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What's your local NPR affiliate? KQED is all identity politics, all the time. It's been over 10 years since I was in the DC area, but WAMU always seemed to have

by wahern 4y ago

What's your local NPR affiliate? KQED is all identity politics, all the time. It's been over 10 years since I was in the DC area, but WAMU always seemed to have better political shows (even though some of them touched directly upon, e.g., race long before KQED went down that road), and from what I can tell their lineup is still far better than KQED. I still regularly listen to WAMU's The Big Broadcast; they may be more selective about the classic episodes they play, but I wouldn't know as they haven't turned it into a virtue signaling exercise. Ditto for Hot Jazz Saturday Night. Some of the national, NPR-produced shows definitely recite identitarian narratives more often than they used to, but compared to KQED-produced content it's still a massive difference in tone and content.

timr 4y ago
I've had many over the years, but I'm mainly referring to the national "NPR" programming now. I agree with you about the identity politics thing.
- colechristensen 4y ago
  The thing is I’m generally in support of these things, but jeez the amount is just exhausting. You but you, whoever you are, but I’m also a supporter of shutting up about how you identify and doing something else with your life. (No “you” in particular)
  - Auracle 4y ago
    On my station there’s at least a 50/50 chance that when I turn the radio on within a minute they’ll mention identity politics. Today it was right when I changed the channel, and I changed right back to a music station.
AdamJacobMuller 4y ago
WNYC listener here. They've gone hard identity politics over the past decade, definitely got way worse in 2016. Their reporting on so many topics has been biased bordering on being intentionally disingenuous so for a long time now. I do occasionally listen however because I try to expose myself to a lot of points of view, especially when I know I might not agree with them. I was listening to Brian Lerher a few weeks back and it was so sad. I wish I could recall the exact topic but it was exactly some identity politics nonsense, presented in a way which was designed to stoke the most outrage possible (anyone who disagrees is knowingly trying to harm the other side, they can't possibly have good intentions but disagree with us!) and it was all over some trivial thing too. Add onto that it just sounded like Lerher, someone I used to idolize, someone who used to be incredibly passionate, just sounded like he was phoning it in. It was very disheartening. I remember WNYC was the place during the Afghan/Iraq wars where I could get some reasonable and balanced coverage of the situation, especially in the first few months/years when things were very in-flux (and I recall Lerher being an intimate part of that). Air America was the lib-left perspective, NPR would echo that but give me a reasonable perspective of what the other side thought. That seems completely and utterly dead now.

by wahern 4y ago

timr 4y ago

I've had many over the years, but I'm mainly referring to the national "NPR" programming now. I agree with you about the identity politics thing.

colechristensen 4y ago
The thing is I’m generally in support of these things, but jeez the amount is just exhausting. You but you, whoever you are, but I’m also a supporter of shutting up about how you identify and doing something else with your life. (No “you” in particular)
- Auracle 4y ago
  On my station there’s at least a 50/50 chance that when I turn the radio on within a minute they’ll mention identity politics. Today it was right when I changed the channel, and I changed right back to a music station.

AdamJacobMuller 4y ago

WNYC listener here. They've gone hard identity politics over the past decade, definitely got way worse in 2016. Their reporting on so many topics has been biased bordering on being intentionally disingenuous so for a long time now. I do occasionally listen however because I try to expose myself to a lot of points of view, especially when I know I might not agree with them. I was listening to Brian Lerher a few weeks back and it was so sad. I wish I could recall the exact topic but it was exactly some identity politics nonsense, presented in a way which was designed to stoke the most outrage possible (anyone who disagrees is knowingly trying to harm the other side, they can't possibly have good intentions but disagree with us!) and it was all over some trivial thing too. Add onto that it just sounded like Lerher, someone I used to idolize, someone who used to be incredibly passionate, just sounded like he was phoning it in. It was very disheartening. I remember WNYC was the place during the Afghan/Iraq wars where I could get some reasonable and balanced coverage of the situation, especially in the first few months/years when things were very in-flux (and I recall Lerher being an intimate part of that). Air America was the lib-left perspective, NPR would echo that but give me a reasonable perspective of what the other side thought. That seems completely and utterly dead now.