Eric Deggans a poor choice for NPR

[FM 100 Means Music]

http://www.npr.org/about-npr/208001100/npr-new-hires-eric-deggans-as-tv-critic-and-correspondent

I think Deggans will end up being a poor choice and that most NPR listeners will not embrace him. He is very open minded in terms of what TV shows he reviews and routinely reviews reality shows like "American Idol" and "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" and treats them as legitimate forms of televised entertainment instead of the cultural garbage that most "NPR intellectuals" view them as.

He also outraged a lot of black readers in Tampa-Orlando when he published a op-ed piece that was critical of Rachel Jeantel, the obese 'friend' of Trayvon Martin, for her use of street slang on the witness stand and how she failed to use proper English so that people watching on TV and in the court room who do not speak Ebonics could understand her (code switching, for you academic types).

I can't see this guy being a guest on Tavis Smiley or showing up with Glynn Washington on "Snap Judgement."

EDIT: I myself view almost all reality TV as utter crap.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I guess I look forward to being introduced to the Eric Deggans product and I will keep in mind the things you pointed out here.

It will also be interesting to see what his take is on Rachel Jeantel now that we can stand further back from the scene and see the big picture. I am not surprised Deggans would not be fond of her performance on the stand... it left a lot to be desired.

Hopefully since he write what you describe, maybe he got to hear the interview that I heard where Rachel Jeantel had a chance to give us the circumstances of her testimony. In this "after the trial" TV interview she talked frankly about her performance on the stand. And her speech pattern still pointed back to her background and culture, but I thought was a very GOOD speech pattern. You may remember that during the trial she barked back at the Defense Attorney with some kind of complaint language that translated to something like: "You are trying to make me look dumb and backward!" In court the Defense Attorney seemed to display an attitude of: "You hardly speak English!"

The rest of the story: Rachel Jeantel and the Defense Attorney knew each other quite well. They had been through more than one session of discovery interviews. The attorney knew for a fact she speaks English quite well and is reasonable intelligent and observant.

For me, the rest of the story will be this: Has Deggans ever published a second article in which maybe he incorporates the info that I described?

As to your edit: Remember the yard-sale and thrift-shop addage: One man's junk is another man's treasure? One "NPR intellectuals" junk may be another intellectuals treasure.

 

[FM 100 Means Music]

You kind of lost me with what your point was, Goat Rodeo.

I applaud Eric for having the guts to criticize Jeantel for being unable to speak proper English, but I frown upon his treating "American Idol" as anything other than mindless drivel to entertain the mouth breathers in flyover country.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

I seek out and enjoy good exchanges of communication. I can be a participant, as in these forums, or I can be an observer.

I don't have a great lover for or appreciation for the unilateral "This is good" or "this is absolutely bad" back and forth we see in a lot of conversation. I thought your original post was short of background and long on "this is absolutely a bad choice by NPR". It takes a bit of digging and reading through your previous posts to realize you are local to Mr. Deggans current media market and you were proposing in a national thread as opposed to a local market thread, that we accept your evaluation of Mr. Deggans, who you apparently have regular exposure to.

So my admittedly rambling response was designed to try to get you (or other people interested in the topic) to add various views to the question: Is Mr. Deggans going to be a good fit at NPR, or is he going to be a bad fit and maybe a failure.

In reading through his web site, he makes claims to already having been a sometimes contributor to some NPR programs and appearing on the Tavis Smiley broadcast in the past. So one point of my post was: Maybe NPR knows more about the man and his abilities that you give him credit for.

Another point (maybe too gentle to be recognized) of my post is: I disagree with the word-picture you appear to be painting in casting in concrete that the NPR audience consists only of people who meet your definition of 'elites'.

I assume Mr. Deggans in agreeing to be a media employee in the Tampa market was given some guidance by his employer as to who the employer thought was their target marekt and to do his job well, he had to "pander" to part of that audience with discussions of reality TV programming that you (and I) look down upon.

I assume Mr. Deggans in agreeing to be an employee of NPR will be given some guidance by his new employer as to what they know about their existing audience, and what added audience they would like for him to help them build. My point is: we cannot assume the daily content of his broadcasts on NPR will be a mirror image of what he did in your market. He will have a NEW job description.

I would assume it is fair to say that NPR would know in advance that there will be times when he will include material that will "raise the eyebrows" of some Black listeners, and that will sometimes just plain irritate a smaller number of Black listeners.

What good is a scheme of broadcasting that never challenges the status-quo of the audience?

What good is a discussion forum like this that never challenges or invites participants to offer at least civil and patient questions between participants?

