CPR, we hardly knew ye.
The Right got another zopilote feather in its asshat with the news that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting will cease operations in 2026.
What’s the problem? Why, money, of course. There’s just not enough to go around! Writes The New York Times:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been in the cross hairs of Republicans for decades. Conservative policy advocates, legislators and presidents argued persistently that the public shouldn’t be responsible for financing media they perceived as having a liberal bias. But repeated attempts to defund public broadcasters failed, until this year.
Congress voted last month to claw back more than $500 million of the organization’s annual funding in a narrow vote that played out along party lines. That forced the corporation into a cash crunch.
Hey, $500 million here, $500 million there, and pretty soon you’re talking about real money. Money for stuff like — oh, I don’t know — say, a $30 million military parade to give Felonious Punk a chubby on his birthday. Or $1 billion to refurb’ a Qatari jet that he will take with him to his “library,” which will be a walk-in closet full of fuck books, golf scorecards (see the Fiction stacks), and classified documents (homeless dude thumbing through them whilst on the shitter).
And then there’s the tab for flying this fat cunt around the world to visit his golf courses, where the locals gather to jeer, snigger, and call him a fat cunt. We can call him a fat cunt right here at home for free. See? I just did it. Didn’t cost one of the pennies we won’t be making in 2026.
Maybe that’s why the Corporation for Public Broadcasting got it in the neck. No pennies for that crowd.
Mad Blog Media 
I never personally defunded public radio, although I had my firefights with KUNM; see below. I still to this day send four regional radio stations and the PBS affiliate the monthly check. But NPR did put itself in the crosshairs, as Uri Berliner recently wrote.
Here was my beef. And I never got a response worthy of anything other than four letter words.
https://northmesamutts.blogspot.com/2017/05/hecklers-veto-at-unm-round-2-kunm-piles.html
So-called “conservatives” have been after NPR/PBS for as long as I can remember. The smallest of the small-change sideshows in the Federal Fiscal Circus, but, y’know, lefty-loony, woke, whatever.
They couldn’t get ’er done until they had the Three Main Rings: the House, the Senate, and an Oval Office whose occupant will scrawl his name on anything save a check to a contractor for work performed.
As a journo working various copy desks before home computers became ubiquitous I used to rely on public radio — NPR Hourly News, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and supplements like BBC News — to tee me up for the day. One of my first editors, Bill Buzenberg, had gone on to work for NPR as a foreign affairs correspondent and London bureau chief and wound up veep of the news division. He was nobody’s fool.
In my dotage I came to think NPR had softened a touch, gotten a wee bit too cheery and chirpy — nearly everyone has, including The New York Times — and so I’m no longer a regular listener, just a regular contributor. And I only really pay attention to PBS during election season; I prefer their coverage to the CBS/ABC/NBC yammerheads. I wouldn’t watch CNN at gunpoint — I could smell the beginning of the end when every newsroom I worked in had a TV tuned to the Atlanta Assholes 24/7, and they went straight in the tank for that chickenhawk eejit Dubya after 9/11.
And don’t get me started on Fox “News.” That’s not a news organization. It’s propaganda to get the dummies all hot and bothered about shit they don’t understand, which is just about everyfuckinthing.
Still: Think of all the great stuff we’d have missed if LBJ hadn’t signed the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. Bill Moyers. Duck’s Breath Mystery Theatre. “Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me!” “Fresh Air” with Terry Gross. “A Prairie Home Companion.” “Austin City Limits.” Shit, even The Firesign Theatre did a few gigs on NPR, as did The National Lampoon crew. Remember “The National Lampoon Radio Hour?” The list goes on and on. Smart stuff. Funny stuff. Educational stuff.
But for me, the underpinning was always NPR news. I joked in print once that I could drive from coast to coast and never be out of range of an NPR membership drive. NPR was never perfect. But to paraphrase Hunter S. Thompson, NPR has made some stupid mistakes, but in context they seem almost frivolous compared to the things Fox News does every day, on purpose, as a matter of policy and a perfect expression of everything it stands for.
