I love NPR!
I really do. Their coverage is slanted and their linking policy is idiotic. But I’m not stupid, I can spot bias when I hear it. It brings a smile to my face when they go wildly off the left-end. Today, for instance, they mentioned a poll that found that seventy percent of teenagers (a link to the poll will be provided when I find it) support stricter handgun laws. Exactly what ’stricter’ entails wasn’t mentioned. My own bias says this: teenagers are not allowed to own handguns. Therefore, all teenagers that own handguns are criminals. So of course teenagers are up in arms (errr, so to speak) about gun crimes… they’re affected more by gun crime than any other demographic group, yet they can’t enjoy the benefits of lawful gun ownership themselves.
Wow, that was one hell of an unsupportable tangent. Back to the subject. I love all the things that NPR uses to fill in the cracks. Neato little stories about guys that make fake street signs and call it art, biologists that play Barry White to sharks to get them in the mood, and Havrilesky on juicers and burritos. But I hate pledge drives (I do not, however, hate them as much as Eric Olsen). I especially hate last-minute surprise fund drives. Colorado Public Radio was evidently about to WorldBom so the last few days have seen an unprecedented wave of longform on-air begging. The tone of desperation was even more squealingly righteous than usual, making me think that some of the announcers thought they might lose their jobs.
Please stop berating me about my integrity, and stop whining about how I can’t get this quality programming elsewhere on the dial. I know all that. I’ve given you money already this year, and I have the CD of reach-around interviews between Ira Glass and Terry Gross to prove it.
Update: I should have said their linking policy was idiotic. They’ve responded quite admirably to the beating that blogdom gave them.
Popularity: 7% [?]
I also wonder why so many NPR announcers have speech impediments too! Freaks.
I love the speech impediments! NPR is the last place on radio for people without radio voices, just like PBS is the last bastion for radio faces.
We’re on the same page about NPR. Not a big fan of their politics but enjoy all kinds of other things.
Don’t hate me for being in love with Scott Simon.
Since I don’t know who Scott Simon is, deal!
NPR: National (Speech) Pathology Radio. You got a speech pathology? We’ve got someone worse to make you feel better. We have a fucking TALK SHOW HOST who sounds like my 104 year-old great-aunt eating potato chips.
Mental note: Do not buy The Best of Diane Rehm for Eric and Dawn.
Well said. During the drive-home each day, NPR is the only “news round-up” that is presented without commercials for herbal Viagra, incessant traffic reports, and other idiotic commercials. If there is bias, I note it and simply absorb the facts from any given article.
Two unrelated notes:
NPR raised its fees to member stations, setting off a flurry of third-class mail to my house from WUNC. This is probably also what happened at KUNC (Also 91.5 on the dial…weird. And they have the EXACT SAME SATURDAY PROGRAMMING.)
I can certainly understand why conservatives have problems with NPR’s leftward bias since they can’t find conservatives anywhere on the radio.
That is strange, but I can’t get much reception form the Greeley station. I actually listen to CPR, what with their two-channel network, “48 hours of listener supported radio a day!”
My main problem with the leftward bias is that NPR always swears that it doesn’t exist. Radio stations that play rightish programming may claim that they are impartial, but the actual content creators will always admit that they are biased. If you ask Nina Totenberg and Rush Limbaugh if they have a political bias, Nina will say no, and Rush will say yes. If NPR’s reporters would just let it all hang out and admit that they’re human and have opinions, I’d be much happier.