what is up with NPR?!!!

[American liberal]

I happened to listen to NPR pretty much all day today at work. I was interested in hearing the story on Odyssey about the "documentary" the fundies are calling the counterpoint to F9/11. It's about the president of "faith." Gretchen Helprin (sp) made a point of mentioning two or three times that she had interviewed Michael Moore the day before, but it still stank! It was a mush propaganda piece, she was light-weight on her interviewing and had no rebuttals from the left! Then she did a piece about the prayer task force that prays for the president every day. Although the guy stumbled over his words, he said if Kerry's elected, they'll start praying for him!!! <yeah, that's going to happen>

Then later on Tavist Smiley (sp) (I am in Chicago, listening to WBEZ), he had a piece about how the DEMS are perpetrating rumors of voter fraud and interviewed two Repukes (the second one a black man) who both said the same thing: that the Repubs had proposed that they get nonpartisan lawyers at the key precincts around the country to make sure everything is on the up and up and that the DEMS refused!!! They went on to say that the RNP wants a free and fair election and that all the rumor floating around about suppression is just that: that the DEMS are instigating all that. Compared to what I read here and other sources, that was the smoothest stream of bullshit I have ever heard! But on NPR!!!

And if all that wasn't bad enough, they did a fluff piece on stand-by-her-man LAURA BUSH during All Things Considered! The bastards sold out! I will only ever get my "real" news from the Internet anymore! My local paper endorsed Bush (they're going to be getting a letter from me very soon)--here in Chicago, a DEM stronghold, the editorial was nothing but regurgitated Rovisms. It was despicable! Now NPR!

I am so angry and frustrated right now... AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!

[Mayberry Machiavelli]

1. This year, PBS/NPR has started to suck in a big way. A Right Wing way.

All the stuff you just said. Tucker Carlson having a show on public broadcasting.

I think it's a combination of appointments by shrubco and all the corporate money (Kroc et al) that has flooded into public broadcasting recently. A 2 pronged assault to dismantle one of the few objective voices on TV and radio left, and now it's basically gone.

[scarface2004]

2. switch to flashpoints

with dennis bernstein..

[kohodog]

3. Not to mention PBS

Last night Gwen Ifill misquoted kerry on the "terorist nuisance" quote. She stateed that he said that "terorists are a nuisance" instead of his real statement that we need to get to the point where terrorists are a nuisance rather than a threat that controls out daily decisions. (paraphrase).

I wrote PBS but agree that like CNN, they have turned to the dark side.

edit spelling

[glitch]

4. Bill Moyers said NPR and PBS were already gone - all that we have left

are community radio, the rare streams like AAR and IEAmerica radio and the Internet.
I believe him.

[lefthandedskyhook]

22. Got a source on that?

Did Moyers say it on NOW?

[glitch]

37. He said it on AAR - Ring of Fire July 17, 2004 show

He had a lot to say, here's the audio if you are interested: http://www.airamericaplace.com/upload/aarf071704.mp3

[lefthandedskyhook]

41. Thanks for the link!

Ring of Fire is a personal favorite -- missed that particular show.

[intheflow]

And Democracy Now!

[glitch]

38. You're right, I think he did say Democracy Now too.

I may have to listen to the audio again. :-)

[deutsey]

44. Pacifica Network in general

which broadcasts Democracy Now.

[wurzel]

5. That "President of Faith" interview helped Dems.

He made Bush seem simple minded. The idea that that film can compete with F911 is ludicrous.

[blue sky at night]

6. NPR....sorry I am gone

I found the turn to the right very annoying, but since I have air america I don't miss NPR. Tavis is a republican, so forget it. They are making me sick, but so it goes.

[umtalal]

17. Which Travis???

[Jane Austin]

30. I'm going, going, . . .

too.

I am a small business owner, and you know what?

As long as they are getting money from WalMart, they don't need mine any more.

For a couple of years, I have subscribed to All Things Considered on Audible.com, so I could listen to it on my iPod at my convenience.

It has become more and more irrelevant to me, although I thought their after-debate coverage was quite good.

I am even more disgusted with PBS.

[Forkboy]

40. I listen to Tavis almost every night

He doesn't sound in the least bit like a Repub.Maybe I'm missing something? :shrug:

[demokatgurrl]

45. Tavis is a Republican? Say it ain't so-

I am heartbroken. He was one of the remaining very short list of people I still listen to on NPR. Guess I'll have to cross him off.

Michael Feldman is still cool though, and Garrison Keillor.

