NPR and the Liberal Subculture that Worships It
As for NPR’s more entertainment-oriented programming, the situation is frankly dire. To pick two examples, This American Life is an unlistenable tribute to narcissism and irritating nasal voices, and the game show Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me is hosted by a Jack Benny imitator of, it must be said, dubious talents. Even less comprehensible than this is the presence of Diane Rehm, an interviewer who, as the result of a tragic speech disorder, is barely intelligible. One of the greatest dangers of public media is, of course, its tendency toward nepotism and cronyism, and one imagines that the less competent aspects of NPR are largely a result of this.
More to the point, neither the means and extent of NPR’s public funding nor the quality of its programming constitute a convincing argument for why American citizens ought to be coerced into paying for it. Indeed, the real reason why NPR’s partisans believe the network deserves taxpayer dollars has yet to be voiced in the current debate, and likely never will be, largely because they themselves are largely unaware of it.
The truth is, that for its regular listeners, NPR is not simply a radio network. For members of the specific subculture it serves — mostly white, middle to upper-middle class, college educated, politically liberal residents of the coastal regions of the United States — NPR is something approaching a religious icon. They relate to it with the same intense emotions with which others regard images of the Virgin Mary or the sanctified structures of Mecca and Jerusalem, and they will defend it just as passionately. Indeed, Beinart’s remark about Britney Spears is not a coincidence. In a country in which this subculture sees itself as more and more besieged by ignorance, racism, close-mindedness, and commercialism, NPR constitutes essentially the only form of media they can relate to without alienation or shame.
The extent to which NPR dominates the lives of some of its listeners is quite striking. One is put in mind of an anecdote from linguist and Democratic Party media consultant George Lakoff’s book Don’t Think of an Elephant. When asked whether he has heard of conservative activist James Dobson, Lakoff asks, “Is he on NPR?” indicating, albeit inadvertently, that he essentially listens to nothing else. Lakoff, I think, is not alone.
Of course, every subculture has its objects of affection. Punks and hip-hop fans have their music, Trekkies have their TV shows and movies, hipsters have mumblecore, etc. The difference, of course, is that unlike NPR, none of these are funded largely by coercive means. And this says something, I think, about the liberal mentality. Put simply, liberals constitute the one subculture in the United States that consistently and often willfully mistakes its specific and particular preferences for universal truths.
The simple truth that liking something does not give you the right to force others to buy it for you is lost on a subculture that sees its likes and dislikes as moral imperatives that impose benefits and obligations on society as a whole. NPR is only one, relatively minor, expression of this, but it is a telling one, if only because, for those outside the liberal subculture, it is so obvious and glaring. The blatant hypocrisy and bad faith with which NPR has acted in regard to Juan Williams is, in microcosm, the hypocrisy and bad faith with which it acts in regard to all American taxpayers. And it should be obvious to all, even those who lack the most rudimentary capacity for self-reflection, that to act in such a manner toward those who are, in fact, paying your salary, is neither a smart nor an informed thing to do.
I’ve seen NPR’s effect on my Liberal friends…
…just the sound…the timbre of the speaker’s voice…is like opium to an addict, a call-to-prayer: a reinforcement to the daily trance these liberals live in.
The only people I knew who listened to NPR were communist Jamaican cab drivers in New York City. If the far left wants its own radio station, great, let them have it. As long as THEY pay for it. Pull all government funding and all funding from member stations and see what happens. I get this feeling they’re going to do about as well as Air America, and we all know how that experiment turned out.
Even far-left television operations like MSNBC can’t survive on their own. They have to be propped up by major corporations like NBC just to stay on the air. Their viewership stinks and is falling, which should tell you something about their programming. And who are these far-left stations like NPR or MSNBC broadcasting to? A recent poll said that only about 20% of the country considers itself as “liberal.” So your target audience to begin with is, at best, only 20% of the population? No wonder these people can’t survive on their own. Let them talk as long as they want, as long as we don’t have to pay for it.
The far left already has a radio network, whose licenses are worth millions of dollars. It is Pacifica Radio (the five stations associated with the Pacifica Foundation. Pacifica is the precursor of NPR, that blatantly copied its business model (listener-sponsorship) but added foundation, corporation, and federal support. There is an argument to be made for listener-sponsored media that would follow a free market model. But it would have to be non-partisan and much more intelligent than anything now on Pacifica or NPR. I wrote about Pacifica history here as a handmaiden to “socially responsible capitalists” and their co-opting of the civil rights movement with “multiculturalism.” See http://clarespark.com/2010/10/21/links-to-pacifica-memoirs/.
Personally, I can’t stand commercials interrupting the flow of thought, and interestingly, Pacifica has copied the format of commercial media, cowards that they are. This affects the brains of the listeners, inuring them to choppy bits of information instead of a sustained argument. A true listener-sponsored radio network could make possible real debate and the benefits of uncensored intellectual and cultural exploration, providing a university of the air and meaningful adult education of a very high quality.
But only within your definition of course as to intellectual communications. How often are you going to broadcast the need for listener contributions to keep the stations going. Would you accept commercial donations. How would you repay the commercial donations or foundation support. Would that be like NPR does now by thanking the supporters of the current program while telling of how good they are, in other words commercials of another kind.
Reminds me of an interview I heard on a Pacifica station a few years ago. They were interviewing the Communist candidate for VP and she said that when the Communists too over they would know how to deal with the enemies of the govt. No followup by the interviewer, almost as if the interviewer agreed and thought there should be no question about it. How is that even approaching the kind of broadcasting you are trying to push in any way unless that is the kind of supporter you think will give you intellectual commentary. Delusional is what I would call it.
