Why I won't be giving to NPR this year, and why you shouldn't either

[Prodigal Son]

We Liberals are a forgiving lot, which
separates us from the Rethug animals, but consider
this before donating to NPR . . .
It's my letter to Mr. Dvorkin, NPR Ombudsman.
-PS

Bill O'Reilly treated badly?
Mr. O'Reilly has a daily TV show, a column, AND his
own radio show in which his is the lone voice to tell
everyone how wonderful he and his book are. No one to
hold him accountable, no one to ask him a tough
question.
Terry Gross let him go for 50 minutes about his book,
and when a couple of tough questions hit him he
squealed and cried. Being a false martyr is his whole
schtick and livelihood. Ms. Gross was her usual
professional self.
DON'T BE SUCH A SISSY, and don't apologize for doing
NOTHING wrong. NPR is my regular link to non-biased
news and interviews.
Pathetic, Sir, and as a regular listner AND
contributor, I will remember this come fund raising
time.

[sendero]

1. That interview...

... was merely the cherry on the cake.

It was during the buildup to the Iraq invasion that I stopped taking NPR seriously and giving them my cash.

The sheer volume of completely unchallenged propaganda they aired was unbelievable. Pundit after pundit, commentator after administration apologist come on and said things we all knew, and have since been proven to be false. With almost no coverage of the other side of the story.

NPR has been subsumed by the right. If you send them money, you might as well send it to the RNC. (ok, that's a bit over the top, but only a bit :))

[liberalmuse]

5. Yep.

I noticed this too. NPR should've known better. I turned it off for months and months, and have only recently started listening again (off and on). Terry Gross is one of my favorites. Shame on Bill O'Reilly for behaving the way he did towards one of the most interesting and gracious interviewers on the airwaves. I remember the first time I ever saw O'Reilly on The Daily Show. He didn't even have to open his mouth, and I said to myself, 'My god, who is this pompous ass?'

Instead of cutting off donations, we should donate exclusively to Terry Gross in order to make a point.

[AP]

13. Terry Gross is a cog in the whell of the mass market media hawking wares

of big business.

When was the last time you heard her plug anything that doesn't already get HUGE media coverage?

My biggest problem with her O'Reilly interview was that it seemed like it was scripted to get her something new to play clips of instead of her Gene Simmons interview at plegde drive time.

The interview gave O'Reilly a ton of press, and it gave Gross get a ton of press. And, notice, it allowed each to confirm the image of themselves that they try to sell to the public. For O'Reilly, it's the lie that he's the victim of liberal media, and for Gross, it's the lie that she's liberal.

O'Reilly didn't "walk out" of the interview until the 55th minute -- ie, not until he had done a full show. I bet O'Reilly was looking at his watch the whole time, waiting to do that no matter what. And I wouldn't be surprised if the whole thing wasn't tacitly scripted to end out the way it did.

[Kolesar]

26. Insightful. They both were playing it for their "messages"

55 minutes, what a coincidence, too!

[Prodigal Son]

2. Right on Deseo . . .

Now how do we get this message out?

[La_Serpiente]

3. NPR listeners know their NPR

they'll know when they are wrong.

[Prodigal Son]

4. It's important for NPR to listen to us . . .

. . .when we have genuine criticism.

The only way to show them the error of their ways is
to hit them financially with attached message.
"Stand up to the right wing".

Otherwise it's "yawn" from them.

-PS

[sendero]

6. One Sunday morning...

... after a particularly absurd rant by Colin Powell was aired with nobody even mentioning all of the obvious lies it contained, I wrote the ombudsman a scathing yet matter-of-fact letter.

I never even got a response.

I'm not worried that the informed will hear BS. I'm just not going to pay for the propagandizing of the ill-informed. There was a time when you could depend on balance from NPR, but for whatever reason that time is past.

[hlthe2b]

7. I disagree: Write them, call, them, hassle them... but

NPR is STILL the best regular source of indepth news. There is not ONE single media outlet left in the US that has not, on occasion disappointed. Look at the posts here. One minute we are lauding CBS/Dan Rather for its stories on the Bushies that no one else has touched or Peter Jennings on ABC, or even Koppel. The next minute they return to disappointing narrow-viewed or sensationalist and unworthy reporting and we are furious. NPR has had its share of incomplete, or even one-sided stories. but on balance, it continues to be one of the best left out there.