[Roland99]

7. SETTLE DOWN!!!

They had Michael Moore on yesterday. I posted that yesterday and said they were having the counterpart on today.

It's NPR being fair and balanced.

[kohodog]

8. I beg to differ

I agree that in the past they have been fair and balanced, but lately due to criticism from the right they have begun to sing a different tune. They still have some great programs, but the tone has shifted and I see less objectivity in some of their reports.

[Roland99]

16. I don't hear it

I listen to NPR all of the time. Perhaps, as in this case, you caught one side of the debate and missed the show from the day before.

[KittyWampus]

19. NPR Has A Relentlessly Pro-GOP Tilt & Anti-Dem. Bias

if you heard one story... it was nothing but a lone, solitary drop in the proverbial bucket. A drop meant to lend a thin veneer of balance which wears off upon any real inspection.

[Roland99]

26. I just don't hear it

I sometimes think people up here intentionally look for any sort of bias in the media. I mean, come on, you don't get much more liberal than Juan Williams. And Terry Gross being more critical of O'Reilly than Franken?

[AP]

27. You think Juan Williams is LIBERAL????

Hmmm.

[Roland99]

42. You all must remember, I'm a Republican

I saw Juan Williams as the "enemy" during the 2000 election.

[sunnybrook]

28. Juan Williams a liberal? Compared to who?

The cast of characters he spends Sunday Morning with on Fox News? You have got to be kidding me. Williams has such obvious bias and hostility toward anything remotely liberal. I quit listening regularly to NPR when they replaced Ray Suarez w/ Williams. Suarez is just a much more balanced and intelligent journalist. Not to say BIASED but BALANCED. Unlike the RW I do not seek unthinking parrots to further my thought process, but I truly do appreciate journalists who try to be balanced. Sorry, but Juan Williams consistently gets my goat. On another subject, is Tavis really a repub? Hard to believe.

[TankLV]

36. Juan Williams - "liberal"?!?!?! What are you smoking/drinking?

Maybe "moderate" or "center" at MOST - if he's a "liberal", then I'm a flaming communist!

SOMEONE needs to educate themselves on the meaning of the word!

But thanks for the laugh.

Next you'll be telling us that Alan Colmes is a "liberal"!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

[Dukakis88]

9. NPR's the same as 2000.

I listened to NPR campaign coverage in 2000, and I will never forget the morning after the final Gore/Bush debate tuning into "Morning Edition" and hearing them air several pieces in a row declaring Bush the obvious winner of the debates. The most ridiculous part was when they aired a lengthy interview with some French industrial design expert who flatulated pompously regarding how "Gore can't decide who he is -- he is someone new each time, changing himself to whatever polls say they want" and how Bush was to him so obviously presidential, plain spoken and steadfast.

There is one decent political commentary show on NPR now, however, that wasn't on the air in 2000 -- On The Media. They are pretty cool most of the time, providing a valuable public service.

[deutsey]

43. I stopped listening to NPR back in 2000.

I've never regretted doing so either.

[newyawker99]

49. Hi kingfish_junior!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Doohickie]

10. Don't worry, hardly anyone is listening!

After all, it is pledge drive week (at least here in Dallas/Fort Worth)!

[welshTerrier2]

11. Noticeably Pro Republican

and i bet you thought NPR was National Public Radio ...

fooled ya, didn't they ??

[realcountrymusic]

12. NPR: Nose Picking Republicans

NPR has sucked for years. It has sucked worse for the last two or three. I think they are scared of losing their welfare check or alienating the corporate donors who keep them in spring water and Volvos. They piss me off more for pretending to be above the fray. They are whores. High-class whores. $300 an hour in a good hotel room whores. But whores all the same.

RCM

[Carni]

13. "Nose Picking Republicans" LMAO!

NT :)

[Digit]

14. I'm with ya there. I stopped watching/listening to pbs, npr

[Philostopher]

23. When Archer-Daniels-Midland started underwriting programs,

I realized where NPR had gone, and it wasn't anywhere good. I agree it's partly because they solicit so much money for program production from major corporations and then pretend their affiliations with these corporations don't affect the programming. It's not recent -- this has been going on since Clinton was in office. They were as craven as anybody in running Clinton down.

We listened to a local public radio station -- WYSO in Yellow Springs -- up until two years ago, when they canned almost all their local programmers and DJs and started using piped-in programming. The final nail in the coffin was their firing of the guy who did the literary program in midafternoons, a really good interviewer named Vick Mickunas. He was on a sort of dead airtime -- couldn't interrupt his shows to shill for donations as much as they wanted without ruining his rapport with the writers he interviewed and the integrity of the program, so they booted him. He writes a column in the local daily, now. Glad somebody had the good sense to hire him.