I don’t know what in my comment impelled “dick” to hint that I am an elitist of some kind, and would allow any and all ideologues to romp and play, unchecked, on a listener-sponsored radio station. But his is a useful objection, for it shows how suspicious persons may be to a true market place of ideas, which does not simply pit one screamer against another one.
Finding the truth is laborious, takes patience and training. I don’t see what is so radical about a medium that explores all forms of conflict and does not look down on the listenership as a herd or mob that is averse to detailed explorations of controversies. And I haven’t even mentioned the refreshing air of freedom that such an institution would inspire.
Pacifica was a better organization when it took only small listener contributions. I am not crazy about big donors with expectations of control. I do like free markets.
Great analysis! I have to admit to liking some of their ‘slice of life’ pieces.
I think this is where their main appeal for me lies. That is, these vignettes
sometimes deal with walks of life or human endeavors that I’ve never given
any real consideration to (egg farmers, power plant workers, microbiologists, etc.).
After listening to sme of these I tend to feel not only more informed, but also a
bit more connected to the rich tapestry that is American life.
But, therein lies the disillusioning rub. “Connected to the rich tapestry that is American life” only really means what it says if one really does appreciate said tapestry, not just when it is being “showcased”. That is, in ones real day to day life. Not merely the self-congratulating (and therefore very self-satisfying), feeling of understanding and appreciating mankind, rich tapestries, an ahem, “unwashed mases” ala Katie Couric, but actual men and women, neighbors, co-workers, people n the shops and streets. You know, individuals, not abstract, safe, and disinfected, ephermera. And this is he real danger that your comments once again brought to mind about the defrauding effect of that enchantment known as the liberal self perception of objective understanding, compassion, and generosity. It “feels” inclusive and magnanimous to all, but upon honest examination of oneself, One might discover that these qualities seem to never be something one is exhibitng ine ones own real life. It’s just nice to feel those ways. Same thing goes sometimes with liking movies that are so-called “independent”. They make one feel more enlightened about “rich tapestries”, but actually add no real actual compassion or appreciation to ones real, daily relationships, or interactions with actual members of the aforementioned tapestries. The people I see right in front of me every day. That is the danger for many I think with the enchantment or charm of the liberal assumption of self evident rightness. Like a pure Marxism, if taken as a perceptual, “given”, it becomes that most tastiest of self-deceptions, enabling one to love “all mankind”, while in one’s real, daily life, practicing snobbery and alienation in regard to actual men and women.
Well said.
NPR is a Neo-Lib joke on the American public,a waste of TAXPAYER monies.
Today I heard an interview with some 20-ish woman at the Stewart rally. She kept saying “People all over the world think we’re so crazy in America with all the extremism and hate-speech!” This is so like many of our young people, who have clearly been indoctrinated by our educational system, especially our university system. They are inundated every day with a message that tells them their country is guilty, wrong, and unjust. They go to a Stewart rally because it reaffirms their cultural identity as the ironic, entitled, victimized poor children of an unjust culture. They sail unabated toward their own destruction. Stupid kids.
Mr. Kerstein’s opinion is better informed than mine, as I cannot ever recall listening to NPR…I do watch classical music programming on PBS, and most often continue to watch Masterpiece Theatre on Sunday evenings.
I had been one of those who fought for public funds to be rescinded from “public” radio and television; because I deemed such totally unnecessary (I still do). Their repeated pleas for contributions from private listeners and viewers should remain; should such “sustain”. Several decades ago, I suggested to the then President of THIRTEEN that corporate donations should be “thanked” publicly on the Channel’s airwaves–visible to all viewers, who might then be prone to use such “corporate product”. (Perhaps such behavior for a not-for-profit “public” entity would be legally challenged–but to me it seemed logical.) However, my best consideration would be to withdraw all taxpayer “contributions”, as NONE ARE FREELY GIVEN; BUT STOLEN FROM THE AMERICANS WHO HAVE NO VOTE AS TO SUCH USE OF THEIR EARNINGS…
Lastly: use of multi-syllabic language is not necessarily indicative of innovative intellect…Talk Radio, for instance, requires the broadcaster to think on his feet…Anyone who speaks extemporaneously errs upon occasion…Humans are imperfect, and do make mistakes…I tell children my motto, that one learns through his mistakes, so that one should always try–even if he is incorrect. Eventually, the answer will come to light!
Free enterprise is an important emphasis of our liberty.
I used to enjoy the classical music and jazz back in the eighties. The left captured my local station, today it’s nothing but “news” and talk…all of it anti-Republican, anti-Christian, and pro-Obama propaganda.
Originally, NPR was to offer alternatives to our trash culture…now all we get is trash leftwing politics.
“Neither Beck nor a single one of his supporters appeared on the show, an omission that appeared to be motivated more by journalistic laziness and a lack of intellectual curiosity than anything else.”
Actually, NPR libs are motivated more by their belief that conservatives, no matter what their education, are (drum roll, please)…….kinda yucky.
We have a few public radio stations in the Detroit area–Wayne State, Eastern Michigan, and the University of Michigan each have one. There is another, WRCJ, which is public in that it is supported almost entirely by listener contributions and a consortium of the Detroit public schools and the local PBS channel. It is almost entirely music with brief news bulletins and traffic reports. It plays classical music from five a.m. to 7 p.m., jazz overnight, and it just completed its pledge drive. I was delighted to contribute to it and regretted only that I was unable to give more.
As to the NPR stations, I sometimes listen to “Car Talk” and the other weekend shows. I must say I like “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me.” I even occasionally listen to “A Prairie Home Companion.” But the news programs are exactly as Mr. Radosh describes them. For a number of reasons I did listen to NPR during the 2008 campaign and it didn’t even make a pretense of reporting objectively. Its treatment of Sarah Palin was downright nasty.
