Monday, February 09, 2009

Q Tips

NPR related comments welcomed.
Posted by Mytwords at 6:11 AM
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33 comments:

Anonymous said...

WHYY had a "success" in their fund drive! Praise the Lord and pass the ducats. It took them 11 days to do what they usually had done in 8 but hey . . .

Actually they were looking for 7,000 renewals/newbies for a total of $600,000 which works out to $85/pledge. As of Friday night (scheduled end of drive) they were $65,000 short and were threatening a Monday episode. But they raised an incredible total of $62,000 on Saturday!(?) This was a half day with no phone volunteers as of 8am Saturday morning.

Hmmmm . . ..

Last time they needed an "anonymous" donation of $25,000 to meet the goal and the time before that they needed a $10,000 from Pharma something or other. This time around Pharma whatever was no where to be seen. No big bailout and no volunteers with their matching outfits.

edk

2/9/09, 11:00 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

edk-

Similar stories at Colorado Public Radio. They wanted $100,000K during Warp Drive last week. Usually it takes them 6a-6p to do Warp Drive. Last week they went until midnight. And, the last time they did Warp Drive, Fall 2008, they got around $70K; a lower number during a slightly better economic time.

As for the REAL drive, my guess is that it will begin tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10th and run until Thursday, February 19th. They want $800,000K for Warp Drive plus 10-day drive. That number is astounding, considering they generally raise around $500K total.

I'd be willing to bet that they continue to drive, regardless of the amount of days, in order to reach the goal -- blood from a stone and all . . .

In Denver, the home of the Colorado Public Radio empire, they have both news and classical music. The classical station pulls about a 4 share. Probably about the same for the news. Anyway, CPR is sitting on some HUGE debt. They own an AM station they cannot dump, and they just bought an under-powered FM station for $8.2 million, financed through bonds from a company called Public Radio Capital (PRC). CPR just repeats news from Denver for the rest of the state, by the way.

In the past, CPR has relied upon their board members to kick in at least $25K/year to help out. But my guess is that their money board is feeling the pinch too.

More later fundraising news later. STAY TUNED!

-JET

2/9/09, 12:18 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

I Have A Dream (and a Scheme):

The one blessed benefit from the current Neocon/GOP-designed economic disaster might be: NPR's demise. It's a propagandistic luxury we can't afford. Petition Obama to dump it! Petition Murdoch to pick the whole mess up for a song at fire sale prices! (Emperor Rupert The Last can then gut it and remake it in His image: a mere appendage of Fox Radio...) Petition Congress to blow up NPR's gravy train, thus delivering us from the suffering NPR inflicts on us!

Oh. I just woke up. Wonder if I was dreaming or not. Lemme see, I think I'll turn on the radio to check if NPR still exists... AAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHH!!!!!! (An NPR-style soundbyte of vomiting sounds.)

2/9/09, 1:24 PM
Anonymous said...

Porter:

I think the next Federal budget might have a boost in gov't funding for "public broadcasting" in the area of $400m. I thought I ran across that number on the hunt for something else.

edk

2/9/09, 1:40 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

Anon,

Interesting! So, the propagandistic value of NPR et al is certainly being watched over/protected/championed by those with seriously vested interests, no doubt.

I want NAMES!

2/9/09, 2:41 PM
Porter Melmoth said...

PS: I see over on Crooks & Liars that even Murdoch is reporting an 8 billion buck loss. And NPR's getting MORE money??

2/9/09, 2:45 PM
Anonymous said...

NPR Holy Cows;

-Gore/Climate Change

-Israhell

-Big Pharma

-Anything Obama

-Zionists, Zionism

-Fudderal Goverment


Please feel free to add to the list.

2/9/09, 3:32 PM
Hubertg said...

"Truth to Power" has been omitted from broadcasting,...and, I don't see "Truth to Power" as an issue of politics.
This is where NPR falls on it's face. Unfortunately, over the years I have seen the public's best interests slowly evaporate from National "Public" Radio. NPR has moved into giving us what I call 'surface' information...it is
very limited in scope and unwilling to investigate the criminal elements of government, Wall Street, and/or the Corporatocracy.

2/9/09, 5:23 PM
Madison Wilburs said...

