Listening To The Enemy

Established in advance: National Public Radio and Minnesota Public Radio should not get subsidized with taxpayer money. Both are fully capable of being self-supported (even if it means they might have to trim some of the fat from their budgets - and make no mistake, there is fat to be trimmed. Even public broadcasting staff admit privately that public broadcasting is full of unproductive hangers-on; a Twin Cities Public TV staffer once told me that 25% of her co-workers were "deadwood" who played computer games all day and really didn't do much. MPR and NPR operations are lavishly-staffed, and staff work at Minnesota Public Radio was high even before the wage scales in commercial radio went into freefall. And you don't think MPR is perhaps a bit too healthy, go to downtown Saint Paul, stand at the corner of 7th and Exchange, gaze upon the Taj Ma Kling (the massive, gold-plated expansion to MPR's already-immense home facility) and think about it for a bit.

But since I involuntarily pony up for MPR and NPR, I have no qualms about giving it a listen.

And there's stuff I actually like:

• Prairie Home Companion - Yes, Garrison Keillor is a bigot, a six-foot-tall slug of suet that covers one of the most preeningly-arrogant, corrosively-nasty personalities in this city. But PHC is, and remains, wonderful; usually funny, occasionally brilliant, with impeccable taste in music. And his "Lake Wobegone" monologues grab you by the liver, especially if you grew up Scandinavian in a small town. I hold my nose, call it wonderful, and look for my next opportunity to smack down Keillor's puerile, sophomoric political writing.
• Speaking of Faith - The best thing anywhere currently in american media on the subject of religion. Host Christa Tippett doesn't inject a lot of personality into the discussion - which is fortunate given the subject matter, and appropriate given than most public radio hosts have none. Instead, she brings an incisive intelligence to interviewing theologians, writers and thinkers about all the world's faiths, and about all of life's issues with which faith intersects. This is one of very few programs on Public Radio that is genuinely educational; a genuinely wonderful program.
• American Routes - Downside: A production of Louisiana Public Radio, it focuses understandably but excessively on Louisiana music. Upside: the show still covers the roots of American music - and the links between different styles - with happy, eclectic thoroughness. Nick Spitzer's interview with Tom Waits was one of the best "star" interviews I've ever heard.
• This American Life - Sure, you get tired of the forced eclecticism of the incidental music. And Sarah Vowell just isn't that interesting. But the show at its best is some of the most affecting radio anywhere. Talk show hosts and disc jockeys have mastered radio as a craft - but TAL has (so far) the title for the art of radio as literature, short story and journalism (in the classic sense of the term, as opposed to what they teach in J-school).
• Honorable Mention: There was a show that apparently ran for years, but not in the Twin Cities, in which an actor played Thomas Jefferson commenting on today's news and events from the founding father's perspective. Never heard it - but thought the idea was very worth a listen.

Of course, it's not all good.

The worst shows on M/NPR?

• On The Media - Bob Garfield and Brooke Gladstone's "analysis" of the media wallows in casual bias, acting all the while shocked, shocked they tell you, at signs of bias in...the media. Except for them. OTM should, by all rights, be an Air America program. Anyone who thinks Fox News is biased should be forced to listen to OTM while high on Sodium Pentathal, and obliged to confess in writing/on video the real truth. Among all of NPR's lineup, this show may be the most perfectly tuned to speak to its audience's stereotypically-self-glorified self-image. I truly resent any of my tax money going to support this piece of crappy, agenda-driven radio.
• Anything involving Juan Williams.
• Terry Gross - I mean, as someone who's worked in the business, I have to congratulate anyone who can eke out a gig for as long as Terry Gross has. But for someone who's built a career, and a niche, out of interviewing people, Terry Gross seems grossly lacking as an interviewer; stammering, easily thrown off-beat, easily-flustered...which brings up another question. MPR makes no bones about the fact that it is heavily-produced; interviews on other shows are routinely and heavily edited to excise oopses, smooth out rough spots, remove dead-ends, and make the whole thing sound slick and polished (in fact, Bob Garfield on "On The Media" did an interesting segment where he played a "before and after" of one interview segment; the "before" sounded like Kris Krok trying to talk with a nuclear physicist, with stammers and false starts and Garfield umming and ahhhing like he was just out of radio school; the "after" made him sound like, well, an MPR host). So; if they edit Terry Gross to make her sound more polished and cogent, why doens't it work? And if they don't, why don't they hire someone who can do live interviewing well?

When they stop taking my tax money, I'll stop criticizing.

Posted by Mitch at August 21, 2006 06:23 AM | TrackBack