 

[FredLeonard]

Eric is a poor choice period. The already have a good media correspondent in David Folkenflik. Why do they need Eric for? Besides when I want to hear somebody going on about television who doesn't have a clue and doesn't know what he's talking about, well, I come here for that.

 

[PTBoardOp94]

Eric is a poor choice period. The already have a good media correspondent in David Folkenflik. Why do they need Eric for?

A critic and a correspondent are two different roles. Deggans role will be to watch "Breaking Bad" and tell us all how pitiful it is. Folkenflik's role is to ask HBO how much money "Breaking Bad" makes for them and whether it sells more DVDs than "The Sopranos"

 

[FredLeonard]

A critic and a correspondent are two different roles. Deggans role will be to watch "Breaking Bad" and tell us all how pitiful it is. Folkenflik's role is to ask HBO how much money "Breaking Bad" makes for them and whether it sells more DVDs than "The Sopranos"

It's a line that's often blurred and frequently crossed. Especially by TV writers.

Deggans is a lousy critic. The guy works for the St. Petersburg Times, after all. Their movie critic works for the LA Times. His reviews are full of misinformation (he clearly does not know the background or history of the medium he covers). His comments are superficial and offer no basis for assessment. I'm surprised he even got a job working for a rag whose readership is divided between rednecks and geezers.

 

[TheBigA]

It's probably politically incorrect to say this, but I imagine they feel he's filling the Elvis Mitchell role. Elvis wasn't that good when he started either, and became better.

 

[Small Market Guy]

the mouth breathers in flyover country.

You mean the people who grow all the food you eat, transport it to you, and pay most of the taxes that support whatever utopia you live in?

 

[FredLeonard]

the mouth breathers in flyover country.

You mean the people who grow all the food you eat, transport it to you, and pay most of the taxes that support whatever utopia you live in?

You mean unskilled labor. The working class. The great unwashed.

Not public radio's target demo.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

the mouth breathers in flyover country.

You mean the people who grow all the food you eat, transport it to you, and pay most of the taxes that support whatever utopia you live in?

You mean unskilled labor. The working class. The great unwashed.

Not public radio's target demo.

Oh.... do I smell the odor of "culture war" in the air?

Let me get this straight: Intelligent radio can only be appreciated bv people with master's degrees or above, driving only BMWs or above and living only in the 20 largest metro areas in the nation? So a guy with a high school education who is the 4th generation owner of a cattle spread out in Montana is a mouth-breathing degenerate who should be forbidden by Federal policy from ever listening to high-brow NPR programming?

And you are going to tell me that people in the city don't watch 'reality shows', they don't watch Duck Dynasty?

Shoot! I'm going to contact RadioDiscussions and see if I can buy the TV rights to this thread. We have the makings of a brand new reality show right here in this conversation.

I don't know this Deggans guy. I looked him up and read what I could about him. I think he got it wrong in describing Rachel Jeantel's court room performance. But we ALL did. The Defense Attorney made her look bad because that was in the best interest of his client. Now that we have seen her on TV in a less hostile situation, we see she can speak a bit more fluently that the court room demo indicated. And we learned from later interview that she actually has a brain and can use it. Maybe Deggans will interview her on NPR some day.

I guess I better shut the computer down and peek through the blinds to see why that deputy is parked across the street. I assume he is trying to catch a speeder with his radar, but I can't be too careful. I'm in Flyover Country, and I'm listening to my NPR station so maybe he is here to catch me doing that. While looking through the blinds, I will practice breathing through my nose for a change, just in case that turns out to be the test he has to administer.

 

[drt]

Just an update; the St. Petersburg Times changed its name to the Tampa Bay Times effective 1 January 2012 and regardless of what anyone thinks about Eric Deggans's TV reviews, he is the only writer in either the Tampa Tribune or Tampa Bay Times that ever even has articles on radio. As far as the Tampa Tribune goes, radio does not even exist with the exception of the Bubba the Love Sponge vs MG trail, but Eric Deggans covers format changes, translators, had numerous articles in late 2011 and early 2012 about WUSF putting a new classical music station (WSMR) on the air, when the main station went talk.

Also the Tampa Bay Times is a Pulitzer winning newspaper and both the Times and the Miami Herald are constantly swapping places as to which newspaper has the highest paid circulation in the state; I believe right now, the Tampa Bay Times is number 1.

Also another point of info, the Tampa Bay Times is the only independently owned newspaper in the state with a circulation over 50,000. (current daily circulation is in the neighborhood of 360,00 daily and 402,000 on Sundays).

Back on topic, I'm not a big TV watcher and regardless of who does TV reviews on NPR (or any other network); I usually tune that part of the program out.

drt