NPR isn’t going to sit idly by while critics call a news story on domestic drone use “much more akin to a commercial for the drone industry.” “Just because you don’t like the subject of a story doesn’t mean that the story was wrong,” responds NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos to Glen Greenwald’s Salon takedown of […]
Archive | Public Radio
Elvis says “WTF” with Marc Maron
Elvis Mitchell, that is, host of public radio KCRW’s half-hour interview program, the Treatment. This week’s edition of the program has comedian and podcast host Marc Maron as guest, and at the beginning Maron makes a point of the fact that Mitchell was willing to say the show’s abbreviation name (though clearly not what it […]
NPR’s top ten jazz songs (and mine)
NPR asked its jazz listeners to rate their favorite songs, and gleaned from those responses a list of the top ten Jazz songs of all time[1]. What is interesting about the lists is not that they can establish what is “best,” whatever that might mean, or what is most popular (sales records, etcetera, show that). Looking at […]
NPR: our listeners are not “self-importantly insufferable snobs”
NPR has finally gotten around to responding to a column in Slate describing the network’s army of listener e-mail and letter writers as “snoots.” In March, Farhad Manjoo went medieval on NPR listeners who protest various items on popular culture aired on All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He was particularly incensed at listener tirades […]
Shocker: public radio station asks listeners about format changes before making them
I could barely believe my eyes as I opened my Radio Survivor e-mail today and saw this notice from KALW-FM in San Francisco: “KALW is considering some significant changes for 2012, and before we move forward, we want to know what you think,” the announcement explains. The station is overseen by San Francisco’s Unified School […]
ATC host Michelle Norris will “step away” while husband works with Obama Campaign
The This is NPR blog discloses that All Things Considered host Michelle Norris’ husband Broderick Johnson has taken a top position with the Obama Campaign. “After careful consideration, we decided that Broderick’s new role could make it difficult for me to continue hosting ATC,” Norris explains in a published memo: Given the nature of Broderick’s position with […]
Lisa Simeone keeps job with World of Opera
The good news is that Occupy DC participant Lisa Simeone will retain her job as host of NPR World of Opera. The This is NPR blog has a brief notice mentioning that World of Opera sponsor WDAV will keep Simeone on. She came under fire yesterday for her participation in the Occupy Wall Street related […]
NPR opera host under fire for “Occupy DC” role
This just in from the This is NPR blog. We recently learned of World of Opera host Lisa Simeone’s participation in an Occupy DC group. World of Opera is produced by WDAV, a music and arts station based in Davidson, North Carolina. The program is distributed by NPR. Lisa is not an employee of NPR […]
NPR: He’s “Mr. Obama” to us
It seems that NPR listeners are grumbling again about the network’s practice of calling President Obama “Mr. Obama,” rather than using “President” on a consistent basis. “A number of listeners have written in recent weeks complaining that NPR reporters refer to President Obama as ‘Mr. Obama’,” notes NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos. But “since the mid-1970s […]
The college radio “guerillas” who made NPR possible
College Radio Day has come and gone, but I’d like to add a historic footnote to the festivities. College radio broadcasters in the 1960s convinced Congress to fund radio as well as television in the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Without that campaign, it is unlikely that NPR would exist. The story is beautifully told […]