The only damned public station I'd still listen to, if I lived in the area, is WNKU in Highland Heights; it's the college stations at Northern Kentucky University. Even at that, I never turned it on between eight a.m. and seven p.m. -- all local programming in the evenings, at least.

Most NPR stations just use canned crap and subverted syndicated 'news' shows. They're worse, in some ways, than commercial radio because they used to provide a valuable public service and now, most of them are compromised into lousy programming by their corporate donors and financial concerns. They're serving masters other than public service, in other words. They're bowing down to the almighty dollar just like everybody else.

[The Wielding Truth]

34. PBS with commercials thought it wouldn't happen but.......It does.

I am disappointed when I'm watching PBS and see a real car commercial or an real ad for something else major with actors and high end production. I guess even Public TV belongs more to big business.
No wonder they have been leaning more to the right, it's where there sun shines.It feels still to be in flux.
More often than not, I still get an alternative view.
I can only hope that maybe cable or another form of maybe free airwaves show will develop to give us gutsy Liberal
in your face true free press.That would be so refreshing.

[0007]

15. Can't you get AAR?

NPR is up and down like a yo yo.

[American liberal]

20. AAR online...

but it's not quite the same.

I'm so slow. I heard the report that NPR's board got more conservative, and every now and then I'd hear something on ME or ATC that would make me go...that sounds awfully mainstream. But then I'd still listen to my jazz at night (it's great. 8 pm-4 am, all jazz, all the time) and Whadda Ya' Know (although that's getting pretty stale, too, with lots of repeats) and This American Life. And I do like On the Media.

But today was the first time in years I tuned in ALL DAY and it was awful!!! I know Helprin tried to make like she was being fair and balanced with Moore one day and the Fundies the next, but all I heard was today's show and it was sooooooooooooooo unbalanced. Like I said, she TRIED to make it seem like she was asking the tough questions, but there was no backbone to it! and Smiley was like listening to what I hear from you guys a Fox broadcast would sound like. I mean, really! and the fluff piece on Laura Bush, including the people interviewed at a rally who were fawning all over her... It was a real slap in the face! It was not NPR! Nose-picking republicans, indeed... what a shame... I used to give them money. no more...

[intheflow]

25. Mostly I think

AAR is just a LW version of Rush and Co. Sure, their facts are better, but their tone is the same: sarcastic and condescending. I don't want to be talked down to by either the right or the left.

[helnwhls]

39. yes, somtimes the hate overrides the message

Randi Rhodes and Mike Malloy just sound like unhappy, pains in the ass. Don't get me wrong, I'd rathter listen to them than Rush or Bill O'Reilly, but they have that same hateful tone. For all the fact checking, they use the same tone and the same patter as the conservative talk show hosts.

Furthering division within our system does not fix the democracy. It widens the cracks.

[realcountrymusic]

48. I disagree about Randi

She does not speak hatefully. She speaks passionately. She calls bullshit what it is. She always has her facts right, unlike the right-wing hatemongers. She shows respect for ordinary people, the military grunts, and people whose intelligence she respects.

I love her show. I've listened to her for years on the net and think she's the best thing on AAR.

Malloy goes over the top with rage. It's fun and cathartic, but it won't win friends and influence people.

RCM

[hulklogan]

18. The KROC money killed NPR

I think they thought that McDonald's money meant they had to try to appeal to the McDonald's crowd. For example, a 10 minute John Mayer interview on All Things Considered.

They've been on a fast downhill slide for the past 18 months or so. I'm so fed up I only listen to my local NPR station between 10 pm and 4 am when BBC World Service is on. And there's no way they'll be getting any of my just-over-minimum-wage money until they stop running the "Studio Intern Band of the Week" spots on every show!

[newyawker99]

50. Hi hulklogan!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[kostya]

21. I'd given up on NPR long ago

It's not all their fault, after all they are just doing what they can to stay alive after Reagan gutted public broadcasting.

Good time to switch to Air America I'd say.

[timefordrinking.com]

24. Actually, I like NPR...

Sometimes they say things I don't agree with, and sometimes they say things I don't want to hear, but I think that's a good thing. I don't like propaganda. I like balanced, in-depth reporting.

Plus, I've got a crush on Terry Gross.

