You know, I'll freely admit that NPR beats its legacy competitors, that compared to any radio or television broadcast it shines like Venus on a good morning, and that with the exception of the Times and the Post--and even those two more rarely than often--it provides better "news and analysis" than any major daily. That's the sort of comparison that a buddy of mine once took to calling a Hitlinmao, a mashup of the 20th Century's great dictators, as in: does it really matter which one was better or worse? Nevertheless, there it is. The NPR view is strictly normative, totally conventional, which is to say almost uniformly wrong, but within the narrow boundaries of recieved opinion, it's as good as it gets. Its cultural coverage is strictly middlebrow, the sort of thing that anyone with a little esprit de soixante-huit would call hopelessly bourgeois. Terry Gross and Lynne Rossetto Kasper manage mostly to effuse over mediocrity. Still, have you read the Times Book Review lately? It makes Terry Gross look like George Eliot.
All that caveating aside, though, the Pittsburgh affiliate is in the middle of one of those interminable pledge drives, and having listened to a bit of it, I've got to say that I'm struck by the newfound (is it newfound?) tone of hectoring superiotiy:
You pick this station because you are the best and your neighbor Sharon is a moron. You like arugula and she eats iceberg wedges. Your mind is a cosmos unto itself. You are the Ubermensch. God is dead . . . or is he? Let's ask this roundtable, the kind of news and cultural programming you only get on NPR. Avaialble as a transcript inscribed on the inside of a commemorative coffee mug, where it will reveal the majesty of human thought as you chat with your friends at the office, for a donation of only eighty dollars a month.They had some guy on today who said that listening to Public Radion without paying for it is stealing. I'm pretty sure he was serious. Reminded me of this poor bastard, somehow.
9 comments:
I stopped listening to NPR two or three years ago, when I could no longer stomach their craven parroting of the Bush Gang line.
So, I really don't know - is Daniel Schorr physically dead yet?
Daniel Schorr cannot die. His head will be placed in a vat of nutrient fluid a la Futurama and he will continue to act as a Stentorian Oracle of American Empire for generations upon generations.
The whole idea of public television is, well, it's public f'in television. Paid for by Uncle Sucker because Rupert Murdoch wouldn't air these kind of shows in 100 years, probably even if you paid them. Bouncing boobies and whacked out housewives who think iced tea is the work of Satan sell more ad space.
So I don't give money to public television just on general principle. Of course, I can't watch during pledge drives so I lose a month a year of viewing.
I predict that one day the Times's art directors will at last succeed in banishing words completely from the front page of the Book Review.
NPR lost me when they started including a representative from the Heritage Foundation in every spot to prove their 'objectivity'.
William Kristol co-hosting 'A Prairie Home Companion' can't be far off.
W4B
"It's time now for Storycorps"... getcher barfbag ready.
I always figure the second I send them a ten dollar check, I'll be emptying my mailbox of written pleading for the next ten decades. But on the other hand, once the volume of bulk postage exceeds my initial donation, it does start to get a little amusing. Does NPR kindly send out those little sticky address labels?
The local affiliate had campaign last year, a clip of an In-Depth(TM) news segment, followed by some pretentious ass intoning, "I think, therefore I listen." Turn it down, and roll up the windows, kids.
You're listening to DUQ, aren't you? Man, I was pretty much a YEP listener back in the day, but you could tell it was becoming all acoustic folk, and that would be a downer.
If I lived there now, I'd probably split my time between YEP and RCT
Folks, get out of the broadcast age.
Listen to Pacifica radio via the web. Production values like college radio, but its the content folks:
www.kpfa.org The 'original,' Berzerkly-based.
www.kpfk.org My favorite. Since its in LA there are actually some people who know a thing or two about production values. Right now I'm listening to Background Briefing with Ian Masters, a brilliant show every Sunday 11-1. But its also archived, so just listen when you can...
www.wbai.org New York's radicals
They also have Houston and DC stations, I don't know them much...
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