    @smintheus: I liked when bill o’reilly stormed off of Terry Gross’s “Fresh Air” program. And then a week later she had Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, and he stormed off, in parody.

  41. 41.

    justawriter

    Part of the problem is that one of the original “stars” of NPR news was Cokie Roberts. I was shocked when I found out (after about 20 years of listening) that her dad was once the House Majority Leader and that all these people she was interviewing were old family friends. I considered it a breach of ethics that she was allowed to cover the people she had longstanding personal relationships with. So the incestuous nature of the organization runs deep.

  43. 43.

    debbie

    @germy:

    That was funny.

    Inskeep needs to shut up and give his interviewee a chance to answer the question he asked. If he’s not asking one question two different ways, he’s restating the answer he just heard. Every morning I’m yelling at him about something.

  46. 46.

    Jim, Foolish Literalist

    @justawriter: Her mother, Lindy Boggs, took over her father’s seat when he died, I don’t know for how long. Bill Clinton later named her ambassador to the Vatican. She raised a big stink at some point in ’96 or so when she referred to the Dems as “we”. Didn’t save Bubba from her undying hatred when it was revealed that he had had fling with an intern.

    If good ol’ Hale Boggs was a faithful husband and abstemious church elder while representing the fine people of the great state of Loosi-yana, I strongly doubt he was scandalized when he found one of his colleagues carryin’ on with some good bourbon and a couple of gals from the office.

    And if the name Boggs rings a bell today, Cokie’s brother was one of the founders of what was once and may still be the swampiest lobbying firm in the greater DC metro area, Patton-Boggs

  47. 47.

    Aardvark Cheeselog

    I used to work for the NPR affiliate station where I live, as a weekend classical music dj. This was a long time ago, when they still had such things. Over time, as they quit having much in the way of music programming, let all of their local on-air talent get attritioned off, and steadily became part of the puke funnel, I stopped volunteering for pledge drives, and finally stopped sending money myself. Eventually they lost their spectrum to a Christianist nutcase radio station, and I answered their final appeals for support with a “fuck you, and good riddance.”

  48. 48.

    Citizen Alan

    @gene108:

    Because it is impossible to become a billionaire without being unethical in some way. The only honest billionaire I’ve ever heard of is JK Rowling, and she eventually lost her billionaire status as a result of her charitable giving.

  51. 51.

    grammypat

    The only NPR (PBS?) programming worth listening to is a 4-hr program, Saturdays 1-5 PT on KXJZ in Sacramento (capradio.org). It’s called Mick Martins’ Blues Party and it is pure joy. My Saturday afternoons have been greatly improved since I found and started streaming this program a few years ago.

  52. 52.

    NorthLeft12

    I used to listen to NPR quite often in the pre-Dubya era, but it has consistently moved their reporting away from virtually any criticism of the business and right wing narratives. They cinched it for me when they decided not to call torture committed or sanctioned by the US government, torture. Pretty much have not listened since that week. I still have the CBC to listen to.

  54. 54.

    Ladyraxterinok

    @matt: Can never forget or forgive her attack on Gore’s clothes and her complaint that he listened to a woman’s advice.

  55. 55.

    ThresherK

    @Trentrunner: No they don’t. Why, just last week On Point spent a whole hour reraking the dead coals of the Clinton Sex Scandal fires, and they had Joe Klein come on as just about the leftiest lefty who ever lefted to speak up on behalf of the Clinton and the 86% of voters who approved of Clinton while he was being hunted,

  56. 56.

    Bill Arnold

    @Baud:

    Our billionaires tend to finance issue advocacy rather than media, for whatever reason.

    Not sure why. Jeff Bezos seems to be quite willing to let the WaPo have free reign[1]. I suspect he enjoys owning/being a political player, and it’s pretty cheap; the only downside seems to be the possibility of political retribution. (e.g. the AT&T/Time Warner/CNN merger stuff recently.)
    [1] FWIW I have not examined WaPo coverage for gaps related to the Amazon businesses.

  57. 57.

    Brachiator

    @germy:

    Amusingly enough, the guy that runs our local public radio station has said on air that he hates most of the programming NPR provides.

    Also NPR is not all of public radio. There are other national producers of programming. PRI, Public Radio International, is one example. KPCC, a local station here in Southern California, runs independently produced programming, as well as NPR and other programming.

