Walmart as NPR sponsor?!

[Hemprus]

Listening to the NPR fund raiser this AM and was thinking about making a pledge. I haven't before because I'm a one income family and money nowadays is scarce as it is. They got me thinking that I am one of those people who have NPR as my number one station on my radio and I do listen everyday on the way home from work. Just as I pick up my seldom used cell phone, I heard the announcer saying that the news was being brought to me by Walmart where they were in the business of helping people! I put the phone right back down with the realization that NPR is on the way to commercialism. Here they were telling me about my responsibility to support them because they are PUBLIC RADIO and answer to us the public. Then they say that Walmart, the leech of communities across America was their new sponsor. I just knew this day was bound to happen, but I couldn't believe it was Walmart! After watching NOW with Bill Moyer's show all about how Walmart move into communities and the communities give them tax breaks. The little store owners close down and then the walmart prices go up. Then there is the fact that they only hire part timers so that they don't have to pay benefits. They also teach their managers to take advantage of the local social services so their part time employees can have health care benefits paid for by that community. What will happen next? :scared:

[sendero]

1. Not only that...

.... but NPR was as much an unbalanced cheerleader for the Iraq "war" as anybody. I've stopped giving them my money - I'm not paying to listen to the National Review, The American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, CATO and other wingnut "think-tanks" (as if there is any honest thinking going on at these outfits).

Daniel Schorr and Nina Totenberg are the only two voices with a vaguely left orientation you'll ever hear on an NPR news segment any more. And you'll be lucky if you hear them.

Screw NPR, they SUCK.

[whistle]

2. That's the pattern it seems....

...AARP was infiltrated by a right-wing corporate insurance company and NPR has become more and more establishment oriented. I no longer contribute, but I listen to the classical music.

[fudge stripe cookays]

9. Don't forget about the Sierra Club.

That one makes me the saddest.

[Bridget Burke]

23. But the Sierra Club election rejected the anti-immigration forces....

It looks like that attempt at a takeover failed.

Yes, overpopulation affects the environment. But turning the USA into a gated community is not the way to go.

[fudge stripe cookays]

25. Great! Thanks for posting!

I hadn't heard the updated sitch.

I signed a petition and sent in something that Robert Redford sent me. Thank God we can make a difference sometimes.

[AP]

17. Tavis Smiley is the voice of sanity on NPR, and

Car Talk performs a valuable liberal function (it helps people spend less on the most expensive thing they own after their home). This American Life is one of the few programs that gives you the voices of average Americans.

Everything else is crap.

I can't remember the last time I heard someone on Fresh Air who hasn't sold a million of whatever they're on talking about (OK, yesterday's show with the diamond trade reporters was OK, but that was very rare, and he was follwed by a best-selling author). And their news shows are total crap.

[angryinoville]

33. What about Dick Gordon, and some others?

They're not all bad.

[callous taoboy]

3. I know-

I e-mailed NPR, asked them what's next, ads from Haliburton? "Iraq: A fun, friendly place to work."

[AP]

or Monsanto or ADM. Oh, wait. They already take money from them,

and, what a surprise, they soft-pedal GM food issues all the time.

[Jane Austin]

29. I love their in-depth stories but

now that I have Air America to listen to, and they have Wal-Mart's money, I doubt they need mine.

[LynzM]

4. Yeah, I don't listen anymore...

The final straw was when they had someone on last week cheerleading Negroponte... and no commentary from whomever's show it was to question his fitness for the role being assigned him. Absurd.

[sendero]

7. Exactly...

... I could live with the winger bs if they'd offer a counterpoint opposing view. But they don't.

It is really sad.

[BiggJawn]

5. And they air a heavily edited version of BBC "Newshour".

Somewhere, there are NPR executives laughing themselves silly over all the Starbux-sucking, Volvo-driving Liberals falling over themselves to get those AMEX cards and chequebooks out to donate.

"We feed 'em pure BULLSHIT, and just because we still let Dan Schorr on, they think we're LIBERAL! Ain't that a HOOT?"

"Yeah, I never had this much fun when I was shovellin' shit over the VOA and RFE..."

[lectrobyte]

8. Sad but true

I heard one of the WalMart bits the other day, and figured it's time to stick a fork in it. The really funny part is, I heard some AM radio local guy go off on a tear about NPR-loving liberals as if NPR was broadcasting 1950's-style communism. Satellite radio may be the last hope. Or start a pirate station. Radio Free North Carolina.

[AP]

19. There is something absurd about people donating money to NPR so that

NPR can sell them back a version of the news which is designed to help Republicans stay in office, so that middle class people can then transfer the rest of their wealth to Republicans.

In the old USSR they just posted the news in kiosks in the park. They never would have thought to make people pay for government propaganda twice --coming and going -- the way NPR does.

[AmericanErrorist]

32. That's PRI (Public Radio International)

And they also air BBC programs in full, but most of the stations that run it are only scheduled on late night.

