Althouse: "Having rarely missed a Morning Edition or All Things Considered every day every week for every year between 1984 and 2013, by 2014 NPR became less and less tolerable to this centrist..."

April 17, 2024

"Having rarely missed a Morning Edition or All Things Considered every day every week for every year between 1984 and 2013, by 2014 NPR became less and less tolerable to this centrist..."

"... until by 2020 I just stopped caring and certainly stopped listening. I doubt I am alone in having concluded NPR had become something of a joke. And a really sad one."

That's the second highest-rated comment on the NYT article, "NPR Editor Who Accused Broadcaster of Liberal Bias Resigns/Uri Berliner, who has worked at NPR for 25 years, said in an essay last week that the nonprofit had allowed progressive bias to taint its coverage."

Highest rated: "Kudos to Berliner for having the backbone to write the essay he did. Weren’t we all thinking it anyway and he just voiced the reason many of us stopped listening to NPR on a regular basis?"

Third-highest: "Mr. Berliner was on suspension not for working for outside organizations but for truthfully criticizing NPR's bias."

Fourth: "I've been listening to NPR my entire life. Things took wild turn after 2016. And now I am finding myself disjoint from almost all conversation happening on NPR.

Remember, these are NYT readers. These are most likely liberals who are put off by the left-wing slant. I was going to write What happened in 2016? I had to laugh at myself.

42 comments:

Original Mike said...: "Remember, these are NYT readers. These are most likely liberals who are put off by the left-wing slant."

When even the fish notice the water, it's hard to deny reality.; 4/17/24, 2:35 PM
Two-eyed Jack said...: The worst part of NPR is that they switched to a non-authoritative chat-style broadcast, where the hosts will respond to points made by reporters with "hunh" and faux-naive questions that make the hosts seem like bubbleheads. So now you don't imagine you are listening to sophisticates and world-travelers, but to google-dependent wannabees and suburban-raised nitwits.; 4/17/24, 2:36 PM
WisRich said...: Anne Said: "I was going to write What happened in 2016? I had to laugh at myself."

Now that's funny.; 4/17/24, 2:40 PM
Chuck said...: I have a different theory why boomers who listened to NPR religiously (I was one) for 40 years or so, began to turn away from it.

In fact, I have three theories. First, social media and especially Twitter are so much faster. That, and podcasting, simply takes time away from the time I had to listen to NPR.

Second, NPR has changed in some ways that are unfortunately disagreeable to me, and may be no fault ot NPR, and aren't based in any sort of ideology; that is, NPR's great old program hosts and producers are gradually leaving NPR. Layoffs/retirements/etc. For instance, Weekend Edition Sunday used to be a great pleasure for me. It is now hosted by a millennial whom I find to be unlistenable.

Third, in the era of Trump, I want harder-edged, more weaponized media. I want more right-wing media, so that I can tell my Trump-supporting acquaintences that I know as much or more about their media than they know. And I want more Bulwark- and MSNBC-styled anti-Trumpism to keep me up on the things I need to know to attack Trump and Trumpists.

I miss the old NPR and and especially the spirit of the days of the old NPR. But as Liz Cheney rightly reminds us, the day will come when Trump will be gone. And all that will remain is the dishonor of Trumpism.; 4/17/24, 2:43 PM
Enigma said...: The quality of both PBS and NPR fell fast and in parallel.

At PBS I date this to the 2018 arrival of Yamiche Alcindor, where an erratic and angry troll pretended to be a "news reporter." The old-school dry straight news of the "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour" was transformed into MSNBC-style Woke ranting and Party propaganda. Orange man bad. Troll ranting good. The previously smooth and professional Judy Woodruff was obviously highly uncomfortable and couldn't keep the troll on its leash.

