If you’re not sick to death of discussing NPR, here are a couple of smart takes on NPR’s role in journalism.
James Fallows points out why NPR is one of the few remaining media outlets that cares about reporting, the truth and getting it right:
NPR, whatever its failings, is one of the few current inheritors of the tradition of the ambitious, first-rate news organization. When people talk about the “decline of the press,” in practice they mean that fewer and fewer newspapers, news magazine, and broadcast networks can afford to try to gather information. The LA Times, the Washington Post, CBS News — they once had people stationed all around the world. Now they work mainly from headquarters — last year the Post closed all its domestic bureaus outside Washington — and let’s not even think about poor Newsweek and US News.
[…]It has reporters at state houses and in war zones. At last count, it has something like 17 foreign bureaus and 16 domestic. In much of the country, especially away from the coasts, it’s a major source of local information and news. It claims that its total audience is some 27 million people a week; with all allowances for counting differences, it reaches a lot more people than Fox does. (Eg, a recent report put O’Reilly’s usual audience at around 3.3 million.) […]
And Jay Rosen looks more closely at NPR’s straitjacket definition of “news analyst”, using Cokie Roberts as an example.
Analysis as Cokie Roberts practices it means performing this savvy script upon the week’s events. She speculates on what voters are likely to do, or seem to be saying. (Listen to a typical example.) She discerns political motive in statements that pretend to be about public purpose. She calls upon Washington history to show us how we’ve heard it all before. She chuckles at the openly inauthentic. She serves up audible eyerolls when someone says that it’s time to get the country moving again or the money out of politics. Hundreds of sentences of hers start with, “Well, if you believe the polls….”
That’s a little too much voice for “straight reporting,” as professional journalists understand it. But it’s a lot less voice than Look: here’s what I, Cokie Roberts, establishment Democrat, Washington insider and amateur feminist historian think… The idea is to give her enough room to permit crap detection without losing the political protection that the View From Nowhere affords NPR.
LarsThorwald
We need NPR. I tried to come up with an observation about NPR, and that’s the one that fits best: The nation needs NPR.
dearolddad
The 27 million listeners a week is the real reason that fox and other right wing nut propagandists go after NPR
Ronbo
I’m not enamoured by NPR. Every day I start on my 3 mile trek to work with NPR blaring. When I hear bias or BS, I turn off the radio. I have not made it to work with the radio on at all this month. And what is worse, the bias is on the right. When they reported that the Gulf was clean, I erupted. At work, just about every one agreed that NPR was moving so far to the Right, that it reflects FOX more than CBS.
Cookie? Navel-gazing and party reporting (hard to see those eye-rolls on NPR, dimwit). Seriously, Cookie is scum on the pond of journalism – absorbing all the suns energy creating a dark, dead depth of murky nothingness. My fish have ick with higher-level thoughts.
Wag
I have to agree with Mr. Fallows. NPR is the only truly “fair and balanced” national broadcast media outlet out there. Their audience keeps Faux in check.
Why do you think Faux reacted to the firing of Juan Williams with such force? Because they actually cared about Mr. Williams? No, it was because it further stripped the veneer of “balance” from themselves. They are threatened by NPR, and that’s good.
Ronbo
Amy Goodman is an example of fantastic journalism. Let’s give her the attention she deserves – not these pundit-whoring hacks.
mai naem
I have issues with NPR but NPR is miles ahead of most other media. I have satellite radio so I get more NPR than your regular NPR and there is a lot of good stuff beyond ATC and ME. Cokie sucks. Even Diane Rehm dissapointed me on Fri. She had already swallowed the rightwing story on the Anita Hill/McCewen/Thomas story and she didn’t defend NPR much over Juan. Their big city local stations have some very good local hosts. Brian Lehrer in NYC, the woman in Philly and the guy in SF are very good(their names escape me.) I also get the BBC,CBC and other international news stations which are very good too. The BBC is way better than NPR.
cleek
my biggest issue with NPR is that it’s afraid to take a stand; it’s afraid to say “$POLITICIAN_X said $STATEMENT_Y, but that’s a lie”.
yeah, they do their periodic “fact check” segments – where they bring in someone else, to avoid having to say what’s-what themselves. but those only hit a handful of things, usually ads, and it’s treated like a novelty. telling listeners that $POLITICIAN_X is lying should be considered basic reporting. alas.