There are two types of people who listen to NPR. There are people who listen to it, and there are people who make a point of letting you know that’s what they listen to. Mr. Radosh has the latter type down; NPR for them is like a secret handshake, it shows that you are enlightened and intelligent and to be differentiated from all those others who aren’t either.
WRCJ (“We ‘R’ Classics and Jazz) is public radio in the best sense. It gets a large chunk of its funding from the actual public. There is a niche in the Detroit area and WRCJ asks people to contribute if they want it filled.
And back in Canada…. we have the Canadian Broadcasting Co. or better known as the propaganda arm of the Liberal Party of Canada.
We get it televised and on the radio. Driving home one day I happened to be channel surfing and stopped at a conversation on CBC radio.
It was a program about the sexual needs of the handicapped and mentally ill. Every group deserves air time doesn’t it. The liberal narrative of “were all victims of something” It’s as if a huge majority of people are gay , lesbian, lesbian/ handicapped, transgendered, divorced, gay & married…
Here is a link to how the CBC handled wikileaks and climategate, see the comments
http://blogs.canoe.ca/eyeonthehill/cbc/cbc-is-unhinged-over-wikileaks/
http://www.edmontonsun.com/comment/editorial/2010/10/15/15708936.html
http://www.stephentaylor.ca/2010/04/conservatives-raising-money-off-of-cbc-and-graves/
For an entity whose survival relies on a massive influx of tax dollars from all of Canada, the CBC offers such a blatant slant in it’s reporting and overall culture of programming. The Beeb is much the same way.
Naturally, the CBC knows that their chances of milking the public teat in such ravenous ways improve when their partners, The Liberal Party of Canada, get to call the shots.
The CBC should be cut off. Let the Liberals fund their own communications wing instead of the entire nation paying for it
Dear NPR:
Play the music, and shut up. World news courtesy of the BBC? Why not TASS? And please, require that Garrison Keilor, now that he has exhausted his Bush/Cheney/Palin snarks, read poetry to himself locked in a NPR lavatory.
Drone on, drone on, oh great pumpkin. It’s been a year since the earthquake in Haiti, and nothing has been done. Drone. It’s been years since Katrina, and little has been done. Drone. Over a million dead in Darfur; our goal, this year, three million. Oh sorry, I got confused with the fall fundraiser.
The unseemly firing of Juan Williams, by a blond white lady, no less, was an unexpected delight. Juan is a nice guy. Not black enough for you Ms. Schiller?
In Japan, an executive of such ineptitude would be expected to commit Hari Kari. Think about that, Vivian, for the good of the company. Nina Totenberg can deliver the eulogy, Unfortunately Daniel Schorr, you remember Daniel, 87th on Nixon’s enemy list, or was it 99th? And then they’ll fly your ashes to Lake Woebegone, and scatter them to the winds. Sayonara Viv.
Considering the fact that the Iron Curtain fell over two decades ago, while the purportedly conservative government in the UK is still noticeably left-wing, I think we would indeed be better off getting our foreign news from Russia than from the BBC. At least, the Russians know a thing or two about socialism, and they have rejected it.
But maybe not. Some of the news sites in Russia since the wall fell focus more on Vladimir Zhirinovsky ruminating on Condi Rice’s sex life, lots of chest shots and 911 Bush conspiracy theories than actual news.
Great analysis! I don’t want to pay for left wing psycho therapy anymore.
“do not force others to pay for it”
Forcing others to pay for propagating views agreeable our ruling class, but not necessarily to the country party is, as we say in the software biz, a feature, not a bug. The self-anointed elite has given itself a duty to civilize the yahoos in fly-over country – it’s just the burden they bear. And of course the peasants ARE revolting (heh), because members of the country party figure that they are much less dependent on the ruling class, than the ruling class is on them. Were these ivy-league credentialed “bobos” truly educated they could quote Kipling…
“And reap his old reward:
The blame of those ye better,
The hate of those ye guard”
Spot on. And all of you out there who want to see NPR go down the tubes, just like the corrupt and despicable ACORN, don’t let the lamestream media whine, mislead, & cajole you into thinking that will hurt your local stations; their friend Mr. Soros has plenty with which to bail them out, too. The numbers being spewed by NPR are that they only receive “2%” of their money from the feds. OK, if that’s true, then cutting it off won’t be very painful. OTOH, if it’s not true (and this is where I come down), and if they can’t make it in the marketplace (think AirAmerica) then they SHOULD go down the tubes. Can you imagine the howls & screaming if public funding were going to Rush, Hannity, Beck, or O’Reilly (and O’Reilly’s certainly no conservative)? OMG-they’d be marching on Washington daily until it was stopped. NPR is no different (that is, from a public funding standpoint) – and Kerstein makes a great point that NPR’s “reporters are generally skilled at sounding calm and objective, even when they manifestly are not.”
Whenever you hear a liberal spew the myth that “we just can’t afford tax cuts”, remind them that there is plenty that could be cut from the federal budget that would never be missed by the majority of tax-paying Americans, not the least of which is money going to NPR.
One factual correction for your story: This American Life is not produced by NPR, but rather PRI (Public Radio International), which is a completely different company and in fact, a competitor to NPR.
I think NPR is fully entitled to government funding — from the governments of Iran, Venezuela, North Korea, Cuba and Hamas/Gaza (it’s not called National Palestinian Radio for nothing).
