Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 9:46 PM
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8 comments:

Porter Melmoth said...

I tuned into NPR for a total of two minutes this morning. In that time I was yet again forced into a corner. That is, my thoughts on NPR culture return to the same point time and again.

In Brave New NPR, all people are alike. They all sound the same. They have the same tastes, the same sense of humor, the same underlying agenda.

Today I heard someone talking about sugarplums. You know, the ones that dance in heads. It was a seasonal story of course (NPR's bold contribution in the War For Xmas?) Anyway, the guy talking with always-chic Linda Werthenheimermeister about actual sugarplums sounded so NPR-generic, so run of the mill, so bland and narcissistic, he fit right in with the NPR program seamlessly, just like all the thousands of others.

Beyond the underlying 'Neoconics', the corporateness, the shilling, this is one of the things I can't stand about NPR: this bland, faux-sophisticated, faux-intellectual glamour show, which is, by the way, subversive as hell.

12/24/08, 11:56 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

OK, what's so subversive about NPR (aside from the obvious cartel cooperation we've heard in many a report)?

In Brave New NPR, no one's allowed to get mad, or out of line or goofy or raunchy or daring or... be real.

NPR wants you all to BE like NPR. They show you how, every day.

OK, that's enough.

Have a happy, non-NPR super time in this generic holiday season!

12/24/08, 12:41 PM
Kevan Smith said...

IMO, It's pretty subversive to give the Big Fuck You to people who make less than a certain amount NPR aims at as a demographic.

NPR is all show-me-the-money these days.

Hi, whore.

12/25/08, 3:20 AM
Anonymous said...

...and a borderline-case "any-port-in-a-storm" prostitute at that!

(no offense intended toward our Port, just to clarify)

12/25/08, 5:25 AM
Anonymous said...

And Port, a slight rebuttal - in that there actually is a certain allowance at NoPR for being "goofy" when, of course, they want the ardent listener to be left with goofy impressions about the topic at hand. But that's about it.

12/25/08, 5:39 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

I guess my lame attempt to apply a little sci-fi twilight zoning to the NPR Effect sort of flopped. I just meant to suggest that there's a kind of sameness to NPR's approach to the world. It strikes me as a kind of comfort zone, and its people don't venture too much outside of what they have determined their version of the world should be.

As someone who formerly swallowed what NPR fed me, I have nothing but hope for its listeners of all types, that they at least be somewhat wary of what they're hearing. Any F.Y. feeling I might send out is aimed exclusively at NPR, not its listeners. (Actually, I'd like to leave F.Y.-ing to the classy Dick Cheneys of the world...)

It's the ancient but still valid 'beware of the power of the mass media' thing that crosses my mind.

OK, enough half-cooked theorizing and self-acquittal. Back to holiday revelry...

12/25/08, 3:34 PM
pietro said...

love your blog! npr is depressing, becoming more like oprah everyday now. It still has nothing on pinter's death but how col dthey pass on ertha kitt's? like 3 days and still running.

12/26/08, 8:59 AM
Anonymous said...

i agree your idea ! very nice blog

1/4/09, 1:55 AM

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