NPR - stuffy or sexy?

Um, so then you're arguing that NPR should be for people who don't have a classical library? I don't follow.

no, because it played stuff that went beyond the limits of most libraries. the same analogy doesn't apply to WNYC talk shows vs. the New York Times.

-- gabbneb (gabbne...), May 6th, 2005.

But it probably would if it had bumpers. That doesn't strike me as a very significant criticism though.

-- gabbneb (gabbne...), May 6th, 2005.

But that's just it, NPR fills a niche that the rest of radio does not. And in many situations (driving, working, etc.) radio is the only media you can take in.

I definitely remember the repeated question about Evangelicals not really wanting to prevent armageddon from happening. I can't really comment too much on it, because I don't remember exactly what was said, but I do remember feeling that the interviewee was sort of avoiding the question a little bit.

In the 90s in Southwest Ohio.

Mmm yes hello I am Garrison Keillor.

THAT'S WHAT I'VE BEEN TRYING TO TELL YOU PEOPLE.

that was pretty funny

But is she sexy?

i do all the time. great show. except i call it Open Sores, cuz that's how Lydon pronounces it.

No.

2 motherfucking times

"No."

see this is rilly mean, but i can't stand the cutesy local color old-tymer snippets they play here of salty cape cod folks remembering their favorite fish chowder recipes. they all have that dry as sand yankee voice and they drive me mad for some reason. the guy who runs our local station is the dude who did that THIS I BELIEVE essay series and he's really into oral. his catch-phrase is LISTEN and then he will play audio of seagulls fighting over a clam neck or something. in theory i should be all for this yokelism but it just makes me grit my teeth. same with the soothing tones of the cape cod naturalist who reads his essays about frolicing in the bramble bushes in purple poesy. i'm so jaded and mean...

the Bay Area AM dial has been pretty gutted.. KGO is essentially gone and turned into a sports-betting station called "The Spread" where they just play sports podcasts

I don't listen to as much AM as I once did.. there's an interesting conspiracy theory about new car makers completely dropping AM radios, which is where all the conservatives get their yelling-at-clouds stations, because they don't want us to hear the truth or something like that

but the slow demise of noisy commercial AM has opened up bandwidth for various ethnic language programming which is a cool development

I listen to the radio a lot — usually local NPR station unless:
It’s wait wait (unbearable)
It’s the insipid local daytime show
It’s a holiday and they’re playing the most unlistenable shit ever: a radio play

Still prefer PBS newshour, Amna & Lisa for president, Lisa’s cat in charge of homeland security

We also recently had some major cuts to Chi Public Media that ended the sister station that played local music and was p much the only place to hear it. :(

the most unlistenable shit ever: a radio play

Lol.. I listen to all ghostly & supernatural radio plays on BBC Sounds

The CBS Radio Mystery Theater was already an oddly anachronistic format by the 1970's.. just the eerie opening music makes me super nostalgic, I used to listen to it on a old tube Philco in bed... free episodes here: https://www.cbsrmt.com/

I used to fall asleep to those as a kid!

The only good thing our local npr does is host a two hour old timey radio show with things like gun smoke.

every time i hear the beginning of wait wait don't tell me i almost drive into a tree. on purpose. because it fills me with dread. its all so terrible...

― scott seward, Wednesday, April 10, 2024 2:51 PM (two hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

This is exactly how I used to feel about Prairie Home Companion. Except it would require me taking the wheel, because I was usually in the backseat with my parents playing it.

sexy or stuffy?

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/16/business/media/npr-suspends-business-editor.html

A longtime (now former) NPR staffer responds to the Berliner piece:
https://slate.com/business/2024/04/npr-diversity-public-broadcasting-radio.html

She acknowledges that NPR is an "organizational shit show," but not because of wokeness:

"And that’s what the core editorial problem at NPR is and, frankly, has long been: an abundance of caution that often crossed the border to cowardice. NPR culture encouraged an editorial fixation on finding the exact middle point of the elite political and social thought, planting a flag there, and calling it objectivity."

i just read this linked on the political thread about PBS's Buckley doc.

https://prospect.org/politics/2024-04-17-an-implausible-mr-buckley/

"caution that often crossed the border to cowardice" is a good description of that doc apparently. though i haven't seen it because ugh i was just glad when he finally died i don't need to watch a doc about him.

one of my closest friends worked at WHYY for several years (and for many more years before that at KQED) and that slate article could have been written by him, it absolutely tracks a lot of the complaints he had about working in public media.

the final paragraph is the kicker: "I guess that’s why I think Uri is most wrong about NPR’s relationship with the rest of the country. It’s a very accurate reflection of America right now, a place where people won’t admit that good intentions don’t always yield good results, and would rather hide behind the myth of its excellence than do the hard work of making it a reality."

looks like that dude resigned

yes he'll be whining about being cancelled on podcasts along with Taibbi and other dummies soon

Berliner seems like basically a newsroom crank, which every newsroom I've worked in had at least one of and often more.