Shot in the Dark

There Are Millions Of Reasons…

… why I will never donate a single penny to Minnesota Public radio, even though I listen to them (primarily news and classical music) constantly.

Two of them, for starters, are:

  • Keri Miller
  • WNYC’s “On The Media”.

But a few more million of them are right here; as Minnesota Public radio lays off much of what used to be a pretty good news room, their executive staff still keep getting paid, well, like this:

To add insult to injury, MPR’s national production group, “American Public Media”, is canceling “Live from Here with Chris Thile” – the excellent show that grew from the ruins of “Prairie Home Companion”, and one of the few original production non-news shows worth listening to.

MPR hastens to point out that their C-suite is taking a 30% pay cut. Which sounds like a big deal, until you realize that a whole lot of private sector CEOs are cutting their pay to $1 for the duration.

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12 responses to “There Are Millions Of Reasons…”

  1. myyellowbike Avatar
    myyellowbike

    91.1 on FM I think, I’ve put in enough time listening to MPR too, do they still have that electric moving sign giving the news in downtown St. Paul? I agree they have some palatable programing.

  2. bosshoss429 Avatar
    bosshoss429

    I continue to laugh at the hypocrisy of leftists that decry capitalism and excessive corporate salaries, except when it’s their salaries, made possible in large part, by the people they despise. A 30% cut to their salaries is a joke and still leaves them with annual comp that is significantly higher than at least 50% of their listeners.

  3. This chopper for official use only Avatar
    This chopper for official use only

    Here’s a story you won’t see at MPR or NPR:

    Convicted thief, child abuser and wife beater Rayshard Brooks’ White girlfriend has been arrested in Atlanta for torching the fast food resturaunt where he was found passed out drunk, behind the wheel of his running car.

    The dedicated family man’s family has denied any knowledge.

    MPR missed the story due to the newsroom layoffs, no doubt. But we can be sure former MPR News editor Bob Collins is preparing to uncork a few choice words any minute.

  4. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    I used to listen to classic MPR non-stop. My mornings began with the Morning Show, I commuted home to All Things Considered and listened to classical programming through the night.

    Weekends brought the Jazz Image with Leigh Kamman and The Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor.

    I contributed regularly and even volunteered to man the telephones during fund drives.

    The first crack appeared when they wolfed down WCAL then went to war against KFAI. I was a huge fan of WCAL but never listened to KFAI. Still, their obsession with stomping out any competition bothered me.

    Then something happened to them after 2000. Bush derangement for sure, it brought the prejudices that were always there bubbling to the surface.

    But now, all they talk about is race. It has become a form of social turrets. They remind me of a quote by Winston Churchill

    A fanatic is one who can’t change his mind and won’t change the subject.

    These days, I cannot listen to them for more than five minutes.

  5. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    If you want pure Leftist derangement, read the Guardian UK. They are far-left wackos, but they actually do a nice job of presenting the news that we don’t see in the US, particularly World News. Apply the appropriate discount for their spin, and you’re now more informed than you were before.

  6. golfdoc50 Avatar
    golfdoc50

    If MPR was entirely subscription supported I could accept it. But it isn’t. Nothing “public “ about a politically biased megaphone. Defund it now.

  7. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Joe,

    When one corrects for the hard left spin, the BBC is not bad. Certainly better than NPR, CBS, NBC, ABC and all the other American alphabet stations.

    Even CBC (Canadian) does better than their US counterparts

  8. Mitch Berg Avatar
    Mitch Berg

    I like the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. It’s center right (on the German political map, anyway – probably pretty centrist by US standards). It’s also good for practicing my German, but there’s an English edition online as well.

  9. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    I think I’ve shared this before, but back in the day I was approached by a headhunter for a communications job at MPR that would have also involved writing speeches and such for Bill Kling. I had a good chuckle at the thought, and then the guy gave me the salary range, and my chuckle turned into a gasp. IIRC, it was about $20k more a year than I was making at the time. It’s a thought worth entertaining, but I also realized that – even if I were hired – there was no way I was would make it a year in that gig to collect the extra jing. I did have fun at dinner that night describing to my wife the kinds of speeches I’d like to write for Kling.

    Re the UK press, I agree with JD and Greg. I have limited subscriptions to the Guardian, Economist and Telegraph that gives me access to a handful of articles per month (actually, I think my Economist subscription is a full on-line one). They do cover the news very well, and the Guardian’s and Economist’s columnists are worth a laugh. The Telegraph also an interesting lifestyles feature.

  10. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    … why I will never donate a single penny to Minnesota Public radio, even though I listen to them (primarily news and classical music) constantly.

    I used to listen to MPR classical constantly, but with my Amazon Prime subscription I’ve found streaming their classical library for free to be much, much better. I can choose the shorter movements that MPR often plays, but I also get choices of other lengths. And I don’t get opera. Sorry, not sorry, but I hate 99.99% of opera. And I get a much better selection of types of classical I get, too. I don’t go back to MPR unless I forget to throw a bluetooth speaker into my kids’ cars when I have to drive those.

    As for news, the doctor told me to lower my blood pressure, so I had to drop MPR news. There were times I’d rage at the afternoon drive time idiots opinionating “reporting” on things that were clearly at odds with reality. Some of their other shows can be interesting, and the BBC hour they have is fairly entertaining once you discount the snooty leftist Europhile angle enough.

    So overall, MPR isn’t nearly attractive enough to get me to drop streaming classical and audiobooks.

  11. Greg Avatar
    Greg

    Night Writer, I subscribed to The Economist for years, but they lost it sometime around when Matt Ridley left. I suspect he was gracefully shown the door for writing about science rather than scientism.

    What bugs me the most about them today is their “Voice of God” writing style. Gosh, there is nuance and uncertainty in the world, but not at The Economist.

  12. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    I agree, Greg. There are some Economist articles that are just begging for a Comment section, but that can’t be allowed.

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