Alcindor and Woodruff left PBS in 2022, but I left both NPR and PBS long before that.; 4/17/24, 2:44 PM
JES said...: I, too, listened to NPR every Saturday morning for years and years. Until Wait, Wait, Don't tell me switched gears and became just plain mean. I was done.; 4/17/24, 2:44 PM
NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...: I quit listening to them a couple of years before Tom Magliozzi died. They stopped doing new Car Talk episodes after he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's.; 4/17/24, 3:03 PM
Jupiter said...: When you've lost the stupid, fucking assholes who comment at the NYT ...; 4/17/24, 3:05 PM
Dave Begley said...: But NPR will never change. It is completely unaccountable to Mr. Market.; 4/17/24, 3:07 PM
n.n said...: At National Propaganda Radio, yesteryear's liberal is today's conservative. She's just not that into you.; 4/17/24, 3:23 PM
cubanbob said...: If the Republicans take the trifecta in November, they should sell off every NPR signal to the highest bidder. But if they do win the trifecta, they won't.; 4/17/24, 3:25 PM
Rabel said...: All things considered, this revelation, the dogs don't like the dog food and they're brushing off the shock collar, is breath of fresh air.

The more well-trained will start barking soon enough, though. I don't expect much carryover to the MSM.

It's a cliché kind of day.; 4/17/24, 3:30 PM
BarrySanders20 said...: It's trannie this, gay that, indigenous this, latinx that, and half the time presented by some dude with a lisp.; 4/17/24, 3:42 PM
grimson said...: "These are most likely liberals..."

Yes; so is Bill Maher. But progressives are to the left of liberals. Far too many people seem to think that the terms are interchangeable.

When "Critical Race Theory: An Introduction" by Delgado and Stefancic first came out, they characterized CRT as radical, but starting with the 2017 edition, they started calling it progressive.; 4/17/24, 3:47 PM
rehajm said...: When you've lost NYT readers...

...at last something left and right can agree on- RIP NPR; 4/17/24, 3:50 PM
Aggie said...: Where will Berliner go? Another in a getting-longer line of principled progressive liberals that are finding life unbearable under the burden of rules within their social class.

I predict he'll join the likes of Weiss and others in the substack world. I bet, pretty soon that world is going to branch out from investigative journalism & editorial writing, branch out from podcasts, and start having an organized channel with enough talent to offer a show, say a structured weekly broadcast. I think it would take off.

Already Weiss and others have started up the University of Austin, in Austin, Tx ,in the interest of bringing back college-level education that is free from dogma, indoctrination, and propaganda. Good for them! They're installed in a building in downtown Austin, they've got students, and they've clearly got some backing. I hope they make a success of it.; 4/17/24, 4:07 PM
guitar joe said...: The other day my wife and I were driving around and had NPR on. There aren't many FM stations left around here, so we tune in to catch the news or listen to the rare NPR show we like.

They did a news story about Gaza and noted, without attribution or qualification, that 30,000 Palestinians have died there. They went on to point out that the military actions there occurred because of an attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, which "Israel alleges killed 1200 people."

I let that hang in the air for a moment before I asked my wife, "Did you hear what I just heard?" She did.

Even old style libs like me can no longer bear to listen to them.; 4/17/24, 4:09 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: I tried to listen to NPR yesterday and today just driving around on errands. Impossible. One story, a professor/whoever was discussing a study of Fox News watchers who'd been forced to listen to CNN for a month, and how they were cured of "Misinformation" on so many topics.

Another, was chemical pollution in Texas. Plus, how Trump is getting away with something at his trial. Oh, and local schools being forced to pay for new pipes without lead.

The presentation was terrible. The hosts and language were in the low midwit range. No one even pretends to be objective.; 4/17/24, 4:31 PM
Darkisland said...: Currently listening to the Megyn Kelly podcast from yesterday. She is talking about Uri Berliner but more about Katherine Maher reading some old Tweets. One of her guests, from the Ruthless podcast, Read a Tweet from November 2020

I can't find a transcript but Maher is talking about how happy she is that Brandon won and will now be in charge of NPR and that "Uri Berliner's days are numbered"

Sounds like she's had it in for Berliner for a while and this is just the excuse.

I tried searching but her Twitter feed only goes back to January 21, 2020. She's been on Twitter since 2008 but nothing in her profile before 1/21/20.

