You DEMONcraps and your LIEbral media!  I’m so far in the boonies that the only radio signals we get are transmissions between militia groups and their commentary ain’t exactly “All Things Considered”.  NPR should be sold to the highest bidder and the proceeds given to Christianists churches to do their radio shows, which reach a far more important audience.

This sucks.  I love NPR, I listen to it on my daily commute and on the weekends doing housework.

There’s no more Tavis Smiley show? Or is he just on TV now?

I confess I don’t listen to NPR that much: are there still Pacific Time and Latino USA?

Although people and corporations are tightening their belts, I’m surprised NPR did not make an appeal to fund those particular shows. The only fundraising is for the local stations.

RiM: Brother Camping can be heard on shortwave, which should penetrate your mountain redoubt.

I was about to ask why Tavis Smiley, which I get on my local NPR affiliate, doesn’t count, but then discovered the answer for myself with a little help from friend Wiki:
“NPR” ("National Public Radio") ≠ “PRI” (aka “Public Radio International")
I had no idea, despite having my radio nearly permanently fixed to [what I now know is] that NPR *and* PRI station.
Learn something new every day.

Wait, is Tell Me More PRI too?  And what is the relationship between PRI and NPR?  Cause my NPR sure has a lot of PRI shows, Tavis included.

RiM: Brother Camping can be heard on shortwave, which should penetrate your mountain redoubt.

I listen to him often.  Thanks to his prophesies, I know that The Rupture is gonna occur in 2011 and I’ve already bought a really nice lawn chair so I can sit outside and watch it happen.  You, being a DEMONcrap and all, are going to Hell.  Sorry.

Pledge drive season will be a bitch for sure. They may have to get a firefighter boot and stand at intersections.

I spent two years listening to Farai Chideya in a small town where there were no options beyond Rush and the wingnut brigade. My work required lots of time in the car, so I heard it almost every day from 2006-2008.

News and Notes was strictly amateur hour, about on par with a fair-to-middling college student public affairs show. It seemed as though the interviews were conducted with no preparation whatsoever. And the roundtable discussions proved only that a collection of black folk bloviatin’ ain’t necessarily any better than a collection of white folks. It’s still bloviatin’. One could argue that at least it provides a vehicle for blackfolk bloviatin’, but that’s a pretty thin reed.

But I’ll hand N&N;this much...that show is way better than the hipster poseurs who are eversofucking witty on Wait Wait I’m Thinking of a Quip. Now there is a program that deserves a quick bullet in the back of the head.

I used to love listening to News & Notes, but it had gotten to the point where it was full of right-wing crap a lot of times.  It didn’t reflect the views of most African Americans that I know and I wondered where they found some of the people who were frequent commenters.

Is this another case of a limping waterfowl with a hatchet and a grudge?

Actually, the wingnuts were the guests that I got the most out of listening to. It is gripping to listen to someone pretzel their way through the kinds of self-denial that African American wingnuts need to survive. It had a horrific element to it, like a freeway accident.

Why no posts about the disgraced Illinois Governor??? Perhaps because he is liberal Democratic?  So much for balanced posts on this site.

Why no posts about the disgraced Illinois Governor??? Perhaps because he is liberal Democratic?  So much for balanced posts on this site.

Discussed in this thread’s comments, kookie. You want “fair and balanced,” go to Faux News.

NPR is a non-profit corporation that produces a bunch of public radio programming. PRI is another non-profit corporation that produces a bunch of public radio programming. And there are yet others.

Your local public radio station decides which programs to buy and air in your area. I’m not sure of all the business arrangements, but I don’t believe NPR owns most (or any??) local public radio stations. I think the stations usually are organized and incorporated locally, but many are “member stations” of NPR, the same way nearly all newspapers are “members” of the Associated Press. Some public radio stations are almost entirely music. Others are almost entirely talk. Some have their own local shows produced there that they sell to other stations (like This American Life by Chicago Public Radio).

Everyone calls it NPR, the same way we call tissues Kleenex and adhesive bandages Band-Aids, but really, it’s public radio.