And let’s not forget the Capitol Steps. I survived field seasons in central Minnesota, graduate school, Hawaii, and everything since then listening to NPR and also unaffiliated public radio such as KSFR. When I was in St. Cloud doing field work, I thought Prairie Home Companion was written for Minnesota. Probably was, actually.
Which is why I will always give NPR shit, and also liberally offer my checkbook.
Well, I’m surprised that those two, Shapiro and Sommers, ain’t working for orange julius. Empty and privileged hats full of bullshit whose view is limited to the view from the ivory tower. You, know, just like felonious punk’s press secretary. So, no sympathy from me, and one foul doesn’t eject the entire team. The entire fucking country is on fire, but let’s talk about it some more. Patrick’s buddy said it best, stupid should hurt, and the hurt is coming soon.
This was less about Sommers and Shapiro and more about fairness in media.
I don’t follow Shapiro but I have read Christina Hoff Sommers for a number of decades, including when she was one of the few people willing to challenge some of the outlandish orthodoxy of the Left regarding sexual harassment on campus, false rape accusations, etc. None of which was popular in some academic quarters (recall that my wife and I were both academics until we sold out to the military-industrial-nuclear complex). Hence KUNM’s Marisa Demarco, on the air, referring to Sommers as an “extremist” or “far right speaker” because Sommers didn’t toe the more activist modern feminist line. Calling her an extremist was just bullshit. And it wasn’t in a radio station opinion piece. It was “news”.
When an NPR affiliate commits an unforced error like that it just plays into the hands of the right wing, which as we know, has been trying to defund the CPB for some time. Why give them ammo? I spent a couple days arguing with KUNM about that broadcast. They toned it down in a later print version but never admitted error. Like I said, we are still sustaining members at KUNM (and three other public radio outlets here as well as the PBS station), even though I sometimes think their standards have slipped.
So feel free to think that they are “empty and privileged hats full of bullshit”, but frankly, Sommers is one of the more sane people on our side of the Great Divide. She grew up and still is a Democrat as far as I know. Hardly someone in the MAGAverse.
Oh, and full disclosure. One of the reasons my wife and I were reading Sommers, Kaminer, and Kipnis as well as acting as unpaid legal help for our faculty union attorney was because our best friend at the U of Hawaii was almost fired and eventually sued in Federal court over a false rape accusation. The university led a star chamber investigation and eventually cleared him so the accuser took him to Federal court. Took the jury half a day after a two week trial to not only exonerate him but fine his accuser a quarter million bucks for defamation of character. But our friend’s name remained mud on campus. So if we want to talk about “empty and privileged hats full of bullshit” I can name names, including a former Dean of the U of Hawaii law school, and a lot of fucking cowards who knew better on that case but remained silent for fear of antagonizing the wrong people.
So yes, this was also personal.
I do wonder if we stopped donating money to Dems, who can’t seem to find ways to win, and instead put it towards public radio and TV. As well as other news outlets that at the very least raise a stink now and then. And kept some shekels ready for legal fights which seem to be the only way to slow Rethugs down.
My beef with my local NPR station is that they profess they are forced to take sponsor money from Enbridge. One of the worst environmental criminals on earth. I’d like for them to be able to tell these dirty “sponsors” to fuck off but it will take many of us to step up and replace those bucks. Will or can that happen? For my part, I’m done making any/all campaign donations until I see Americans suffer enough to begin voting OUT Rethugs.
No political donations for us since Obama. How does a NPR or PBS refuse an underwriter? Would that just pour gasoline on the bias accusation fire? If I listen to the national and local programming on our PBS and NPR stations, and detect no bias, then why should they turn down the underwriter? They always preface a story about an underwriter with a disclaimer that they take funding from that entity.
Yeah … “underwriting” is just another word for “advertising.” We all would prefer that a reliable source of info only take “clean” money, but man, that’s a rara avis for reals, on a par with courage in Congress.
The trick for the recipient of the funds is to have the stones to say, when the “underwriter” complains about a story, “We understand and sympathize with your position, and appreciate everything you have done for us, but your support does not buy you final edit on any of our journalism.”