I wrote an amusing take on my local pledge drive that is called "I Love Public Radio." If I hear that again, I'll be sick. Here's my post, for what it's worth:
http://urbanabanana.blogspot.com/2009/02/i-heart-public-radio.html

2/9/09, 9:02 PM
Anonymous said...

I loved this little note by mara Liarson:

"Asked whether his language about the economy has been too dire, Obama responded: "What I'm trying to underscore is what the people in Elkhart already understand — this is not your ordinary, run-of-the-mill recession."

Where was Liarson when her man Dubya was invoking nightmare visions of the Great Depression in order to get the public to go along with the bailout for his banking friends on wall Street?

Where was Liarson when NPR was invoking such visions " " ".

I know it has been said many times before on this site, but it bears repeating:

Mara Liarson is a pathetic political hack.

There is absolutely no hope for her.

She is undoubtedly the worst that journalism has produced in this country.

2/10/09, 6:53 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Anon- I AGREE. Hack is too good a word for Liarsson. - JET

2/10/09, 8:34 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Madison- (if that IS your real name . . .) Colorado Public Radio outsourced their phone room to some outfit in Texas YEARS AGO! They don't even use volunteers anymore. How corporate is that? -JET

2/10/09, 8:36 AM
Anonymous said...

I took note last night that the first question from the Stenographer Corp was from Jennifer Ludden of the AP. I think that may be the same Jennifer Ludden who is NPR's go-to for immigration stories.

edk

2/10/09, 9:45 AM
Anonymous said...

Porter:

Cargill

any number of upscale private institutions of primary education

many many financial management services

every "foundation" anywhere on the face of the earth

AEI

edk

2/10/09, 9:48 AM
Anonymous said...

This might be what I found from the Legislative side of things:

http://www.apts.org/library/

edk

2/10/09, 9:52 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

Our Lady Lourdes of Baghdad this morning served up quite a package of CGI/Fox Entertainment Channel thriller-slop, in which she 'interviewed' an Iraqi 'insurgent-cum-militant' (TM), complete with spookily-disguised voice! The whole segment was one of the most artificially staged-sounding things I've ever heard on Un-PR. Gotta get those rating up somehow. Jerry Bruckheimer co-produced.

2/10/09, 10:31 AM
Porter Melmoth said...

PS: Sorry, I meant 'CSI', not 'CGI'. Still, if NPR was television, you can be sure CGI would be employed all the time. They certainly excel in Computer-Generated Sounds.

2/10/09, 10:34 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

UnPR LOVE it!

2/10/09, 1:15 PM
Anonymous said...

Actually edk, it's another dumb Jennifer.

2/10/09, 3:48 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Gimme some Loven! NOT

2/10/09, 8:14 PM
Anonymous said...

The Feb 10 All Things piece "Mexico Drug Violence Spurs Worry In U.S." never refers to the possibility that there might be more than one perspective on policy in Mexico, despite the last election showing Mexico sharply divided. The anecdote that leads is about a woman -- apparently middle class -- who thought for 10 minutes that her daughter was kidnapped. There is nothing about political prisoners, or about the largely NAFTA-driven everyday economic misery of the Mexican majority which has led to millions of Mexicans coming here seeking work. The "liberal" view in the article is from a former US ambassador --"Davidow worries that U.S. relations with Mexico tend to focus on just one issue — and these days, that issue is security." No sense of what those other issues might be....

2/10/09, 9:30 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Larry Yates- The NPR perspective on Mexico drug cartel stories seems to be the brown version of a white story that ALWAYS gets told in America -- the disappearance (abduction, rape and killing) of women. NOT to diminish it's importance -- far from it. But this seems the Mexican version of the Amber Alert and stories like it, that consume our local media outlets when they happen. Of course, these stories are sad and sick, but so are the stories and issues that get neglected; like the ones you mentioned, that underly the problems. -JET

2/11/09, 7:17 AM
Hubertg said...

The drug cartels run Mexico. They are a super well armed and organized army. The war on drugs is a band-aid on a compound fracture. There is so much dope coming up from Mexico you fill football stadiums with it. You will not get the full picture anywhere on mainstream or public media.