Sirs, I want to make a comment about your radio show I was listening to on March 17, 2010. On All things Considered, the radio show was called “Hostility Against Federal Workers Troubles Officials.” Your comments blamed “patriot groups” as dangerous and apparently increasingly prone to attacking government officials and facilities. The two examples you described to prove your case have no ties whatsoever to any “patriot groups.” Where did you get your flawed information? The two people Joe Stack and John Bedell had no ties to any tea party group, or a “patriot” group, or any other right-wing groups. In fact, Bedell was an anti-war protester, smoked marijuana, and was a registered Democrat! Now a few words about the “expert” advice you got from the Southern Poverty Law Center. One of their employess, Chip Berlet is actually an extremist, left-wing associate (like anti-American billionaire financier George Soros) and is a member of a far left organization “the Socialist Workers Party”. Now, do I need to explain about the Socialist Worker Party? Maybe NPR got everone mixed up. The people at the Southern Poverty Law Center seem to be the ones who are dangerous? Lastly, if NPR turns to a Socialist group for advice and as an unbiased news source, why are my tax dollars going to NPR?
Myself, I used to listen to, love, and support local public radio and TV outlets, the minute I got back to assignments Stateside where such things were available. Listened to NPR in the morning and in the afternoon for my required news fix, never missed a broadcast of Prairie Home Companion, loved Car Talk and public TV’s Masterpiece Theater. Sent in my pledges during the annual fund drives, scored the occasional mug, tee-shirt and souvenir cookbook – heck, I even worked part-time as an announcer for the local public radio classical station for better than a decade.
And then it all went sour: I chalked it up to the pull of the internet, and the push of Garrison Keillor going gradually, frothingly, gibbering bonkers having a lot to do with it. Nothing quite so disconcerting as a humorist who made his reputation doing gentle, affectionate ribbing of small-town flyover-country foibles suddenly ripping off the folksy persona to reveal the viciously intolerant, hate-filled bigot within.
And NPR’s news programs began to sour on me too, once I began to notice that certain stories and controversies – which I had already been made aware of on-line – just never seemed to percolate up to the attention of NPR. Or if it did, the attention paid would be pretty one-sided – and since I had already read the story from various aspects and angles online, it would be very, very obvious to me. Listening became a frustrating experience, rather than an informing one: why wasn’t this question asked, why hadn’t the reporter followed up on this aspect, and why, why, why were the same old experts always being pulled out of the Rolodex to give the same old canned response to the same old questions? It got to the point that I could predict the NPR stance on any particular controversy, story or event. So, why bother? I faded away from listening to NPR news around about the 2008 election, which is probably a good thing, since listening to their coverage of Tea Party developments would have sent my blood pressure into the stratosphere. In the wake of the Williams firing, it seems that All Things Considered should be changed to Only Some Things Considered, Else Your Ass Is Grass and I’m the Lawnmower. Maybe too long to fit into those teeny little blocks on the schedule, though.
Seriously, I wonder how many other former fans they have lost in the last few years, as the bias became obvious. More than just me, I think.
Garrison Keillor going gradually, frothingly, gibbering bonkers having a lot to do with it. Nothing quite so disconcerting as a humorist who made his reputation doing gentle, affectionate ribbing of small-town flyover-country foibles suddenly ripping off the folksy persona to reveal the viciously intolerant, hate-filled bigot within.
Pretty amazing stuff, wasn’t it ? I was sad that I could no longer (physically) listen to Prairie Home Companion.
I had much the same reaction with the evolution (devolution) of Bill Moyers.
Walter Cronkite & Dan Rather seemed to come similarly unglued as they got older. (Rather has spent millions trying to rehabilitate his image)
Michael Moore has completely lost it, although I’m not sure he ever had it in the first place.
Maybe we can make a generalization here about decline and fall inside the aging liberal brain.
I faded away from listening to NPR news around about the 2008 election …
I may be a bit older than you, but I abruptly and permanently ceased listening to NPR on election day, 1992. When it was announced that Clinton had won the presidency, the NPR newsroom broke in to loud, raucus, sustained cheering. I went to the payroll office at the university where I was employed at the time the next day and cancelled my $20 per month payroll deduction to support the college station, and have not contributed a nickel since, and never tune them in.
Our NPR and PBS stations out here on the left coast used to be somewhat interesting and presented the occasional intelligent discussion between reasonable people. I’d say that this was about 30-40 years ago. As a fan of Masterpiece Theatre on PBS for many years, I even gave that up. The calm and measured droning tone of the various speakers has become too much for my nerves. Oh and that Bill Moyers is one nasty piece of work. To think that I even contributed to the fund raisers for several years….hard to believe now. These days DVDs provide all the opera, classical concerts and theatre of all kinds and I get to choose.
Sgt Mom,
You can count me in as one they lost. I used to listen to the NPR stations when I lived in NH. That was a good station there as was their television station. Lots of good local programs. Then I was transferred to NYC and it all went to heck. Two weeks in NYC and I started looking for other news sources and programs. I have heard some of their broadcasting while I was waiting in the doctor’s office but other than that they have lost me completely.
yes, NPR has almost lost me, mostly since the 2008 election. Which is also about the time I was no longer in range of WNYC, which has their own programming between 10-2 which is usually interesting.
I used to depend on NPR talk as background during the day, but it seemed they got too obviously partisan, especially about Israel in 2009.
I have mixed feelings about the government funding because I do appreciate the option of talk radio without commercials, and a range of topics. OTOH, the seemingly endless pledge drives are worse than commercials.
The government funding gets ‘laundered’ through the CPB, which does serve a purpose with public television. Not everyone should have to, or is able to, pay for cable and premium cable to have options beyond reality tv. I wish C-Span radio was national. At least we would have the chance to listen to many congressional hearings, which IS a primary source of ‘news’. Ok, guess if I had satellite radio, I could get C-Span radio.
Anyway, I needed a fix of Mr. Kerstein’s writing, and am glad he seems to be at PJM.
