[Sean Smith]

National Public Radio has always struck me as a strange creature.

1. The droning, accentless monotone. Where does it come from? How do Texas hosts on Texas-made NPR shows sound EXACTLY like the Rhode Island hosts on Rhode Island-made NPR shows? How can humans possibly be that dull and dessicated and not just die of sheer inertia?

Exception that proves the rule: Click and Clack on "Car Talk," who have the courtesy to actually sound like the damn Yankess they are. They seem funny, but maybe that is just because they don't sound like the walking dead.

2. Shamelessly, blatantly, over-the-top leftists. Wow. Your fingers turn pink just reaching for the dial. But different, somehow. More like crusty, old-school East Coast paternalistic liberalism that used to be hippie be-open-minded-about-everything-kumbaya ditz liberalism till it got too old and fat to get any free love.

Unintentional humor department: hearing a lifeless NPR drone speak in erudite tones about gangsta rap lyrics like "stanky biznatches, yo yo yo."

3. Almost utterly unsensational. This is what people find refreshing about NPR sometimes, the fact that they don't seem to shamelessly try to get you agitated over nonsense. Of course, could they if they wanted to? And what does liberal-influenced broadcasting have to offer once you eliminate the sex, drugs and violence... ?

Scary reality department: an NPR show here in Texas broadcast a parody of NPR yesterday featuring the comedian Jeannine Garofalo. Aside from the opening tagline "All the way to the left on your radio dial!" it was completely unfunny because it was exactly as boring and pretentious as the real show. Maybe Sam Kinnison could have made it funny, but he's dead.

What do you think? :evil:

On topic for this forum: Oddly enough, I've never heard them say anything about gun control one way or the other...?

[bastiat]

I don't care for them, and I like them even less because my tax dollars subsidize them.

As local radio hosts have commented, NPR hosts are people who couldn't cut it in a competitive marketplace.

[Diesle]

In my area (MPLS, MN) we've got an excellent selection of talk radio. Most noteably, the mighty AM 1500. Ive thankfully never been forced to have to turn to NPR and I pray I never will.

Diesle

[Chris Rhines]

Good point about NPR -

1.) You can keep informed about what the enemy is up to, with little or no effort on your part.
2.) They play jazz and classical.

Hey, if they're going to steal my money to fund this stuff, I may as well get some utility out of it...

- Chris

[cuchulainn]

National Peoples Radio?

[OF]

I heard a pro-second amendment editorial on NPR a while back. I forget who it was, but the point was made that the 2nd is not about duck hunting.

- Gabe

[Zundfolge]

Well we don't have that little barfing Smilie here so I can't comment.

wait a minute ... I'll just steal the one from GT :)


http://glocktalk.com/images/smilies/puke.gif

[Diesle]

national public radio is what it is.

Diesle

[YankeeRebel]

I believe that I heard the same spot that GRD heard. This was the first time in my memory that NPR said something good about the second. Most of the time they are spouting their pro homosexual, pro one-world government and anti-second attitudes. I think are responding to the elections wherin pro-second candidates have won. They can see the way the wind is blowing.

They do have good coverage of news items of interest to all and I believe they do a good job covering them with a minimal amount of pushing their agenda. Talk radio they are not and I do like talk radio where the people call in with their take on the news or whatever.

[MountainPeak]

Kinda reminds me of PBS. I remember when they had the Mark Shields vs. David Gergen debates on the presidential race between Bush and Clinton. They lost a little credibility when they had to admit both men had supported Clinton in the race!:rolleyes:

[CZ-75]

National Peoples Radio?


National PROLETARIAN Radio :D

[Mark Tyson]

Unfortunately, I do not find any good alternatives to NPR most of the time.

NPR has good coverage of news outside the U.S. That's the same reason I watch the BBC, even though they're a bunch of lefties and they can make me ill with their pompous finger wagging.

NPR spends a lot of time really discussing issues in detail, sort of like television was back in the day.

I do wish their hosts wouldn't be so blatantly biased.

[Rangie]

Only two reedeming Qualities:

1 Car Talk- the show is damn funny.

2 Baxter Black

http://www.baxterblack.com/

'Where exactly is ... out there?'


By Baxter Black
On The Edge Of Common Sense

I do commentary on National Public Radio headquartered in Washington, D.C. It is heavily urban in listenership. Some have questioned why NPR includes my commentaries. So have I. When I asked, the producer said, "Because you're the only one we know ... from out there."


BLACK
Out there. Where exactly is ... out there? When I look south from my veranda I can see as far back in time as Coronado, who rode up the river horseback and came within five miles of my house. That was in 1535, 300 years before those johnny come lately's Lewis and Clark caught a ride with the locals to Fort Pierre.