  59. 59.

    sharl

    @Bill Arnold: I’m currently a very satisfied Washington Post subscriber, which is particularly good because it is a local paper for me. But this worries me:

    With contract negotiations underway between the Post’s union, the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, and the paper’s management, the bargaining committee says Bezos & Co. are trying to gut worker protections and long-standing benefits at a time when the paper is actually making money.

    “Under the Bezos ownership, we fear a fundamental transformation is under way at the Post—one that is occurring in many other workplaces around the country, leading to economic insecurity for working people as though we are disposable or interchangeable elements in a machine,” the union’s bargaining committee said in a memo sent to Post employees and obtained by HuffPost.

    According to the memo, management, backed by the $84 billion man who bought the paper in 2013, has put forward a draconian plan to end annual pay raises for all employees and create a merit-based pay system, an “unprecedented” move that could freeze wages, including increases to adjust for inflation, for up to 30 months, according to HuffPost. A merit system would also wind up rewarding only the Post’s top marquee talent, leaving the copy editors, video staff, and scores of other union staffers who make the place run out in the cold.

  60. 60.

    Bill Arnold

    @sharl:

    …the bargaining committee says Bezos & Co. are trying to gut worker protections and long-standing benefits…

    Sigh. Will look into that, thanks. The HuffPo piece (Jeff Bezos Screws Over Workers At Amazon. Now He Wants To Do The Same At The Washington Post) is helpful as well. (It is a labor/management dispute so there is a lot of rhetoric per tradition for such disputes.)
    He (Jeff Bezos) needs to tone down the meritocracy religion a bit, IMHO. A little bit of meritocracy goes a long way; no need to turn the workplace into a place unpleasant enough to work that it damages peoples’ bodies with stress-caused illnesses. (Even the Amazon tech jobs e.g. with AWS, have a reputation for being rather harsh, documentation easily found. (I respect Amazon’s tech workers, FWIW))

  61. 61.

    BellyCat

    Increasingly convinced that NPR is the Fox News for Old Line Republicans who want to feel good about the projection of open-mindedness without the actual reality of turning so-called beliefs into tangible actions.

    Once supported both them and the FTFNYT. No longer. Too many good and truly independent voices out there now.

  62. 62.

    BellyCat

    I’m also bothered by the salary structure at NPR.

    Interns make a little more than $10/hr and the major players (from 2013)….

    – Steve Inskeep, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” 2009-2010: $361, 093, base salary of $319,370. 2010-2011: $373,097, base salary of $334,560.

    – Renee Montagne, co-host of NPR’s “Morning Edition.” 2009-2010: $357,037, base salary of $328,117. 2010-2011: $369,552, base salary of $321,919.

    – Michele Norris, former co-host of “All Things Considered.” 2009-2010: $298,360, base salary of $264,9009. No 2010-2011 numbers listed.

    – Robert Siegel, cohost of “All Things Considered.” 2009-2010: $362,687, with a base salary of $309,479. 2010-2011: $375,652, with a base salary of $321,860.

  63. 63.

    Brachiator

    @BellyCat:

    Once supported both them and the FTFNYT. No longer. Too many good and truly independent voices out there now.

    Have any examples of the best? Especially those that offer reporting and analysis, not just commentary.

  64. 64.

    J R in WV

    @smintheus:

    You are correct, Fresh Air is not an NPR production. Many of the most popular shows broadcast on public radio stations are not produced by NPR.

    And I agree about Cokie Roperts. She had no more business covering DC politics than Troy Aikman has covering Cowboys football games. Less, actually. Sports isn’t important, politics is.

  66. 66.

    Dennis

    Inskeep’s response to him was incredibly smug. Like their coverage would never be influenced by funding, when in fact it has taken a noticeable right turn since GOP Congresses started threatening their funding.

  67. 67.

    grubert

    Pretty much gave up on NPR after the Wellstone Memorial kerfuffle in 02. They basically went along with the asinine right-wing braying about Wellstone’s son’s speech, a speech that was little more then a short campaign speech sample. Given the timing of Wellstone’s death and the political climate at the time, I had no problem with it, but NPR helped assure a Republican win for the Minnesota Senate seat.

    Gave up on == stopped donating.

Comments are closed.