I'd like to congratulate...

...everyone on this board who, judging from their invective, are ready to dispense of American public radio. You're doing a fine job for the Neo-con agenda.

Rather than girding your loins and taking positive action to counteract what you see as increasing corporate influence in public radio, you want the public to withdraw support thereby forcing even more necessity to seek corporate funding. Yeah, now THAT'S logical.

Will you be getting Christmas cards from Cumulus, Clear Channel, Sirius and XM? After all, their consolidation and de facto censorship goals are unreachable without that kind of assistance.

...In general, I don't like what most people allow themselves to be, no. Mostly because I can't stand excuses and I think people, Americans in particular, are a complacent, short-sighted, and ungrateful lot. I think the world could, that's "COULD," be a far better place, but we stand in our own way.

I also think we will be the undoing of ourselves and a substantial portion of the life in this ecosphere. At this point, it seems fairly inevitable and imminent.

Nah!!!!

I have a very harsh view of NPR but they are the best of a bad lot.

Myself and some others can't get past "the bad lot" part.

And can't get past their craven rolling over to Gingrichian Pressure.

How fucking TIRED am I of Liberals caving to Bullying Busheviks?

*****************************THIS TIRED!*********************************

The reason public radio has had to become more centrist of late is because the Gingrich crowd, after not being able to cut funding completely, changed the criteria for CPB funding from market size to audience size, as determined by Arbitron ratings; a very flawed system. I know this because I work in public radio. My own station had to drop some very cool programs because their small audiences didn't show up in the ratings.

It's an outrageous system but that's what comes from having a Republican legislature. Better that we keep public radio, flawed as it is, than let them dispense with it completely.

Stations aren't crazy about NPR's pull to the center; neither are most of the people I know who work at NPR. But until the CPB funding system goes back to what it was in the good old days, this is what we're stuck with. If the listeners aren's showing up in the Arbs the funding is cut.

Withholding support isn't the answer because another criterion Newt and his evil henchmen set for CPB matching is matching the $$ raised by member stations. If that number drops, so do the CPB funds, that means what stations pay to NPR drops and NPR has to seek more corporate funds. It's a vicious cycle and a terrible system but we're talking about survival.

Talk to your US reps and senators. Work to swing control of Congress back to the Democrats. Change the way CPB is funded and I guarantee you'll see a change at NPR.

...that a lot of the folks in the commercial game kind of act like public radio isn't "real" radio? Not all of them, mind you, but it crops up.

Funny, I'm just the opposite. I'm glad I don't work for a commercial station. With us, it's about the art and information first, the listeners second, and the other stuff behind that. I feel like much less the whore than I would kowtowing to advertisers every second.

The flip side of your funding dilemma at the station is that maybe it frees up time for more of your own local programming, even along the same lines as some of the previous stuff. In that regard, maybe it can help boost the diversity of the medium in general, and boost the creative and journalistic quotient at your station, too.

There's a way to turn it into a plus; you just have to find it.

how are you going to feel after liberals abandon the playing field?

Not sure what you mean there, but that would be madness for them to do that.

Further, if they do that, when Crunch Time comes and they need Moderates with a Will to Stand Up, they would find themselves...well, boarding the busses to the Heinrich A$$croft Memorial Re-Education and Re-Christianization Camps in the Arizona Desert.

Or something like that with different details.

But I think the Liberals are learning to fight back, getting mad enough not to take it anymore, and I would be proud to stand beside them and with them ANY DAY.

I don't see it happening, but if the Liberals do "abandon the playing field" at this crucial point, then the American Experiment in Self-Government is at an end (it might already be...time will tell).

We need the Liberals and they need us. No two ways about it.

"Either we shall all hang together or surely we shall all hang seperately."
--Benjamin Franklin

Not sure what you mean there, but that would be madness for them to do that.

There has been talk of abandoning NPR due to it's being influenced by the RW. Just as the abandonment of the Democratic Party (by those who think the Dems are just like the repukes) leads to it's being controlled by people who are not liberal, the abandonment of NPR would lead to it's confiscation by the rw.

But I think the Liberals are learning to fight back...

I tend to agree, but I've noticed that at times like this throughout history, there have been times when people made the decision to bail, instead of fighting back. This concern of mine is what has led me to post in a way that has led others to think of me as a "Dem apologist", when my actions are meant to help indluence the DNC by getting people who think like me to not abandon the Democratic party.

(that which desires Liberty and NOT being Gulagged)

will trump ego.

but ignorance

That's the source of my concern, and seeing some of the DU wisdom isn't calming me down.

are you talking about? i doubt "everyone" on this board could agree on anything.

:hi: thanks for proving my point :D

... I wrote "...everyone on this board...ready to dispense of American public radio."
You could take the "on this board" out and it would still carry the same meaning.
My subject-verb agreement is "whacked" on that, too. Sorry.

Coke Roberts but I still donate to my local public radio station...in fact we have two..one for classical and one for jazz...

...I will criticize them even when I donate, it is my right.

..as it reflects more concern. Those who befuddle me are the ones who say they are withdrawing support.

And I wish we had more jazz, especially since it's my forte`, but the folks around here are way too uptight for that. I keep saying that maybe if I keep playing enough of it, we can drag Mobile kicking and screaming into the 1950s.

Darned mean, but well put. Positive action and positive contributions to public radio are definitely the key to keeping out the corruption.

I have an herb for the misanthropiness condition. I suffer it as well.