http://upload.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x6819130Oh my.
The primitives are crabby today.
pokerfan (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 04:51 PM
Original message
I hates NPR pledge week
That is all.
TheCoxwain (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 04:54 PM
Response to Original message
1. Better than commercials driving editorial decisions ... I am a proud supporter of my local station
I actually am on a monthly sustainer program...
They charge $8 to my card every month till I ask them to stop.
I love WNYC.
Uh oh.
That's eight bucks a month less to donate to my fellow alum Skins.
JackRiddler (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:23 PM
Response to Reply #1
8. Hello?! Of course commercials drive NPR editorial decisions!
You really think NPR is commercial free? What is all that crap during the regular programming weeks, five minutes or more per hour, about Ford and Rockefeller and Carnegie and Bill and Melinda Gates and "The Responsibility Project" and and and ? Do you think this has no impact on their usually milquetoast, pro-capitalist coverage of class and economy in America?
In the mornings, do you really hear a substantive difference anymore between "The Takeaway" with its affably stupid mini-spots and the usual blather talk on commercial radio?
fizzgig (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 04:55 PM
Response to Original message
2. my local station does one day drives
i like it
endless october (482 posts) Tue Oct-20-09 04:55 PM
Response to Original message
3. the interruptathon is annoying.
i'm half tempted to say just sell some damned commercials.
luckily, my area has two stations and they don't have beg week at the same time.
damntexdem (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 04:56 PM
Response to Original message
4. Oh yeah. Thank goodness the college station and city-owned classics station have different weeks.
Whether or not one pledges to a given station, pledge week is a total pain -- and a lot more pervasive even than ads on commercial stations.
LisaM (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:00 PM
Response to Original message
5. I actually like pledge weeks
I like listening to the creative ways they think up to attract viewers. I've volunteered for pledge week, too. You meet some REALLY GREAT people, and see which local businesses get into the act with food donations, etc. I've hung out with public radio people; they're great.
As far as the commercials go, if you were listening to Ron Reagan yak on all day about his two new fence gates with trellises and why don't we go get new fences from the same guy, you'd appreciate a break from that, too.
The defrocked warped primitive, who'd probably be getting more money if she hadn't raided the narcotics safe at the hospital:
Warpy (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:01 PM
Response to Original message
6. Only a week?
Here in NM they do it for a solid month.
That's a whole month without decent programming, just those rotten specials that were boring 5 years ago.
I think they'd probably get more money with their regular programming.
Ron Green (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:05 PM
Response to Original message
7. I used to give 'em money, but now I let ADM, Chevron and Monsanto take up the slack. I don't expect to get the truth with those outfits writing the checks.
JackRiddler (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:23 PM
Response to Reply #7
9. Shhh! NPR is "commercial free," don't you know?!
yellowwood (197 posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:30 PM
Response to Original message
10. But I Love NPR
I am a devoted NPR listener. I trust it more than any media information source. Terry Gross and Diane Rehm are wonderful interviewers. I notice that many of my friends quote NPR. They don't quote Fox.
When I watch TV news, I am subjected to ad after ad trying to convince me that I need some prescription.
So I support NPR and am willing to put up with a little fund-raising. It's the price I have to pay.
elocs (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:36 PM
Response to Original message
11. They know that listeners hate the money begging so much they offer to eliminate a pledge day if they get so many pledges before the drive starts. I have been less impressed with NPR especially when they recently broadcast a story where they allowed a Republican plant to passed herself off as a disgruntled Democrat unquestioned. To tell the truth I personally would rather have commercials than have to listen to days upon end of begging and guilt tripping for money.
That raises the question: if one listens to or watches a program, are they then obligated to support the sponsors? If I like to watch NFL football am I morally obligated to buy the beer or the cars or whatever is pitched on the commercials?
I like the Eleanor Roosevelt quote, "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent" because you can substitute so many other words for "inferior" so I like to say that nobody can make me feel guilty without my consent and I do not consent. So guilt trip away like the religious shills NPR. At least the preachers offer heaven while NPR offers pseudo balanced reporting.
Demoiselle (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 05:59 PM
Response to Original message
13. Commercials may be annoying...BUT, they are carefully produced, economical in their use of image and language and often entertaining, unlike the wandering, brainless repetitive blah blah blah of people who are usually NOT performers but behind-the-scenes functionaries at the station in question. ("Hey, we're boring you senseless in a good cause!!!")
And long long ago I stopped believing that public broadcasting wasn't utterly beholden to its big corporate supporters. There's almost NO investigative reporting of any substance going on in public broadcasting. Certainly nothing that ruffles the feathers of big time sponsors.
AzNick (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 06:05 PM
Response to Original message
15. I am not giving one penny to these Reich wing tools
And that's all I have to say about this.
iceman66 (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 06:36 PM
Response to Reply #15
21. Agreed!
I wonder how many pledges they get from freepers, as they seem to be their desired audience these days.
catzies (1000+ posts) Tue Oct-20-09 06:05 PM
Response to Original message
16. Here in So Cal, we have a few NPRs & they seem to stagger pledge breaks
The first 4 buttons on my car radio are tuned to 4 of our different NPRs.
Right now 2 of them are on pledge week, and the 3rd is our classical-only station and they're on pledge week too.
So I'm listening this week to the one that had its pledge break in August.
ON EDIT: I am a current member of 3 of 4 of those NPR stations.
