Has NPR gone rightward?

[ContraBass Black]

I've listened to NPR on line three times recently.

The first time, I heard a minister talking about why blacks should support gay marriage.

The last time, it was about why blacks should be Republican.

Now, I'm hearing about how No Child Left Behind benefits black, inner city children in VA.

Is this a trend? Have I been "tuning in" at the wrong times? Am I overreacting? Has this already been debated here ad nauseum?

[whistle]

1. Yep, to the right and toward fundemental Christianity

...music wise

[Iris]

17. Can you give some examples?

Because I've never heard any fundamentally Christian music on NPR.

Or, are you joking?

[whistle]

25. NPR, PBS, I mix them up, but the local public radio broadcasts

...relgious oriented classical music throughout the week and on weekends. I stopped watching the local public broadcasting TV station because it was showing evangelical content. I live in Central Florida and there is just an overwhelming number of AM, FM and TV stations that are fundementalist relgious oriented. So, to have the PBS stations carry that content as well is a little overpowering.

[rniel]

2. Everyone has their price

he he

I used to listen but never again.

[LiberalEsto]

3. Yes. They've got a lot of rightwing donors now

and it's had an impact on their content.

[katinmn]

10. They even have Wal-Mart as a sponsor now

just as an illustration of how they have lost their moral compass

[candy]

4. Naaah,it's just becoming "fair and balanced" LOL

[Lisa0825]

5. I started listening to NPR about 2 years ago, and believe you are correct.

I was expecting some good liberal talk, and I was sorely disappointed.

[ContraBass Black]

8. They seem to be hammering at it pretty hard

As far as pushing blacks towards the republicans, but that probably makes sense, since this feed is local to D.C.

[sui generis]

6. don't they get money from the corporation for public broadcasting?

if so, then they definitely have some RW influence.

But you're right. I heard an idiot going on about why the struggle for gay rights was not the same as the struggle for civil rights.

I heard another pundit going on about why torture was sometimes justified.

I am deeply disappointed in their direction these days and no longer give money in the quarterly drives, and have actually written snail mail explaining why.

[Az]

7. Prepare to hear a lot of slams on NPR

Personally I see them as the last remaining old style investigative news source around. They did take a deliberate step to try to present conservative views in addition to their normal coverage. They take the "All things consider" aspect seriously and are quite aware of the conservative shift in the news.

The upshot... yes there are more conservative voices. But the real problem with the media these days is not simply a shift to the right. It is the lack of depth to reports presented. NPR still trumps the MSM in this category as they do real stories with depth.

And if you are worried about them becoming a conservative soap box... just try to imagine a ditto head listening to even an hour of any program on NPR. The diversity of stories would cause their head to explode.

[ContraBass Black]

9. All I've heard so far is, "You're black? Be republican!"

"You're christian? Be even more Republican! Poor? Ditto!"

[5X]

11. They may be better than MSM, but

I have heard far right viewpoints expressed with
no follow up on way too many occasions.
this morning usanext pundit got his 30 seconds
with no explanation of their slant.

[lectrobyte]

12. NPR is probably somewhere in the middle. Which is probably

how it should be.

It makes dittoheads explode? I can't see why.

Does it make my head hurt, even? No, not really.

[tx_dem41]

13. I agree wholeheartedly, Az.

I don't want a liberal version of Fox for my news source. I want a source where I hear viewpoints from all over the spectrum. That's how my views get challenged. And, by being challenged, I can either modify them within my world view, or I can make them stronger.

[Iris]

19. Exactly. NPR presents things in an unemotional, straightforward way.

You are left to draw your own conclusions.

[Iris]

18. You're right. A ditto head could not focus his attention long enough

to get anything out of NPR.

[ContraBass Black]

14. Hold on, they're talking about voter fraud

And Republican efforts to pass rules that make it harder for liberals, blacks, and seniors to vote.

It's not all bad.

[Roland99]

15. NPR tends to have one side on one day, the other side the next day

If you don't listen regularly, you could get an idea they are either left-leaning or right-leaning.

I find them rather fair.