My antics sent a few advertisers shrieking into the void over the years. Happily, I almost always felt that my editors and publishers had my back. The worst thing in the world is to start self-censoring for fear of giving offense. I’ve seen it happen, and it never ends well.
Heh…I do remember some of your spicy BRAIN rants that made me wonder if you’d get a trip to the woodshed. And yet, there you’d be next issue as sassy as ever. Figured you must have compromising pictures of your editors….you were fearless.
Marc Sani liked riling people up. Still does. He took over the Grapevine column and really made it his own. I think he’s pissing off more readers than I ever did.
I know he had to have a couple of chats with irate readers and advertisers over me. He’d tell them something like, “Hey, I get it, he’s not everyone’s cup of tea. But that’s just one column in a magazine that has a whole lot of other stuff you and the rest of the industry need to know about. Just turn the page on the guy.”
For the advertisers, he’d add: “I understand if you want to drop us. But I think you’ll be back. We’re a bargain, and we serve your target audience.” (FYI: I was not always on the ad-sales guys’ Hit Parade.)
In case you still need more evidence that we are screwed … the first ad in the story about nutrition and empty calories is from Culver’s, butter burgers and frozen custard.
Tis somewhat true wot you say POB. Picking and choosing your advertisers does smack of bias. But hell, isn’t it time to give Rethugs a stronger dose of it? I hate hearing the name of a serial polluter mentioned all day during news breaks
as if they were fine fellows in good standing. And I cannot help but thinking Enbridge is buying favorable coverage over time.
I know it’s naive but I feel that taking money from a company that has been sued and fined many times is dirty pool.
A real conundrum, heh? Just like people, certainly not any of the crew here that I have met, who grew up privileged, went to the finest colleges and universities, attained post grad degrees including doctorates but did nothing to make life better for the average citizen shouldn’t be surprised if people don’t want to listen to them. They are great at publishing but not doing. Endless talk and writing about what kind of feminism is best without helping woman get treated equitably is a waste of a precious gift. Or a person who is a brainiac and was given the best of educations, including Harvard Law School, becomes a religious, don’t matter which religion, conservative hack who lies about climate change. These are not, in my opinion, candidates for speaking at public universities Facts and truth matter. Neither on these folks, based on their wikipedia bios, worked their way through school, taught at a community college, mentored students or co-workers, volunteered in non-profit or local government groups to improve their communities, or made the nation more secure. That is what I mean by empty and privileged hats. And frankly, I have no time for them. If they aren’t using their gifts to solve problems, they are the dog damn problem. They are not people that I would ride, have lunch, or drink beer with.
I don’t think there is a single Republican in an elected position in or around Santa Fe. So it is more a case of deciding which Democrat stands out as better than the rest, least corrupt, or whatever. Big money plays a role in Fanta Se. Our current mayor, Alan Webber, spent about half a million bucks to buy the last election. Thankfully, he is not running this time. I’ve started to work for Michael Garcia, who is using public financing.
Good on ye. More people should lend a hand to the campaign of their choice. It’s educational — and occasionally shocking — to see how the sausage is made.
O’G, I know it can get a bit testy when arguing politics around the electronic pickle barrel, but I’m also willing to buy everyone the next round. As well as dive into the Political Sewer myself in an attempt to pull the stopper and let the rot drain out.
Just to make that clear. I love you all, even when we disagree.
Da, tovarisch. We are all comrades here.
Speaking of which I spoke with Comrade Pelkey today. He’s not sure yet what the CPB news means for Wyoming Public Media, but he’s hoping to hang on as local host for “Morning Edition.” He’s also doing a bit of lawyering from time to time as the spirit moves and was prepping dinner for visiting kinfolk, so it sounds like all is well with the LUG-Nut-in-Chief.
Yep, us folks that have rode the Paseo del Bosque or the Sante Fe Century and shared a meal and beer together, we be mates!
I hope he is healthy after those bouts of the C word. I though he retired from the law firm but I guess like me, sounds like he failed full time retirement.
Good on CP to be doing Morning Edition. Assuming there is a Morning Edition. I should ride the BMW up there some time. Might never ride back. I like the idea of Wyoming. Lotsa land, not too many people.