The pledge drives allow your local station to buy programming. NPR and PRI pay their bills with the money from the local stations (and some other sources).

I am somewhat aware of the rather troubled history of black programming on NPR. I’ve never heard News and Notes because we don’t get it here in Tucson (which is not surprising given our demographic). Given the history, I want to say it’s unfortunate they were one of only two programs entirely cut. I hope the decision has some business justification - like if they had fewer subscribers among member stations that any other show, it would be hard to justify cutting a more popular show to save this one - but I don’t know that to be the case.

I did like the Tavis Smiley Show before. I thought it was a shame he felt like he had to take his show elsewhere.

News & Notes provided me with an enduring memory of the 2008 presidential race, oddly enough because of Tavis Smiley. I forget when exactly, but Obama had turned down an invitation to attend the Black State of the Union, and Tavis was peeved about it. The N&N;blogger roundtable was talking about it, and one lady (can’t remember who) said, “Tavis...LET THE BROTHER RUN.”

Indeed.

N&N;was a great program for what it represented sadly, it was far too inconsistent to be just a great program.  It’s a bloody shame it’s gone and it’s no surprise to me NPR would axe it (for a number of reasons some legitimate and most not).  It should have been a better show, that, as much as anything else says more about NPR than I care to.

D2D was terrible start to finish.  Goodbye to a worthless piece of crap.

And thanks to the republicans who finally achieved their mission.  They’ve infiltrated a once great news and entertainment network with hacks and shills like barbara bradly hagerty, cokie roberts and steve inskeep while losing legends like Bob Edwards (whose satellite show is fantastic and available on podcast).

I’ve been a regular NPR listener for thirty years and these days, I mostly don’t listen.  I grab podcasts of some of the good shows and leave the rest.  It’s sad.

I used to love listening to News & Notes, but it had gotten to the point where it was full of right-wing crap a lot of times.  It didn’t reflect the views of most African Americans that I know and I wondered where they found some of the people who were frequent commenters.

I’m convinced they passed a Black Wingnuts Full Employment Act a few years back.  Basically, if I see a black commentator on a cable show and it’s not Donna Brazile, Roland Martin, or Jesse Jackson there’s a 99% probability they’re a conservative.  Put another way, Bush has a 2% approval rating among African Americans.  They must have tracked down every one of them and offered them a job in a RW think tank.

The usual reality for political programming is that shows do BETTER when they are “out of power” - so the fact of a black president and racially-harmoniious administration probably means shows like this will start doing poorly. Thats why they chose these to shut down. NRO and the Weekly Standard are going to do (financially) great for the next 2/4/8 years while NPR has a hard time. People who feel satisfied with the government stop watching/listening to this type of program.

Hey, what’s wingnut welfare without a few black recipients driving caddies?  They have an internal consistency to maintain.

I do believe I’m seeing the economic melt-down as an excuse to “clean house”, as it were. I’ve been feeling this since the market plummet followed by an instantaneous round of firings, lay-offs, plant closings, union busting, we-can’t-pay-you-but-we-can-buy-a-new-company (see Republic Glass)… I swear I’m not making this up. After 8 years of Rove/Bushites being placed in key positions throughout government and corporate America… I’ve never been a conspiracist but…

i swear I’m not imagining this.

This was one of the few ways to get interesting news and culture concerning the US black community, and I think we need this program a lot more than we need some others. This program does half news and politics, and half culture, favoring books disproportionately, but including all sorts of high and pop culture performing arts. It’s a great window into the world of the contemporary black intelligentia and cultural stars (talented tenth) - the world from which our Pres.-elect and his wife hail. I have been really busy over the past few months and haven’t listened too often, so I missed any fundraising pleas, but I wonder if the listenership couldn’t lobby NPR and raise money specifically for this show. Pam is our current closest approach to Media Personality - what do you think, Pam? Could the Afrosphere and general liberal/progressive blogosphere help? Someone writes a website, an introductory paragraph and info such as how to contact NPR, and a link (with small blogad/logo if they wish to use it) to the “Save News and Notes” site. Email the paragraph, info, link to the “Afrosphere” members, and anyone else you can think of. With any luck, it should spread. If you get any idea of how many people are being reached and how many actually contact NPR, I suppose the next step is to see if you could get pledges of new members, increased donation from existing members if N&N;is brought back.