2/11/09, 4:49 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

Same issue in Colombia (as written about by MTW). The private army and the special ops in Colombia are never talked about on UnPR. When I was in the Army, the stuff that was going on there and in Central America? Don't get me started. And that was back in the 90s!

2/11/09, 7:56 PM
Anonymous said...

There is so much dope coming up from Mexico you fill football stadiums with it. You will not get the full picture anywhere on mainstream or public media."

First, I'd have to say that if we are talking about NPR and NPR member stations, public media and mainstream media ware the same thing.

Second, the picture painted by the latter has nothing at all to do with reality.

The picture you get is the same old same old
"We are winning the drug war. Yay US!! Why, just look at how many people we put in jail over the last 20 years on drug charges! What more proof could you require?" (typical story by FOX'N PR)

2/12/09, 8:12 AM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
2/12/09, 1:44 PM
Juan "Toss" Ensalada said...

From the NPR Ombudsbot regarding Uncle Juan Williams.

2/12/09, 1:47 PM
Anonymous said...

"NPR has asked Fox News not to identify its news analyst, Juan Williams, with NPR branding when he appears on Fox News because of outrage among its largely liberal listener-base. And Fox News has happily agreed to do so."

Apparently, NPR thinks there are two Williams', the one on Fox and the on NPR.

This is just too dumb for words.

Could these NPR people (like ombudsman Alicia Shepard) be any more pathetic?

2/12/09, 5:18 PM
Anonymous said...

This statement by NPR ombdudsbot Alicia Shepard says it all:

"This recent [Juian Williams] comment [about Michelle Obama] may have undermined his credibility with some NPR listeners. But I question whether listeners, overall, object to what Williams says outside of NPR or the fact that he says it on Fox."

In other words, "NPR listeners are too stupid to actually base their assessment of Williams on what he actually says, but instead base it purely on his affiliation with Fox."

Shepard is a a tool.

2/12/09, 5:30 PM
Hubertg said...

True that !!! The 'Drug War' is a growth industrty-job security issue
...if we 'won' the 'drug war' it would be like putting the Big 3 out of business....the economic bash would be horrific.

2/12/09, 5:51 PM
Anonymous said...

Ugh--NPR (thanks, Scott Horsley and Missy Block) totally swallowed the GOP line on Judd Gregg's withdrawal hook, line, and sinker. To hear NPR tell it, Gregg's sudden case of cold feet was simply the result of an honest fellow who realized before it was too late that the job at Commerce wouldn't "let him be his own man." Um, hello, NPR: the job of journalists is not to obediently type up and distribute the wildly tendentious official narratives of political parties but to scrutinize them for inconsistencies and uncover the real stories behind them--viz. the GOP is in full snit-fit mode over the stimulus package and is attempting to deal a highly coordinated death blow to Obama's efforts to seem bipartisan and inclusive and make him seem like a dangerous partisan welfare-state-luvvin' tax-n'-spend librul. That seems fairly plain, n'est-ce pas? But NPR of course can't be bothered to put two and two together; the only conclusion they draw from l'affaire Gregg is precisely the one the GOP wanted them to: it's another "setback" for the Obama administration and its efforts to seem bipartisan. Thanks, NPR--I wouldn't have expected anything more or less.

Ya'll, it's Mardi Gras season here in S. Louisiana and I have better things to do that listen to this rubbish. Laissez les bon temps, etc.

2/12/09, 7:47 PM
Anonymous said...

From reading on other blogs, it seems possible that the gregg resignation may have something to do with the 2010 census, which is apparently run out of the Commerce Dept. That would suggest to me that he was asked to step aside, as the admin thought he couldn't be trusted; all of which paints the admin as a little "scattered".
Regarding williams, npr does seem to demand the blandest, least interesting parts of one's personality. I remember hearing Askia Muhammed breathing absolute fire on WPFW-Pacifica, and that evening going on npr with...his mother's recipe for egg nog. Now THAT was some groundbreaking shit!
But I've never cared for wan, either on faux or on npr. And that shepard woman, is she a lousy writer or what?

2/12/09, 9:23 PM
Anonymous said...

^ One thing worse, Lar, and sadly in oversaturation:

An overpaid lousy writer.

2/13/09, 5:41 PM

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