tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27644679.post4623791091859728052..comments2023-11-03T03:17:27.053-05:00Comments on NPR Check: The Return of MasbrowMytwordshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04307620268159811668noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-27644679.post-72536218937813663982007-12-16T17:24:00.000-06:002007-12-16T17:24:00.000-06:00Welcome back to the grind! One thing about NPR tho...Welcome back to the grind! One thing about NPR though, strictly speaking, it's pretty easy to criticize them, whether it's pot shots (as is my wont) or in-depth (e.g. Mytwords). What's arduous is, as we all know, wading through the discharge that emanates from our speakers.<BR/><BR/>I mentioned previously that I think NPR management is a tad nervous about losing listeners to custom radio services like Sirius. It's just the dawn of custom broadcasting, so it's hard to speculate, but hopefully NPR will be privatized in the not-too-distant future and will fade away, to be replaced with greater accessibility to alternative and more serious news sources. I think the future looks bright for such things, while for the model of the traditional public radio will mutate, as it already has, more fully into a commercial, and thus more programmable entity.<BR/><BR/>A word about Dan Schorr. He's a historical figure, and he had his day, but the endless references to Nixon, Watergate, etc. are not particularly helpful any more. Today's political situations are much more extreme and the stakes are higher. I agree, he's definitely pro-establishment, having hung up his rebel stances long ago. His perspectives on Russia are way out of date, and figure into today because that's what the Neocon establishment wants. There's nothing the Neocons would love more than to rev up the 'USSR' again. Dan's had a respectable and interesting career, but I'm afraid the old guy is a sideshow of little value today.<BR/>Even his contemporaries have had the sense to act their age. Mike Wallace has gracefully stepped into emeritus status at 60 Minutes, and Walter Cronkite, if anybody at NPR has heard, recently called for withdrawal of US troops from Iraq. It's as if Dan's determined to outlast everybody, even if, to use Mike Wallace's phrase, it's in the wilderness of National Public Radio. It sort of smacks of, 'I'm lord of a garbage pile, but it's MY garbage pile.'Porter Melmothhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11473990960543501439noreply@blogger.com