Rhoda
The bigger thing is the local reach NPR has had and continues to have; that is what FOX can’t stand and what the right is fighting against. Most people spend their time in the car and if they’ve got NPR on then they’re hearing facts that don’t fit the FOX world view.
The federal money is not the goal; the goal is to discredit NPR to the local grassroots listeners that support these stations.
Nick
@cleek:
All journalists have this problem. I have politicians lie to my face all the time. I’ve had to them tell me things I’ve written about never really happen.
I will often report what they say, but point out that it’s not true with a fact.
“Politician X said Y never happened, but on March 21, 2010, it did. Politician X did not comment/denied it did”
Then i get bitched out for being biased.
marcopolo
I’d like to say this morning’s chatter on Morning Stupid is particularly bad but it really isn’t, is it? They just threw out some half-baked scenario wherein Palin wins the Republic nomination for President due to her popularity in Iowa which, and now we really need to abandon logic at warp speed, propels Michael Bloomberg into the race as an independent I guess because he has cut some demonic arrangement with her people to be named hereditary ruler of the NYC tri-state area since the man certainly has enough smarts to know that he would only pull votes from the sane (but I guess confused) side of the electorate none of whom would be voting for Palin in the first place, thus depriving Obama of enough electoral votes to win outright, forcing the decision into to the post-2010 election Republic held house that votes in Caribou Barbie.
My head hurts. This was in the last five minutes of the show but they still had time for someone, I think Barnicle, to state that in 1992 Presidential election Clinton ran as a “the progressive champion”. Not sure how I missed that as I recall I was supporting either Brown or Harkin.
This is the problem with leaving the TV on MSNBC after watching Rachel in the evening.
This is why I more often than not listen to Morning Edition in the a.m.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@Ronbo:
This.
@Ronbo:
And this. Too. Also.
And this is something Digby said two years ago:
http://digbysblog.blogspot.com/2008/08/cokies-world-by-batocchio-king-louis.html
And nothing’s changed.
NPR’s problem is that like every other coporate media outlet in this country, they run scared shitless of the right, a perception exacerbated by the Bushies attempts to stack the Corp for Public Broadcasting with right wing hacks and thus, affect long-term stiffling of NPR’s mission.
I listen to em, I turn em off when I hear their obvious bias and they sure as shit won’t see a dime of my money anytime soon. Good thing Joan Kroc left em a pile o’ dough.
FlipYrWhig
Cokie Roberts is supposed to be an “establishment Democrat”? Not an establishment Republican?
gil mann
So I’ll just keep subsidizing your listening habits, then. Wouldn’t want you to compromise your principles.
Kiril
I was doing ok until “Cokie Roberts = savvy.” Ugh. Her time to go was 15 years ago.
John
“Best of a bad lot” isn’t exactly a rousing endorsement, but that’s how I feel about NPR.
The local stuff can be great. WNYC is a great case, and Brain Lehrer is awesome, and their post-9-11 coverage was remarkable. But that’s not NPR, that WNYC.
NPR has been very uncritical over the past 10 years, with much much more airtime on the reactions to what politicians say than its content. “How will this play?” is what you hear discussed, not “Is this true?” Then there’s the institutionalized he-said-she-said crap with everyone’s favorite “moderate” right-winger, David Brooks, and alleged liberal EJ Dionne.
Two pet peeves:
(1) the amount of time they waste when they have a guest. “Here with us is Joe Blo, chairman of Dumb Corp. That was Joe Blo of Dumb Corp. Thanks, Joe.” Holy Cow! You have 90 seconds, don’t waste it! (And all those 2-3 seconds of music in between stuff is wasteful too.)
(2) The pseudo interview with their own reporters. Instead of having somebody do a straight report from Baghdad, they’ll have the anchor interview the reporter. WTF? Are we supposed to believe they don’t have a script? C’mon.
And don’t get me started on MEE-shell Norris.
Woodrowfan
NPR is pretty good, but only if you’re grading on a curve…
I still prefer the BBC….
Linda Featheringill
Thanks so much for the post on NPR. I found a web site that has the news in print. Very nice.
Recently, looking at WaPo and NYT has been so emotionally stressful that I always vow to not go back to them. However, I don’t want limit my exposure to the news too much.
