https://www.theguardian.com/media/2024/apr/10/npr-uri-berliner-reaction“We weren’t just losing conservatives; we were also losing moderates and traditional liberals,” Berliner wrote, and described a new listener stereotype: “EV-driving, Wordle-playing, tote bag–carrying coastal elite.”
EDIT: Removed assumption I made that was wrong in hindsight. Honestly if EVs were cheaper in the US that would be at least partly correct in regards to me. I believe my words were "$10k after the tax break" or something to that effect. Well, missed opportunities, am I right? At least Ford might still do something functional so I don't have to microtransaction a ride from an oligarch's robot. I'd hope the pricing goal would persist if say protectionism restricted pricing competition but maybe we'll see. I'd again stress the correct multiyear governance strategy is one that is likely to result in a $10k~ or even $15k~ after breaks ev work banger for sale in my local market. So, go, Ford, GO! We're all counting on you!
Here's the bit about NPR:
The best things on NPR are the political and news stuff, especially Stateside because there is a dearth of State level news coverage in my life with the judicious use of paywalls in the regional papers' websites. I've found some pink slime for state news that's not paywalled, but I get that in my local paper already and that's digressing from NPR besides. The, I don't know how to put it, Cultural Impact stories on NPR are less of a draw for me but they are still quite tolerable as long as I keep the windows up around the local old people when in a parking lot, but honestly if we had a damned rap station in range I'd probably listen to that instead at least some of the time; I like a lot of these but others are just very very long and my attention varies by subject. Due to consistency I'd be less likely to change station with things such as BBC World News, which is a fine bit of journalism that talks about things I'd never have heard about along with the big headlines, the sort of thing you'd have to check Reuters to find an article about that are important issues but aren't receiving attention, but does it in a way that doesn't linger as long with compelling no doubt but also whole drive long interviews. In contrast some of the historic cultural stuff like long dead jazz musicians are the real drag on the network and a better solution than purging liberalism would probably be to split that off somehow that doesn't deny it to people who do enjoy it more than I do. An exception would be if they are playing the actual music, because I heard the best dang blues on the radio the other day and it was an old group doing new material. As a listener it would be especially sublime if a split off of that nature were to be divided into "historic and "contemporary" distinctions so to speak so, to use a quick example, interviews with Snoop Dogg aren't buried in documentaries on Civil War Era-baseball. However other subjects on NPR are less boring such as something in a similar format to what I just complained about, except with an interesting subject such as the Freedom Marches for example, or talking to experts on developments in a field of study, or even things more directly related to the Civil War than proto-baseball, and that makes for a good mix with the current events and politics stuff. There is also a macroeconomics show that's pretty short but also excellent on NPR that I haven't caught in a while. It's more some of the shows are god awful boring than because of a tilt, for example interview segments can seem like an eternity when what I'm trying to find is FM radio news so to speak to listen to when the oldies station is playing something that has burned it's charm away when I was driving pizzas around in my youth. As a final note, Fox News has been the devil itself in regards to how it has impacted me and countless others, but if it still has a good, effective, honest documentary that I somehow realize is being shown I might have watched it even if I generally disagree 95% of the time with most of the people talking in it. The entropy of basic cable programming played a role in this as well by severely limiting choice, but again, that's created an opportunity for someone else when proper effort isn't being shown.
Also if the part about basic cable doesn't seem correct, my beef was mostly about very late night TV. Adult Swim got the ax from basic cable in the package and that despite being a bit lackluster due to over repetition was the only thing on at night time other than 24/7 news. Now even 24/7 news is no more, with two forms of Dateline-style copouts on two different presumably news networks on the weekend nights (I think, to be honest I was so furious I forgot to check the day of the week for my anecdote). However I did like the new Quantum Leap, and so did my boomer dad who watched the original so I don't want to overextend my criticism here.
TLDR: The news and politics part of NPR are my favorite part.