[RushIsRot]

6. NPR now stands for

National Propaganda Radio. I no longer contribute either.

[BiggJawn]

15. It sure does.

I'm surprised they didn't give the "Morning Edition" anchor spot to Cokie.

[revcarol]

10. Was this YESTERDAY, the day Cheney told "1000 cheering walmart

employees" that Walmart showed the best of the Bush economic policies?

Source: BBC (America, I guess)

[drfemoe]

11. yep . gone "mainstream"

Our local affiliate has fund raisers AT LEAST every month now (what a waste of time to even TRY to listen) .. it used to be quarterly.
Do they think RW-nuts are going to pocket out enough cash to keep them going? HA!

Attention Wal Mart shoppers! NPR donations aisle 13!! -crickets-

[G_j]

12. there are a few very good shows

but that does not include their Bush enabling news programs.

:puke:

"Fresh Air" has had some very important interviews recently.

[AP]

20. The Fresh Air test: has the person interviewed sold 1 million units....

...already.

She hasn't had a show in YEARS in which all the day's guests haven't sold 1,000,000 units of whatever.

"Why is NPR being used to help promote consumer products that have no problem getting promoted in the "private" media?" is the question I'm usually left asking myself with Fresh Air.

[doni_georgia]

30. Fresh Air's coverage of the Jesus Factor on Thurs. was quite good

Here in GA, NPR is the only station that isn't right wing. Beats the hell out of any other "news" we can get, so it's what I listen to.

[Hemprus]

36. At least..

you have that. They haven't totally turn yet, its just in the process. I did hear that AL Gore bought a television station from Via-com to start his liberal news network!:toast:

[bloodyjack]

26. terri gross is a rude moron who can't pose a coherent question or

complete the simplest thought for the life of her!

Diane Rehm's okay, Car Talk and Prarie Home are great shows. certainly not worth a fucking coffee mug or 20th Century Fox Classic Movies collection for the rest of their supposedly impartial skullduggery. remember their haiti coverage? abominable.

[G_j]

27. thats silly

her interview with Richard Clark was one of the better ones.

The Hans Blix interview was also very damning for Bush.
At least she lets people talk.

[sendero]

34. I hafta...

... disagree with you. I find Terry Gross are hard-hitting interviewer who asks the tough in-your-face questions that few will.

She's not part of the NPR problem, she's part of the solution.

[AP]

37. Terry Gross, more than most interviewers, will not be ready with a

follow-up question, and will say things like "yes....ok...hmmm."

I'm so sure that she is the person whom the saturday night live recurring skit is paordying.

[catmandu57]

13. npr belongs to the darkside now

they don't represent the public any longer, keep your money in your wallet.

[tinanator]

14. dont listen to Radio Enron

let alone contribute to those whores. I suggest you latch onto some Pacifica programming, the kind that is paid for by listener sponsors, not corporations. Which, unfortunately is not the case with AA.

[Arugula Latte]

16. I heard a Walmart ad on Air America this morning

!!!

[denverbill]

18. They also get support from Keene (?sp).

Their motto is along the lines of 'We make global outsourcing work.'

In other words, they are in the business of helping American companies send American jobs to third world countries.

[BiggJawn]

21. I thought Keene "Gets I-T Done"

Oh.....Same diference. "Get IT done", "Make global outsourcing work"

duh!

[Classical_Liberal]

22. I haven't listened in years. n/t

I only listen to the bbc broadcast at 2 in the morning.

[BiggJawn]

28. That's a sham, too.

I had a thread over the weekend that's in the memory hole now, but in a nutshell, what you get at 2AM (which was recorded 12 hours earlier and gets "wheeled" unbtil 2400 GMT) and what everyone else gets over shortwave are 2 different broadcasts.

I listened to a segment (our local NPR affil airs "Newshour" at 4PM) and then caught the same segment on shortwave 2 hours later. The feed they gave NPR had all the "embarrassing to Shrub" stuff clipped out.

So NPR is still yankin' your chain.

[leftyandproud]

24. THEY are doing this...

just to rub it in our faces! It's one of OUR few refuges from the corporate media and the assholes are laughing at us...urrrg

[AmericanErrorist]

31. This Is why I prefer listening to WWDTM on the Internet

You don't have to hear those pesky ads for Wal-Mart.

[Hemprus]

35. On the same show this morning,

They had a story about GW in Michigan. They said that they only sold tickets to the event to people who worked for the campaign. Anyway, the punch line was they had GW taped saying "I never thought that when I was here during the 200 campaign that I would be coming back a saying were at war." What a joke especially after all that has been brought out about his first plan in office was to get rid of Saddam. Like he didn't know if he was elected he would lead us to war one way or another. I personally think they knew from Israel intelligence that the hijackings were going to happen and did not try to stop it so they could start their march to war. :puke: