I used to listen to NPR

[beingthere]

Until about 5 years ago (around 9/11 or so) I felt I could tune to NPR and hear at least some serious commentary and relatively unbiased reporting. What a change. Now it is is hard to stomach their giggly fawning on the repugs, and makes it worse as they so sanctimoniously maintain they are above the slime of MSM "commercial" radio.

[kiraboo]

1. There are a lot of us here who've had the same thoughts.

Recently when I was contacted for a membership donation I told them they'd sold out and wouldn't be receiving any money from me. The woman I was speaking to assured me that the company "has made changes addressing (my) concerns." I told her, great, when I notice any improvement I might consider a pledge.

[KharmaTrain]

2. Plenty Of Alternative Voices On The "Ed Band"

NPR has become another propaganda tool of this regime...but there are still other tidbits on the FM dial that are gems that need supporting and nurturing.

Most notable is Pacifica Radio...heard in New York, LA, San Francisco, Washington and Houston...also on the web and it syndicates its programming to small college stations around the country. There's also BBC World News and AMERICAN Public Radio (APR) that is based out of Minneapolis and offers the best international news programming around as well as now helping distribute Amy Goodman's "Democracy Now".

Many local stations also have programs that could be our equivelent of right wing hate radio. In many, many cases, these stations are the sole local voice in the polyglot of corporate "cookie-cutter" radio operations. I support Public Radio stations...and we need to promote the Progressive broadcast media that has worked so hard in the shadows...and many at a very hard personal cost.

Cheers

[beingthere]

5. Thank you.

I know Pacifica and it's terrific. Perhaps NPR will change back if we keep letting them know.

[KharmaTrain]

Most NPR Stations Are Locally Operated

NPR is not the monolith that CBS or a commercial network is and its influence on stations is far different. They don't own any staitons and its members can pick and choose what programs it operates. NPR doesn't even control a lot of purse-strings as the real money for most of these stations on the federal level come from the CPB...the Corporation For Public Broadcasting as well as a variety of independent endowments. Yes, some are very conservative...but there are also some liberal/progressive ones as well. This is the same funding source that makes shows like Frontline and Nova possible.

Also a majority of these stations rely on local fundraising as the biggest source of operating revenue. The federal and state money goes primarily to equipment while the donations from the community go for the salaries...and thus have a far greater say on how the station is structured and what it programs.

I assume the NPR problem you're having is with either Morning Edition or All Things Considered...programs that have been sucked into the beltway myopia and suffers more from the paralysis of true journalism in a town where access and ego reign supreme. Donating to your local station doesn't mean money goes to NPR...and many of these stations do air Pacifica and APR shows that are a great alternative to anything else on the dial.

[OKNancy]

3. I still enjoy listening and all in all they are still

head and shoulders above other radio where I live ( almost exclusively ClearChannel)
The other day I heard one of the retired generals ( don't recall the name ) who was doing some big-time Bush bashing. There is no way the commercial stations would carry something like that.

When I read posts about how bad NPR is, I think the same thing as when I read bashing of Democrats like Obama, Murray or Feinstein. Be happy you have the luxury to bash; you could have Coburn or Inhofe.

[etherealtruth]

6. I'm with you ...

There are many facets of NPR and programs that I still think are wonderful.

[uncle ray]

31. me too, we need to remember it's NPR, not NLR

it's not a Liberal network. i can handle the few stories that may be right leaning. that means conseratives actually listen, and are also forced to hear more liberal stories. i listen to ATC most every weekday, because i'm at work during that time, and there is NO other radio news during that time other than far right wing hate radio. i really don't get how people can expect NPR to be all liberal all the time.

[NotGivingUp]

21. Just because it could be worse, does not mean that people

should not want it to be better. It's the same thing with our entire country. If you say what should be improved, people will say ahhh but it could be worse...look at this other country. Bullshit...make it better before it stinks.

[Armstead]

30. I disagree from the simple standpoint of objective journlism

A lot of time people who are either very partisan and/or oriented to praticulr ideology do unfairly bash the media. There's a subconscious (or conscious) desire for the media to relect our own viewpoints. And when the media is balnced and objective, we wnt to "shoot the messenger" when we don't like the news.

HOWEVER, by objective stndards NPR hs gone down the tubes. I used to listen regularly, but I can't do it anymore becuse they fail on the basic balance test too often. Too oten they use sources rom only one side of an issue -- the conservative side -- without offering equl weight to the otehr side.

If that hppens occasionally, one could excuse it as lazy reporting. However, when it happens regularly, it is a sign of institionl bias or unacceptable complacency. With NPR it happens frequently. So frequently that I stopped tking it seriously as a news source.

[jedr]

4. local NPR is having a tough time getting money of late;

The repubs poison pill to kill it from within is doing it's job. I too used to listen form morning till night everyday but now have satellite radio and find there is no way back. Goodbye NPR, we knew ye well.

[Loge23]

25. NPR on XM also

But I hardly listen anymore as well.
It's good to hear Bob Edwards once in awhile, but XM has so many choices.
I mentioned to a friend over dinner last night that I am pleased to hear so many protest/anti-war songs on The Village & Deep Tracks in particular.

[Ohio Joe]

7. I still listen

I just can't seem to give up either Car Talk or Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me.

