Premier Rock Forum

nihil wrote:For the most part, I enjoy NPR. But I get very annoyed when they cover the war or the current administration. They consistantly dance around the elephant in the room.

Yes.

They also have power knob slobbers like Juan Williams who is a regular contributer to Fox News. Morning Edition and All Things Considered will often have David Brooks, Charles Krauthammar and George Will, three men who have been tragically and consistently wrong about everything to do with Iraq and the War On Terror in the last 6 years and whose newspaper columns are often just echoes of GOP talking points. In short NPR's political coverage is staffed by so many of the same hacks you find in other news. They are as insestuous as the rest of broadcast/television/cable news.

Looking beyond that their business practices towards their affiliate stations leave a lot to be desired. For example, they ram their own advertisers and ads down network stations throats. While following a program "clock" they have "floating" breaks that carry their own advertising that could come over the feed at any time forcing the stations to either hit a moving target and cover it with their own announcements or just allow the free advertising. The stations have not been compensated for these ads and in fact have paid NPR to broadcast their network feed. So NPR ends up double dipping on the deal while the stations get screwed out of advertising revenue. When complaints about this were brought to the attention of the powers that be at NPR the response was essentially "tough shit".

NPR is also cutting their entire unionized engineering staff in favor of unorganized freelancers. The choice for these people has been to be bought out or shut out. Organizations that move to break unions are declaring war on working people and fair and living wages.

NPR is a media business and as such one should not be too bamboozled by their supposed "public radio" status. It is run by hacks afraid of rocking the status quo and more concerned about the bottom line than about wether or not they are parroting political propaganda, which they often are. How many times a day do they mindlessly repeat any public statements made by the crooks and liars in the White House or Congress? Every hour for 5 minutes.

Having said all that there is admittedly some excellent reporting that gets through the filters, but it is rare or it is contained in a weekly evening or weekend show that not everyone is listening to. NPR also generally shys awy from mindless entertainment news. But CNN has excllent coverage sometimes too and I would hardly call CNN independent or balanced. Money is all that matters to politics and big media. NPR included.

I like npr,
decent music,
real unbiased news,
and its all for the people.

Definitely better than other radio stations that "SO PLAY WHATEVER THEY WANT... so long as coca cola agrees"

O.K. Forget about the Bela Fleck.
What is with WBEZ's engineers? Why can't they balance the levels of the phone call interviews. The hoast is always four times as loud as anyone on the phone. This makes for absurd listening, especially in the car. Why is that the case?

The local stations are the only source of real criticism of the war. The national news stuff is all controlled. And I fucking hate that Kai Rissdahl on Marketplace. He is a grimacing ghoul who could sound chipper while telling you your kids were eaten by wolverines. Fuck that guy, fuck DuPont, Dow, fuck Exxon, fuck all the rich and powerful assholes who fund NPR.

nihil wrote:For the most part, I enjoy NPR. But I get very annoyed when they cover the war or the current administration. They consistantly dance around the elephant in the room.

I've been slowly noticing this in the past year or so. I still listen as it's better than anything else but unfortunately my wife loves This American Life and one day I will find Ira Glass and punch him.

Thefactthattheysometimesplay...ExplosionsintheSky... betweenbreaks... doesn't diminishmyfeelingstowards ....Ira Glass andhismannerofspeaking...

greg wrote:What is with WBEZ's engineers? Why can't they balance the levels of the phone call interviews. The hoast is always four times as loud as anyone on the phone. This makes for absurd listening, especially in the car. Why is that the case?

Because they are not paid enough and not treated well enough by management to care. I cared when I was an engineer there, but that's only because I am a consummate professional.

Sounds like it. Get it? Sounds like it.

greg wrote:Sounds like it. Get it? Sounds like it.

Yes I do get it. You are very clever.

Hey! I had the volume on that guest up as far as she could go. Her cell phone was the worst that I have ever heard. Beyond crap. Almost unworkable.

And I did lower the host's volume but could only go so far before the entire thing would have been completely unlistenable.

My sincere apologies to you, dear listener. I'm hear for you. Get it?

Rick Reuben wrote:

Graham Hick wrote:Because they are not paid enough and not treated well enough by management to care. I cared when I was an engineer there, but that's only because I am a consummate professional.

Look how they work that poor Abby Ryan. She's on at 5am, she's on at 6pm. Is she a hostage?

She works for Shadow Traffic, not WBEZ, and is located somewhere else entirely. Not many from WBEZ have ever met her personally. She does reports for numerous Chicago AM and FM stations under various pseudonyms throughout the day. Abby Ryan is not her real name.

As for the status on her personal liberty, I am not aware of it.