Whats your take on NPR?

[DayGloSunshine]

When I get the news its usually from the Internet or NPR. I was just wondering what everyone thinks about NPR.

[FatFreeMilk]

NPR is great mostly cus it's convenient to me to be able to get ready for school and get the news at the same time. And it's not biased. And I love the nerdy sounding guy's voice.

[bur372]

BBC and indymedia for me

[redstar2000]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2005, 09:11 AM
BBC and indymedia for me
Me too.

I find the smug tone of NPR correspondents extremely irritating...it's as if they're always implying that "we're not cappie whores like those people at CBS, ABC, etc."

Yes they are!

:redstar2000:

The Redstar2000 Papers (http://www.redstar2000papers.fightcapitalism.net)
A site about communist ideas

[encephalon]

I use indymedia and NPR, mostly, and watch CSPAN.

I think NPR is much better than most alternatives. However, they are still ruled entirely by capitalism: even in the case of donations, if they say something that their core listeners don't like, they lose money. So usually, NPR turns out to be mainly preaching to the choir, and telling them exactly what they want to hear Sadly, too, they've recently started "accepting donations in return for advertisment." That's no different than being paid..

That said, I don't think any news organization can be entirely objective under capitalism, and usually far from it. It seems to me, though, if you actually look into what the different news organizations report, NPR turns out to be the most consistently accurate. I think it's a valuable resource, under capitalism, if anything.

[GlassDraggon]

NPR is great for witticisms and rhetoric but as far as bias goes, they arent much better than FOX. The only difference is- instead of lying about facts and directly misleading the public they simply avoid talking about key issues. At least the BBC talks about all the issues. Instead, NPR fills their airwaves with crap to make up for a lack of quality news.

[Dr. Rosenpenis]

What do you guys think of PRI? (public radio international?)

[encephalon]

I am unsure of how PRI is funded, but as it is on the same public radio spectrum I'm assuming by donations. I don't see, in this sense, how it could differ much from NPR, save for the fact that it is an international org.

[Ele'ill]

Gnn,Indymedia, infoshop.org all have interesting topics listed which I can pursue on my own time to level the bias out a little. I never trust a side of the story reguardless if it comes from friends or enemies.

[Sabocat]

NPR = National Petroleum Radio.

I give it amiss.

[Solzhenitsyn]

NPR like Mother Jones is the voice of the American beauracratic faction seeking to expand the role of federal government (and thus their own power) well beyond what I would consider tolerable. I listen to their foreign correspondents because they're not shills for neoconism like Fox News nor intentionally misinforming like the networks. When they turn to domestic issues I counter with a liberal application of the on-off switch. I get most of my news nowadays from the internet, dislike TV and only listen to the radio when I'm driving somewhere.

[Exploited Class]

Originally posted by [email protected] 9 2005, 09:18 PM
That said, I don't think any news organization can be entirely objective under capitalism, and usually far from it. It seems to me, though, if you actually look into what the different news organizations report, NPR turns out to be the most consistently accurate. I think it's a valuable resource, under capitalism, if anything.
Well you could, it would require a constitutional amendment. Something like, "A Public News Service that can not be governed by any arms of the government and is always guaranteed 1% of the estimated GDP for the budget."

That means it is completely protected, obviously it would be worded better than that, but that is the direction I am going there. No Commercials, no way for other branches of the government to touch it. Ideally you can do somethings to protect a news organization from capitalism. Even if not 1 person watches it, it exists.

I am sure there is some other things we could come up with to make a safe news enviroment within a capitalist system. Not perfect, but I think with appropriate measures, safeguards and constitutional protection it could happen.