One of the multitude of reasons

I no longer listen to NPR or its affiliates:

Executives at National Public Radio recently asked the network’s top political correspondent, Mara Liasson, to reconsider her regular appearances on Fox News because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias, two sources familiar with the effort said.

According to a source, Liasson was summoned in early October by NPR’s executive editor for news, Dick Meyer, and the network’s supervising senior Washington editor, Ron Elving. The NPR executives said they had concerns that Fox’s programming had grown more partisan, and they asked Liasson to spend 30 days watching the network.
...

Liasson defended her work for Fox by saying that she appears on two of the network’s news programs, not on commentary programs with conservative hosts, the source said. She has also told colleagues that she’s under contract to Fox, so it would be difficult for her to sever her ties with the network, which she has appeared on for more than a decade.

Right. Because you can't walk away from a contract. That must be a very pretty penny they're paying you, Lie-asson.

Honestly, between Mara Liasson's allegiance to Fox, NPR's allegedly "balanced" news coverage, the fact that the CEO of the flagship station here, WNYC (a "nonprofit" organization"), makes over half a million a year, and Wan Williams' stupidity, it's a wonder people in the tristate area still listen at all. The only shows worth listening are only tangentially related to the news.

P.S. Read between the lines of the obviously biased Politico reportage, as well.

UPDATE: And via FAIR, we have this little tidbit on Mara:

Pundit Mara Liasson--who is touted as an on-air "liberal" by Fox executives--sits on the board of the conservative human-rights group Freedom House; New York magazine (11/17/97) cited a Fox insider as saying that Liasson assured president Roger Ailes before being hired that she was a Republican.

Comments

[Tc]

Not to mention Cokie "Hawaii is an exotic place" Roberts. And that Jerry Falwell groupie they have as a religion reporter. And Steve Inskeep's stupid laugh.

[lea-p]

ah yes, and the fatuous Scott Simon, the matronizing Leanne Hanson, the stupid and condescending Kookie Roberts, the prickish Steve Inskeep, the...

I haven't supported NPR for probably 15 years now, when the local station axed Fresh Air because a listener had complained about Terri Gross' interview with the creator of "Lesbian Vampires of Hell" (or something like that) because said listener heard that interview and those words while her young child was in the car after school. Said listener must not have known about that little knob on the left side of the radio. Fucking idiots manage to run (and ruin) everything.

[boomer49]

PBS when in the shitter decades ago when Nixon axed "the Great American Dream Machine" and then Reagan's evil minions began chewing on the belly of NPR...the only non-rethuglican, Murdock free news out let seems to be the BBC and PRI.

[boomer49]

eh...make that '...went in the shitter...'

sorry

[shpx.ohfu]

I dunno. If nothing else, they are informing us that the media is in fact one big circle jerk whose only mission is to justify their own existence.

because of what they perceived as the network’s political bias

Oh, right ... Fux News' bias is only a "perception."

[Gummo]

Ah, The Great American Dream Machine... 60 Minutes for stoners.

[JeffCO]

I think of her every time I no longer send in money to the NicePoliteRepublicans. Listening during the election season last year was painful. The Talk of the Nation midday call-in show as often as not features right to far-right guests and opinions, and while I've heard them numerous times asking that only conservatives, or Palin supporters, or teabaggers, etc. call in, not in recent memory have I heard a show devoted to progressive views. Of course, I stopped listening, so that might be biasing me. I'd rather hear political commentary and analysis from Click and Clack, the Car Guys.

[Capt. Bat Guano]

My repuglican nephew who is a fund raiser for the party loves NPR. What more do you need to know? My liberal friends and I also kicked them to the curb years ago, but not after emailing them tons of reasons why along with some heart felt fuck yous and up your sold out asses just to punctuate our digital missives. Bitches.

[boomer49]

Gummo...LOL it was that wasn't it.
What was that host's...something Ephron?

