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Subject: "...brushed his long, stringy grey hair out of his face"
It may seem trivial to complain about "reportage" on the owner of the 8-track museum - but hey, way to alienate one of your few remaining constituencies, the grey ponytail crowd. NPR never would have said "Bush delivered his speech with a childish smirk on his chimp-like face" - because NPR always bows before power, and mocks ordinary people. I remember one of the NPR idiots laughing gaily about where were those people who said they were moving to Canada if Dubya was re-elected. I think it might have been one of those people who were double dipping at Fox (not Juan Williams). Well, this one was in Canada. And when we got our pictures taken for our permanent residency cards, the photographer told us that MANY people from the US said that's why they were in Canada. And the CBC said that 30,000 people from the US moved to Canada to get away from Dub. But I doubt very very much this was ever mentioned on NPR. It's too late to cover Bush accurately - unless he makes the news by being arrested in Europe or something, which would be a wonderful thing. It's not too late to start covering the current decider accurately - though your people might have to do it without Federal funds. It shouldn't be a problem, Democracy Now! does a very good job of it without money from the government.
Which reminds me, I sent this to the Takeaway, which I gather is not an NPR program. their pro-authority bias seems pretty much identical to NPRs, but this message was actually meant for your people, so if you could forward it, I'd be grateful. And let people know I'd like for them not to start practicing better journalism, but to start practicing journalism. I still can get a small charge out of the entertainment shows on NPR, but on the "news" programs, i haven't heard anything resembling news for months.
"Subject: Dictators and their money
NPR really makes me sick. You people knew that Mubarak and his cronies were looting billions of dollars (how much of it came from US taxpayers?) but you never said a word, because it didn't serve the interests of US power.
It's only after the government cuts them loose that you start telling the truth about them - again, in the service of creating a unified propaganda message. It's happened so many times - you just mentioned Marcos, for example - you wouldn't think anybody would be fooled. But it does seem to work over and over again.
And I've never heard a word about US kleptocrats, even after they are out of power. Tell me, how much money did Bush help himself to through his tax cuts to the rich? I'll bet you know, but you won't say. Reporting is not part of the NPR agenda.
I'm surprised that congress is talking about eliminating government support for NPR. If they really mean it, it's very stupid of them. They more than get their money's worth. The tweed and brie set don't fall for Fox propaganda, you need to feed them something more sophisticated to bring them into the consensus, and that's the job of NPR. NPR does an excellent job of pacifying then.
I wouldn't mind if NPR went away all together, liberals might be motivated to activism if they had to turn to Democracy Now!, Alternative Radio, etc for information. Imagine if all those campus stations were cut loose. They'd re-affiliate, and no doubt offer better programming.
But no, NPR will become even more servile, like a kicked dog, become more conservative and serving the interest of power, pick up more Fox commentators and never fire one again no matter how much they deserve it - in exactly the same way you responded to the Gingrich assault.
Instead of dying the death of a thousand cuts, you could try to remember why you studied journalism in college - and practice it. But I don't expect that. I know what it's like to work in a beleaguered, demoralized bureaucracy that has lost direction. It takes organized effort, and everybody just wants to try to stay below the radar. People that put their heads up get hammered down.
Possibly you don't understand what I'm saying. If you don't, I have no sympathy for you. But if you do, you do have my sympathy, been there, done that."
Name: Matt Love
