Re: [Swprograms] Fwd: 'Good, Gray NPR' from The Nation

[Richard Cuff <rdcuff@xxxxxxxxx>]

Couple comments:

1.  The notion of political balance mentioned here may be misleading. 
While listenership may be roughly 1/3 each Conservative, Center, and
Liberal, this does not match population demographics.  When that
statistic was first reported, a parallel statistic was reported on the
US population demographics -- which are roughly 35% conservative, 45%
center, and 15-20% liberal IIRC.  So the political demographics of NPR
listeners are more liberal than the nation as a whole.

2.  I exchanged e-mails with Bill Buzenberg the other day over the APM
"Think Global 2005" week of special public radio programs coming up
mid-Month.  Nice guy... I had asked him if he knew why none of the
TG2005 programming had been scheduled on CBC, RNW or the BBCWS -- even
though these three international broadcasters had produced programming
for the series.

Good news is that, with NPR not the only game in town, other
organizations can stake a claim to riskier programming.  But will
anybody listen?

Richard Cuff / Allentown, PA  USA


On 5/6/05, David Goren <dbgoren@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> >
> >
> >      Good, Gray NPR
> >      by Scott Sherman
> >
<snip>
> >
> > Critics who wish to see NPR move in a more progressive direction are
> > likely to be disappointed. At the moment, NPR's center of gravity is in
> > the middle of the spectrum. Twenty-eight percent of NPR listeners,
> > according to an internal document, consider themselves either "very
> > conservative" or "somewhat conservative." Thirty-two percent defined
> > themselves as "somewhat liberal" or "very liberal." But 29 percent
> > chose
> > the category "middle of the road." Given this data, NPR executives will
> > no doubt play it safe in the years to come.
> >
<snip>

<snip>

> > But change won't be easy, according to Bill Buzenberg, who was vice
> > president of news and information at NPR from 1990 to 1997 and is now
> > senior vice president of news at American Public Media. "NPR has a fear
> > of doing kick-ass journalism at the highest level," he says. "They're
> > not hungry enough."
> >

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