Free Republic

When National Public Radio was launched in 1971, it promised to be an alternative to commercial media that would “promote personal growth rather than corporate gain” and “speak with many voices, many dialects.” In 1993, when FAIR published a study of NPR’s guestlist that challenged the network’s alternative credentials (Extra!, 5/93), incoming NPR president Delano Lewis was still boasting about being a place where the unheard get heard (The Humanist, 9/93): “Our job is to be a public radio station. So therefore the alternative points of view, the various viewpoints, should be aired.” Today, current NPR president Kevin Klose insists...

NEW YORK - National Public Radio has bounced Bob Edwards, host of Morning Edition since its inception in 1979, out of his job. The radio network announced Tuesday that Edwards, 56, will become senior correspondent of NPR News at the end of April, with his reports being heard on various broadcasts. Edwards said he was disappointed by the move, particularly that he won't be the host when the program celebrates its 25th anniversary in November. "You have to figure it's going to happen someday and you get out before they do it," he said. "But I failed." Edwards said he...

LOL...James Randi, the magician and debunker of paranormal hoaxes, observes on his website that ...(Currently, my local PBS-TV stations are featuring both Dr. Wayne Dyer and Dr. Gary Null in their pledging period, to take advantage of the public's taste for quackery. Both these men flaunt degrees, both deal in nonsense. Dyer makes incredibly naïve statements such as that if you just summon up enough determination, "anything is possible," and Null prescribes magnets and other medieval tools to prevent aging. He preaches eternal youth. Now, Null is less than 60 years old, but I recognize dyed hair and make-up, and...

<p>Is Fox News Channel "fair and balanced," as its motto claims?</p> <p>Or is that slogan a clever marketing line designed to hide Fox News political tilt to the right?</p> <p>And with its success — by far, it's the No. 1-rated cable news channel — have journalists failed to challenge Fox News on its boast?</p>

Talk radio: It's time for more than right-wing hot air Why should we settle for just RIGHT-WING HOT AIR? 02/01/04GARRETT EPPS I t was a match worthy of World Wrestling Entertainment. In this corner, one mild-mannered, wordy academic; in the other, Kevin Mannix's minister of information, the pistol-packing Godzilla of Portland talk radio, Lars Larson. It was the fall of 2001. I was a visiting professor at Duke University. A Portland radio show wanted someone to explain the new policy of trying foreign terrorists in front of military commissions. I boned up on the topic and called in at the...

&#8216;We're in trouble; and he means public TVMoyers' program an issue with McCain, Hollings warnsOriginally published in Current, Jan. 19, 2004By Karen EverhartSouth Carolina Sen. Ernest "Fritz" Hollings warned pubcasters that the upcoming Senate reauthorization of the Public Broadcasting Act will be a tough fight. "We&#8217;re in trouble," said Hollings, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Commerce Committee. During a Jan. 11 [2004] luncheon at the National Educational Telecommunications Association Conference in New Orleans, Hollings suggested that public TV will take hits for the PBS series Now with Bill Moyers. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain (R-Ariz.) views Moyers,...

Should Saddam Hussein be executed? Poll being conducted by San Francisco PBS TV station KQED. Know that if you answer YES, you will be asked: Are you sure?....and asked to vote it up or down again. If you vote YES, you will be asked: What if you knew that the United Nations (UN), the European Union (EU), and many of the world's spiritual and political leaders are opposed to the death penalty?.....and asked to vote it up or down again. If you vote YES, you will be asked: What if you knew that most international human rights organizations oppose the...

November 27, 2003 -- Joseph Dunn, a Democrat senator from California, reacting to a book by some flaming leftist California academic, is part of a movement to pay reparations for a 1930’s mass deportation of California Latinos to Mexico. A class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of those expatriated against their will, and on behalf of their survivors. The PBS News Hour segment on this subject showed trainloads of Mexican nationals and Latino-American citizens being put on trains and locked inside until they crossed the border into Mexico. The segment narrator expressly pointed out that federal agents were...

Gross vs. O'Reilly: Culture Clash on NPR By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin Ombudsman National Public Radio On October 9, Terry Gross, longtime host of NPR's Fresh Air aired her interview with populist political talk show host Bill O'Reilly. The e-mails and phone calls of outrage are still arriving. The interview was taped the day before on October 8. The ostensible reason was to talk about O'Reilly's latest book, Who's Looking Out For You? The book is about, among other things, the claim that America is in the midst of what O'Reilly calls a "cultural war between left and right." And he...