[beingthere]

9. Well Car Talk is definitely wonderful, can't give that up!

[teamster633]

17. Those are my favorites as well.

Plus Prairie Home Companion.

As for the rest, it is all relative. They did used to be much better, but compared to the (non-satellite)alternatives, it's either them or no radio at all.

[Ohio Joe]

18. What is Prairie Home Companion?

The truth is, the two previously mentioned shows are all i've ever listened to on NPR. Is Prairie a weekend show as well? What is it about?

[teamster633]

20. It is a 2 hour program that runs both Saturday and Sunday...

...around here. It is presented as an old fashioned radio broadcast from before the days of television. Garrison Keillor is a "Home Grown Democrat", and you can depend on him to regularly get in a few digs at the chimperor in particular and the vast RW in general. Take a look here: http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/.

[Ohio Joe]

22. Excellent. Thank you - nt

[mdmc]

28. i'm going to see phc live on 7-1-06

in the birkshires.

www.wamc.org

[mmonk]

8. Quit them as soon as their "expert"

opinions were interviews with the AEI and other groups with scant if any opposition opinion.

[meganmonkey]

10. Detroit station started carrying Democracy Now

WDET, the Detroit NPR station has Democracy Now from 11-12am Mon-Fri.

I donated for the first time in many years just so I could tell them how much I appreciated that.

But as for the main news shows like Morning Edition and All Things Considered, I totally agree with ya.

[HereSince1628]

11. I've cut way back on NPR.

Honestly, my house gave up first. A combination of metal siding on the house and the wire under the plaster isolate the bedroom from all but the most powerful external RF-sources. That ended more than a decade of lazying around from 5:30 to 6 listening to Morning Edition.

I used to have WPR on in the background all day, particularly when I was out framing the house, but I've just O.D'd on it. It all seems just brainless info-tainment radio, hour after hour of things as serious as the pet psychologist (Oh, you have a -fill in breed-! Oh what a sweetie!), another generation being fascinated to learn that bluegrass doesn't grow well in the shade, etc.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

12. and here I thought it was my imagination. Agreed, whole-heartedly!

In Chi-town, NPR seems to be more and more tilted and biased, and not in a healthy way.

[MetaTrope]

13. And with Chicago NPR dropping music to go to an all-news (propaganda)

format...well, my morning wake-up is now the local Latino station. No, I don't understand a word of Spanish.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

16. porque no? Oops, we just violated the constitution!

that is, the new and improved one.

[Gabi Hayes]

29. amen....ha! which is worse, WBEZ or WTTW?

talk about a dearth of choices....

could WBEZ have more repeat programming every single night?

[Norquist Nemesis]

34. Same here! Stopped listening to Chicago-NPR when AAR came

along. Every once in a while I could get a different NPR station from the Champaign-Urbana area that was better.

Still, once the sun goes down around these parts, there's nothing but right-wing on every station that has talk. :(

[Recursion]

14. You can probably blame Ken Tomlinson

He became chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in I think 2003 and made a very loud and intense effort to get rid of public broadcasting's perceived liberal bias. It went so far as making sure AEI, Cato, and other groupthink tanks got cited as often as actual think tanks.

[Glorfindel]

15. I quit donating because of their "Ronald Reagan" orgy...

devoting their entire Sunday AM "news" program to an extended eulogy of Reagan was the final straw. I still listen to "A Prairie Home Companion," "This American Life," "Music from the Hearts of Space," and classical music programs. Some of the programming is from "Public Radio International." I don't know what the difference between it and NPR is.

[greyl]

19. I haven't noticed that here.

The Thomas Jefferson Hour, Fresh Air, and Out of the Box are well worth the price of admission. ;)

[MadHound]

23. I'm still a fan of NPR

Though I recognize that their news programs have moved to the right, at least they are still reporting real news, unlike most of the MSM. And I still am quite fond of other NPR programs, Prarie Home Companion, Bob Edwards Weekend(a fine liberal slant on that show), and others. Plus, I've always been a fan of classical and jazz, and in my neck of the woods there are few to no other alternatives for that.

And even Morning Edition and ATC are starting to move back to the left. Even dear old Cokie Roberts is being forced to declare some of Bushco's blunders a failure. And Daniel Shore is so old that he doesn't care anymore, thus he always tells it like it is.

[omega minimo]

24. Too stuffy! NPR has always been "sanctimonious"

:thumbsdown:

[lonestarnot]

26. AAR gives you more bang for your buck. NPR occassionally ok.

[AlCzervik]

27. i stopped when they got rid of Bob Edwards, no Bob, no NPR for me.

[mr_hat]

32. He has a weekly show now. Maybe

not all stations pick it up(?)

[rurallib]

33. Me too. I stiil remember the day very distinctly

There are a few NPR shows I still listen to, but Morning edition and ATC pretty much stink. I love 'Wai, Wait' and the occasional shows from APR that we get. Sadly even Terri Gross seems to focus more on the entertainers these days.
The last time I listened to ATC for an extended period was the day they had a 'debate' on social security between a guy from American Enterprsie Institute and a guy from the Manhattan Institute. WHat a joke. And they were introduced without any reference to either being 'conservative think tank'.
One last shot. The little I've heard from Steve Inskeep he seems like a true lightweight twit. Is he still on? The difference between him and Bob Edwards is like the difference between Edward R. Murrow and Barbara Walters.