Why does radio suck? - Page 4

<--Former NPR intern. I find that this is a common perception, and something that I have actually found to be not true at all. The image of NPR's liberal bias stems directly from media figures like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly. Limbaugh's ulterior motive? His place atop the talk radio ratings scale is being threatened by Morning Edition - as of last year, Morning Edition's ratings stood at 12 million listeners nationwide and rising, while Limbaugh's show audience stayed flat at 13 million.

NPR's stated mission is to carry no bias at all - its role is to report the news in the most objective way it knows how, while staying unbeholden to the current politicians in power. NPR's mission is to deliver fact-based, apolitical news. In today's political climate, if the accusation of liberal bias were actually true, the government would cut all funding to it, and indeed, Kenneth Tomlinson has tried. However, the outrage of many millions of people nationwide has shown the government that they value NPR as an objective, thorough news source.

It is true that reporters carry their own biases, and that many reporters regard themselves as liberal. However, that is different from an institutional leaning towards the left that you are implying. In fact, Juan Williams, who reports for NPR on a regular basis, is also employed as a correspondent for Fox News, who are perceived to be just as conservative as NPR is liberal.

Here are some interesting articles that you might want to read regarding NPR's bias. Yes, I realize they are from NPR's own site - but are written by Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR's ombudsman. He is there only to respond to listener complaints, and there have been many occasions in which he has written material critical of his employer (just read the rest of his columns if you doubt me).
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4712584
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4279543 - this is not related directly to right/left bias, but just to illustrate the point that no matter how hard NPR tries, it can never escape accusations of bias
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=4138975
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=1919999
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/s...toryId=1911200

I apologize for being so long-winded, but I felt compelled to respond to the accusation of liberal biases leveled at NPR.

Being nitpicky here, but public radio stations are also Arbitron-rated. We use those numbers to convince area businesses that supporting public radio is good for them.

You're exactly right. I should have said radio stations with commercial advertising.

Excellent post ^^. I couldn't handle radio without NPR and college stations.

Heh, no prob - that is, as long as you support your local public radio station...

I definitely support my local NPR station once a year. Would really love it if they only did two fund drives a year instead of four. Those two week periods get so annoying sometimes hearing the radio station's phone number repeated over 1000+ times but I realize it's all for the greater good.

plus_c:

Ok, maybe I should be more specific: WNYC 93.9 FM is too damn liberal. BUT! The classical music hours are great and I listen. Otherwise, I deliberately listen to WCBS 770AM because it is highly conservative and I agree with their biases and opinions. You can't get the quality of WYNC 93.9 FM or WCBS 770AM on XM. Trust me. I have tried. XM's America Right, Fox News Channel, Fox News Channel Talk Radio, and even Focus on the Family with James Dobson aren't hardcore Republican enough for me. Not even all of them combined X 1000000000. XM's classical channels are so damn boring and repetitive that I question if there is any focus to the programming choices. In fact, WQXR 96.1 FM, the poster child mouthpiece of The New York Times, has far more interesting classical music choices. It's when they go to the NY Times news stories or updates that I tune out.

Sorry for the long winded response.

Radio sucks because it is partly lowest common denominator, and also that it is all nationally run by the same clearchanel crap, but mostly it suffers from being, like all other art of today, completely mass produced meaningless poo.

There is always good music out there but at this point i can't imagine any of it being 'mainstream' again....just my two cents on this annoying issue.

By the way there is a public radio station in Minneapolis now for about a year which is the best f***ing radio station anyone hear could ever hear...lets hear it for public radio

Eh, the only station i listen to is KPFK and thats only for certain shows.


but i wish the radio

Played Punk, Metal and Underground Hiphop...

and some people tell me that stations play green day... i say look Green Day hasnt been punk for a very long time


eh /vent off

thanks for thread been meaning to express my self on this topic

I hate radio too, except Apollo Radio (only play jazz and classic), Radio T (free radio station) and Radio UNiCC (that one most of all... ran by students of my university, it's unprofessional, fun, and they play great music (sometimes new to me).

Commercial radio plays crap too, in Germany. Always the same + terrible jingles that they are playing the best hits of the 80s, 90s and 00s, ... argh.

Ah, gotcha. I'll say just one more thing and then drop this subject - is it really the job of the news media to agree with our personal viewpoints all the time? I think that it is important to listen to the opposite side every once in a while to help inform your own views. Somewhere between the conservative side of the story and the liberal side is the truth, and the only way you get at that is to use multiple forms of news media with multiple viewpoints.

plus_c:

Ah puh.leez. I want my news and information and entertainment to be as slanted as my eyes. yeah mofo.

I know NPR is liberal, and I don't even listen to rush or bill. sorry...