I have listened to a lot of NPR over the decades, mostly for classical music, Car Talk, how I miss that show, and, back in the eighties, Prairie Home Companion. It has always reflected the worldview of the mainstream Left, consoling noise for people who lived elsewhere but were faithful subscribers to The New York Times, and who faithfully contributed to NPR’s annual fund drives. The mainstream Left is now inseparable from the loony Left.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw9Z_lYrgso
NPR proves the rule that Lefties, who are notoriously poor tippers, are also compulsive freeloaders off public tax money.
(The last time I briefly turned on NPR was in Mar. 2017 —because the cheap radio I had out in the garage wouldn’t pick up any other station—and they were having a serious, classic NPR measured-tone “thoughtful” discussion about “Russian meddling in Trump’s election victory.” It was jaw-dropping fable-spinning.)
Note, the board of NPR turned over its presidency in 1977 to George McGovern’s campaign manager, who proceeded to run it into the ground financially. Their star reporter was the wife of a Democratic member of Congress. Another star was the daughter of Hale Boggs. Boggs had been the Democratic floor leader in the House; his wife succeeded him in Congress; his son was Washington’s number 1 lobbyist; his other daughter was a big pine cone in New Jersey politics. They never attempted to be politically neutral. Fred Barnes during his years at The New Republic was able to place an article therein offering a profile of their coverage of the civil wars in Central America. They were getting their reports from Nicaragua from stringers who were in Nicaragua as political tourists, with predictable results. (The New York Times under A.M. Rosenthal pulled Raymond Bonner off the Latin America beat because they no longer trusted him, and for good reason).
I quit listening in 2003 when the local station changed its broadcast range and I couldn’t get decent reception anymore; shortly before, I’d noticed that the insufferable Daniel Schorr was being given an unconscionable amount of air time, which was a motor as well. Do miss some of their cultural programming, like This American Life and Thistle and Shamrock.
Recall that Robert MacNeill and Jim Lehrer protected their program from the public broadcasting miasma. When Lehrer retired, his successors wasted no time in making his program insufferable as well.
https://freebeacon.com/coronavirus/food-and-drug-administration-drives-racial-rationing-of-covid-drugs/
Note, we live at a time wherein bureaucratic institutions of all sorts do this sort of thing reflexively.
From 6 months ago:
“A taxpayer funded news organization attacking the Declaration of Independence on Independence Day.”
https://nypost.com/2021/07/05/npr-criticizes-declaration-of-independence/
Click & Clack were good, even suffering reruns on long drives…the remainder was elitist Boston Latin School borscht.
Like Don, I used to like NPR. Car talk was fun, and Wait, Wait, Don’t Tell Me. The local public radio station had a blues show and a lot of good classical music. Then, I was up in the mountains of North Carolina November of 2008. Barack Obama had just won the Presidency, and I was listening to All Things Considered. The panel of “experts” were informing us that Obama had won North Carolina because a lot of “more educated voters” had moved into the state. It’s a rare thing to see such remorseless elitism displayed.
… After that, I just invested in some blues and classical music CDs. I’m forced to support that garbage with my taxes, but I don’t need to expose myself to it.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96785007