He sounded good. I never press him on health issues because I figure he gets enough of that sort of thing from everyone else.
I likewise thought he had quit lawyering, but he said he pays a few hundy every year to keep his law license and thus likes to do something with it now and again. And of course he’s still following politics, which I think is his favorite sport, even more so than cycling.
“Morning Edition” is a perfect fit for Charles. He’s been an early riser ever since I’ve known him, which made him the go-to guy for dark-thirty website reports from across the pond. With a wife and two kids he said the wee hours when everyone else was asleep was the perfect time for him to get some work done.
Every third car on Fort Collins’ roads has Wyoming plates. People like the idea of wide open spaces until they find out Amazon has a bad weather policy, and your free overnight delivery turns into a week from next Tuesday if your zip code starts with 82XXX.
So they move here and then whine that it’s too crowded.
The weather up there doesn’t play. I think I-80 spends more time closed than open, even in “summer.”
And the wind. Holy hell. My least favorite weather feature.
Plus the politics is so far right it can meet itself coming around a corner. CP said he used to be able to team up with a few Republicans to do the people’s business in the legislature now and again, but that ship seems to have sailed, caught fire, exploded, and sunk.
KRCC was my first introduction to NPR radio and my lifeline to great music in Colorado. Living across the street from CC whilst in Bibleburg was a haven. Listening to CarTalk, Dr Science and others kept me laughing as did
meeting you and the Mrs. and the Old Dogs. All combined it kept us sane in the YinYang city wile Focus on Your Own F$#king Family was rearing its ugly head and the Times they were a Changing
Time to increase my sustainable membership here with OPB
I wasn’t aware NPR had a political slant of any sort until I moved to Georgia when right wing shock jocks were gaining traction. Hawaii and Alaska public radio apparently couldn’t afford all of the more hard core feeds, so we got Talk of the Nation and then indie music the rest of the day. Wasn’t until I moved back to the Lower 48 slash Mainland that I realized half the country hated the other half.
Talk of the Nation … they don’t make them like that any more. First of all, Neal Conan did not suffer fools. You call in and tell him you heard a rumor about something, or spouted ideology without understanding how it impacts the nuts and bolts of policy, and he’d hand you your ass. But the best part was, despite its name, maybe two days a week covered things we were talking about. The rest of the time, he would deep dive on comic books or minor league baseball … and he’d make it so interesting, we would talk about it.
I get why, when NPR canceled his show, he quit and bought a macadamia nut farm on the Big Island.
Neal Conan. Man, I can still hear his voice. He was a keeper. Or should’ve been. Why NPR let him get away remains a mystery to me.
Didja know?
https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Neal_Conan_(Earth-616)
I did, I did. He was buds with Chris Claremont, a longtime Marvel scribe.
A mystery indeed. I remember when he interviewed Bonnie Raitt and “ride it like you stole it” Floyd Landis. Sorry to hear he returned to the source.
I never noticed a leftwing slant on NPR because I generally swing left myself. It was later on, after moving to NM, when I simply thought some on the left were not thinking as carefully as I was used to hearing them on KHPR.
I sure do miss Car Talk. Not only did I learn a lot but busted a gut many of time with their cheese log jokes and stunts. Remember Stump the Chump? Never got tired of the word play rolling out of “staff” at the end. Dewey, Cheetham & Howe!
Tom and Ray Magliozzi were the shit. I’ve never really been much of a car guy, but I’d have listened to those two dudes talk about differential calculus, cricket, or the mating habits of the Tasmanian wombat.
The Dodge Dart. “Bo-ho-ho-hoooooooooo-GUS!” Russian chauffeur Picov Andropov. The Legion of Fake Staffers.
What a tragedy that Tom got the Alzheimer’s. That disease seems to particularly enjoy carrying off our best and brightest.
How many engine problems did they diagnose just from the owner’s imitation of the sound it was making? Yeah, that show was about cars the way Jaws was about fishing.
Lets not forget Kevin Kling and Baxter Black!