I am sorry to be a pain in suggesting such a move, since I don’t have my own blog, don’t write code or set up even a simple blog, and frankly don’t have the time to learn fast enough to put up a blog for this purpose.

I’m going to be contrarian here and say I’m not going to miss New & Notes in the slightest. Uninteresting and amateur at best.  Yes, it is unfortunate that the only African American centered show on NPR is going away, but the community deserves better than mediocrity.

So is there any list of the other reporters laid off?

I have no opinion on the shows canceled.  News & Notes never played in Central Iowa (duh), and Day to Day was ambient noise usually.  I like that Xeni Jardin had a nice regular feature on the show, yay paid work, but what she produced for D2D was typically uninteresting.  It was almost slumming for her.

And the roundtable discussions proved only that a collection of black folk bloviatin’ ain’t necessarily any better than a collection of white folks. It’s still bloviatin’. One could argue that at least it provides a vehicle for blackfolk bloviatin’, but that’s a pretty thin reed.

But I’ll hand N&N;this much...that show is way better than the hipster poseurs who are eversofucking witty on Wait Wait I’m Thinking of a Quip. Now there is a program that deserves a quick bullet in the back of the head.

I agree on both points. News & Notes was pretty inconsistent.  I remember being irritated when they had Ken Blackwell on the show and never said anything about why you might not want to support him, even though he’s a ridiculously insane religious right nutjob wacko.  His interview was all about how Blackwell should be elected because he reflects the values of the black community.  But it wasn’t all bad.  There were some definitely interesting parts and I always listened to it when it was on and I was in the car.  It’s too bad that they’re getting rid of it, since it’s the only African American show they have apparently :-(

But yeah if I had to choose a show to kill it would be Wait, Wait, I Think I Hear Someone Laughing At Me Oh No That’s Just Vomiting.  But come to think of it, maybe that’s “PRI” and not “NPR”.  Either way I hate.

“News and Notes was strictly amateur hour, about on par with a fair-to-middling college student public affairs show. It seemed as though the interviews were conducted with no preparation whatsoever. And the roundtable discussions proved only that a collection of black folk bloviatin’ ain’t necessarily any better than a collection of white folks. It’s still bloviatin’. One could argue that at least it provides a vehicle for blackfolk bloviatin’, but that’s a pretty thin reed.”

I liked it because it was the one place on Michigan Radio you’d occasionally hear unapolgetic leftwingers. They dropped it recently, though.

On the other hand, I hated “Day to Day.”

I will miss News and Notes.  I liked Farai when she hosted the local morning talk show on KALW, and I’d listen to her hosting N&N;.  I didn’t particularly care for the other guy.  Bland and uninteresting.

N&N;is where I first got to hear Cornel West and Michael Eric Dyson, which really opened my white-bread eyes.  They are some of the most powerful speakers I think that I have ever heard, and it’s a shame that some of the non-rightwingers that had voices on N&N;are going to be shut further from the microphone.

D2D, on the other hand?  Boring recap of ME and ATC.  I don’t want a full day of those two shows, thankyouverymuch.

People who feel satisfied with the government stop watching/listening to this type of program.

Yeah, Dan in Denver—that’s also why Fox News and Limbaugh did so poorly with wingnuts like yourself over the last 8 years....

Oh, wait…

I liked getting some AA perspective on N&N;, but you all are right - it wasn’t consistent.  I will miss it, though because of the different voices that I did not hear in other shows that I podcast (spend most of my radio time driving in a car through the mountains where I can learn all about Jaysus or listen to classical music).  And it’s satisfying to see that there are others out there who abhor Wait Wait as much as I do.  I cannot bear that show.  I actually have to leave the room when I hear it playing.