6 ms·

A nonprofit using tricks to get your attention as they ask for donations? Say it isn’t so! In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying.

by avalys 5y ago

cyounkins 5y ago
With NPR, does the aggressiveness match the need?
- voz_ 5y ago
  NPR has become a race baiting mouthpiece, sadly. The quality of the overall programming has sharply declined over the last 10 years. No more driveway moments for me.
  - djbusby 5y ago
    Car Talk tho.
    - jedimastert 5y ago
      Hasn't had a new episode in almost ten years, sadly, and likely will not have a revival as Tom passed away. Apparently radio distribution was slated to stop at the beginning of last month
    - handrous 5y ago
      The loss of Car Talk and the changes to A Prairie Home Companion all but eliminated my weekend listening. Wait, Wait... is OK but I usually don't tune in without the other stuff to draw me. The other new comedy show (with Coulton and Eisenberg[?], I forget the name of it) isn't very good. Maybe they'll find their footing, but it's been years at this point, and it's still not good. On the Media is really good, but plays at a time when I'm almost never driving, so I rarely catch it. Their weekday news shows are too corporate-friendly and consist mostly of the same horse-race and monday-morning-quarterbacking campaign strategy garbage that everything else does, when the US is in national political campaign mode, which is like 60+% of the time now. The best US and international coverage on the whole damn station is when they just re-broadcast the BBC. [EDIT] Oh and there's the huge amount of time they spend either advertising or promoting other NPR shows or podcasts. God damn, it's so much. It's at least as much time as "commercial" radio devotes to that kind of thing. Donate? You fucking play corporate ads! All the time!
  - cphoover 5y ago
    Agreed they've been infected by the PC police/woke mob... Quite a shame because they used to do real hard-hitting reporting.
  - eric_b 5y ago
    Agreed, I used to love some of their programming, but the NPR of today is completely unlistenable to me.
  - throwaway894345 5y ago
    I agree with this. I'm on "the left", but I don't need a media outlet confirming my biases or stroking my ego. I was originally drawn to NPR precisely because it seemed like a relatively neutral news source (still discernibly left-of-center, but not aggressively so) and because it frequently exposed me to other perspectives; however, it seems to have been dragged into the swamp of "activist journalism" just like everyone else.
    - DoctorOW 5y ago
      NPR and PBS both are among the most accurate/neutral according to a media study. [1] I honestly worry that we're having a political disparity in truth that's pushing a choice between politically neutral and factually accurate. [1]: https://adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/ https://adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/
      - throwaway894345 5y ago
        It's not hard to be "most accurate/neutral" when comparing against every batshit blog and podcast, which is what your source does. In fact, NPR and PBS are clustered among the mainstream news sources, which only supports my "NPR is in the swamp with everyone else" claim. That said, I don't put much stock in JPGs that look like something a high schooler put together with PowerPoint 20 years ago.
        DoctorOW 5y ago
        There's an interactive version on that same website if the image isn't engaging enough for you.
      - eric_b 5y ago
        I mean... you can put anything you want on the internet. I looked up their "methodology" and it's sort of just whatever they think a source/article is. Not really rigorous. And anyways, they put the WashPo right of NYT? That hasn't been true since ol Jeff B took over.
3maj 5y ago
To be fair, this is one of the few non-profits that benefits most people and that is actually used day-to-day by the majority of people with an internet connection.
- HKH2 5y ago
  Two extremely bold claims. Do you know how many people in the world have an internet connection?
nameless912 5y ago
But at least they're (mostly) honest? They take up some time, but they're clear about what's happening. The only "deceptive" practice they have is the two-for-one matching grants, which I'm dubious about whether they exist or not.
- Rebelgecko 5y ago
  That sort of matching is real, but usually just a psychological trick to encourage people to donate more. A foundation or rich person says "hey NPR we wanna give you $10 million" and NPR says "what if instead you match every donation we get dollar for dollar up to $10 million?". That way, they can encourage smaller donors while still getting the original $10 million.
  - tshaddox 5y ago
    The important difference is what happens if they receive less than $10m from other donors.
- mbauman 5y ago
  The donation matches are typically not grants, but rather _other donors_ playing those games (surely in collaboration with NPR's development dept). They definitely exist.
- akolbe 5y ago
  The deceptive part is when they tell you they need your money today "to defend Wikipedia's independence" when in actual reality they need money today so they can increase their annual budget by $42 million (that's the increase from 2020/21 to 2021/22). Year goal 20/21: $108M https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_first_quarter_2020-2021_tuning_session_-_Advancement.pdf&page=9 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikim... Year goal 21/22: $150M https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019/Annual_Plan_2021-2022#Budget https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising_statisti...
randycupertino 5y ago
> In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying. I'll take an NPR pledge drive over the 1-800-KARS-for-KIDS commercial any day.

