NPR: Karl Rove Resigns, Merv Griffin Dies and Rick Ankiel is Reborn

Karl Rove Resigns, Merv Griffin Dies and Rick Ankiel is Reborn

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Credit: Mandel Ngan/AFP/Getty Images

All his bags are packed, he's ready to go...

In today's show we'll cover Karl Rove's resignation from every angle: The Straight Up News Headline angle, the NPR White House Correspondent angle, the Who Will Be The Subject Of Liberal Bloggers' Homemade Video Screeds Now angle, and of course, the Resigning To Spend More Time With Your Family Excuse Retrospective angle. And that's just a fraction of the ground we'll cover...

- We'll debut two new segments today. While You Were Out (Possibly Drinking) is a Monday feature that recaps the weekend news that you might have missed, like the death of Merv Griffin, which made us think of this:

We'll also bring you The Most, a survey of some of the most emailed stories from a wide range of websites. We even include a most emailed story from NPR's own website, and if you've never heard NPR hosts talk about Blowing Goats, you'll want to check this segment out.

- Resident sports guy (and husband to at least one member of the BPP crew) Bill Wolff will talk about the weekend's sports happenings, including Tiger's win at the PGA Championship, Tony Stewart's win at Watkins Glen, and Rick Ankiel's amazing comeback.

- We'll look back at the life and career of Factory Records founder Tony Wilson, who passed away over the weekend. Wilson was depicted in the film "24 Hour Party People" and was credited with discovering influential English bands such as New Order, Joy Division and The Happy Mondays. Rolling Stone's Rob Sheffield, who wrote an obit on Wilson, will talk about the man's legacy.

- And we'll talk about the internet hubbub that's erupted since AT&T removed some anti-Bush lyrics from a Pearl Jam song during their Lollapalooza webcast last weekend. Is this really such a big deal? After all, it's not like Pearl Jam is breaking new ground by being a band criticizing the president, and it's certainly not like anyone is surprised Eddie Vedder has that opinion. And if AT&T paid for the rights to broadcast the show, don't they have the right to edit it? We'll ask Esquire music critic Andy Langer, but we'd also love to ask you. Is what AT&T did wrong? And whether it's right or wrong, does this warrant the attention it's getting on the internet? Tell us what you think.

Dan Pashman

5:30 PM ET | 08-13-2007 | permalink

Comments (Send a comment)

Sorry this show took a while to get posted -- we said it would be around 4:30 ET when you saw it, but we had a very long debrief after the show and that pushed us back a while. It was our first Monday show -- which is a bit of an accomplishment. Coming in on Monday and throwing together a one-hour show with an very small staff is hard to do. Just ask anyone who does it. We had some highs and some lows on this show -- and we learned lots about what we have to do to make the show more textured and useful. Have fun listening, and thanks for joining in on the experiment.

Sent by Matt Martinez | 7:38 PM ET | 08-13-2007

Greatest moments of spending time with the family. LOL! I loved that last statement. Those silly flip floppers...

I need to know/care more about sports. Keep Alison's hubby coming back for some athletic chit chat.

The only problem that I had with this pilot was that it devoted about twice as much time to Karl Rove than I would've liked for an hour long show. When BPP goes to two hours, then spread out the time between each hour.

Sent by Steve Petersen | 8:10 PM ET | 08-13-2007

Okay, it's nitpicky, but it must be said:

Alison: Ian Curtis, the lead singer of Joy Division, did not OD. He hanged himself. Unless you're Michael Hutchence, it's very hard to overdose on having a noose around your neck.

Sent by Stewart | 11:36 PM ET | 08-13-2007

Stewart
First that is not nitpicky at all!!!!

I went off my old feeble old rock and roll memory.
I should have double checked.

Thank you for pointing this out. Really.

And Michael Hutchence....that's a whole other ball of wax----

Sent by Alison Stewart | 7:36 AM ET | 08-14-2007

The reason why the AT&T/Pearl Jam story is getting so much play online is because of the fight in Congress over network neutrality, which is basically the principle that the owners of the Internet's underlying infrastructure shouldn't be allowed to interfere with how users access content or services over that infrastructure.

AT&T and other Internet providers have been lobbying hard against net neutrality, saying it prevents them from offering newer and faster Internet services. Proponents of net neutrality argue that since these Internet companies are now media content producers as well, getting rid of net neutrality would allow them to give preferential Internet access to themselves or their partner's content, while slowing down or even blocking independent content, as already takes place via mobile phone services.

One of AT&T's public arguments has been to say that they would never actually interfere with users' content access, and that such claims are a straw man. But the Pearl Jam incident has mobilized net neutrality activist to cite it as an example of how free expression would get quashed if net neutrality were eliminated, and that an Internet provider could easily use its power to block independent media or unpopular speech. That's probably why AT&T has been apologizing so strongly about the incident, insisting it was an accident.

Sent by andy carvin | 10:04 AM ET | 08-14-2007

I love that you did the Tony Wilson story. But then I can get behind any excuse to play some Manchester bands. Again, big ups on the transitional music selections. I liked the mention of one of the bands. I would suggest listing each show's music the way that Morning Edition and All Things Considered do.

As for the AT&T Pearl Jam ruckus, the censoring is definitely not cool, but it's hard to get too worked up about it. Buyer beware - get your web content from a giant corporation, rest assured they're spinning things in their favor. It's not likely to be unbiased.

Sent by Maura | 10:09 AM ET | 08-14-2007

Matt, I really like how you previewed certain topics in the newscast that are discussed in greater detail later in the show. Doing this tells me what's going to be in the rest of the show is most likely important and newsworthy.

What's great about the Internet is learning about information we wouldn't normally find in our mainstream media. For a show that revolves around the Internet, blogs, and news that isn't, the segment 'The Most' totally works...and let's not forget about the ramble :D

Sent by Sean Powers | 10:18 AM ET | 08-14-2007

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