National Public Radio: Follow Up
A quick follow up on my last post: I feel NPR has some meaningful programming. Alternative Radio, for one. Some NPR affiliates carry Democracy Now. Some clearly don’t. But let me further explain the concern I was trying to voice in my last post.
It troubles me that a person who senses there is something wrong with this country: with its policies abroad, with the increasing gap between extreme wealth and crushing poverty, with the increasing tendency toward rigidity and obedience to power in the media… might switch on NPR on their way home from work and think, this is the limit of debate on the left. This is the extent of journalism, of the coverage of activism and democracy. For thinking, feeling people, this is it.
Increasingly, I feel that if you aren’t feeling energized by what you’re hearing, it is probably filtered, euphemized, disingenuous. It’s not getting to the heart of the matter. If you feel engaged and energized by a program on NPR, then it’s a good one! You’re learning something. If you don’t, do not despair. With podcasts downloaded to your iPod, college and other progressive radio stations that are actually of and about the people, and with Pacifica stations, which I feel are on the whole much more genuine, progressive and more alive with real people and real issues than National Public Radio, there is no need for the NPR malaise. There is an alternative. As the saying goes, the truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. This is normal. Stay with it.
