> I grew up listening to NPR, it was always on. Car talk with my dad on the weekends, Prarie home, etc.
Note: These are not NPR shows. They're merely shows that your (and most) local NPR affiliates purchased for broadcasting.
If you think your local affiliate doesn't have enough of these types of shows, let them know! Many local affiliates have wide discretion on the programming.
> Note: These are not NPR shows. They're merely shows that your (and most) local NPR affiliates purchased for broadcasting.
That seems like a pretty fine distinction. If nothing else, NPR makes decisions about which externally produced shows to license. In the end, NPR deserves all the credit / responsibility for what it broadcasts.
It reminds me of the distinction NPR makes (used to make?) between "advertising" and "underwriting". Maybe the distinction was relevant for some legal / regulatory things. But it wasn't relevant for e.g. discussions about whether or not they were subject to "advertiser" pressure on their content.
> In the end, NPR deserves all the credit / responsibility for what it broadcasts.
I think it's more like: In the end, your local NPR station deserves credit/responsibility for what it broadcasts. Not all of the shows they broadcast are NPR shows. There's PRI, for example.
The other thing is that sometimes there are multiple NPR options that could be presented.
EDIT: I checked the schedule of my local NPR station:
The morning/afternoon schedule:
- Morning Edition (NPR)
- On Point (seems to be NPR out of WBUR)
- Here and Now (also NPR out of WBUR - I actually think this one is generally pretty good)
- Think Out Loud (local production of OPB - really good local interview show, the guy is an excellent interviewer, I wouldn't be surprised if he gets moved up to the national level at some point)
- BBC Newshour (BBC, of course)
- The World (PRI - actually a really informative program about events outside the US)
- All Things Considered (NPR)
- Today Explained (VOX podcast)
- Marketplace (APM - informative business show)
So not all are NPR. And in some cases the non-NPR shows are
some of the better ones.
> If nothing else, NPR makes decisions about which externally produced shows to license. In the end, NPR deserves all the credit / responsibility for what it broadcasts.
But NPR doesn't broadcast anything - your local affiliate does. And they have complete discretion on whether to broadcast anything NPR gives them.
I assumed you were trying to distinguish shows like A Prairie Home Companion, which was distributed by American Public Media, from shows distributed by NPR; and that you were simply mistaken about Car Talk. That would have been a somewhat meaningful point, despite the incestuous relationship between all of these organizations. However, if you're arguing that shows distributed by NPR aren't "NPR shows" unless they are also directly produced by NPR, then you're not only being pedantic, but being pedantic on the basis of a definition that is not widely shared.
NPR's own Terry Gross has described Car Talk in these exact words, "an NPR show".[0] A large part of NPR's mission is distributing shows produced by local affiliates, and no doubt they exercise significant editorial discretion in determining which shows to distribute. For the purposes of this discussion, who cares if a show is produced directly by NPR, or if it is produced by another organizaton using NPR's money and then distributed by NPR?
> NPR's own Terry Gross has described Car Talk in these exact words, "an NPR show".[0]
It's interesting that you invoke Terry Gross as being part of NPR, when NPR actually says otherwise:
> Several programs that NPR distributes are produced by NPR Member Stations, not NPR. These include top-rated news and cultural programs such as Fresh Air with host Terry Gross from WHYY...
NPR shows are things like All Things Considered. Car Talk was produced by an independent affiliate (just like Fresh Air). Yes, I am distinguishing between the two.
If NPR doesn't consider Fresh Air to be an "NPR show", then nor do they consider Car Talk to be an NPR show.
There's a difference between these and things like TV shows. Stuff like The Simpsons is actually a FOX show (as in whatever company makes them is owned by Fox). Whereas NPR never "owned" Car Talk, just as they don't currently "own" Fresh Air. These shows can always choose not to be part of NPR syndication. It's ultimately a licensing deal. They do own All Things Considered.
NPR does not say Fresh Air is "not an NPR show". They say it is produced by a member station. You are then superimposing your own personal definition of "NPR show", which Terry Gross for example does not share, onto that statement.
Fresh Air's X handle is @nprfreshair, and you want to tell me it's not an NPR show?
More importantly: how is any of this possibly relevant to the original conversation?
> NPR does not say Fresh Air is "not an NPR show". They say it is produced by a member station.
They also explicitly say that it is not produced by NPR.
It's not an NPR show in the sense that when the licensing deal expires, Fresh Air can choose not to be syndicated on NPR. It's an independent show that licenses itself to NPR. A show like All Things Considered has no such freedom.
