Historicality

npr:

Shotgun’s loaded. It’s pointing toward a hunter’s backside. Fido gets excited and steps on the weapon. And … you can imagine the rest. Fortunately, the man’s going to be OK.

There is nothing I can add to this.

Just as Republicans again clamor for the elimination of government funding and public broadcasting once more fights for life, it steps on its own oxygen line. The details are well-known: how NPR’s development chief, Ron Schiller, stupidly fell into a sting perpetrated by an organization run by the young conservative hit man James O’Keefe, a product of that grimy underworld of ideologically-based harassment which feeds the right’s slime machine. Posing as members of a phony Muslim group, O’Keefe’s agents provocateurs offered NPR a check for $5 million — an offer that was rejected.

But Ron Schiller couldn’t leave it there. Unaware that he was speaking into a hidden camera and microphone, and violating everything we’re told from childhood about not talking to strangers, he allowed the two co-conspirators to goad him into a loquacious display of personal opinions, including his belief that Tea Partiers are racist and cult-like. As the record shows, more than once he said he had taken off his “NPR hat” and was representing himself as no one other than who he is. His convictions, their expression so grossly ill-advised in this instance, are his own.

Ron Schiller’s a fundraiser, not a news director. NPR keeps a high, thick firewall between its successful development office and its superb news division. The “separation of church and state” — the classic division of editorial and finance — has been one of the glories of public radio as it has won a large and respectful audience as the place on the radio spectrum that is free of commercials and commercial values.

If you would see how this integrity is upheld, go to the NPR website and pull up any of its reporting since 2009 on the Tea Party movement… Further, examine how over the past few days NPR has covered the O’Keefe/Schiller contretemps and made no attempt to cover up or ignore its own failings and responsibilities.

Then reverse the situation and contemplate how, say, Fox News would handle a similar incident if they were the target of a sting. Would their coverage be as “fair and balanced” as NPR’s? Would they apologize or punish their outspoken employee if he or she demeaned liberals? Don’t kid yourself. A raise and promotion would be more likely.

[…] for all its flaws, consider an America without public media. Consider a society where the distortions and dissembling would go unchallenged, where fact-based reporting is eliminated, and where the field is abandoned to the likes of James O’Keefe, whose “journalism” relies on lying and deceit.

We agree with Joel Meares who, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, expressed the wish that NPR had stood up for themselves and released a statement close to the following:

“Ron Schiller was a fundraiser who no longer works for us. He had nothing to do with our editorial decision making process. And frankly, our editorial integrity speaks for itself. We’ve got reporters stationed all over the world, we’ve won all sorts of prizes, we’ve got an ombudsman who is committed to examining our editorial operations. If you think our reporting is tainted, or unreliable, that’s your opinion, and you’re free to express it. And to look for the evidence. But we will not be intimidated by the elaborate undercover hackwork of vindictive political point-scorers who are determined to see NPR fail.”

That’s our cue. Come on, people: Speak up!

NPR is one of the best things that ever happened to me. It has made me a more literate, thoughtful person, one who is interested in the important social and political issues of our day. It ensures that when I do speak, it is in an articulate, factual way, with real knowledge and forethought.

Please let NPR change other lives the way it has changed mine.

newyorker:

publicradiointernational:

nprfreshair:

I have absolutely no artistic skills whatsoever, but I think it’d be really hilarious to make some public radio-themed old school Valentine’s Day cards. I’ve come up with these slogans but I’m sure there are better ones:

• Valentine…you’re like a breath of Fresh Air

• If I told you how much I loved you, I’d violate Rule 47 CFR Part 73 of the FCC Radio Broadcast Rules

You make me Tavis Smiley

I get all Ira Glassy-eyed around you.

The Takeaway is… I like you.

Here and Now, you’re the one for me.

I’ll stay with you as long as I’m Living on Earth.

All Things Considered…I still love you.

“Tell me more…about how much you love me.”

This is the sort of thing that makes me lust-stare—like when Sandy gets the Cream of Broccoli Soup of the Day from the Brookdale cafeteria on the one day that I decide not to order it (having been totally gypped by three straight days of watery barley-thing). 

WANT—very badly, I might add. And as a veteran NPR listener, I recognize all of these references.