Give up if you want to. But, it is OUR public radio and I will work to continue to make it better. Unless, of course you want Ray Kroc's widows's 200 million dollar donation to prop up a new RW source of news, I suggest everyone reconsider.

[Prodigal Son]

8. Let's let them know how we feel!

Here is the email link to Mr. Dvorkin

[e-mail]

-PS

[LeftHander]

9. Big gift has changed NPR

People...

200 million from Kroch has changed NPR.

After 911 and in the rampup to war NPR suffered from the Neo-Con takeover of the media and our Government. There was talk and rumors of efforts by the Neocons to destroy public boradcasting altogether. All under the covers probably and what came out of it was that is NPR wished to not feel the wrath of the NeoCon silencing juggernaut then they better start towing the line.

Then came 200 million dollars. The result of which has changed NPR. Everyday I hear the difference. NPR news stories are more critical and more probing of Bush policy and no longer do we hear the shrill neocon commentators as frequently as before the Iraq war.

People we are so close to losing our democracy and freedom at the hands of Bush and his neocon buddies that you all have to stop worrying about the worm Bill O'Rielly and start talking to your friends and nieghbors about NOT RELECTING BUSH!

Rathe rthan piss and moan about a single interview with a lunatic cry babay about his shitty book start campaigning against Bush and his fucking cronies in Congress.

Start writing, talking and casually mentioning that

BUSH is BAD for AMERICA.

When we get him out of office we will solve a lot of problems in this world.

Peace!

[spooky3]

10. Thanks, I wondered whether her gift came with any

strings attached. I don't know her politics. But I had hoped that, if she was truly a philanthropist, it would free NPR to be a beacon of truth, fairness, and intelligence (in the IQ sense, not the spy sense). It sounds as if this may be happening.

[creativelcro]

11. Same here...

There are some good programs, but it's not what it used to be. I donated $100 or so last year, but that's it... Have you ever listened to Dick Gordon, the Connection ? That guy is not very good, and they just spent a ton of money sending him to Iraq twice this year. Don't know what is wrong with them....

[AP]

14. Big change? They learned that if they're friendly to the Adkins diet,

GM foods, and the fast food industry, they can get big gifts from the foundations built on corporate America's profits.

[BiggJawn]

16. Yeah, but we still have to put up with Cokie Roberts...

...and her weekly suck-off of The Chimp.

But you're right about the Kroc gift. I listened to their stories the day they announced the gift and I told a friend "I think the first thing they did with the money was go out and buy a big hairy pair of balls. I hope they keep it on."

[Kolesar]

24. Cokie stuffed it for 10wks after I sent Mourning Edition a strident letter

I spelled out how she was speaking unsubstantiated GOP talking points "that sound like they were written by the white house".

Write to [e-mail] (I think that is the email)
===
To tell the truth, I was so disgusted with the coverage of the leadup to the war that I wrote a letter to my station and said I would not contribute further after 13 years as a member (!)

I told them I was moving and not telling them my new address, which I did.
===
I am considering rejoining. I have not noticed an improvement since they got a Kroc pot of money, though.

[Plaid Adder]

12. I stopped donating to NPR long ago

And I told them why right after they ran a piece of crap produced by some maddeningly hypocritical "professor" at a Catholic university about why the war in Iraq was a just war, even though the Pope said it wasn't. I can't even remember the guy's name but it inflamed my anger so sorely that the first thing I did that morning was fire off an email explaining why the doctrine of "equal time" did not justify airing a piece of logically and ethically bankrupt jingoistic claptrap that does nothing but restate the Bush party line by means of a string of unfounded assertions.

Or words to that effect.

Anyway, they are lost to the minions of evil. It's very sad.

C ya,

The Plaid Adder

[pansypoo53219]

15. did you not hear

the interview with Triumph, that attck dog? which made fun of all of it? I am sure he is regreting his minor pander to fux and their listeners.

