I have been beating up on NPR for so long that I feel sorry for them. It started essentially when Sarah Vowel and David Sedaris took over. There’s a lot to like about NPR and I’m sure we could get into a lengthy debate about the relative importance of the likes of Carl Kasell, Ira Flatow and The Tappet Brothers all of whom are near and dear (and old) to my heart. And of course I would be a complete ass not to mention that much of my famousity owes from my stint on The Barbershop thanks to Michel Martin, and my good friend Jimi Izrael. But then what really broke things for me was Day To Day. Every morning that I had to listen to that NPR Lite just wore down the cell bars that was holding my conservative monster in check. And at some point I just snapped at the vapidity of it all. Plus David Brancaccio leaving Marketplace? Yike.
By the time NPR fired Juan Williams, I was too through with them and really expected nothing more. But you can't stay mad forever. So I have found myself turning back, begrudgingly. It's rather a different beast. Now there are commercials all the time, and there are a bunch of names I don't recognize reporting, only showing how strange it is to realize that NPR is essentially about 30 people. And even what they do is getting, well. How can I say it? NPR just can't compete with some really good podcasts - they just don't geek out enough. NPR is about flavor and style. It's not cutting edge anything. It's just like HBO. I don't mean to say that it has the amoral in-your-face-ness that was HBO when I stopped watching several years ago, but that it has become something of a parody of itself having become predictable and no longer being the best at what they do. NPR is cracking up, and crapping out.
The news of course is that the corporation that is often times too eclectic for its own sanity has essentially become reactionary. NPR is the Not-Fox for people who like to hate Fox. It is as predictable as a Frontline documentary, always stirring that same old cauldron. Always making everything personal and always taking the predictable angle of the big picture while pretending to understand it all. It is only that kind of organization that would make a point to
fraternize with the Muslim Brotherhood.
Red Flag No. 2: At the lunch, one of the men says MEAC is connected with the Muslim Brotherhood. That should have been Schiller's and Liley's cue to skedaddle. The Muslim Brotherhood has been in the news of late because of fears on Capitol Hill and elsewhere that the radical group would gain power in Egypt during last month's uprising. Combine that with this statement on the
MEAC website -- "share our philosophical approach to the spread of Islam and the establishment of Sharia worldwide" -- and the NPR fundraisers should have been out the door.
Everybody has got a cool Muslim friend. Just like in the 60s every uptight white suburbanite had a cool black friend. That doesn't mean you should hang out with Eldridge Cleaver. NPR is conducting itself like Patty Hearst, or so it would seem. They've been captivated by their ability to be the Not-Fox and now all their flavor and style is starting to wear out its charming welcome.
So my local affiliates are yammering like hunger art idiots about the battle on Capitol Hill for funding. Yes it pledge drive time, by far the most annoying and embarassing foolishness that ever gets broadcast. And when somebody tells me I can get a coffee mug for my contribution of 12 bucks a month, I'm thinking - that is about as clever as the best coffee mug ever, the I Love NY coffee mug, circa 1982. But the worst part of it is that during pledge drive time, they can't even honestly say that NPR gives you insightful news and information that you can't get anywhere else. I can get better, much better. For free. With video. On demand. And not from the same people I've been listening to for 20 years, or the snarky new yahoos that are replacing them.
NPR ought to stop pretending to represent the conscience of American philanthropy and start putting some longer format goods in place. Because for the short and pithy, the internet has got them poleaxed. Take Ira Flatow's Science Friday for example. Good show, but once a week? Compare that to Twit. Leo Laporte has single-handedly destroyed NPR on the tech matters. He produces at least 20 times as much content.
I say it's time to break NPR up. Give me three or four really excellent, focused organizations. One for hard politics, one for hard news, one for real business, and one eclectical mashup for the Vowel & Sedaris crowd. The rest of the real talent of NPR are going to be able to find their own producers. But what can NPR really do?
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