If you find other news sources that try to deal with facts and not propaganda, please let us know.
Thanks.
toujoursdan
@Woodrowfan:
I’m still more of a CBC Radio One, BBC Radio 4, ABC Newsradio Australia, Deutsche Welle English, Radio Netherlands fan, but I definitely agree that NPR is the best in the U.S.
I just download Replay Radio, record my favourite shows from each overnight and then carry it on my iPod. Then I’m not tied to a computer.
James Gary
Brain (sic) Lehrer is awesome
Ugh. I’m glad there exists at least one political-talk-and-call-in show that’s not complete teabagging bottomfeedery, but I really wish WNYC could find someone a bit more incisive than Brian Lehrer. Brian regularly has GOP wingers as guests, and he never does anything to challenge their standard regurgitation of talking points–it’s really infuriating. (Another low point was hearing Brian, Anthony Weiner, and Chuck Schumer singing “Israel Can Do No Wrong” in three-part harmony in their discussion of the “flotilla” episode a few months back–but I guess that’s just NYC fan service.)
JoeK
I happen to know Steve Inskeep and his wife from college, and a few years ago I was in DC with my very progressive partner, Aura, who’d never met them. We met up for lunch. Aura’s first substantive question to Steve: “Is morale really bad at NPR, now that it’s pretty much been reduced to a mouthpiece for the Bush administration?”
The conversation did not go terribly well after that.
I think NPR has some truly committed journalists on staff (Steve being one, at least from what I know of his past work — honestly I don’t pay much attention to NPR any more). While I don’t see a bias as obvious as that on Faux, I do see the “We must give equal time to ‘both’ sides, no matter how totally disconnected from reality” syndrome. Which seems even more pernicious, since it doesn’t scream “Lunacy!” in quite the way the more outspoken right-wing outlets do.
J
@John: ‘Best of a bad lot’ is about right. Though glad that we have NPR and convinced that we would be much poorer without it, I find the tone, especially when one turns away from the news programming proper, grating and smug and the viewpoint blinkered, insular and middle class (in the old-fashioned pejorative sense). If my knowledge of the US were based entirely on NPR, I would picture the country not as a great land full of diversity in which there is a lot going on (some of it terrible) in politics, in the arts in sports and so on, a country in which there are different voices from different regions, classes, ethnic groups, but as a dreary suburban wasteland full of moderately thoughtful, moderately well-informed, moderately engaged, moderately well meaning, deeply self satisfied bores.
kindness
Cokie Roberts Establishment Democrat ?!?
Man, Prop 19 hasn’t even passed yet and here we have folks who really need to put down that pipe for a bit.
Princess
I gave them an extra 25$ this weekend and wrote on the form that it was thanks for firing Juan Williams, and promised to double it if they got rid of Mara Liason too.
I know my paltry sums won’t sway them, but I thought they needed to hear from someone who actually listens to NPR instead of all those nut jobs who are writing in promising to “never watch them again” now that Juan is gone.
dhd
My biggest problem with NPR is that in most states there’s no consistency among member stations, with some of them basically only carrying the most popular shows and playing the worst fucking music on the planet the other 21 hours of the day.
Then on the other hand you have extremely consistent and well run state public radio organizations like Wisconsin and Minnesota Public Radio, which I credit with keeping the political discourse relatively sane in that corner of the midwest… and Vermont Public Radio which is also great.
But it’s a crapshoot, you never know what you’re going to get. CBC Radio One is CBC Radio One, even in Alberta.
somethingblue
Analysis as Cokie Roberts practices it means regurgitating whatever question she’s been asked, with extra Republican talking points added, and then opining that “it’s going to be really interesting to see how this plays out.”
Example:
X: So what are your thoughts on the election, Cokie? Are the Republicans going to win big, or are the Democrats going to limit their losses?
Cokie: Well, X, that’s a good question. The Republicans have really been doing well in the polls lately, due to massive overreaching by President Obama and Congressional Democrats. People out there are really concerned about spending and the deficit. On the other hand, there are signs the Democrats might do better than expected in some areas. So I think it’s going to be really interesting to watch how this plays out.
Eric U.