Eight years after NPR’s Nina Totenberg, on Inside Washington, wished death upon Senator Jesse Helms (“If there is retributive justice, he’ll get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it"), on the same show over the weekend she seemingly desired to hasten the death of Army General Jerry Boykin for having supposedly expressed the view that the war on terrorism “is a Christian crusade against Muslims.” Totenberg hatefully advocated: “I hope he’s not long for this world.” When the other panelists were taken aback by her wish (“You putting a hit out on this guy or...

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THE POP LIFE Royalties From PBS Dismay Bluesmen By NEIL STRAUSS Published: September 25, 2003 On Sunday PBS is scheduled to begin its weeklong documentary series "The Blues," with Martin Scorsese as executive producer. In the episodes, directed by Clint Eastwood, Wim Wenders, Mike Figgis and others, the past, present and future of the blues are honored, explored and explained. But some record labels and music publishers say there is one old blues tradition being honored by PBS that would be better off left in the past: underpaying the artist. Randall Wixen, president of Wixen Music Publishing, says PBS offered...

Interview Sensation Tavis Smiley Comes to PBS With New Weeknight Talkshow Produced by KCET/Hollywood     News/Entertainment Editors     HOLLYWOOD--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug. 18, 2003--KCET/Hollywood teams with veteran interviewer Tavis Smiley for a new national late-night talk show on PBS. The half-hour series will premiere on Monday, January 5, 2004, and air weeknights in the PBS line-up that also includes "The Charlie Rose Show." The "Tavis Smiley" show, taped at KCET studios, will be the first West Coast talk show for PBS.    The first African American to have his own signature talk show in the history of NPR, Tavis Smiley was selected by Time as...

WETA officials, who had strongly opposed Arlington County's decision to build a $100,000 pavilion and gathering place for day laborers near the television company's Shirlington offices, now say they will work with the county on the project despite their continued concerns about traffic and safety. The pavilion, approved by the Arlington County Board in a 4 to 1 vote this week, will be built on county-owned land where some public television employees park. © 2003 The Washington Post Company

In a recent column blasting the new media ownership rules issued by the FCC, Tom Shales of the Washington Post quoted extensively from Bob Edwards of National Public Radio. He said, "Edwards used the example of the Dixie Chicks to show how monolithic media can manipulate public opinion." Edwards claimed that Clear Channel Radio, owner of 1,250 stations, "spearheaded" a campaign against the Dixie Chicks because its lead singer had said in London, on the eve of the war, that she was ashamed of President Bush. Here is what Edwards said in his speech: "Is Clear Channel’s move on those...

Moyers a flash point in balance talks led by CPBOriginally published in Current, July 14, 2003By Karen Everhart CPB has revived debate within public TV about balance and fairness in public affairs programs, citing specifically Bill Moyers' dual roles of host and uninhibited commentator on his Friday-night PBS show.After a vigorous debate among station reps and producers June 9 [2003] at the PBS Annual Meeting in Miami Beach, CPB President Bob Coonrod proposed to broaden discussions within public TV on standards of fairness. In a widely circulated letter exchange with PBS President Pat Mitchell, he put topics from the...

<p>Hard times have finally caught up to KQED, the Bay Area's public television and radio stations.</p> <p>Reductions in corporate donations this year will force KQED to cut operating expenses by about 10 percent, or $5 million for the 2004 fiscal year, management has told employees. About half the cuts will come from cutting payroll.</p>

Media Life'sBest of the BestWhereupon we honor the publishers, editors, magazines and newspapers, producers, shows and web sites that we think have made a differenceBy Gene Ely        Media Life recently celebrated its fourth birthday, making us genuinely old folks on the internet, and as the anniversary approached, we had cause to ponder how much we have learned, and more important, by whom we have been most inspired.   Magazines, Media Life included, may pretend to follow their own star -- it would be heresy to admit otherwise -- but the truth is that each day we see things that...

If it's allowed to stand, an FCC ruling will feed media merger mania BY BILL CLINTON "It's your money," says President Bush when he promotes tax cuts. I disagree with his tax policy but admire his spin. The same argument applies with greater force to whether big media conglomerates should be allowed to control more television and radio stations: "It's your airwaves." The American people own the bandwidth that broadcast media companies use to deliver programs to our TV and radio sets. Because the space on that bandwidth is limited, the Federal Communications Commission regulates who has access to our...

For Immediate ReleaseJune 19, 2003 Statement of Public Broadcasters In Response to the House Labor/HHS Appropriations Mark-up [Note to editors and reporters: Today, the U.S. House Labor/HHS/Education Appropriations Subcommittee agreed to the President’s budget proposal, which provides no new separate funding in FY 04 to public broadcasting for its digital transition or satellite interconnection. Instead, the Subcommittee opted to allow the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) to spend up to $100 million (out of its $380 million 2004 general appropriation) to pay for these important priorities. CPB had requested $60 million in FY04 for digital conversion funds and $20 million...