John Henry; 4/17/24, 4:47 PM
EAB said...: An old friend of mine was a long-time NPR listener. A couple of years ago she mentioned she pretty much stopped listening. She wasn’t sure if they had lurched left or she just became more aware of it. My guess is both.; 4/17/24, 4:57 PM
Tina Trent said...: And how many of you have tried to defund them from taxpayer support?

I'm guessing one. Me.; 4/17/24, 5:45 PM
Tina Trent said...: EAB: zo you pal around with people who supported Stalin and refused to return their Pulitzer for it.

Think about that.

Hard.; 4/17/24, 5:47 PM
Rich said...: It is a familiar and cautionary tale about how ideological takeover has distorted journalistic values and alienated the consumer. Every journalist should read Berliner's piece in the Free Press.; 4/17/24, 6:02 PM
JPS said...: I sent Berliner's article to my liberal wife. She has been annoyed by their rote leftism, probably identified more than I did with Berliner's opening protestation of liberal bona fides, and thought it was as good as I did.

But like the commenter you quote first, and unlike Berliner, I do think the pivot came well before Trump came down the escalator. I think key NPR leaders loved Obama so much, they became enraged that opposition to him existed.

So you had their chief fundraiser saying in 2011 that the Tea Party is "not just Islamaphobic, but I mean xenophobic. I mean, basically they believe in sort of white, middle America, gun toting - I mean, it's scary. They're seriously racist, racist people."; 4/17/24, 6:04 PM
narciso said...: Not exactly

https://www.racket.news/p/new-npr-chief-katherine-mahers-guide-cd7; 4/17/24, 6:19 PM
Mary Beth said...: Peter Boghossian has a series on YouTube - All Things Re-Considered - that is about this topic. It has people who used to love NPR but who have been alienated by the extreme bias.

I used to listen to public radio all of the time. I think things started to change when Bush (W) was in office. It was still more good than not, but I was noticing a difference. During Obama's terms, I would turn on my local public radio channel when I was running errands, but I had to stop doing that because I would get so angry at anything news-related. It was all opinion, disguised as journalism.

My current car, that I bought a couple of years ago, is the first one I've owned where I haven't made my local public radio station one of the radio presets. Every car before that, it was the first button on the radio.; 4/17/24, 6:27 PM
Mr. T. said...: NPR was awfuly WAY before 2016. Back in the early 2000s it's coverage of the Duke Lacrosse rape hoax was the second worst next to the New York Times.; 4/17/24, 6:47 PM
Jim at said...: It is a familiar and cautionary tale about how ideological takeover has distorted journalistic values and alienated the consumer.

Funny how that 'ideological takeover' always seems to trend in one direction, huh.
Wonder why that is?; 4/17/24, 6:49 PM
RCOCEAN II said...: They did a news story about Gaza and noted, without attribution or qualification, that 30,000 Palestinians have died there. They went on to point out that the military actions there occurred because of an attack by Hamas on October 7th, 2023, which "Israel alleges killed 1200 people."

Israel has refused to provide details regarding the losses on Oct 7th. How many were military, how many civilians, ages, what were their names and addresses, etc? That's why its "alleged".
Some news orgs put "alleged" when we have video of the criminals committing a crime.

30,000 Gaza civilans have by Killed by Israel since October 7th. If you want a source - Go ask the President of the USA, Joe Biden, he used the number in the State of the Union.; 4/17/24, 6:54 PM
Anthony Dorazio said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 4/17/24, 6:55 PM
Anthony Dorazio said...: My wife and I used to play a game we called "Wait, wait--don't assume I'm liberal." We'd turn on NPR and count how many seconds before we would hear some sneer aimed at middle America. It was usually less than 2 minutes.; 4/17/24, 6:57 PM
Jives said...: Amen to the Fourth comment. I turned them off completely in 2016.; 4/17/24, 7:02 PM
Jives said...: Amen to the Fourth comment. I turned them off completely in 2016.; 4/17/24, 7:03 PM
Mikey NTH said...: Reality strikes again.; 4/17/24, 7:06 PM
Michael said...: When you've lost the stupid, fucking assholes who comment at the NYT ...

