The future of NPR

[s1m0n]

If I'm reading Dapple correctly, he's saying that it's a matter of position / perspective.

Taken literally, "extreme" indicates an absolute and not a relative position.

As used in US political discourse, it generally seems to mark someting like degree of fervour rather than ideology.

[anniemcu]

I believe NPR is the green spot on the blighted landscape of American media. I know that people sometimes accues NPR of "liberal bias" but in the years of listening I haven't detected any, but maybe that's me. Everyone will agree, though, that coverage on NPR isn't partisan, that it's broad, and that it is special: Hardly any place else can you hear reports that take their time, that will face the complexity of life and politics.

Anyway: Plans are to slash funding for NPR, CBS and the National Endowment for the Arts. Sesame Street is to go first, aparently. Over the years there have been spades of phoney scares that NPR funding is to be cut, but this time it seems to be real.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 02283.html
http://www.freepress.net/publicbroadcasting/

I'd hate to miss it:

http://www.npr.org/

Anybody know what we can do to stop cuts to NPR?

Call, wright to, and/or email your congressmembers.

[DCrom]

Throwing my hat back in the ring - yes, of course I'm aware that the US political spectrum is a bit different from that in Europe. But since we were discussing NPR - a distinctly US topic - I was using US political positions as a baseline.

Again, by US standards (from my country-boy perspective) Jack does come across as being in the left side of the spectrum - not, perhaps, the *extreme* left, but certainly left of the US political center. But I was mostly curious about where he sees himself, not where others would place him.

As I said in my earlier post, I view myself as slightly right of center, by US standards. But that's a self-evaluation, and though I try to be objective there are folks here in the US that would place me anywhere from "left-wing bomb-throwing radical" to "right-wing reactionary dinosaur". And yes, from a European left-wing perspective, this may translate to somewhere in the neighborhood of Francisco Franco or Attila the Hun.

But I think we've got enough on our plate just discussing the US political spectrum in a civil, dispassionate, manner. Trying to throw a "Red Clydeside" or Australian perspective into the mix may be a bit too flammable a mixture.

[anniemcu]

HINT: It's supposed to be commercial free TV

I wish it was. It's really gone downhill, no longer just a blurb of what foundations provided support, one hears blatant advertising at the beginning and ending of most PBS shows and some NPR ones.

Too true, but that only happened as they became more and more strapped for funds, since they have not been getting as much support from taxpayer funds. Some of us give when and what we can, but cannot offer up much in the way of monetary contribution. Not all who value Public Broadcasting are the well-to-do.

DH and I funded specific programs when we had the income to do so. When we don't, we have to rely on and thank those who can afford to contribute.

[jGilder]

I wonder how many of us outside of Ireland would have ever heard traditional music had it not been for NPR. I first heard it on a listener sponsored radio station, and now the only place you could hear it in this area is on NPR affiliates. I think that the music has spread through NPR affiliate stations exclusively and its’ popularity here is attributed to NPR radio stations.

[DCrom]

I wonder how many of us outside of Ireland would have ever heard traditional music had it not been for NPR. I first heard it on a listener sponsored radio station, and now the only place you could hear it in this area is on NPR affiliates. I think that the music has spread through NPR affiliate stations exclusively and its’ popularity here is attributed to NPR radio stations.

Jack, you've found something that we're in strong agreement on.

Though some Irish music became popular during late '50s and '60s when Folk music started to gain an audience, it was mostly ballads and music-hall songs, not IrTrad.

Even my mother, who's never actively sought it out, told me that a lot of what I play is familiar because she's heard it on NPR. Given that where she lives - Carson City, Nevada - isn't exactly a hotbed of music of any variety, that's pretty impressive.

[jGilder]

Though some Irish music became popular during late '50s and '60s when Folk music started to gain an audience, it was mostly ballads and music-hall songs, not IrTrad.

Even my mother, who's never actively sought it out, told me that a lot of what I play is familiar because she's heard it on NPR. Given that where she lives - Carson City, Nevada - isn't exactly a hotbed of music of any variety, that's pretty impressive.

