5 ms·

I feel very bad for this american life because they're brilliant. Extremely unfortunate. I have noticed a drum beating on NPR since the piece aired regarding A

I feel very bad for this american life because they're brilliant. Extremely unfortunate. I have noticed a drum beating on NPR since the piece aired regarding Apple's working conditions, on the news and the various podcasts. Will be interesting to watch for a change in tone.

klenwell 15y ago
The follow-up airing this weekend sounds more interesting than the original piece, which I didn't even finish. Daisey's whole approach just struck me as slapdash and self-indulgent. I find the Planet Money team's approach (whose stories are often featured on This American Life) much more insightful.
- mmaunder 15y ago
  True, Planet Money rocks my world. Check out the Econtalk podcast with Russ Roberts for where they get some of their inspiration and data. It's a much deeper economics dive, hour long and tends to be Hayekian as opposed to PM which is firmly Keynesian.
  - earthviaradio 15y ago
    I got into Planet Money during the GFC meltdown but more recently I've found the quality of their shows waning. They seem to be dumbing down topics (a recent show on the Greek debt crisis made out that the problem was essentially "office politics" between the ECB and the Greek government with no mention of the structural economic problems of the Euro experiment). For a deep dive on economics and politics from the left check out the Behind the News podcast with Doug Henwood, as opposed to Hayekian/Keynesian blathering it is firmly Marxist.
    - jbooth 15y ago
      NPR isn't supposed to be leftist, it's supposed to be journalism. That's what separates them from other outlets, they're either focused on advocacy (fox, currentTV) or entertainment (CNN, MSNBC).
      - Retric 15y ago
        In journalism circles you can often hear that the truth leans to the left. When things like Evolution and Climate Change are brought up you can either go with the facts which leans left or teach the controversy which leans right but there is no safe middle ground. The left has plenty of less than rational views, but when you simply speech the truth your far less likely to seem to lean to the right.
        wildster 15y ago
        Why do facts lean left?
        smithian 15y ago
        It's more that the right leans false.
      - bdunbar 15y ago
        It is not _supposed_ to be leftist, but that's sure the way they lean. I hear this asked, once in a while, on WPR, when the station manager is on a call-in show in the morning: why do you guys program to the left. And the answer is (I'm paraphrasing) That's who our audience is, so that's what we program for. Heck, last week he as much admitted as such when he noted that they focused more on politics since the election of Scott Walker (R) as governor, and they will focus less when he's out of office: that's what our audience expects. Which is understandable: if they had a Rush Limbaugh kind of guy on they'd loose audience and see donations drop. Be nice if they just admitted it.
        tbsdy 15y ago
        I really think that if the manager said this, then there would be major ructions. Can you point to what he said exactly? It would be a scandal if this is what he really said.
        bdunbar 15y ago
    - mmaunder 15y ago
      Truth is I've found the same re planet money's quality waning. For the first time I actually stopped a podcast 2 thirds through because I found myself yawning. Thanks, I hadn't heard of Behind the News, found it on iTunes and it sounds awesome. Link for those interested: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-news-doug-henwood/id73801817 http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-news-doug-henwood/...
- aklemm 15y ago
  This describes his work well. Just go back and read the book that made him semi-famous: 21 Dog Years, Doing Time at Amazon.com I can't figure out how he's been able to keep a career going. Maybe this will--mercifully--be the end of it all.

klenwell 15y ago

The follow-up airing this weekend sounds more interesting than the original piece, which I didn't even finish. Daisey's whole approach just struck me as slapdash and self-indulgent. I find the Planet Money team's approach (whose stories are often featured on This American Life) much more insightful.

mmaunder 15y ago
True, Planet Money rocks my world. Check out the Econtalk podcast with Russ Roberts for where they get some of their inspiration and data. It's a much deeper economics dive, hour long and tends to be Hayekian as opposed to PM which is firmly Keynesian.
- earthviaradio 15y ago
  I got into Planet Money during the GFC meltdown but more recently I've found the quality of their shows waning. They seem to be dumbing down topics (a recent show on the Greek debt crisis made out that the problem was essentially "office politics" between the ECB and the Greek government with no mention of the structural economic problems of the Euro experiment). For a deep dive on economics and politics from the left check out the Behind the News podcast with Doug Henwood, as opposed to Hayekian/Keynesian blathering it is firmly Marxist.
  - jbooth 15y ago
    NPR isn't supposed to be leftist, it's supposed to be journalism. That's what separates them from other outlets, they're either focused on advocacy (fox, currentTV) or entertainment (CNN, MSNBC).
    - Retric 15y ago
      In journalism circles you can often hear that the truth leans to the left. When things like Evolution and Climate Change are brought up you can either go with the facts which leans left or teach the controversy which leans right but there is no safe middle ground. The left has plenty of less than rational views, but when you simply speech the truth your far less likely to seem to lean to the right.
      - wildster 15y ago
        Why do facts lean left?
        smithian 15y ago
        It's more that the right leans false.
    - bdunbar 15y ago
      It is not _supposed_ to be leftist, but that's sure the way they lean. I hear this asked, once in a while, on WPR, when the station manager is on a call-in show in the morning: why do you guys program to the left. And the answer is (I'm paraphrasing) That's who our audience is, so that's what we program for. Heck, last week he as much admitted as such when he noted that they focused more on politics since the election of Scott Walker (R) as governor, and they will focus less when he's out of office: that's what our audience expects. Which is understandable: if they had a Rush Limbaugh kind of guy on they'd loose audience and see donations drop. Be nice if they just admitted it.
      - tbsdy 15y ago
        I really think that if the manager said this, then there would be major ructions. Can you point to what he said exactly? It would be a scandal if this is what he really said.
        bdunbar 15y ago
  - mmaunder 15y ago
    Truth is I've found the same re planet money's quality waning. For the first time I actually stopped a podcast 2 thirds through because I found myself yawning. Thanks, I hadn't heard of Behind the News, found it on iTunes and it sounds awesome. Link for those interested: http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-news-doug-henwood/id73801817 http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/behind-news-doug-henwood/...
aklemm 15y ago
This describes his work well. Just go back and read the book that made him semi-famous: 21 Dog Years, Doing Time at Amazon.com I can't figure out how he's been able to keep a career going. Maybe this will--mercifully--be the end of it all.