Oh, and I now rely on re-runs of NCIS when I need ‘background’ during the day.
Good news/talk radio is really needed. Some of us can not listen to Rush Limbaugh. When I have a long car trip, NPR is my only option besides Mozart.
I’ve found that you can get all kinds of good talk content online, through podcasts. If there’s some kind of interest out there, there’s a podcast for it. You could try BlogTalkRadio, iTunes, Outloud Opinion, and Pajamas Media has a podcast too. I get both political and apolitical podcasts and I’ve learned a ton about history through History According To Bob (www.historyaccordingtobob.com).
More great news about Nina
NPR’s Nina Totenberg
Major TV networks denounced Gen. Boykin as a “Holy Warrior.” They ridiculed his Evangelical Christian faith on prime-time television.
“I hope he’s not long for this world,” said NPR’s Nina Totenberg on WUSA’s Inside Washington TV talk show. When fellow panelists, mostly liberals, protested, asking whether Totenberg rally wanted to issue a fatwa on the offending general, she quickly backtracked. She said: “in his job, in his job, please, please, in his job.” Well, that’s reassuring. Totenberg only wanted the heroic general fired. She wanted him removed from any role in directing the war on terror. She didn’t want him beheaded.
Gen. William G. “Jerry” Boykin knows something about political correctness in the military. Gen. Boykin, a highly-decorated combat veteran was dragged through the mill by the liberal media back in 2003 for expressing his Christian beliefs in Christian churches. They charged the general was calling for a Christian crusade against the Muslims.
Whenever a court decision goes the liberals’ way, Nina Totenburg is right there on the NPR, mentally coiffed and neatly shorn of her vulgar and profane off-radio conversation style. But whenever the court decisions go the other way, Nina is AWOL. Where does she go, and why isn’t she on NPR then? I envision her curled up in a fetal position under her kitchen table with half her wits responding, wishing the court majority to expire before her next scheduled interview.
Duty, honor, country. More than Nina’s small heart can hold.
NPR is for coastal liberals what Rush Limbaugh is for heartland conservatives: a means of relating to the world from within the confines of a specific subculture.
Rush Limbaugh’s appeal is far broader than a “specific subculture”, which explains his vast audience and immense commercial success.
You don’t have to agree with him on every point to recognize a truth teller of the first order whose mission is standing up for the Republic as it was conceived. Contrary to your assertion (“NPR’s) personalities are articulate and employ a more extensive vocabulary than commercial radio”) Limbaugh’s range of thought and his vocabulary far surpass most liberal-speak parrots on NPR.
Neither Beck nor a single one of his supporters appeared on the show, an omission that appeared to be motivated more by journalistic laziness and a lack of intellectual curiosity than anything else.
Liberals never want the accepted body of dogma on any given topic (aka “the narrative”) interrupted with opposing thought. When it comes to the Becks, Limbaughs & Levins of the planet, they automatically accept the knee jerk cant/dogma about such individuals. Their curiosity and inquiry go only so far as to ape the out-of-context interpretations of offered up by the entrenched media.
I’ve spoken to many of America’s “coastal liberals” and have determined, beyond a scintilla of doubt, that most are highly doctrinaire and rigid thinkers…
Whose brains are already stuffed with knee jerk takes on any given topic
Put simply, liberals constitute the one subculture in the United States that consistently and often willfully mistakes its specific and particular preferences for universal truths.
There’s that word “subculture” again. Neither liberals nor conservatives (nor blacks nor whites nor pinks nor greys) constitute a ‘subculture’ in America.
And it should be obvious to all, even those who lack the most rudimentary capacity for self-reflection, that to act in such a manner toward those who are, in fact, paying your salary, is neither a smart nor an informed thing to do.
In Juan Williams’ firing, Vivian whatshername (if she’s bright and articulate, I’ll eat my hat) was doing the bidding of one of her new financial sponsors, George Soros, and the $1.8 million (chickenfeed for George) he pushed NPR’s way.
Soros’ most recent project is pushing money at the pro-legalization of pot crowd in California.
I have noticed that when a liberal is being interviewed on NPR there is usually a low-level conservative also on who gets to say maybe two sentences. When a conservative is by accident being interviewed there are always at least two very liberal commentators there also and the liberals get at least twice as much time as the conservative does. William F Buckley’s Firing Line was the last program on NPR or PBS that I recall having a relatively equal ratio of con/lib guests.
It seems only fair that if my money is going to be used to provide radio broadcasts etc. for a portion of the people out there the only really fair thing to do is to provide an equal amount of funding to Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, O’Reilly et al.
Perfectly accurate article. In Canada, we have the Mothercorp, CBC. Same highway except with metric speed limits.
Excellent article!
I think much of this can be boiled down to lack of humility, or excessive pride. People want to believe they have all the answers, rather than admit they’ve got more growing in wisdom to do. Leftists are defined by their urge to control others, and unshakable beliefs that they know all the answers and could make such a difference if only others would conform to their ways. In fact, they’re confined by their intellectual laziness. And we’re supposed to subsidize it, as well. I think others have labeled their afflictions the 7 Deadly Sins, and identified dark forces behind them.
I actually pity the listeners. They’re trapped in a vortex of intellectual mediocrity of their own making, and too stubborn in their beliefs to admit they’re being sold a bill of goods which results in their own mediocre lifestyle. As a former listener similarly trapped, it took me a long time to realize my own collective lack of success in life was, in part, a result of the smug but cheap imitation for real education that is based more on humility and curiosity than their cheap reflection of life. And I’m much happier with the newer me.
The left is essentially a massive con by which money is confiscated from people who work and given to people who don’t.
