NPR

[raccoonradio]

Right wing talk doesn't get any taxpayer money like NPR does. It has to depend on capitalism and the free market, not on support from Listeners Like You.

Vacation week anyway; Sandy in for Howie, Mark Simone in for Hannity.

 

[FredLeonard]

Right wing talk doesn't get any taxpayer money like NPR does. It has to depend on capitalism and the free market, not on support from Listeners Like You.

Vacation week anyway; Sandy in for Howie, Mark Simone in for Hannity.

Really? NPR gets money from stations which buy shows - in a free market and in competition with other distributors. It also depends on capitalism and gets revenue from corporate underwriters. It gets no money from taxpayers.

I wonder how many "listeners like you" would respond to a pledge drive from Rush or Hannity? Probably not many. The way advertisers are bailing out on right-wing talk, it could happen sooner than you think.

WBUR is the number one talk station in town and WGBH could make number two any time now.

 

[reelyreal]

Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting represents 0.014% of the federal budget. That's under 2 hundredths of one percent. All Things Considered, Morning Edition, Sesame Street and the other big programs would all survive without federal funding. Why? Corporate "underwriting." Do you know what that means? In the free market, corporations have realized that there's financial incentive to having their name and message attached to these programs.

I'm sure you've heard of the hundreds (yes, hundreds) of advertisers who refuse to let their ads run during "controversial programming." GM isn't a Rush advertiser. Neither is Pfizer or AstraZeneca, two of the country's largest drug makers. NBCUniversal, IBM, Monsanto, Netflix, and dozens more... all companies that avoid Rush, Hannity, Savage, Howie, whoever.

Do you know who these companies do spend their money with?

NPR.

That's probably because their programming doesn't have the bias many believe it do have. Choose your reason why they put their money behind NPR, either way you're wrong.

 

[Lester_the_NightFly]

Reelyreel, well said.

 

[raccoonradio]

Yeah well I know some on the Left have argued for a Fairness Doctrine. The day NPR runs stuff sim. to Carr, Savage, Rush etc it would be truly "fair" and balanced...instead you have the free market in action with conservative talkers doing well on commercial radio and prog talk mostly failing, except on NPR type stations--which can indeed do well in the ratings. Good for them. i wouldn't want a government regulating content though...monitoring stations for 'fairness'. Has prog radio failed? Yes, on comm. radio at least. "So these big companies like Walmart are eeeeeeevil--well, let's take a break; we'll be right back after this, er...public service announcement.' But prog radio can do very well...on NPR type stations.

In all honesty though NPR does get donations from a whole bunch of companies; a 2008 list of them online listed everything from movie studios to car manufacturers to something called "Fox Broadcasting Company" Yep, those evil right wingers gave to NPR.
Now, is there bias? Maybe I haven't tuned in enough to hear. I know of the time when Terri Gross had Al Franken on and fawned over him while she got tough with Bill O'Reilly, or the time when Morning Edition tried to do a once weekly, 7 minute long segment, where they talked to conservative figures. 7 minutes a week. This got many complaints from loyal NPR listeners. 7 minutes a week! They'd rather have 0 minutes a week.

Yes maybe they don't get much money in the long run from taxpayer dollars but it's the principle of the thing. I would like to see non-commercial radio actually be able to run _SOME_ ads (I know, so much for the allure of non-commercial--and thus no longer be called non-commercial). At least one 'public' station in Canada I knew of was running some advertising, allowed to some extent by the CRTC. (Air Canada...clearly an ad not a donorship.) As I pointed out at the time (yrs ago), I could have seen Car Talk run ads for related products. "Car Talk will be right back after this from Fram Auto Filters."

When the movie Atlas Shrugged 3 comes out later this year we'll see if NPR folks praise it...who is John Galt?

 

[FredLeonard]

Boy, Raccoon...

It's amazing how you tea types can twist Ayn Rand and completely miss the points she was trying to make. Of course, you all do the same thing with the Gospels, too, so no surprise. You all are exactly the kind both denounced.

You start with the "false premise" (or lie) that public radio is liberal and then leap to the totally illogical conclusion that running right-wing talk would make it "fair and balanced." I don't see you demanding that stations like WRKO start running in-depth news magazines or interview programs so they can be fair and balanced.

People who listen to public radio (which you uninformed wing-nuts keep mislabeling as "NPR") don't need to wait for the movie "Atlas Shrugged Part III" to come out. Public radio people can read and they do read. The book has been in print for 57 years. Apparently, Ditto-heads find reading a book (without pictures) an alien concept - and an unnecessary one since Rush is there to tell them what to think and to save them the trouble of having to tax their own brains - and therefore assume that public radio people are the same.

