Tuesday, October 09, 2007

Open Thread

NPR News related comments welcomed.

6 comments:

BOB EDER said...

I use to think it was a noble thing to contribute to local public stations during their fund drives. Now I think that the real purpose of these fund drives is to raise more money for salaries for management. Furthermore, many stations are loathe to make full financial disclosures of their finances especially salaries. The mantra of assisting needy public stations to purchase programming is, I think, just bull. The real purpose is to buy that new Lexus and pad the travel budget.

Porter Melmoth said...

Absolutely. Plus, NPR is flush with corporate money. Big money. The listener pledge program is just a cynical hook to keep the suckers strung along. It's supposed to make the audience feel that they're part of the 'public' in NPR. The corporations and think tank 'foundations' are laughing all the way to the bank, while listeners who think they've just contributed to an enterprise that's in the liberal tradition and is 'intellectual' sink into . . . well, delusion.

Nothing against the band Radiohead, but when aging blowhard Bob Siegel introduces a segment just after the top of the hour news that reviews their latest album as a masterpiece, and when Little Bob gets all giggly in his sub-standard 'interview' with Stephen Colbert, I find that even the corporate donors may not be getting their money's worth.

Only option for NPR as we now know it: junk everything existing. Start over.

Anonymous said...

Wooo hooey! Freeloaders for fundraisers! I'll raise an ample glass to that one!

Ah, feel the ease of karmic burden.

(as an aside, I think the music of Ulrich Schnauss is much more "groundbreaking" than the lionized R-head; but of course NPR McPoop will go with a sure thing in their repoyyyrting. Right, Meester Cheekle?)

Anonymous said...

PS - anyone get a load of Goiy Razzleberry's latest WarToyzRUs thang? Drones patroling Iraq and operated stateside (was it in Azizona?)! Gosh golly jeepers, and hi-def too! (shame it can't seem to distinguish between insurgent strongholds and wedding parties)

And besides, can he quit sounding like a she-male when he locutes?

Anonymous said...

Friday ME. I'm sure MYTWords can say it much better than I, how much of snit Inskeep was in over Al Gore's Nobel recognition. I loved how he absolutely sneered "shared" the prize at the end of the (hit) piece. But the real outrage this AM was the platitudinous piece on the LA governor's race. It was all about the "wonder boy" Bobby Jindal, about how he was so amazing he could talk for 15 WHOLE minutes without notes (not to mention without telling the truth). The piece was superficial and incomplete in its condemnation of Governor Blanco, and extremely demeaning to the citizens of LA. I couldn't decide if the 'reporter' Melissa Peeples was playing to contributor demographics which supposedly want to be reinforced in their supposed beliefs that LA citizens are slothful and ignorant,
or if she herself is just that stupid.

Kevan Smith said...

I like both Schnauss and Radiohead. Of the two, I'd say Radiohead is better, but that's just my opinion. I think both are so big now that they don't have hipster cred; Radiohead is now Pink Floyd and Schnauss is Moby. You know who would be a funny interview for NPR? Melt Banana. Think about it -- quirky band that's been around for a decade or more, Japanese, still kickin' ass.