Disorderly Content

2006-06-25

"Won't you think of the children?"

I was listening to the podcast of On The Media in the car today, an NPR show I like even more now that I can listen whenever I want. Anyway, there was a discussion with National Public Radio's ex-ombudsman, who was getting the third degree about some of his pronouncements regarding NPR programming. And I have to wonder which of us is more screwed up, since I found myself agreeing with the interviewer and disagreeing with the ombudsman every single time.

Case in point: some minor story they ran on All Things Considered where someone mentioned in passing the non-reality of the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. Which caused some heartbroken mommy to call in to complain, because her four and five year old heard this broadcast and had their own little coronary meltdowns. I mean, isn't the most important thing for NPR to worry about is not saying anything that might upset the pre-kindergarten crowd who might be listening in? Talk about programming for the lowest common denominator...

Or the famous incident when Bill O'Reilly walked off Terry Gross's Fresh Air show because she wanted to quote something about him from People magazine. He ordered her not to, but she went ahead anyway. So he walked out of the studio, which is funny since his studio was a couple of hundred miles from hers. And the ombudsman came down on Gross, all 5'2" of her, for "going after" (his words) the most abusive prick on radio today (my words). If she'd been interviewing Hitler, I wonder if bringing up the subject of Auschwitz would have been considered over the line.

Category: radio | add a comment | link