Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Open Thread - Tuesday

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 5:20 AM
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2 comments:

AntiqueLibertyLover said...

I was disappointed in this week's 5 part coverage of "the war on Drugs". NPR has yet to mentions that they receive funding from Office of National Drug Control Policy.

This is very important given the fact that ONDCP and the major TV networks have admitted to receiving money to insert content and story lines that furthers the government's approved opinions.

It may not be a conflict of interest, but it certainly is the appearance of one and should be disclosed.

4/3/07, 4:00 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

And on another, more stupid subject, a further example of the latest kick at NPR: goofing around with those fun audio controls! In order to trivialize the French achievement of establishing a speed record for a conventional train, NPR did everything it could to minimize the event. While it was grudgingly admitted that a record of sorts had been made, the implication was that those annoying Frenchies had cheated somehow because the locomotive was specially adapted to reach a higher speed. So, they decided to make the story into a bit of a joke. Referring to an American team of engineers who observed the French phenomenon and were working on a high speed railway for California, it was stated that the song 'Are You Going To San Francisco' should be played, which it was. Then - get this, in the old style of speeding up a spinning LP with your finger, the song was sped up until it became REALLY FAST, and it sounded, gosh, like it was from a cartoon or something! Remember Alvin and the Chipmunks? You know, like that! Impish! Whimsical! Francophobic! Tee hee! Tee hee! Even Meechele Norris sounded like she was smiling.

Lameness and limpness are the styles of the on-air talent at NPR.

I'm reminded of when someone at NPR (probably fired long ago), who allowed the Firesign Theatre to do occasional pieces to fulfill NPR's bid to provide satire to its sophisticated listeners. While the Firesign boys were not at their best (I could palpably sense their discomfort with the ways and means of NPR), they nevertheless were miles ahead of the usual NPR lameness and limpness. I recall a certain disdain from the likes of Siegel and others who wanted to make sure that they were not really associated with the Firesign's 'different' sort of humor. It's all so pathetic...

4/3/07, 7:24 PM

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