When I look toward the north on a crystal clear night I can see as far away as Polaris, axle of the Big Dipper. It shines directly down on the outposts of civilization. Omak, Sandpoint, Viking, Culbertson, Maple Creek, Elgin, Eagle Butte and Newcastle. Settlements as self-sufficient and self-reliant as a space station on the surface of the moon. Places where people and elm trees send down roots and look with pity at those who have to send out for pizza at 10 til 7 because they don't have their act together.

When I look to the sunrise, I can see clear back to the palmetto and piney woods, Cumberland Gaps and cornfields. Where many of the white ancestors walked and rode and intermarried and populated the Llano Estacado, the arid plains, the holes in the walls and the ends of the roads. Like the boll weevil, lookin' for a home.

When I look to the setting sun, I can hear the jingle of the bit chains, the swish of the lariat, the beat of the drum, and war cry of the natives and Spaniards who named the places we live - Maricopa, Kaibab, Santa Rosa, Tonapah, Tillamook, Durango and Winnemucca, and still live there.

When I look down, I can see the paw print of a mountain lion in a sandy wash, the outline of a steel shoe that I nailed to my horse's foot, a black porous rock that was belched up from earth's inferno before people walked here. And the track of my son who passed this way this morning to do the chores.

And when I look up, I can hear the silence, the rustle of things jostling for position in space. The cry of the coyote and the heavenly admonition to use the place responsibly, to appreciate its harsh beauty and to pick up the trash.

Out there. A vast part of this country from the Sierras to the backwoods, north and south as far as you can point, where the tracks are further apart and you can see the stars at night.

Out there. No better, no worse, just a little leaner and closer to the bone.

When the NPR producer said, "Because you're the only one from out there," I wondered whether he meant geographically or philosohically?

I'm still not sure.

[2nd Amendment]

An almost total waste of bandwidth? Yeah, that sums it up.

[Jack T.]

I started listening to NPR several years ago for a single reason: no car dealer commercials. Now I listen to it every day for several of the reasons already listed. Detailed news (even if they are ODF [out-der-flappin]), up-to-date current events, and classical music. I don't mind the reporters so much as the "experts" they interview.

[ed dixon]

Fresh Air, Justice Talking, Morning Edition, All Things Considered. Listen to these, and others as I catch them. Sorry, but I don't see the radical leftitis so many seem to have diagnosed. I don't feel preached to and when political topics are discussed it usually seems to include well-spoken advocates for different sides. (Tavis Smiley excepted.) The conservative buffoons on am talk radio around here are loud and shallow, just like on TV. Try to find an hour-long conversation of some depth with a novelist, historian, scientist, musician, or even cleric on commercial radio or TV. You get Sharpton rants and Limbaugh blather. NPR isn't perfect, sometimes does approach the stereotype, and isn't always what I'm in the mood for, but it's better than anything else I've heard. Along with some Stern and Coast-to-Coast (that's right), it accounts for most of my radio time.

[Bahadur]

Unfortunately, I do not find any good alternatives to NPR most of the time.

NPR has good coverage of news outside the U.S. That's the same reason I watch the BBC, even though they're a bunch of lefties and they can make me ill with their pompous finger wagging.

NPR spends a lot of time really discussing issues in detail, sort of like television was back in the day.

I do wish their hosts wouldn't be so blatantly biased.Ding! That is why, to the continued peril to my blood pressure, I still - occassionally - listen to NPR (the same for BBC).

As a counter example, I like Fox News because of its more even-handedness, but the whole "around the world in x seconds" apporach is really a huge turnoff (not to mention highly misleading in many cases). Also, can Fox News find some women anchors/reporters who are not bleach-blonde and do not have "enhanced" faces?

[Joe Demko]

NPR is good. They play music you won't hear anywhere else on the dial. I don't note any overheated leftist rhetoric on their part, either. Seems to me that if it isn't Limbaugh/Liddy/Reagan-style bloviation, some consider it commie agitprop by default. Tain't so. I used to listen to talk radio, but got tired of hearing the same cranks call the local hosts days after day, and Limbaugh preening for the ranks of dittoheads. Popular music, IMO, has largely sucked for the last 10 years or so. So-called oldies stations have too limited play lists. NPR and the few other non-commercial stations are all that's left worth hearing on free radio.