If we allow the right-wing to end funding for NPR then the loss of what has created the awareness of what the people on this website are fixated with will be lost. ITM is just one example of what will be countless cultural casualties. Commercial media wouldn't support anything that isn't main-stream. The US will become a cultural wasteland and a bastion of mediocrity. And yes, I’m blaming the possible demise of public broadcasting on the short-sided and backward thinking of conservative Republicans in Congress.

[MarkB]

US House Panel Cuts Funding for Public Television


WASHINGTON -- The House Appropriations Committee approved a bill on Thursday that would cut funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting by $100 million, or 25 percent, starting in October.

The funding cut was included in a massive, $142.5 billion spending bill for health, education and labor programs that still must be passed by the full House and Senate.

Full story here:

http://www.backstage.com/backstage/news ... 1000963857

Another story:

Senators Ask for Delayed Vote by Public Broadcasting Board


By Philip Kennicott
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 18, 2005; Page C01

Three prominent Democratic senators have added their voices to a growing chorus of dismay about the future of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting under the leadership of Kenneth Y. Tomlinson.

In advance of a meeting Monday of the CPB board, Democrats Byron L. Dorgan (N.D.), Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.) and Frank R. Lautenberg (N.J.) sent a letter to Tomlinson, the CPB chairman, expressing "serious concerns about reports of your interference in the programming decisions and governance" of the agency, which distributes federal funds to public broadcasters.

Full story here:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01712.html


Living in Windsor I've watched PBS from Detroit for twenty years and to have the monies cut would be a real shame. And yes, I have subscribed to the station off and on over the years.

MakrB

[Jeff Stallard]

If PBS goes away, I won't miss it. It has nothing to do with politics though. I don't like the music they play, that "PBS voice" that they're so good at, or most of their feature stories. "What Do You Know" is pretty good show, but that damn "Praire Home Companian" show (and others like it, but it's the worst) drives me up the wall. Is it Garrison Keeler that does that show?

Basically, I don't like intellectualism, and PBS is definitely an intellectual refuge.

[jbarter]

Basically, I don't like intellectualism.

Coo, that's a big word. You must be one o' they there interlekshuls.

[Feadan]

Basically, I don't like intellectualism, and PBS is definitely an intellectual refuge.

Yeah...I think I would rather bask in the bliss of ignorance as well :roll:
Too much thinking makes my brain hurt.

Cheers,
Duh-avid

[Bloomfield]

Basically, I don't like intellectualism, and PBS is definitely an intellectual refuge.

Well, at least you're well-adjusted.


Good book to read.

[Montana]

"Fat, drunk, and stupid is no way to go through life, son."

Wait a minute! Maybe it is!

[Jeff Stallard]

Yeah...I think I would rather bask in the bliss of ignorance as well :roll:
Too much thinking makes my brain hurt.

Cheers,
Duh-avid

So you're saying intellectuals are smarter than others? They're obviously not above insults, as you've just demonstrated (assuming you consider yourself an intellectual). Take away the trivial accesorries of the class (in this case, wine tastings, black turtlenecks, vernacular, PBS, European preferences, etc.) and you think and act the same as everyone else.

But I'm getting off topic...sorry about that. Back to PBS...

[Feadan]

So you're saying intellectuals are smarter than others?

Well...

in·tel·lec·tu·al


adjective
1. relating to thought process: relating to or involving the mental processes of abstract thinking and reasoning rather than the emotions

2. intelligent and knowledgeable: having a highly developed ability to think, reason, and understand, especially in combination with wide knowledge

3. for intelligent people: intended for, appealing to, or done by intelligent people
intellectual pursuits



noun (plural in·tel·lec·tu·als)
intelligent person: somebody with a highly developed ability to reason and understand, especially if also well educated and interested in the arts or sciences or enjoying activities involving serious mental effort

....hence my response. Funny, I didn't realize "intellectual" was a "class". Guess that proves I'm no intellectual, eh? I know people from many social classes who I would consider an intellectual. And I wasn't insulted. I just laughed out loud at your post which to me read as your being against people thinking too much (in·tel·lec·tu·al·ism 2. too much attention to thinking: overemphasis on intellectual processes or pursuits). So, sorry, but I couldn't help myself. Anway re: the topic at hand...

http://www.cnn.com/POLITICS/analysis/to ... /mitchell/

Cheers,
David