NPR announced recently that it's no longer National Public Radio. Like CBS and NBC before it, it has decided that its initials are now so iconic they stand for nothing but themselves (ABC recently revived its full name, the "American Broadcasting Company", probably to ride the early Iraq War patriotism wave).
Well, here's a clue about what NPR stands for now. I've just made a documentary film about why New Orleans flooded, "The Big Uneasy", in theaters nationwide on Monday. Having been denied access to coverage by either of the network's two flagship news programs, I decided to buy in, purchasing some of those "enhanced underwriting" announcements that the rest of us would call ads.
The money was on the table, and then things got... kind of NPR'y. Long story short, NPR's legal department ruled that these words were not acceptable in the announcement: "documentary about why New Orleans flooded", that the only words that would work for them were "documentary about New Orleans and Hurricane Katrina" -- this despite the fact that the movie IS about why New Orleans flooded, and it most certainly is not about the hurricane (since the experts interviewed in the movie agree that the flooding was a "man-made engineering catastrophe").
So, yes, like CBS and NBC, NPR has decided its initials stand for nothing. What the network itself stands for at this moment sounds a lot like censorship.
Follow Harry Shearer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@letwits
But really just look at their underwriters and the slants to their stories - National Pharmaceutical Radio. Just TRY to get a balanced coverage of a topic that interferes with the agendas or potential legal issues of Merck, Johnson and Johnson and others.
I did a review of the big uneasy
http://www.myspace.com/pezmusicct/blog
http://www.npr.org/blogs/ombudsman/2010/08/31/129557468/alicia-shepard-on-vacation#commentBlock
Conveniently, the Ombudsman now seem to be on a "well deserved" vacation (hopefully for a long time).
For my news, I get it from KPFA and when I am out of the bay area, I go online to listen. KPFA is America's OLDEST listener sponsored station (began in 1949 - started by a pacifist) and the bulk of its operational budget is from individual contributions.
It has come to my attention that NPR recently rejected an underwriting proposal from Harry Shearer [regarding] his… documentary on the true nature of the Katrina Disaster… I am appalled that you would [reject] Mr. Shearer's underwriting proposal on the basis of... questioning the words, "documentary about why New Orleans flooded." This is not even a controversial statement in light of the easily attainable facts at hand… Mr. Shearer's documentary's purpose is to show those unassailable facts the light of day, and NPR's refusal to allow the words "documentary about why New Orleans flooded" can only lead this 33 year NPR listener and financial supporter to conclude that NPR can no longer be considered an objective, reliable source of news and information. This decision by NPR, in my opinion, is tantamount to censorship and carries with it the taint of collusion with a media-promulgated false narrative about the true nature of the Katrina Disaster. For that reason, I have lost faith in NPR, can no longer regard its reportage as objective or factual, and cannot... continue to… financially contribute to NPR. I would be willing to reconsider my position with a public apology and "make-good-in-kind" compensatory act by NPR on behalf of Mr. Shearer and his documentary "The Big Uneasy." Until then, sadly, I will have to be excused from the NPR family…
Hello NPR,
I'm seriously disappointed, to the point of anger, and perhaps the point of legal actions against NPR, over unreasonable, and biased censorship - at expense of NPR station support - by Harry Shearer and his educational documentary about the man-made disaster of Katrina. I urge NPR financial resource development persons to apologize to Mr. Shearer and immediately reconsider his kind sponsorship, ASAP. NPR would be smart to be humble and publicly admit their obnoxious behavior to your national audience, and to Mr. Shearer.
If NPR management is arrogant enough to think that this biased behavior - at the expense of access to Truth (all while supporting NPR financially) - is simply a non-event, which won't affect NPR operations, and you will continue unaffected, you're mistaken in the extreme.
The increasing NPR reports from "experts" on US military operations, including tag line quotes of notorious, racist, reactionary personalities such as Rush Limbaugh, and his refrains of "ditto", and your "expert's" use of "mega dittos" in response to your correspondent, signal a horribly biased political view point not associated with decent journalism, nor historically associated with NPR.
To avoid risk of strategically planned, legal, political, and social protests and other interventions to your streams of funding, you should reconsider your actions and their quantifiable decline in reasonable journalism and operation of a public radio asset. Please remember, we own your bandwidth and your job is to serve all your listeners.
Gregory Rice
DeafAccessFilms.com
I think the nation needs a mission to pull us all together and right now that mission sure seems to straighten out government. They are doing things many of us do not agree with, and then they tell us every day again and again that it is "a good thing" they are doing. Yet look at the the mess that they have made.
In these disagreements I think the people need more say. We need to get involved with government, at the very least get involved with local government. Learn How to take that "say in government" back and make it a say in government. Get it to work for all of us the way it was supposed too.
I know off topic.
It flourished for a time. I think it is considered the most successful, so far, in U.S. history.