[hammer4nc]

Jack T said:

I started listening to NPR several years ago for a single reason: no car dealer commercials

Yes, the electronically enhanced, fast talking commercials grate on my nerves much more than the (droning by comparison) pace of NPR. Have to add to that the absence of political ads, which swamp out commercial radio around election time. They also recently broadcast BBC world service a couple hours a day, formerly only available on shortwave/internet. Terri Gross on Fresh Air could do nothing but laugh on the radio for an hour, and I'd listen (something about that laugh)...

They have done some features on gun control, I seem to recall them being balanced.

On the downside, many of the panel discussions seem to feature far-left activists. When they get on the male-sexist, gaya, mother-earth rants, I flip it off.

We listen to jobsite radio most of the day. Variety. John-Boy/Billy, Gordon Liddy, local talk, etc., help to break things up.

[TonyB]

Commies......:scrutiny:

[Khornet]

I used to donate to them, volunteer to answer the phone for fund-raisers, etc. But they drifted steadily left, until by the time of the 1988 presidential election they were so dishonest I turned the radio off for good. I can't stand the rest of the radio options either. But a few good shows don't make up for the lies they purvey.

The alternatives to NPR? Buy your own music. Read papers, periodicals, hsitory, handload, clean guns, go fishing. I don't miss a thing doing without radio and tv. It's all garbage. I may agree more with Rush than with NPR, but I ignore both.

I only wish my tax money didn't support NPR. At least Rush isn't a parasite.

[jmbg29]

I don't feel preached to and when political topics are discussed it usually seems to include well-spoken advocates for different sides.Different sides? :scrutiny:

N.P.R. was the instigator in the attempted Justice Thomas lynching. They helped make sexual harassment a high-profile issue. When it came time for the Justice Thomas hearings, most of their shows were preempted in order to bring gavel to gavel coverage of "there is a pubic hair in my coke" to the enlightened masses.

Conversely, their coverage of the hearings that resulted in a president being impeached was sparse at best. Concurrent with the choice to limit coverage of the impeachment process, was an editorial decision to consider sexual harassment a private matter that need not destroy a reputation and a career. Oh what a difference a few years makes. Eh?

If you think of some examples of "different sides", I would like to hear them. I listened to N.P.R. on a daily basis for 14+ years, and I can honestly say that not once in all that time did I hear anyone at N.P.R. speak about the conservative viewpoint with anything less than a dismissive attitude. More often, they were downright derisive.

When they do light up and gush over a Republican, it is always over a RINO like Chaffey, Snow or McCain. :fire: :banghead:

The only thing that "All Things Pretentious" had going for it was the ocassional Kevin Kling bit. :D

N.P.R.? Gack!Ptui!

[stellarpod]

NPR is part of my driving routine. I can't count the number of times I've heard a breaking story on NPR only to have it pop up on the networks two or three days later. I believe their coverage of international news in particular is far better than anything available from the commercial talking heads.

I'm not a big fan of what I perceive to be their left-leanings. But, I am a semi-conscious adult who is capable of sorting through the opinions and forming my own conclusions. I take what fits and throw out what doesn't. It's that simple.

All things considered (pun intended), as previously stated, the classical and jazz music alone assures that our local NPR affiliate (KGOU) will always have a button on my radio.

stellarpod

[Loach]

Ed Dixon and Stellarpod said it beter than I could.

[Sean Smith]

Oh yeah, and as you can guess I *do* listen to NPR sometimes. Why?

1. The general news reporting is good, un-sensational generally and not blatantly leftist most of the time.

2. On the other hand, 90% of the panel discussions ARE slanted way left... even the "right" advocate is usually a nullity or obviously ersatz "republican." Then I switch to the gutter humor station (105.3 FM) or hit the CD player.

3. Car Talk is funny, and apolitical.

4. Some of the strange random programming I run into there is interesting.

5. Avoid horrible radio commercials.

[Ron L]

Nonsensical Propaganda Radio!

I'll catch a news story now and then, but besides Click & Clack, the Puzzle Master, and of course, Doctor Science, there's not a lot to listen to that realy floats my boat. Even the classical has been moved around. The Saturday before Christmas, they ran a bunch of bluegrass/folk music that was Christmas oriented, and besides being fun, it was a nice segment. Otherwise, I sometimes have a hard time listening to the clap-trap.

You're right about the monotone voices, like a funeral dirge. After watching a SNL Holiday show where they ran that Alec Baldwin skit with the two girls and him doing the food segment on Schweddy Balls, the segments sometimes are more painful to listen to.

[MuzzleBlast]

1. The general news reporting is good, un-sensational generally and not blatantly leftist most of the time.

2. On the other hand, 90% of the panel discussions ARE slanted way left... even the "right" advocate is usually a nullity or obviously ersatz "republican." Then I switch to the gutter humor station (105.3 FM) or hit the CD player.
Back when the Beltway Bushwacker thing was happening, they did have a discussion with the VPI guy vs. the GOA guy (Josh Peterman and Larry Pratt?)

