I've spent some time in the automobile lately, especially yesterday -when I traveled to Annapolis to do holiday weekend grocery shopping at Whole Foods. Yes, we live near the beach, so we usually get holiday weekend visitors. It's the D.C. family coming to hang out with us, cheer us up, attend the peace vigil with us on Sunday, go to the beach, eat, and play.
So, I enjoyed my roundtrip, listening to various NPR stations as I drove. Where else but on NPR, the Diane Rehm show to be exact, would I hear a discussion on stemcell research – conducted in civil, sane, intelligent fashion? That then followed by an interview with Andrew Bacevich, a West Point grad, a VN vet, currently a foreign relations professor, who has just written a book called The New American Militarism: How Americans Are Seduced by War, which is decrying the new American militarism, not celebrating it (Tom Engelhardt has also written about Bacevich and his book here.) The interview brought up many points that I have pondered myself, and made me hope that this is a book that will get wide attention. I’m not much of a nonfiction reader, but I just might check this one out.
Later I heard part of Day to Day, where Elizabeth Arnold was discussing the latest miraculous find, the Mt. Diablo Buckwheat flower in California. Nowhere else on my radio dial would I ever hear such a thing.
Meanwhile, I have been hearing cries and whispers of the government’s displeasure with NPR, and its "leftist" slant. I haven’t had time to investigate this until recently, and when I did it made my hair stand on end. I’ll give you the link to one article which has given me waking nightmares since I read it. It’s on Salon.com, so you need a subscription or the daypass to read it, but it’s worth reading every word.
I am way too familiar with Fulton Lewis Jr., having been forced to hear him raving on through much of my childhood and adolescence. My mother (having come from an Irish FDR democrat background in her youth, became a rabid nutso rightwinger as she went through life, for reasons that I never managed to fathom) insisted on listening to his program no matter what time it came on. In the car on family trips, in the kitchen during dinner, in the kitchen while I was in forced labor doing the dishes, etc etc etc. If the new head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is a protegé of his, we are in for some unhappy days ahead.
It’s not just NPR of course, it’s also PBS. The wonderful show NOW, which Bill Moyers made into my Friday night addiction, is the main thing in their gunsights evidently. G’s theory is that they want to destroy Public Broadcasting entirely – we who support it with our contributions will no longer contribute if Britt Hume and Bill O’Reilly join up.
"Fair and balanced" -- the McCarthy way"
CPB head Kenneth Tomlinson, who is leading a jihad against "liberal bias" in public broadcasting, and one of his two new ombudsmen both worked for the late Fulton Lewis, a reactionary radio personality associated with Sen. Joe McCarthy
Why is it that there is no official outcry and complaint about all the TV and radio stations that have a totally undisguised "rightwing" slant? If it were not for NPR and a couple of jazz and retro rock and roll stations, I'd have no reason to own a radio anywhere. If Public Broadcasting goes "Fair and Balanced" there'll be NOplace for news and information except the Internet. Are we next, folks?
7 comments:
In my home I'm out of the range of NPR, but in the car, it's my solace and my balm. Hope your holiday weekend is a good one, and your company is pleasant.
I can only get NPR in my car...for some reason I just can't pick it up in the house. But I LOVE it...there's so much information you just don't get anywhere else. I admit, I'm one who has sat in the driveway/parking lot more than once to hear then end of a program. And yep...I'm a member. Obviously, that's becoming more important than ever.
the thing about NPR at home is that when i'm home i don't have the time or attention to sit and concentrate on listening to it. as both Kat and Cynthia say, however - drive time is ALWAYS NPR time for me. and me too, Kat, there is many a time when i sit in the car long after i'm parked somewhere, listening til the end of a program.
I have been a "radio-head" since I was just out of high school. There was a CBS affiliated newsradio station and our local WGN, back in the sixties and seventies, that I listened to constantly. Interesting, informative, BALANCED reporting and talk shows.
I no longer listen to ANY talk radio, even the "Air-America" left-wing station that everyone is so excited about. It's all trash, it's all mean-spirited, snide opinion venting. If it weren't for NPR, I would have thrown my radio away years ago. They say that NPR listenership has grown hugely in the last ten years. In my opinion, it's because it's the only radio you can listen to without hearing negative, opposition-trashing, polarizing trash.
BTW, did you hear the part about how Tomlinson thinks that NPR is blatantly pro-Palestinian? I presume this is because the commentators don't choose to give Israel a free pass when they screw up... Lisa :-]
NPR is about the only station to get tuned into both in the car and at home. Recently I heard that the new head of the National level boss of NPR had been appointed by GW. Yup, an avowed Right Winger who had promosed that NPR will begin to air "balanced" stories. This makes my blood run nearly as cold as Rush Limbaugh and his ilk! The Feds are threatening to withold all funding from NPR if they don't comply. I belive the Right Wing has gone totally out of control and is running amok. Help! Paulette
Actually, NPR has been veering to the Rightwing for the past year and a half. You hear it in its "special features" more than its "straight news," but given this direction it's only a matter of time before the reportage on "All Things Considered" and "Morning Edition" takes on a new slant. We can expect more "corporate friendly" reporting, more human interest stories on the good things happening in Iraq and more "family-oriented" features. Now, everyone needs to take a deep breath and honestly ask her- or himself if there is anything surprising about this. Afterall, media manipulation has been one of the Rightwing's most potent tools. What do we do? Well, we must keep ourselves informed about sites for quality journalism because our usual sources for honest reportage will no doubt decrease. We must voice our disappointment to NPR and PBS about its capitulation to the Rightwing and publicly decry this administration's blatant intimidation of journalists and editors. It goes without saying that we must become even more politically active. In the meantime, hunker down -- it's going to get worse.
Now, that`s time well spent!!
V
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