[dansolo]

29. I heard the Michael Moore interview yesterday

His interview was as much one-sided as the one today. I don't fault NPR for covering both documentaries, especially since one is being marketed specifically as a counterpoint to the other. I can't comment on the rest of the NPR spew during the day. Also, I believe the show you were listening to was Fresh Air, not Odyssey.

[American liberal]

32. my bad

you're absolutely right. it was Terry Gross' Fresh Air, which I haven't listened to in ages...I used to really like her show...when she came on after Talk of the Nation (which apparently doesn't even exist anymore). I can accept that in this instance, she balanced the fundies piece with the Moore interview. good for her. but combined with everything else I heard, it is not the same NPR I used to love. Even Gross has lightened up. It's like the lobster in the lobster pot. As the water heats up, the poor lobster doesn't realize what's happening...until it's too late. Well, I felt like a cooked lobster today after listening to NPR. The right-wing bias has just been creeping up on me and caught me unawares.

[bobaloo2]

31. I agree

NPR has gone corporate, they have too many people making too much money, which makes them worry about being mainstream rather than being right. I guess I'm just too far left, but I can't handle their "news" any more.

I sent them a letter to let them know that my pledge this year is going to fund my local indymedia outlet instead, at least there I can get info I can't get from Faux News.

[Cookie wookie]

33. NPR definitely made a right turn, big time

It had been creeping up, and when they fired Bob Edwards was when it really went downhill. I used to listen on the commute to and from work every day and also donated to them. I also had clock radio set for NPR. Then when the lies started being presented as truth, it was too much to bear. It's not being fair and balanced to have programming that is just plain bad, like the program that had the woman who talked about how e-voting was no different than using an automated teller at the bank, etc etc. So totally uninformed and incorrect. What we should expect from NPR is intelligent, truthful, informed programming. Having an argument that supports right wing propaganda that is not fact based is not fair and balanced.

What saved my life was that Air America came to Atlanta a few weeks ago. It's way up at 1690 AM, but I can get it on the car radio. Now that's all I listen to and it has helped so much to have it. Sure I wish we had the kind of quality programming that NPR used to represent, but at least I can hear Randi rant. I don't know what I'd do without it.

I can't get Air America on any of my radios in the house, though. I've been to several stores, including Radio Shack and Circuit City looking for a radio that gets it but can't find one. Satellite radio is all I can find and right now that's too expensive for me.

What has this country come to! I feel like I'm living in mother Russia before the fall.

[American liberal]

35. they FIRED bob edwards?

I thought he retired! god, I feel so far out of the public radio loop! Beam me up! :-)

and I apologize to the mods. I suppose this thread belongs in GD. The programming I referred to was all about the election and the president. sorry for getting off-topic.

Peace,
AL

[LiberalAndProud]

46. Can you spell Walmart?

A very large contributor to NPR. So much for serving the public interest.

[Trahurn]

47. I wouldn't worry

The conservatives already regard NPR as a "liberal" station so they don't listen to it. Now when you chase off your listening base by going GOP then who do you have left? Especially at annual fund raising time?

[coalition_unwilling]

51. I've stopped listening\donating to either, as a people's boycott

is the only language they (may) understand. They get so much corporate money these days they may not even depend on listener contributions any longer.

Just think of them as "National Pentagon Radio" and "Pentagon Broadcasting Service" and you'll be 90% of the way to understanding whose interests they serve.

[LowerManhattanite]

52. What's up with NPR? Simple...a drain of cash flow thanks to Air America...

I posted this the first week AAR hit the airwaves and it bears repeating...

NPR and PBS were once considered something akin to progressive bastions of thought. That is until AAR showed up on the scene. Public radio's and publc TV's problem is a simple one—if people arent listening/watching the stations, the pool of potential donors of funding decreases. AAR has had a rather profound effect in the NY market (and others I have been told) as it pulls listeners from NPR flagship WNYC and Pacifica's WBAI. Listeners, knowing they won't have to endure the thrice-to-quarterly beg-a-thons that are de riguer for public radio/ TV have taken up with AAR—and when a slew of people tune out, that's a slew of people NPR/PBS can't reach out to for dough.

So what does NPR/PBS do? Go after people they KNOW aren't listening to AAR—namely folks one would not consider progressive. So they skew the coverage just enough to create a buzz that they are showing a rightward tilt and—voíla! A re-seeded listener/viewer base; albeit demographically different, but a reconstituted base nonetheless. These folks are about the bucks—plain and simple, and conservative money is the same color as progressive money—green, green, green!