It wouldn’t be as bad if the bulk of the theft ended up in the hands of the needy, but the fact is, the bulk of our money ends up in the hands of a self-styled aristocracy who, when not squandering it on themselves, use it to beat down the people who earned it in the first place.
So, just what percentage of poor people listen to the sainted NPR anyway? I mean, I know “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me” is a GIANT hit in the hood, but other than that? Or do they work their magic for the disadvantaged in some other way?
The only people I know who loved and voted for Obama listened mainly to NPR, and proudly stated so.
Faux News, on the other hand, they viewed as a propaganda arm of the extremist right. To ever admit having watched a minute of it would be an embarrassment.
It is these people who will assure the eternal life of global warming/climate change and man’s causing it. Up with Carbon Taxes, down with coal and oil!!! (But don’t put a windmill in front of my Lake Michigan mansion!)
I smell a lefty troll… calling it “Faux News” was the first clue.
I quit listening to NPR sometime in the 80′s. About a year or two ago I was driving and decided to listen to, I believe, “All things considered” for a moment. The piece was about discrimination against gay librarians – in, of course, the usual somber NPR tone. I started laughing so hard I had to pull over to the side of the road. I haven’t tuned in since.
I must confess that I do listen to a few NPR stations, with a couple caveats: I deliberately turn off, turn the volume way down, or switch to a commercial station so I don’t have to listen to their “newscasts.” I’ve listened to “This American Life” in the past, but after hearing the same couple episodes six months apart, I just turned it off. This is in addition to feeling like there is a better use of my time than to be sitting and listening to it in the first place. I could never muster enough interest in “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me” to even bother.
That being said, I listen to jazz, blues, and other niche genres on these stations, but even that is changing. Ten or twenty years ago, those NPR stations were the only places you could hear those genres. But with the Internet, I can listen to any music I happen to be in the mood for. While some are NPR stations, many more are not. For all I know, those Internet stations are probably one person with a dozen well-programmed iPods.
It may be that the same fate that befell Air America will happen to NPR precisely because of the Internet. Their newscasts, such as they are, are only listened to by their true-believer audience. There are many places to listen to any type of music on the Internet. What is the point of even having NPR any more?
That voice..that NPR voice. You know exactly what I mean. The
apparatchic droning on about the plight of the Mibwebwe people
of Northeastern Southern Uruguay, the dripping pathos, the moral-to-be-learned spelled for the listerner sentence by sentence for nothing less than 10 minutes as all the dots in the Liberal Moral Universe are drawn into play..ecology, economic democracy, anti colonialism, US militarism,
sustainable energy, endangered species, land mines..all made worse
when you imagine the sexless, featureless face of, say, Amy Goodman behind
the microphone. At least with Radio Moscow you knew that no one really believed the propaganda, with NPR you dont even get that pleasure.
I do not just want NPR ( and PBS, CPB and all other “public” broadcasting ) to be defunded. I want our money back. I want every dime stolen from taxpayer to provide a comfortable life for the Moyers clan and the other parasites returned with interest.
This analysis is crap. NPR was created to provide arts and non-yellow journalism, the liberals that infest it now are like hobo’s who hopped a train delivering needed goods and materials. Subversives that are there because it is government funded and thus they can leverage political power instead of competence. They appear at any government funded operation like ticks to a weak animal, unable to rid itself of the parasites.
To compare Limbaugh listeners to NPR listeners may have been considered a master insult to NPR listeners, but it insults Limbaugh listeners as well, and I would wager a tidy sum that you have more of them reading your website than NPR listeners, so I would not try to be so cute in the future.
Limbaugh listeners vocabulary is far beyond that of most NPR listeners, they just chose to communicate instead of trying to show people how many words they know. When was the last time you heard of conservatives trying to fire some government apparatchik for saying niggardly or re-jigger….
Are these various, local stations tax-exempt? Why?
Thanks to the Net and Satellite TV there is not need for NPR or PBS, defund them and save everyone money.
I listened to NPR daily, several hours a day at work for years. Made annual donations to my local affiliate. I have several cups and bags.
It was always quite obvious that the slant to nearly all the programming was left of center. BUT it wasn’t Rant Radio. You might disagree with the position presented but no one was screaming or interrupting.
That’s still not largely done on NPR, but starting during the last Bush administration, boy did it become snarky and condescending, though of course always in their most polite voice.
The little I listen now days, I get the impression that facade will be crumbling at any time, especially if God forbid, someone actually takes away that little bit of public financing NPR receives. And that will be more honest.
There are still some programs that I try to catch fairly regularly. Car Talk and To The Best Of Our Knowledge being two. But Diane Rheem, Fresh Air, Science Friday (and I’m a science geek but for the last 6-8 years, it might as well be called Global Warming Friday), Talk of the Nation (after Juan), Prairie Home Companion, along with analysis by Nina Tottenberg and the recently deceased Daniel Schoer, has made listening painful at best most of the time.
In essence it’s now mostly just quieter than Rant Radio, but not especially better or more informative.
I believe if Rush were liberal, his talent would still draw millions of listeners.
A better comparison to Rush Limbaugh would be Steven Colbert. His point of view has taken him well past radio and on to late night TV.
Liberal “Rush Limbaugh” types do exist. And thanks to a left leaning media, they get TV, while Limbaugh, Beck, and other conservatives have the broadcast AM radio spectrum pretty much to themselves.
Yet, that’s not enough for many liberals. They won’t sleep until every last one of the available news media outlets are “balanced” with their point of view. We can argue that Rush and Steven are relative equals. However, that still doesn’t dispel the disparity between right and left.
As a child and later as an adult, I listened to many short-wave radio stations from the late 70s through the 90s. Sometimes, I’d go looking for the same news story from several different broadcasts just to listen to how the story got slanted. This was a truly remarkable education. It taught me that while Rush Limbaugh and Glenn Beck are not reliable news sources, their point of view is important even for those who disagree with them. Yes, I’ll watch Colbert every now and then as well.