When we began the pummelling of Afghanistan, one of their reporters referred to it as "the hated bombing campaign."

I listen to them at drive time simply because there is nothing else to listen to.

[Bahadur]

Gawd! Will somebody create a radio show (or a TV program for that matter) that deals with adult topics like politics, economics, social issues and decent (that is to say, more than a few seconds of) international news coverage with a reasonable degree of balance?

I'd quit listening to NPR as soon as someone comes up with a program like that. Why isn't there a libertarian or conservative equivalent of NPR or BBC news?

It seems we only get either detailed, but left-wing international news or conservative but "around the world in x seconds" journalism!

Somebody please create a program like that and show the socialists that libertarian and conservatives do intelligent program as well.

[Sean Smith]

Really, I'd just like "plausible deniability" ... a show that isn't SO biased that you can't even pretend it is unbiased without ramming a steel spike through your forebrain to shave off 50 IQ points.

[NIGHTWATCH]

LEFTIST MEDIA CULT. Thats where the concerned tone and "droning" commentary comes from. :uhoh:



I dont listen to that noise anymore. Rather hear Sean Hannity or better yet, THE SAVAGE NATION (http://www.michaelsavage.com)

[dd-b]

They do pretty well on news. Except over the years they've gotten lazy or something. I keep hearing, in interviews, the key question being skipped.

I suppose it won't really surprise anybody to learn that actual liberals think NPR is pretty center, will it?

[Soap]

Most people in Injiana think that "classical music" refers to Bob Seger. :D

The great thing is that NPR plays good classical and jazz with nice Red comedy bits interpersed between the music.

[Graystar]

I find NPR is the only radio worth listening to.

[Hutch]

The reason I listen is because the competition during my driving time is so BAD. Regarding their viewpoints on the news, kinda reminds me of a scene in the original Blues Brothers movie. Belushi asks the owner of the honky-tonk his band is trying to play at: "What kind of music do you play here?" Answer: "Why, BOTH kinds, country AND western!!". NPR gives both viewpoints, mainstream liberal AND doctrinaire socialist.

[ReadyontheRight]

In my area (MPLS, MN) we've got an excellent selection of talk radio. Most noteably, the mighty AM 1500. Ive thankfully never been forced to have to turn to NPR and I pray I never will.

I agree. And Joe Soucheray is great -- he's not just a Republican talking head. His "Garage Logic" http://www.garagelogic.com/ show really tells it like it is. I especially like how he points out the failings of our educational system with humor.

Of course, you can always go to The Patriot AM 1130 if you want to get farther right than Rush. :)

NPR might not seem blatently left-wing simply because they read the news without emotion. But it's like the rest of the media -- they claim to be objective, but their bias shows in the stories they choose to cover and the stories they choose to ignore.

[Ullr]

As others have said:

1. Solid news coverage.

No news source is unbiased. Liberals are convinced that Fox News is slanted right. Conservatives are convinced that CNN is slanted left. They're both right. Or wrong, if you prefer. Recognize the slant, filter it out and draw your own conclusions. NPR's news coverage is generally pretty complete, explores issues in greater depth than daily commercial TV broadcasts do, and doesn't try to conceal their editorial pieces.

2. Classical music

Rare indeed is the commercial market that supports a quality classical station. Atlanta is not one of them.

3. Car Talk

'nuff said.

Back to the (more general) topic of media bias:

NPR might not seem blatently left-wing simply because they read the news without emotion. But it's like the rest of the media -- they claim to be objective, but their bias shows in the stories they choose to cover and the stories they choose to ignore.

Absolutely. The same can be said for any form of media whose stated purpose is to report "the news." Limited resources/broadcast time require some filtering. You can't cover everything that someone, somewhere considers newsworthy.

If you really want to get access to "all the news that's fit to print" you need to put some work into it. http://news.google.com is especially good for this -- it sorts stories from a variety of sources by subject.

You want to get the scoop on the diplomatic crisis with N. Korea? Here's 315 different write-ups:

http://news.google.com/news?num=30&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&q=cluster:breakingnews%2eiol%2eie%2fnews%2fstory%2easp%3fj%3d58757556%26p%3d58758z6z

I listen to NPR's All Things Considered on the way home from work, and use that as a jumping off point for some more reading after dinner. Of course, I'm something of a news junkie...

[TheeBadOne]

NPR has it points. I don't listen to it daily but I appreciate it the times I do.