> More importantly: how is any of this possibly relevant to the original conversation?
The original conversation was about how one can influence their local affiliate to change their programming, until someone came and nitpicked about whether NPR owns Car Talk or not.
No, the original conversation was about the perceived decline in quality at NPR. You then popped in to say that it was up to the local affiliates, not up to NPR, because these aren't "NPR shows" (by your own personal definition of that phrase). But regardless of whether we adopt your definition (and forsake the definition that Terry Gross and just about everyone else use), how is a decline in the quality of shows that NPR distributes not their responsibility, given that they can and do choose which shows to distribute?
> Car talk is a production of Dewey Cheetah Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though NPR staffers pass through the stages of denial anger depression and acceptance then go back to denial again whenever they hear us say it this is NPR.
> Car talk is a production of Dewey Cheetah Howe and WBUR in Boston. And even though hearing aid salesmen are consumed by guilt whenever they hear us say it this is NPR.
How much less NPR can it be when the hosts say at the end "This is NPR"?
> Nine months after starting with Susan, in the fall of 1987, NPR agreed to launch "Car Talk" nationally. So there we were, following in the footsteps of award programs like "All Things Considered," "Weekend Edition," and "Morning Edition." We, like you, remain entirely mystified and have no idea what combination of prescription medicines brought about a decision like this out of NPR's management. We can only assume that they were looking for some cultural diversity, trying somehow to balance their high quality programming with crud like ours. Stations turned to us in droves - much in the same way that lemmings flock to the sea.
> We discovered pretty quickly that producing a national radio show is a lot of work! Shortly after going national, we decided we needed a staff. That way, our afternoon naps could continue uninterrupted and, when not napping, we could still pursue our CAFE study. (Don't confuse this with the government's Corporate Average Fuel Economy report. Ours is about latte and cappucino in the greater metropolitan Boston area.) So, in 1989, we founded Dewey, Cheatem and Howe.
In 1977, Tom and Ray were invited to the studios of NPR member station WBUR in Boston, along with other area mechanics, to discuss car repair. Tom accepted the invitation, and when he was invited back the following week, he asked, "Can I bring my brother, Ray?" The rest, as they say, is history. The Magliozzis were subsequently given their own weekly program, Car Talk, which soon attracted a large local following.
In January 1987, then host Susan Stamberg asked Tom and Ray to be weekly contributors to NPR's Weekend Edition and on October 31, 1987, Car Talk premiered as a national program, presented by NPR.
...
Car Talk is produced for NPR by Dewey, Cheetham & Howe and WBUR in Boston. Doug Berman is the Executive Producer.
> What are you going to do if two NPR hosts proclaim that you are so friendless you have to hang a porkchop around your neck just to get the dog to play with you? And what if those heartless hosts were your very own uncles? Find out on this episode of the Best of Car Talk.
Wow, I've never heard Cheetah. It's like totally missing the punny. Did you miss half the jokes if you heard Cheetah? Do you hear Tony Danza instead of tiny dancer too?
> Most long-running programming on PBS were all "locally produced".
And I would split hairs with PBS as well :-)
As I mentioned in a sibling post, NPR shows are things like "All Things Considered". Stuff like "Fresh Air" and Car Talk are not considered as NPR shows - not even by NPR themselves.
> Stuff like "Fresh Air" and Car Talk are not considered as NPR shows - not even by NPR themselves.
So when NPR themselves[1] refer to it as "NPR's Car Talk" in official copy, you're saying that is horseshit? You should write to NPR and let them know they are wrong.
Also this:
Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.
The funny thing is that NPR's listenership is extremely white. National Review showed a while back that 90% of listeners are white. More recent numbers estimate it's around 80%.
Believe it or not, Fox News' viewership is much more diverse than NPR's. NPR fails dramatically by the standards of diversity that they hold everyone else to. It makes sense that they now cater exclusively to self-hating white people, since that's the only market they have left after years of declines in programming quality.
This isn't surprising and doesn't contradict the parent at all. The most obnoxiously nouveau-racist people are predominantly white, like Robin DiAngelo
Like, seriously, do you think Latin people came up with the term "Latinx"? This strain of self-hating progressivism has been predominantly white for-ev-er
Note: These are not NPR shows. They're merely shows that your (and most) local NPR affiliates purchased for broadcasting.
If you think your local affiliate doesn't have enough of these types of shows, let them know! Many local affiliates have wide discretion on the programming.
More details: https://www.npr.org/about-npr/178640915/npr-stations-and-pub...