Oh Brother! NPR Hits Bottom.

This shall be quick, as I have much to do on this blustery Monday nocturne. Lend me your eyes and I'll quickly tell you about what I do every weekday night between 5:30 and 7.

I drive home from work.

This I have done for two and a half years. It would have driven me insane had I not had this little concern for what is happening in the world. Hence, I listen to talk/information radio. It not only gets me home alive, but sometimes I learn something. So...get in the passenger seat and let's both take a little trip through my radio dial.

I am what is usually known as a moral relativist. Conservatives do not like moral relativists because they have been told by folks like George Will that moral relativists have made America a lost nation with no moral fiber. Conservative Catholics may see it differently. To them, MRs were responsible for that pesky little Reformation thing. You see, when there s no Universal Church, there is no universal Truth. If there is complexity, then spiritual and social uncertainty breeds mystery. Mystery's child is called relativism. This is bad, folks!! Very bad indeed.

Golly....sidetracked again.

A moral relativist may also be known in today's parlance as a "liberal." Ergo, I tend to listen to "liberal" radio. Most often, I will listen to Dennis Bernstein and the other sandinistas on the KPFA program, "Flashpoints." I enjoy Flashpoints, but considering that their program consists mainly of the Daily Palestinian Report, the Daily Haitian Report, and the Daily Palestinian Report, sometimes I crave variety.

Air America is good alternative, but the Randi Rhodes Show is on between noon and 7:00 at night. I like Randi, except when she tends to loop her points and...well, try this: "George Bush is is is is a friggin' moron [coda] George Bush is is is..." This goes on for nearly two straight hours, and of those two hours, commercials take up almost...two hours straight. I just don't like the format. To be a moral relativist, one must be genuinely confused....I mean perplexed by the complexities of the world which surround us like oxygen. This means that your format of three minutes of Randi Rhodes followed by a five-minute commercial break does not satisfy the moral relativist's need for complete, thorough examination and discussion.

So...I press a couple buttons and shazam! I have arrived at NPR!

I weep for National Public Radio, once a bastion for thoughtful, mature informational programs. NPR was hard-hitting journalism, yet tended to treat subject matter in a balanced fashion...simply the best of "mainstream" current events. Today, NPR is a place where listeners pretend to know what is happening in the universe between Mars and Venus. To hear Terry Gross's chirpy, goofy strains everyday is to know that everthing's okay and you can sleep snuggly and warm at night without upsetting conservative Christian brownshirts.

I shan't get into the history of what happened....just google: "NPR has become a corporate whore because Republicans have finally been able to cut Federal funds once earmarked for NPR's integrity and existance." Google that and save me from going on and on about this. Two things have happened. First, NPR has become a news eunich (remember, we don't want to upset corporate underwriters or the American Taliban). Second, they have chosen to run more human interest and lifestyle stories.

Arrrrghhhh!

To be continued...I have work to do