One of the more controversial stances I’ve taken on this blog is “MInnesota Public Radio News sucks less than most local news organizations”. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It’s not an unblemished statement, of course. With some of their staffers, their eliminationist leftism slips out (or comes gushing out in a tsunami of foul, scabrous rotting bile<\/a>). And you don’t have to scratch the surface too <\/em>hard to find MPR doing its best to uphold Big Left’s narrative<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n So yes – they suck less. It’s a low bar, and they barely get over it, but there you have it. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But the product has been slipping in recent years. MPR’s newsroom has been shrinking – by a little over half in the past 5-6 years. Their on-air programming has gotten more and more perfunctory; ; less local production, (except for their local talk shows, which don’t take nearly as much overhead and effort as doing news – especially given how over-staffed as MPR historically has tended to be). <\/p>\n\n\n\n All is not well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Jay Boller at Racket <\/em>has a long, well-reported and, I need to add, utterly stereotype-affirming report on the recent decline of MPR News<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Long story short: As executive salaries soar<\/a>, less and less of that taxpayer and donor money is going to news and programming. <\/p>\n\n\n\n But naturally, to those remaining, the problem is, notwithstanding the fact that the organization has unionized and pushed itself to the bleeding edge of the social justice fashion curve, MPR News just isn’t progressive enough<\/em>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n