NPR essay on losing "America's trust"

Exactly. How do you have a shared national culture when you no longer even have a shared set of basic facts? And really it isn’t uniquely an American problem. Look at all the far right splinter movements ramping up across Europe.

 

A couple of things I'd like NPR to do. Map their stories, really get an idea of what makes the air, and what doesn't. If the network wants to be the voice of people who aren't heard elsewhere? Fine - I get it, but I also imagine a lot of viewers hear the news reports on All Things Considered and Morning Edition and don't "connect" with it. They can solve this by upping their story counts - tightening the longish feature stories, and refocusing their main emphasis on stories that impact the most people - they would still have room for the "here's an interesting story I bet you don't know about" things, but right now there seem to be too many of those that they bleed into each other.

 

And tell PBS to get with the times and show a little more T&A.

 

LOL!

 

I remember being a young reporter at a weekly paper in Michigan’s U.P. There was one radio in the newsroom, and the owner/publisher always insisted on tuning it to NPR. I complained loudly and often for music — even the crappy format played on our local small town station — but she didn’t want to miss her NPR programming.

“Someday, Coco, you’ll be older and you’ll appreciate listening to NPR instead of rock music,” my 50-something boss told me.

More than 25 years later, still hasn’t happened. I can’t stand talk radio, even when it’s coming from “my side.”

 

Talcott and Arbury? They were coachmen on Downton Abbey I believe....

 

I think one problem with your suggestions are that the idea, for example, to up story counts would appeal to people who would never listen to NPR anyway. Instead, they will continue to listen to conservative AM radio, That is a big danger of market research. A radio station, for example, would kill to move from five percent of the audience to 10 percent. They do surveys of the 95% who do not listen and try to program to them. But the people surveyed will continue to listen to a music station. Meanwhile the station alienates its existing audience. .

I also think if the Clinton campaign had the same relationship with the Russian government as the Trump campaign Fox News and conservative talk radio would still be blasting away and the people complaining of an NPR liberal bias would be eating it up.

 

Counterpoint from NY Mag

https://nymag.com/intelligencer/art...ree-press-trump-russia-mueller-collusion.html

 

EDIT: This is referring to Chait's assessment of the Russia stuff, not his trash gender takes.

 

I think the lack/loss of curiosity Berliner acknowledges (and should have addressed more to make the essay stronger) is a real issue in journalism, and one that is often driven by ideology to some extent as reporters are scared to push back against the wave for myriad reasons. I think Hunter Biden is the perfect microcosm for this in many ways. Any rational person should look at the situation and come to the conclusion he was almost assuredly doing something he should not have been doing, and it is worth trying to find out what exactly that was given his proximity to the former VP and future president. And that was evident well before the laptop story.

 

I can see legitimate criticisms of NPR and sometimes I tire of the overwhelming focus on LGTBQ and race - important issues, but not the only issues. However, when somebody complains about "Russia collusion" and writes it off as a nothing, I find them non-credible. Read the Mueller report. See how many Trumpies were convicted. Had Obama been that chummy with the Russians, FOX would have had a fit and would still talk about it. If you don't think the many connections between Russia and the Republican nominee for president aren't newsworthy, you are not paying attention.

 

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