[hlthe2b]

17. Dems really ARE good at stabbing ourselves in the foot...

"Our" candidate is not leading-- Pull out, don't vote, be pissed.

"Our" favorite blog writes one article that pisses us, never read again!

"Our" local newspaper prints one editorial (without rebuttal) that is blatantly wrong, unfair, biased: cancel the subscription!

"Our" public tv/radio station runs a story and includes a blatantly biased, wrong, unfair report: Pull the funding, let the RWers have them!


I understand everyone's frustration, but have we ever seen the RW & Freepers give up this easily? They are absolutely dogged and determined until they get their way. Perhaps, in this, we should begin to emulate them! (food for thought?)

[sendero]

20. Puhleassee...

... I did not, after 17 years of listening and contributing to my local affiliate, bail after a few bad stories.

In fact, I noticed subtle changes in their "news" a couple years ago. I'm not talking about a few stories I disagree with. That will always be the case. I'm talking about relentless one-sided commentary and reporting leading up to the Iraq war. I'm talking about a recent report where the moron reporter tried desparately to convince the audience that 5 soldiers autonomously decided to flood newspapers with that bogus letter, when we ALREADY had an admission from their commander that he instigated the action.

Propaganda coming from a known propaganda source, like Fox, is bad enough. Propaganda coming from a source that the right has successfully painted as left-leaning is all the more insidious.

Yes, NPR does do some in-depth stories that are more detailed than you will hear on other broadcast news outlets. But given the clear, consistent and pervasive slant I heard about the Iraq war, I'm disinclined to trust any of their stories much now.

[hlthe2b]

22. So, you'd prefer to give them up and turn them over to the RW?

Or fight and demand that they change?

As you say, "puhleassee".... The former is the easy course, but if you think it is going to help us reform the media, I sure don't see how.

NPR on a bad day, is still light years ahead of the cable media and at least 35% of the newspapers out there...

[sendero]

28. They've already ...

... been turned over. I wrote them and told them that was the last dime of mine they would see.

I could write them a letter every week, but do you really think it will help? I don't. They know what they are doing and they know why they are doing it. If they gave a rats ass about their loyal listeners, who have defended them and supported them for years, they would not have turned into a pate version of FOX news.

[TreasonousBastard]

18. Actually...

that is the reason we SHOULD give to our local NPR stations.

Aside from the huge gift, which only goes to NPR, and not PRI or the local stations, WE are the only thing that stops them from becoming more commercial and whoring to advertisers.

I suppose, though, that it's easier to just walk away and bitch about the whole thing.

[helleborient]

19. The NPR coverage of Brown vs. Board of Education was FANTASTIC..

These past several days and incredibly informative.

The 50th anniversary of one of the most significant life-changing events of the 20th Century.

If we lose NPR, this is only the tip of the iceberg of what we lose. There was nothing similar in other media...left, right or center.

If you don't like something on NPR, let them know, and let your local station know. But don't hold them to ideological purity...that is not their mission.

[sendero]

21. I don't hold...

... them to ideological purity.

I've heard portions of that report, and I will agree it has been good.

But here is the problem: they only do good reporting on after-the-fact issues, and events going on in places where the US has no interest or involvement. They do not hold to the same standard when dealing with current politics.

They are great at history but poor at current events - which they skew to the administration and big business lines.

[Kolesar]

25. The only time my local station wrote back it was about MONEY

Just venting. I copy them on letters to ATC and ME--nothing. I wrote them a letter telling them what shows I like that they play--nothing.

[leftyandproud]

23. You don't NEED to give to NPR EVER AGAIN!!!

why? because they just got a 100 MILLION FREAKIN DOLLAR donation from the heir to the McDonald's fortune!!!

[Pax Hayden]

27. I don't know what to think about NPR anymore.

I learned about 9/11 listening to NPR at 10:20am in my car as I was driving South on Fairview Road in Charlotte, NC.

Ever since then, I think their coverage of the Bush Administration has been somewhat lacking.

[Rabbit of Caerbannog]

29. But NPR is all I got. It's that ...

or TOO MUCH KleerChanul shit.