Rob, who drew me into this gig of his as a volunteer, points out a very interesting phenomena: NPR is expanding:
While many newsrooms are shedding reporters—from the New York Times to the Dallas Morning News—NPR is one of the few places an experienced journalist can hope to get a job. "I wouldn’t call it a binge," says Bill Marimow, himself a former denizen of the print world. Fired from the Baltimore Sun in 2004, Marimow went to NPR and this week took over as its news chief. "I would call it significant growth."It is no secret that I love NPR and, frankly, I wish Canada had its own version that was more closely connected to the listener and viewer than the CBC is. For all the big yap about how the main stream media is bowing to losers like me who type in their pajamas and pretend (to the embarassment of our spouses) we are Edward R. Murrow reporting from the blitz...that is simply not what is occurring. We are watching re-ordering of news media not collapse.The NPR news operation has added 50 journalists in the past three years, raising the total from 350 to 400. Ten years ago NPR had six foreign bureaus; it just opened its 16th, in Shanghai, putting it in the running with major national news organizations. The New York Times and CNN both have 26, the Los Angeles Times has 22, the Washington Post has 19.
Nothing new. It is part of the same phenomena that same the rise of talk-radio including political talk radio in the US. When I sketched out my seminal but now dust-coated plan for the left in North America, the first thing I thought of was taking back a solid part of the media. I am doing my part but apparently the $200 million gift to NPR from the estate of a nice person called Joan Kroc is being the NPR news boom. What good folk who want objective thorough news reporting (professional unbiased news being a classic progressive or liberal goal just as much as a cheap quality and broadly available education) need to do is put their money where their mouths are.
Others have proven this works. This is just the same as the US right realized it needed to do something and fund something somewhere back in the 60s, achieved break-through in the 80s and achieving inordinate dominance in the last decade. Just as with that shift, the change that NPR is part of is not a single path. Remember how many foretold the demise of Air America during its first days? Well, it is still there and has 89 stations. What we are watching in the reshuffle is an enrichment of news sources, just in the same way that broadcast shortwave radio provided and then cable TV again provided before the internet. The strengthening of NPR is one compliment to the strenghtening of talk-radio of all sorts along with pajamastan and the next new thing that we have not even heard of yet. More voices please.
Comments
Ben (The Tiger in Exile) - February 13, 2006 8:48 am
Joan Kroc, i.e. the widow of former McDonald's owner Ray Kroc.
That's Big Mac money in them thar public radio...
***
But yes, if people want something, they have to make it happen themselves. And they can.
Alan - February 13, 2006 8:50 am
She was only making up for my first rotten job flipping quarter-pounders back in Truro in 1979 when she made the gift. I know that now.
glenn's bro in truro - February 13, 2006 9:55 am
I didn't know you were a burger there. I spent 78 to pay for a school trip to Switzerland. Must of just missed you.
Got back at them a few years later by absconding with one of those small M's at the entrance. Used it for a t-paper holder on the back of the toilet at smu.portland can verify.big dummies back then
Alan - February 13, 2006 10:02 am
We all get our own back. I turn-laid 40 quarters and then another and didn't hit the timer during Sunday rush on my last day, said oops and then walked away. Cajun burgers and an hour before the timing all got caught up. But I was 16 and would never recommend anything like that again. I think I was there just after the Swicks. <p>BTW, my favorite McPigs moment was during a staff Q+A meeting:<blockquote>Staff: <i>why is our coffee so bad?</i><br>Manager trainee at front of room: <i>our coffee is good. Next?</i>
Alan - February 13, 2006 10:04 am
Oh - that is Glenn's bro Al. Hi Al.
portland - February 13, 2006 6:48 pm
hey, it's glen's bro. cool. sey hey man. yes yes, verifying both the story and the fact we were both big dummies. probably still are. did you have the donair last time i was home? that would qualify you.
Flea - February 13, 2006 7:32 pm
Reading Bob Tarantino today he is convinced much of the criticism directed toward our new government by CPC members is misguided because the mainstream media is so overwhelmingly biased against conservatism and this particular bunch of Conservatives. Yet here I read we need more public radio to reverse decades of conservative media take-over. Good thing I only read news about pop-stars.
portland - February 13, 2006 8:42 pm
is brittney preggers or just fat?
Alan - February 13, 2006 9:10 pm
I think it is important to understand that much CPC policy is based on a reaction against those evil gnomes that live under bridges. If we speak too much about them they become ogres and that would be bad. So it is a fine thing to have democratic principles and all...but no one wants the ogres.
Ben (The Tiger in Exile) - February 14, 2006 9:02 am
Flea --
As it happens, I <i>don't</i> want more taxpayer money going to these sorts of things. If Harper announced plans to privatize the CBC, I'd probably crack open a bottle of champagne.
But if people want to see something on the air and they commit money towards it, that's a-ok with me. Small donations from a large number of people can get that sort of thing accomplished, just like large endowments from one source can as well...
Alan - February 14, 2006 9:28 am
I had another meeting with NCPR yesterday and it is amazing how little money from many sources is their bread and butter. There is very little Federal funding left and they operate on a roughly million dollar budget with, say, 15 staff, most of whom are involved with production. For an area which is large and rural, this is amazing support from their estimated 500,000 listeners. I certainly would give a similar 100 bucks a year to a similar Canadian station if one existed.
Cyn - February 14, 2006 9:37 am
Let's start one Alan.
Alan - February 14, 2006 9:50 am
I half tried, I left PEI, I found NCPR. My heart belongs to NCPR.<p>But the idea of web-based community radio is really interesting to me. It would be nice if someone created a virtual studio widget that would allow any small group (geographically or otherwise related) to do this. Does one exist?