Kevin Kling is a gawddamm national treasure. There are approximately 8.7 trillion people in the entertainment space with less talent than he has, which bothers me more than it should. Hockey hair, How and Why, Otto and Moose, Richard III … the guy should have a wall full of Pulitzer and Peabodies by now.
And Duck’s Breath sidelines Ian Shoales and Dr. Science.
If you want to cement your reputation as the village idiot, do what I do:
Cue up one of Kling’s audiobooks and listen to it while you’re walking the dogs. The neighbors will see you randomly snort, chortle, and guffaw, with periodic knee-slapping and doubled-over attempts to catch your breath. If you’re lucky, they’ll just talk about you behind your back, instead of calling the guys in white outfits and the over-sized butterfly net.
We almost forgot David Sedaris! Another screamer. Won the Thurber Prize for American Humor. “The Santaland Diaries” on NPR were my introduction to him.
Dude 100% owes his career to public radio.
I loved that program. Every now and then we watch the movie “Cars” just to hear Tommy laugh. Might watch it today. It’s a good antidote to news poisoning.
We are so fucked.
My wife sent me this article because it pertains to our youngest daughter.
https://www.npr.org/2025/07/28/nx-s1-5476705/ultra-processed-food-kids-health
But she sent me the version she saw on Instagram. And the freaking comments…
The trolls have weaponized and evolved … instead of outright attacking NPR, they go passive aggressive mode. Things like, “I come to NPR for unbiased reporting, but this article reads like it has an agenda.” And then immediately followed by 1000 people in agreement.
The article was fine. It assumed the reader had a cursory knowledge of basic nutrition, but the reader comments attacked it for not clearly defining every noun, verb, adjective, and prepositional phrase.
For about 20 years, I’ve been thinking that we are screwed unless we can get everybody to go read 1984. Now I’m thinking people would interpret it, not as a warning, but as an instruction manual.
It brings to mind the old quip about opinions and assholes, yeah? Sheesh.
What O’Grady said.
Speaking of diving into the muck.
https://www.santafenewmexican.com/news/local_news/all-show-and-no-go-does-santa-fes-idle-public-safety-committee-need-more-impetus/article_1aa00fc0-c586-4acd-a73b-0c07d11f7616.html
This sing sums up the way I feel sometimes. I have a hard time believing what our generation is doing and has done to the planet and the people on it. I keep waiting for the world to change.
This was written in 2006. Still meaningful today. Especially after by daily dose of news poison, including the latest obscenities in the Gaza Ghetto.
The only good that can come out of this, in a sick way, is it will increase the unemployment rate, and that will drive Trump nuts. Death by a thousand cuts.
The unemployment rate and prices at the consumer level. We’re tracking grocery prices; been saving receipts for months now. Should be some interesting data from that little project soon. NYT says business is tired of eating the cost of tariffs and has started sending that tab downstream.
On another note, Patrick and I are cooking in triple digits for the next three days. It’s 103F and 12% relative humidity in the shade on our patio this very minute. In not many more years, Phoenix will be uninhabitable in the summer.
https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=33.4482&lon=-112.0726
I think we may have just missed the century mark here today. But we have a couple more goes at that triple-digit sonofabitch coming up.
Today’s ride started early. I was back at the ranch before 10 a.m. A man’s gotta know his limitations. The sound of my brain bubbling frightens the neighbors.
Yup. 99° on Tuesday and again yesterday. I dunno how we’re gonna get through this cold snap.
Meanwhile back in the Mitten State we got a sweet break from the crushing heat/humidty that sat on us for a few weeks. But it’s slowly creeping back. While at the same time my Verizon WiFi has crapped out. Means it’s harder to watch YouTube videos showing how to fix the Pella doors and such. Been with Verizon 23 years and they’ve been damn solid but their techs have run out of fixes. Something is amiss in their wireless delivery and I’m loath to change up things but it looks likely.
Verizon gone sideways? That’s a bummer. We use ’em for cell service and were considering switching the Internets to ’em from ScenturyStink or Lemon or whatever the hell they’re calling themselves these days. But Verizon doesn’t offer the home Internets in our cuello de la bosque.