I called my local NPR station today and asked the friendly volunteer who took my call what percentage of the station's budget was spent on NPR news. After some time on hold while she researched this question, she said it was about 23%. I then told her that I would be deducting that percentage from my pledge as a way of registering my unhappiness with NPR, which as the good readers of this blog know, seems to have turned more and more into a propaganda machine. The station is affiliated with a university and is generally a great station, and I want to support it, but I can no longer conscience giving money for NPR's apparent mission of indoctrinating the upper classes.
I then pledged to the local community station, which plays no NPR programming, but does play such invaluable shows as Democracy Now!, Radio Nation, Alternative Radio, and Counter Spin, and added the amount deducted from my NPR pledge to my gift to them.
I know this will probably have little to no effect on NPR's behavior, as I and people like me are always beaten in contests of "voting with dollars",but it did kind of feel good to support my stations while making a statement critical of NPR.
I would like to thank Mytwords for letting me contribute to his valuable blog, and I will be listening carefully and posting as regularly as I can with my thoughts and observations on NPR's "reporting", Including, I hope, praise for them when they do a good job.
Thanks for the opportunity.
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7 comments:
Good post, you hit the nail right on the head. It is a propaganda tool to indoctrinate the upper, educated classes. Thanks for helping out on the blog as I appreciate reading it.
An elegant solution. I certainly wish I had the listening options you do, but I guess that's where online accessing comes in. Democracy Now! is one of the most valuable resources I can think of.
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Thanks for your comments on the NPR funding drive. Those are good questions. I often wonder about the money they get from orgs like the Cato Foundation and other rightwing "think tanks". Also I don't care for the "guilt tripping" approach to donations they have taken recently in Michigan and in the Minneapolis area, to get people to contribute. Back in the 70s when I first started listening to NPR in Michigan they treated you like an intelligent adult, not like a bad 12 year old. Guilt is not a position/condition to reenforce in others regardless of your motivation as it does not promote intelligent reflection and equanimity let alone true generosity.
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(checks pulse) Nope. No guilt FREELOADING - in fact, what little I can tolerate of the feeds doesn't warrant "support." Give some beans to the uncompromising CURSOR separating the wheat from the crap before Smarmy McNeyyyws.
PS: and yes, like cable TV, one SHOULD have the option of contributing to public broadcasting a la carte.
BPFB, I don't think anyone should feel guilty for not giving money to NPR. After all, it's nominally "public" and does receive federal tax dollars. And, in spite of that, it represents the interests of the ruling class rather than of the People. So I say, listen away if you can stand it!
MASBROW:
and send the NPR station the cancelled check from the other contribution. People in the sales business like NPR take their 'brands' seriously, and won't want to see someone else's 'brand' on a cancelled check.
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