NPR, for all it spends on international news, has no such balance. We need, not only the middle points of view, but also the extremes. They’ll give the extreme left a point of view. Gosh, they’ll even give them programs (Michelle Martin, “Tell Me More”). But the Right is banished to commercial radio where they can attempt to make a living on their own ideology. And the amazing thing is that many are, though I could hardly call Limbaugh or Beck good examples of everything the Right has to say.
The real loss is not that NPR plays Liberals, but that they don’t play Conservatives. Worse, they’ll fire a relatively centrist liberal such as Juan Williams for even suggesting that his personal fears might align with the Right.
NPR’s contribution to the right? A snarky half hour program such as Market Watch.
This is my tax money too. They need to do better than this.
I never listen to NPR; if it were any further left it would fall over.
I do (or did) watch some shows on PBS, specifically New Yankee Workshop, HomeTime, and This Old House. I would drool over Norm Abrams’ woodshop (Where does he get those wonderful toys?), and admire the workmanship that went into the other two shows.
However, TOS is now a mecca to the fraud that is AGW, and the host pushes environmentalist extremism full time. The other two shows I haven’t seen new episodes for in a long time.
My response to yet another beg letter from our local leftist propaganda mill:
TO: Claude Kistler, KSPS station manager
RE: Request for contribution
Dear Claude,
I received your letter asking me to contribute to Spokane’s ‘public’ television and radio stations. It was very kind of you to offer me a membership in what I’m sure is an exclusive and sophisticated group, the “Friends of Seven.” But something tells me that I might not fit in.
Sure, you mention programming such as “The Antiques Roadshow,” NOVA and “Masterpiece Theater.” Great stuff, mostly. But you failed to mention some of the other programming that you routinely present. There’s your history of showing anti-Israel / pro-PLO programs such as “Days of Rage” and “The Faces of Arafat.” But this is hardly a recent phenomenon. Let’s go back ten years or so. In a well-documented example, NPR ran 32 – yes, that’s 32 – reports concerning Baruch Goldstein’s killing of Arabs in Hebron in February 1994. In each case, much time was spent on the type of weapon used, and the exact nature of the casualties was described in detail. By way of comparison, let’s look at NPR’s coverage of Arab terrorist attacks in that same time frame. Two months after Goldstein’s rampage, Hamas blew up an Israeli bus in Afula – multiple hideous casualties, body parts strewn about; NPR ran a total of 3 stories. One week later, Hamas bombed an Israeli bus in Hadera – same hideous toll; NPR ran 1 report about it, and like the previous report, no mention of the nature of the casualties. How about the October 1994 Tel Aviv bus bombing, which left 22 dead? Eight – count ‘em – eight whole stories on NPR – and one of them called Hamas “terrific community organizers” who help to “develop young people” and who promote “business projects like honey, cheese making, home-based manufacture.” You left out the hate preached in their schools and mosques, the “home-based” bomb- and rocket-making enterprises – yes, indeed – great “community organizers.” That’s about as fair and balanced as a carnival ring-toss game.
Others besides myself notice that when Israeli men, women and children are slaughtered by these monsters, you merely call them ‘Israelis.’ True as far as it goes, but by failing to mention that the casualties are in fact men, women and children, your use of the sole term ‘Israeli’ is an attempt to strip them of their human identity. It’s an old propaganda trick, and pretty transparent to the attentive observer. But you seem to recover your sense of humanity when you report Palestinian casualties – NOW we hear about women and children and ‘unarmed’ men.
I don’t know – perhaps I lack the sophistication, the requisite multicultural sensitivity to grant a pass to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas homicide bombers for what is, to NPR at any rate, an understandable and forgivable approach to dealing with Israel.
I suppose that my outlook is positively Neanderthal by NPR’s lights because I can’t seem to nod my head with approval when you demonize gun owners and gun rights organizations. Perhaps you don’t recall that, during an NPR news magazine and documentary broadcast, an NPR commentator, Bebe Moore Campbell, gave a harangue against the NRA for having attended a particular meeting. She said that the NRA had gone there to tell Korean merchants that blacks are criminals. She said that the NRA initials should stand for the “Negro Removal Association.” She said that the NRA wanted sixteen year old boys to carry Uzis because “the gun would probably be used to kill a black person.” Well, hey – one man’s ‘hate speech’ is another man’s courageous crusade against evil gun owners, I suppose.
Somehow, I don’t resonate to the upbeat, hopeful tone of voice your announcers use when the names of prominent leftists and socialists like Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are mentioned versus the thinly veiled contempt evident when your announcers are obliged – much to their distaste, I’m sure – to utter the names of folks like Bush, Reagan and any other conservative.
You bemoan the fact that only 24% of your funding comes from money taken under the threat of force and/or imprisonment from folks like me. That just breaks my heart. In a better, freer world, I’d have some say about the ‘redistribution’ of my hard-earned dollars to your essentially anti-American enterprise. And you would receive none:
• I am not in the habit of supporting those whose views are diametrically opposed to my own.
• I won’t contribute to those whose liberalism amounts to crimes against Man, nature, justice and reason.
• I refuse to send so much as a penny to applauders of socialism, communism and any other tyrant who happens to oppose the United States.
• I will not reward sympathizers of those who bomb innocent Israeli women and children.
• I would have none of my hard-earned money go to those who regard duty, honor and a willingness to fight for one’s country as the sneering punch line to a liberal party joke.
In short, you will receive nothing from me or my family, and I will actively work to see that you are defunded of the government subsidy that you currently receive. And by the way – your letter mentions your ‘slowing membership growth.’ Could your pro-tyranny, leftist bias have something to do with it? Ya think?
