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NPR Catches Layoff FeverPosted on Dec 10, 2008
The financial crisis has hit the tote bag set: National Public Radio is cutting two shows and 7 percent of its work force, thanks to $23 million in red ink. Non-pledging fans of “Day to Day” and “News & Notes” have only themselves—and the Commodity Futures Modernization Act—to blame.
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By ApprxAm, December 12, 2008 at 1:22 am #
Except for the previous mentioned dummied-down black theme programs NPR, CSPAN & PBS can’t seem to avoid (Tavis Smiley). It’s as if they never met any other Afro-Americans down there at HQ-Central, in WASHINGTON, D.C.!
Attempting to be balanced at nearly every turn is a bit over-done and, at times, grating. I don’t need the opinions of the Heritage Foundation and AEI three or four times over everytime someone on NPR mentions one economic posture of the Paul Krugman.
It isn’t truly balanced if it’s contrived and weighted toward the opposition. Prove your balanced and don’t force it on us.
Report thisBy Mary Ann McNeely, December 11, 2008 at 7:48 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)
NPR has moved so far to the right in the last few years it has now entered the city limits of the MSM and is no longer worth listening to. If that’s what you want, go to the real thing on tv and get the slick, flashy graphics, Star Wars music score and the anchormen/women with plastic helmets for hair.
Report thisBy nrobi, December 11, 2008 at 12:50 pm #
The cultural bias of NPR is not only blatant, but a diseased and rotting wound on the national scene.
Report thisAll of the real programs that are cultural and good, are only played during those omnipresent fund raisers that continue from one quarter to the next.
Besides which, the programming that is on, during the times when there is no fundraiser, is quite obsolete and not even worth mentioning.
I find it quite disconcerting that they raise funds from the very people who need them most, children and people who are homebound, who wish a little of the public funds to raise their cultural level.
In the world of “public broadcasting,” like all needy programs, the powers-that-be, on a continuous basis remind the viewing and listening public, that we are the true source of funding. Well, what about all the funding they receive from the government and the “Corporation for Public Broadcasting?”
Where does this money go? Apparently into the pockets of those who are the heads of the CPB and all the rest of the people who make the decisions.
I find it hard to believe that the costs of programming can be such, that they have to beg, and plead for money, every quarter from all of us.
And during these so-called, “pledge drives,” then they show the truly diverse programs that are the stock and trade of “public broadcasting.”
Why they do not show this kind of program during the times when they are not raising money is beyond my thinking processes.
When will they ever learn? Never! For they continue in the same vein as always, always begging for money and never giving the people their money’s worth.
By thebeerdoctor, December 11, 2008 at 9:01 am #
Shift points out the Zionist bias. But that is only a small part of why National Public Radio hardly works at all. Most of the programming is directed at the audience who donates money (hence, the tote bag set) and the distortions of such target marketing keeps it basically irrelevant. Public broadcasting, if was truly for the general population or public, would be designed to provide educational information and entertainment for those who will never give them one bloody cent. Instead of using the Public Library as a model, NPR seems to think it is an enlightened form of The 700 Club, a not-for-profit, money-milking machine.
Report thisBy Tom Earnist, December 11, 2008 at 6:59 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
The comment title says it all, too many of NPR’s programs are wishy-washy mealy-mouthed & “fair & balanced” to the point where a sensible progressive point of view is paired equal time & equal credibility with your standard wing nut. I have complained to NPR plenty of times about this facade of equality. Needless to say I send them no money.
Report thisBy ApprxAm, December 11, 2008 at 5:59 am #
(Unregistered commenter)
Day-to-Day a bridge show between Morning Edition & All Things….. was a servicable, but unremarkable mid-day, west coast flavored news program, whose writers & producers can either be absorbed into NPR, PRI etc. as well as other outlets in the So. Cal area.
Now….Gladly, News & Notes, finally cancelled & put out of its’ misery. I…I can’t remember if this show was better or worst, with or without Tavis “Cheap-Cry” Smiley. Between his constant “Me first” bearing and Black Elite condescension toward “Negr—” Ahem…“black-folks’...and quite simply, JUST PLAIN AWFUL RADIO which was usally repleat with buffoonery and almost always amature hour, I didn’t know whether to throw my radio out of the car or run it over with it.
The program was poorly written, produced and presented and the narrow-focused subject matter didn’t help much. I’ve no problem with black-themed radio (Heck…I’m black) I just hate Tavis Smiley, the way he did it and his whining whenever he exits any job that doesn’t kiss his arse, and truthfully, News & Notes was just short of bad southern rap music: Offensive to my East-Coast soul.
Content, style….and class was surely lacking and Mr Smiley’s departure only left the show with an over-whelmed host, who I felt was out of her league, nice as she may be, and received no help from her production and writing cast. Ms. Chideya is a news-anchor, not an interveiwer and it showed with her penetrating no more than the superficial level of even the simplest of subjects.
I beg NRP never to allow another slip-shod, black-themed show to air again. The next attempt should require the very same care that is taken with ATC, Terry Gross and the other fine programming demanded by public radio listeners.
NO MORE AFFIRMATIVE ACTION run amuck please; just treat us fairly.
Report thisBy Shift, December 11, 2008 at 3:45 am #
NPR is not supported by more communities in the Nation because it too fails to address the big issues and their underlying causes. Additionally there is an overwhelming Zionist presence there controlling what gets air time and what does not. More specifically the Native American Genocide is off limits for discussion in favor of the Jewish Genocide only which receives enormous coverage as do most things Jewish despite the fact that Jews only constitute about three percent of the American population. Native American’s represent one percent of the American Population and get no coverage of the continuing quiet genocide against them in America. The only things Native on NPR, are cultural things relating to art. The real problems of Native Americans are strictly off limits. Native American’s across America have attempted to change this but to no success. So please understand the why’s of Native American resistance to NPR.
Report thisBy coloradokarl, December 11, 2008 at 12:48 am #
900 jobs for a radio show??? guess I better start donating!!!
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