Can you recall any instance in the past decade where Team Blue so unanimously turned on members of their own tribe?; 4/17/24, 7:23 PM
wildswan said...: There's an article out by another NPR insider called "NPR Is a Mess. But “Wokeness” Isn’t the Problem." Alicia Montgomery says that the problem is that "NPR culture encouraged an editorial fixation on finding the exact middle point of the elite political and social thought, planting a flag there, and calling it objectivity." I can't see that that is different from what Berliner was saying because performing wokeness is "the exact middle point of the elite political and social thought." But putting into words that fact that finding the elite mid-point and presenting it is the current NPR mission was good journalism. For bonus points, explain why this means NPR is completely out of touch - even with NYT readers.
And NPR is even more out of touch with the 50% of America that votes Republican. One thing I particularly noticed was how convinced Alicia Montgomery was that NPR did cover the Republican side. What she meant though was that NPR got in Liz Cheney and Mitt Romney type Republicans. I simply don't exist in her world nor do any other Trump supporters and nor does Trump himself. In short, NPR has completely failed to understand half the country. This begins with NPR not hiring any Republicans or conservatives at the editorial level as Berliner pointed out. But NPR cannot see that. They aren't even apologetic about selecting against 50% of the country in their hiring. we suck so we don't get hired. There's nothing to explain. This blindness has to be one reason they're losing viewers: "50% of Things Considered, 50% Reflexively Dismissed." Not a winner.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/other/npr-is-a-mess-but-wokeness-isn-t-the-problem/ar-BB1lKITU; 4/17/24, 7:48 PM
minnesota farm guy said...: @Northoftheoneohone The last thing listened to on NPR was Car Talk when the tappet brothers were both on. Once the tappet brothers were gone NPR was dead to me.; 4/17/24, 8:24 PM
minnesota farm guy said...: @Northoftheoneohone The last thing listened to on NPR was Car Talk when the tappet brothers were both on. Once the tappet brothers were gone NPR was dead to me.; 4/17/24, 8:28 PM
Ken said...: I'm a former NPR junkie. Never had a tote bag, but I did have a mug. Now, it's unlistenable.

Sometimes when I'm driving during Morning Edition or All Things Considered, I'll play the following game. I turn on NPR and track how long it is until I hear one of the following words or phrases: marginal community, people of color, queer, LGBTQ, climate change. My record so far is six minutes.; 4/17/24, 8:39 PM
Mr. O. Possum said...: NPR was always off the rails. It first became noticeable when it went in the tank defending Clinton.

A key moment came when KISS frontman Gene Simmons jumped down the throat of Fresh Air host Terry Gross in 2002.

"Things really went off the rails, however, when Simmons began talking about the studded codpiece he wears onstage. “It holds in my manhood,” he said. “Otherwise it would be too much for you to take. You’d have to put the book down and confront life. The notion is that if you want to welcome me with open arms, I’m afraid you’re also going to have to welcome me with open legs.”

and then

Simmons: Oh, I’m laughing all the way. You know, we’re —
Gross: Oh, to the bank, right?
Simmons: Well of course. [laughs] Don’t I sound like a happy guy?
Gross: Not really, to be honest with you.
Simmons: I was going to suggest that you get outside of the musty place where you can count the dust particles falling around you. And get out in the world and see what everybody else is doing.
Gross: Having sex with you?
Simmons: Well, if you chose, but you’d have to stand in line.

He's doing a reverse-Howard Stern on her where the guest is gross and we find out if the host can take it. Poor Terry had not a clue that he was playing her to get publicity for himself and his band.; 4/18/24, 6:52 AM
Michael said...: Listened and donated to NPR from late 70s until about 2015; finally got tired of the overt bias and increasingly poor reporting. It had become head shakingly bad.; 4/18/24, 8:42 AM
Tim said...: I used to listen to NPR. From 1976 or so, until 1998. As far as I am concerned, NPR when a little loco in 1994, when Republicans took the House and Bill Clinton moved to the center. This seemed to drive them a little crazy.....and from what little I have heard since, it has gotten worse, not better.; 4/18/24, 1:19 PM