Back to the subject of this thread: The station which carries Hannity now gets lower audience numbers than progressive talk did in this market. So which is the "failure?"

So please....

Stop making stuff up. And stop mindlessly repeating what right-wing talk show hosts tell you.

 

[reelyreal]

You drive me up the wall, but I keep coming back for more... because the more you write, the more I feel like quoting Glenn Ordway... "you're makin' my point!"

You'd like to hear some ads on public radio. Apparently you've never heard advanced underwriting messages? When was the last time you actually listened to WGBH, anyways?

Some on the left argued for the Fairness Doctrine. Some on the right supported Hitler. Extremists exist everywhere, reasonable people know that you don't throw out the baby with the bath water. This is a non-issue and you know it.

But keep telling me about how well conservative talk is doing. After all, the point of this thread was that Sean Hannity landed the Holy Grail of talk stations, right? I mean, 1510 in Boston! WOW! BTW, do you think WRKO is one of the top 10 billers in Boston? I wouldn't want to ruin your fantasy, so I won't tell you that they are not (oops...)

It really sounds like you haven't listened to an NPR station in at least 10 years. Might be time to, you know, educate yourself.

I'll tell you this, I do listen to Rush Limbaugh at least once a week. Sometimes I get a small glimpse of what he used to be... a great broadcaster. All this partisan extremism on both sides is nauseating and exhausting. That's why political talk radio is fading.

 

[Wimmmex]

Funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting represents 0.014% of the federal budget. That's under 2 hundredths of one percent.

3,700,000,000,000 x 0.014% = $518,000,000 (did I do the math right?)


That's, still, a LOT of money.


The .014 number only looks low because of the huge budget!

You start with the "false premise" (or lie) that public radio is liberal

Perception is reality.

If most people believe NPR is liberal....then, in effect it IS Liberal.

Those who deny that fact are living in netherland.

 

[FredLeonard]

If most people believe NPR is liberal....then, in effect it IS Liberal.

Those who deny that fact are living in netherland.

I don't the Hollanders came much about NPR one way or another.

Keep repeating a lie and people will believe it. That's from Joseph Goebbels. The statement most people believe NPR is liberal is blatant lie. Only in right-wing world, home of the ditto-heads and tea baggers, do most people believe NPR is liberal. Not because they listen but because some talk show host told them.

But, to paraphrase Richard Dawson, "survey says" (actually several surveys) NPR listeners are about equally divided between those who believe NPR is liberal and those who believe it is conservative. Sorry to confuse you with facts.

But "most people" in right-wing world believe the theory of evolution is false and climate change is false, so that much those things so, too. It's what most people believe. History shows what most people believe is mostly wrong.

 

[TheBigA]

There are no political talk shows on NPR. No hosts who promote one specific ideology. The government money they get is by virtue of a law that was passed by Congress. It's up to Congress to change it, and they punted. That's really all there is to it.

Meanwhile commercial radio gets millions of dollars in federal funding from various agencies to promote lots of things, including wearing seat belts and drunk driving. I thought it was interesting to listen to conservative talk stations bash the health care law, and then they'd break for commercials, and you'd hear commercials from DHS promoting the health care law. Equal time? Paid for by tax dollars.

This is a non-issue. Republicans threatened to defund it several years ago, and discovered they'd have to defund stations in their own districts, so they quietly let this issue die.

 

[JeffM]

Meanwhile commercial radio gets millions of dollars in federal funding from various agencies to promote lots of things, including wearing seat belts and drunk driving. I thought it was interesting to listen to conservative talk stations bash the health care law, and then they'd break for commercials, and you'd hear commercials from DHS promoting the health care law. Equal time? Paid for by tax dollars.

Are you talking about Ad Council spots? Far as I know, stations are not paid for those; they use them to fill unsold commercial time and chalk it up to public service. (WHAT?? Unsold time during right-wing talk shows? HARRUMPH!! ) By the way, they're working on more sequels to "Atlas Shrugged" now..."Atlas Belched," "Atlas Scratched," and "Atlas Pharted"...

 

[TheBigA]

Are you talking about Ad Council spots?

No, these are actual PAID spots from various government agencies. HHS had a multi-million dollar ad budget to promote the new health care plan. DOT spends hundreds of millions of dollars in radio and TV advertising for seat belt usage, drunk driving, and other annual campaigns. The IRS pays for tax tips on radio & TV every year. PAID advertising. Lots of it. Paid for with tax dollars.