@Princess: The donation in the name of Juan Williams is a great idea. Mara Liasson is using their name to promote the notion that she is the Fox News token liberal. I can’t believe they can’t fire her. I would like to be able to listen to NPR, but their tolerance for right wing bullshit really makes it impossible for me to do so. They have commentators from the right that spew republican propaganda, and then they have commentators from the center right to balance that. If they had Democratic propagandists to balance the republican propagandists, that would almost be tolerable. But it never seems to happen
SiubhanDuinne
@John #15:
Actually, it’s not wasteful at all. The music buffers are built in so that the hundreds of NPR affiliate stations may, if they wish, drop in with local news/traffic/weather/interviews. On some stations, ME or ATC almost sound locally produced; others are happy to just carry the network feed and do little of their own beyond an occasional station I.D.
I worked for a couple of NPR affiliate stations when the two flagship programs were coming on the air (ATC was first; ME several years later.) They provided nifty little circle charts showing exactly what segments were scheduled and for exactly how long, so we could plan accordingly. The music buffers were and are crucial to smooth transitions. Believe me, without them it would sound amateurish as hell.
cleek
@kindness:
i did like NPR’s bit this AM which interviewed a bunch of stoners about Prop 19. Miss “Dragonfly” was against it, because the small plot sizes would limit growers’ ability to experiment with exciting new hybrids, including the one which she was smoking during the interview. woohoo!
sven
@FlipYrWhig: The key term is establishment. There is simply no better source for DC conventional wisdom than Cokie Roberts.
I miss Daniel Schorr.
Jewish Steel
One in three editions of WNYC’s On The Media is pretty brilliant. One in three is pretty bad. E.g. this week’s OTM contained a contextless critique of Jack Conway’s “controversial” attack ad. They also perpetrated one of my journo pet peeves, “deconstruct” for describe or explain. Just gotta have that extra syllable, huh? But like I say, they can be quite good and generally keep the level of NPR smug down.
But BBC 4 is where it’s at, yo.
sven
@somethingblue: BJuice needs weekly contests. Who can write the best Washington Post column. Who can write the best Cokie Roberts ‘analysis’, David Brooks, Thomas Friedman, etc.
mistermix
@FlipYrWhig:
What’s the difference?
kjbrooklyn
I love Brian Lehrer, he promotes intelligent discussion and doesn’t let the crazies go unchallenged. As for the rest, I agree, NPR is the best of a bad bunch.
bobbo
Yes, Cokie is an Establishment Democrat like Chris Matthews is a liberal. Overton Window, people.
brantl
@cleek:
THIS, FTMFW.
NPR is just PEOPLE for people that consider themselves high-brows.
PeakVT
Like it or not, NPR is the best major media organization we are going to get. Haters should also note that it is also the only one where there is any possibility of citizen control. And while the BBC World Service is good, it’s no substitute for NPR. Its US political coverage is frequently awful, and it will never produce more than a fraction of NPR’s domestic stories.
dj spellchecka
npr is a lot like the democratic party…wishy-washy, centrist…but [‘cept for pacifica] consider the american alternatives…
and, just for context, their morning and drive time news shows draw 10-13 million each…the two hours of [supposedly] hard news on faux [6-8pm] draw 2 million each…
i made myself a promise, that i wouldn’t give money to npr until williams got shitcanned…time to pony up [and yes, i’m including a note explaining why]
PWL
Concur. Thank you,NPR.
As for the others: this is what happens when you see reporting the news solely as a for-profit venture, rather than being about informing the nation. We end up with a low-quality product–now, the American way of producing profitability is to cut corners rather than going for quality–and the nation becomes dumber than before.
And isn’t it ironic that NPR is funded in part by the Gummint? Imagine! They CAN do something right!
Bloix
Cokie Roberts is not merely an Establishment Democrat: she’s Establishment Democrat royalty:
Cokie Roberts is the fourth child and youngest daughter of former ambassador and long-time Democratic Congresswoman from Louisiana Lindy Boggs and of the late Hale Boggs, also a Democratic Congressman from Louisiana who was Majority Leader of the House of Representatives. Her sister, the late Barbara Boggs Sigmund, was mayor of Princeton, New Jersey and a candidate for U.S. Senate from New Jersey. Her brother Tommy Boggs is a prominent Washington, D.C. attorney and lobbyist.
Death Panel Truck
Cokie Boggs?
Seriously?