“Baruch Goldstein’s killing of Arabs in Hebron in February 1994. In each case, much time was spent on the type of weapon used, and the exact nature of the casualties was described in detail.”
It is practically never mentioned that Goldstein’s ‘rampage” resulted from him finding out that these Arabs were about to massacre the local Jews.
That, of course, would kill the story…
NPR never allows facts to get in the way of the narrative. Or the agenda. One of the many reasons why I despise them with every fiber of my being.
Jill – At the risk of arousing your ire on this subject, I feel compelled to point out that there is no evidence of any such plot, nor is there any evidence that Goldstein was motivated by anything other than his extremist political and religious beliefs. Moreover, the claim in and of itself makes no sense. How would firing randomly into a mosque prevent a massacre? In my opinion, the whole thing is an apocryphal tale concocted after the fact by the Israeli extreme right.
Another expatriate’s view: I migrated to Australia in ’76 and then returned to the US in the early 90s to do some graduate work. I had occasion to do long road trips and discovered what I call “The Rush Sandwich”. Morning edition along with my Egg Macmuffin, Rush in the middle of the day and All Things Considered in the evening with Motel 6 as a chaser. I’ll put it this way: I’m a card carrying member of the ‘Eastern Intellectual Establishment’ (Columbia ’64 for starters) and after 15 years of listening to the overt anti Americanism of the Australian left I experienced Rush Limbaugh as the still, silent inner voice that I had learned to suppress to get along. And NPR as soft core leftism by which I mean self loathing instead of straightforward anti Americanism. Yes, Rush is an ideologue, but he didn’t just spring forth from nothing – he represents a direct response to the liberal world view that came to dominate our universities and media – I think it is fair to say public life – from the middle of the 20th century. It took fifteen years of feeling my country of origin portrayed as the source of all that is wrong with the world to ‘raise my consciousness’ when in truth it is the source of much of what is right with the world (including the prosperity of places like Australia and China) and only some of what is wrong.
NPR? National Pinko Radio.
I grew up in a liberal household and NPR was an automatic choice to listen to. So rational, so sensible, no hysteria.
Then I started being able to think for myself, and I saw how biased, skewed and intolerant liberals were, especially those who listened to NPR. The last straw for me was during the IranGate hearings when opinions were stated as facts and facts dismissed as opinions. Never gave a cent to them after that point.
I live in Germany where until fairly recently there were state-controlled radio systems, a monopoly on what you could listen to. While some aspects were and continue to be good – both live jazz and contemporary classic music gets a lot more airtime than you’d find elsewhere – the news was just as one-sided and clearly politically controlled as you find with the NPR.
National Pinko Radio, the station that richly deserves to be turned off. There are virtually no savings graces to what should have been a good idea. Typical of liberals, that: take a good idea and run it so thoroughly into the ground that no one wants anything more to do with it. Sad, really…
They do nothing but demagogue political correctness, multiculturalism, moral equivalence. No wonder a whole generation of men embrace their status as the new castrati, metro-sexuals; weak-willed, assmunching, ankle grabbing, bitchboy pukes. I used to let my son watch Sesame Street, Mr. Rogers for the express purpose of giving him prime examples of what NOT to be like when he grew up.
“The difference, of course, is that Limbaugh’s admirers do not force others to pay for it.”
Not true. I have to “pay for it” everytime I have to listen to some nutcase dittohead in line at the bank spouts ignorant crap like “The Prezident is sekret mozlim!!” while I’m trying to deposit a check.
I “pay for it” everytime another stupid special presentation about “Tea Party Rage!!” takes the place of real newscast about real events that actually matter.
And I “pay for it” each and every time I have to go out of my way to correct some nut who doesn’t understand that his taxes dropped under the Obama administration, who thinks that government death panels are going to kill him, because Rush told him so.
Time and energy have value too, and having to constantly endure and push back against this intellectual sewage wastes both.
Dear me. You must think very highly of your time. I think you ought to avoid all people like me who might waste it by spouting things you don’t agree with. Then you’d feel obligated “correct” me. And I’d waste even more of your time.
I pay for reading your silly opinions with my time too. They’re your opinions. Rush Limbaugh is no worse than Steven Colbert. He spouts entertainment, just as Steven Colbert does.
Yet people take Steven Colbert seriously too. I pay for that as well when I go to the polls and have to listen to politicians pandering to that vote. But do you see anyone on the Right telling Steven Colbert to shut up because he’s costing them money?
There goes your argument. Consider yourself corrected.
Well, “Truth Time,” do you disagree with any of the other first ten amendments to the Constitution, better known as the Bill of Rights? You clearly don’t believe the first amendment is of any importance. I wonder if you’d feel differently if some -no name- internet loudmouth denigrated your proclamations, as you have just done?
Your bias cracks me up. There have been several studies conducted by consertive groups that have demonstrated that NPR features republicans more often than democrats. NPR is the closest you can get to news that attempts to represent both sides fairly. Unfortunately, conservatives have repeatedly harped on NPR as liberal and the lie has been swallowed by many. It’s a shame. I consider myself conservative and I really enjoy their news programs.
I have to point out the fact that my conservative, pro-life, Christian middle class family in the midwest listen to NPR because they trust it as an informative, intelligent source of information, especially about what is going on outside the U.S. They’re the opposite of “liberal elitists,” but they DO care more about China than Brittney Spears, so they tune in to NPR. They appreciate the unique programming, stories about nature, etc. I’m sure they don’t agree with everyone interviewed on the station – but they listen to it. Ie., not everyone who listens to NPR is a “coastal liberal.” Just sayin’.