[Jim]

I think the last thing I heard from Mara Liasson on NPR was a gushy "don't dismiss her appeal" piece on Grifter Boreala. And then of course, her infamous "cash for clunkers is just like Katrina!" I stopped donating when Obama-hating Scott Simon brought that little weasel Williams on as a regular Saturday feature. Stopped listening to Simon when he interviewed a fifty year old woman who had gone back to college and was working an unpaid internship (which some people might consider a serious reflection of a changing society and shitty economy); he asked her, in a cutesy, simpering voice, "Have you met any cute boys?" You could hear the slight shock in the woman's voice, as she tried to shift the conversation into a serious conversation, but Simon thought he was being quite clever and continued in that vein.

[heydave]

If you lived in Ioway (I'll let you visit if you like) the general selections on the radio suck even more than the local NPR outlet. So it still gets airplay at my house, but only for the non-Car Talk talk shows on the weekend. Jeez, you folks are creeping me out just making me mentally replay:
- that stupid, simpering laugh that Inskeep somehow thinks adds something other than projectile-vomiting substance,
- a religious/philosophy show that actually had fucking Brooksie on as a guest,
- the slack jawed, aw-shucks pandering of Williams and Liasson, under the apparent delusion the audience believes what they say
- etc

[queek]

It's out there, but I've been enjoying Democracy Now. Does this mean I'm out there too?

It's on the air on the Rutgers radio station a day late, but at least SOMEONE is still holding Geithner & Bernanke and their Wall St asshole-buddies accountable for creating the financial mess and they haven't lost sight that this began under Bush!

[CEO]

I am wondering about the timing myself. Do they think they can claim to be different than the others by canning Mara? Of course we know different but NPR fools a lot of people.

[MarkC]

NPR was such a great institution, and was kept afloat and defended by liberals only to have their donations used to prop up a network where authentic liberal voices have all but disappeared. Yet I still listen, just in case I can catch a few syllables from Sylvia Poggioli...

[minusp]

That's why I have WAMC on my alarm radio - When Morning Edition starts to crawl in my ears, it's OFF and up, get some coffee, let the dogs out. Won't turn it back on until it's time for the AR and PRI segments.

[montag]

There was an article in The Nation six or seven years ago (and which I unfortunately can't find in their archives) by a guy who was part of NPR in the very early years, when the organization really did see its role as speaking truth to power, and there was a faction in management which believed that programming all of the Watergate hearings was proper pushback against Nixon's attempts to eviscerate the network.

But, that faction did not prevail, in large part because others saw Jesse Helms (among others) as dangerous to the network's existence, that Reagan was too popular to take on, etc., so, in the early `80s, the new management began to inexorably rewrite NPR's operating rules. Their marketing strategy was to pull in all network stations into one single format (classical and jazz musical programming bookending the national news programs) and structure the news programs to attract the listeners with the most money--the upper middle-class--and to actively seek out corporate sponsors. All that, of course, was to insulate the network against declining appropriations from Congress.

Their model listener was a professional who was fiscally conservative and in moderation, socially liberal. Effectively, they were trying to attract Rockefeller Republicans, and the news programming and corporate sponsorship was structured around that model listener.

Once NPR had abandoned investigative reporting and adopted a format that leaned conservative, it was inevitable that it would move further to the right along with the rest of the conservatives.

[pansypoo]

i got from mara's tone during clinton that she was a conservative. NOT middle, so always took her reports w/ that in mind. and kookie roberts, i ignore. ABC? you kidding me?

[Max]

I think NPR have found that wingnut welfare pays better than donations from liberals. This comment was brought to you by Archer Daniels Midland.

[geor3ge]

What a source of frustration that WNYC bought out the only real classical station in the city.

[Eyesbright]

All the rightwingers that I know hate NPR and the really nutcase wingers hate them even more.
That, alone, would be reason enough to support NPR.

NPR and PBS can differ greatly by location. I'm in the SF Bay area. I listen to NPR exclusively and watch some PBS. It boils down to this: this is the best of what's available to me. I support them financially because I support the concept of public radio (and television). Snarkiness is all fine and dandy when it's deserved but it's way too easy to get carried away and overdo it. NPR is the only radio network that even tries to present both sides of the issues. Without them, the Faux News lovers would have even more sway. I say support NPR because it's NOT Faux News and its ilk.

[Mrs. Tarquin Biscuitbarrel]

"The Great American Dream Machine," oh lordy, the joy of my teens: MUST FIND!