A nonprofit using tricks to get your attention as they ask for donations? Say it isn’t so! In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying.

by avalys 5y ago

A nonprofit using tricks to get your attention as they ask for donations? Say it isn’t so! In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying.

cyounkins 5y ago

With NPR, does the aggressiveness match the need?

voz_ 5y ago
NPR has become a race baiting mouthpiece, sadly. The quality of the overall programming has sharply declined over the last 10 years. No more driveway moments for me.
- djbusby 5y ago
  Car Talk tho.
  - jedimastert 5y ago
    Hasn't had a new episode in almost ten years, sadly, and likely will not have a revival as Tom passed away. Apparently radio distribution was slated to stop at the beginning of last month
  - handrous 5y ago
    The loss of Car Talk and the changes to A Prairie Home Companion all but eliminated my weekend listening. Wait, Wait... is OK but I usually don't tune in without the other stuff to draw me. The other new comedy show (with Coulton and Eisenberg[?], I forget the name of it) isn't very good. Maybe they'll find their footing, but it's been years at this point, and it's still not good. On the Media is really good, but plays at a time when I'm almost never driving, so I rarely catch it. Their weekday news shows are too corporate-friendly and consist mostly of the same horse-race and monday-morning-quarterbacking campaign strategy garbage that everything else does, when the US is in national political campaign mode, which is like 60+% of the time now. The best US and international coverage on the whole damn station is when they just re-broadcast the BBC. [EDIT] Oh and there's the huge amount of time they spend either advertising or promoting other NPR shows or podcasts. God damn, it's so much. It's at least as much time as "commercial" radio devotes to that kind of thing. Donate? You fucking play corporate ads! All the time!
- cphoover 5y ago
  Agreed they've been infected by the PC police/woke mob... Quite a shame because they used to do real hard-hitting reporting.
- eric_b 5y ago
  Agreed, I used to love some of their programming, but the NPR of today is completely unlistenable to me.
- throwaway894345 5y ago
  I agree with this. I'm on "the left", but I don't need a media outlet confirming my biases or stroking my ego. I was originally drawn to NPR precisely because it seemed like a relatively neutral news source (still discernibly left-of-center, but not aggressively so) and because it frequently exposed me to other perspectives; however, it seems to have been dragged into the swamp of "activist journalism" just like everyone else.
  - DoctorOW 5y ago
    NPR and PBS both are among the most accurate/neutral according to a media study. [1] I honestly worry that we're having a political disparity in truth that's pushing a choice between politically neutral and factually accurate. [1]: https://adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/ https://adfontesmedia.com/static-mbc/
    - throwaway894345 5y ago
      It's not hard to be "most accurate/neutral" when comparing against every batshit blog and podcast, which is what your source does. In fact, NPR and PBS are clustered among the mainstream news sources, which only supports my "NPR is in the swamp with everyone else" claim. That said, I don't put much stock in JPGs that look like something a high schooler put together with PowerPoint 20 years ago.
      - DoctorOW 5y ago
        There's an interactive version on that same website if the image isn't engaging enough for you.
    - eric_b 5y ago
      I mean... you can put anything you want on the internet. I looked up their "methodology" and it's sort of just whatever they think a source/article is. Not really rigorous. And anyways, they put the WashPo right of NYT? That hasn't been true since ol Jeff B took over.

3maj 5y ago

To be fair, this is one of the few non-profits that benefits most people and that is actually used day-to-day by the majority of people with an internet connection.

HKH2 5y ago
Two extremely bold claims. Do you know how many people in the world have an internet connection?

nameless912 5y ago

But at least they're (mostly) honest? They take up some time, but they're clear about what's happening. The only "deceptive" practice they have is the two-for-one matching grants, which I'm dubious about whether they exist or not.

Rebelgecko 5y ago
That sort of matching is real, but usually just a psychological trick to encourage people to donate more. A foundation or rich person says "hey NPR we wanna give you $10 million" and NPR says "what if instead you match every donation we get dollar for dollar up to $10 million?". That way, they can encourage smaller donors while still getting the original $10 million.
- tshaddox 5y ago
  The important difference is what happens if they receive less than $10m from other donors.
mbauman 5y ago
The donation matches are typically not grants, but rather _other donors_ playing those games (surely in collaboration with NPR's development dept). They definitely exist.
akolbe 5y ago
The deceptive part is when they tell you they need your money today "to defend Wikipedia's independence" when in actual reality they need money today so they can increase their annual budget by $42 million (that's the increase from 2020/21 to 2021/22). Year goal 20/21: $108M https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikimedia_Foundation_first_quarter_2020-2021_tuning_session_-_Advancement.pdf&page=9 https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=File%3AWikim... Year goal 21/22: $150M https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-term_plan_2019/Annual_Plan_2021-2022#Budget https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_Medium-... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising_statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Fundraising_statisti...

randycupertino 5y ago

> In other news, NPR pledge drives are so annoying. I'll take an NPR pledge drive over the 1-800-KARS-for-KIDS commercial any day.