[Neshanic]

16. Yes, I was a regular listener, The tide turned fast after the election.

[catmandu57]

20. They belong to the dark side now

They started turning in 01 and have steadily ran downhill, I gave up on them after the 02 elections.

[HuskiesHowls]

21. They are leaning more to the right...

And I find that there are certain people that I will NOT listen to, as they seem to be right-wing talking heads, like Juan Williams. Some of the foundations providing them money are figurehead names for hard-core right wing organizations, and they've been doing their usual whine and complain until you do what _I_ want you to do thing. As a result, they have made some concessions.

However, they seem to do a good job of covering both sides of the news. On the call-in shows, they will cover both sides of a story, and listen to people calling in without cutting them off (unless they get REAL long-winded). Unlike some far right-wing talk shows that will remain nameless here.

They are a voice in the wilderness, compared to what else is out there, and because I can't get Air America Radio at work, its better than the alternative!!

[GreenPartyVoter]

22. They refused to add Amy Goodman's Democracy Now to their line-up

because it was too left-leaning. I kid you not. We went round n round with the Maine stations but in the end they would not listen to us, so a lot of us stopped listening to them. (Although I confess to tuning in Prairie Home Companion)

[mantis49]

23. You're not imagining things.

In the last couple of months, I've heard someone (didn't catch the name) from PNAC give an analysis of Negroponte. There was no opposing viewpoint and no explanation of what PNAC's agenda was. They just said it was a "think tank."

Another time, Richard Perle representing the American Enterprise Institute, gave an analysis of the job Rumsfeld has done. Again, the same thing: no opposing analysis and no identification of this "think tank" being ultra-consevative.

I was livid! Had been making contributions to my local NPR station for the past 7-8 yrs. I have been intending to write to them and to the ombudsman of NPR to tell them why I won't be making any more.

[DoNotRefill]

24. they've become Right-wing tools.

Don't believe me? Submit a FOIA request to a NPR member station and see what happens, even if it's 100% owned by the Government.

"Public Educational Broadcasting"...according to them, it ain't public, it ain't educational... I guess we should be glad that it's "one out of three"...

[sendero]

26. Ahhl....

.... another NPR thread.

As a long time listener and donor, I've watched (listened) in horror starting in earnest in late 2001 the descent into bullshit that is NPR news.

In the time leading up to the war, they were almost as bad as Fox about presenting biased bullshit stories and giving ample airing to the idiots promoting the Iraq war, with nary ever a countervaling commentary.

They started running commentaries from The Heritage Foundation, CATO, American Enterprise Institute, National Review on a regular basis. Did you hear the equivalent voice/perspective from the left? Not on your life.

I sent a nastygram to the ombudsman and stopped sending them money after 17 years of contributing. I still listen occassionally, and they have corrected back a bit, but not nearly enough. There is just too much one-sided "information" presented and it almost always favors the right.

As for the rest of public radio, shows like Diane Rehm, Fresh Air and others are very well done. But I find that paradigm to be a lot like the local paper here in Dallas, the Dallas Morning News. What they do is keep the whole paper and it's editorial content very conservative, but then there is the "Today" section, ostensibly for housewives, where liberal ideas are vented along with Dear Abby and the horoscopes. This lets them claim they are airing all points of view while they basically equate liberal ideas with bullshit entertainment.

If you are sending money to public radio, you're funding a carefully packaged RW news program. Stop it this instant :)

[chomskyite_naderite]

27. "centrist", pro war, pro free trade, politically correct

yep.

[solinvictus]

28. Oh, most definitely...

About a decade ago, when I was a devoted Rushbot, I used to bitch about the "liberal media" along with the talking points. In those days, NPR was liberal but I believe in retrospect they were trying to be unbiased. Now, with sponsors like ADM and Wally World, NPR has shifted pretty far to the right.

[sendero]

29. I just heard their Terri report..

.... this morning. Full of one side of the story, complete with Delay blathering on about the arrogance of the courts with nary a word to explain how his rant is completely at odds with the consitution of the United States.

NPR SUCKS. Please stop sending them money everyone, they are NOT fair, they are NOT balanced and they make no fucking attempt whatsoever to be so.