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Media Matters
July 8, 2003
The 'Softening' of NPR?
By Jeffrey A. Dvorkin
Ombudsman
National Public Radio
Some listeners are finding NPR becoming "lite" in its choice and treatment of certain subjects. While there is still a strong focus on serious stories treated with intelligence and context, some are finding an increase in the froth quotient. These listeners protest that trend.
A case in point:
Male Stripper on 'Morning Edition'
On July 2, Morning Edition aired a feature on Bernie Barker, a 62-year-old male stripper.
Mr. Chris Stevens called to express his outrage and his astonishment:
How is this story appropriate, he asks. Is this what NPR airtime should be used for?
Mr. Stevens also wondered whether NPR would have aired the same story about a 60-year-old female stripper.
Dorothy Grifka had much the same reaction as Mr. Stevens:
In these times, when there is so much in the news pertaining to the prurient side of life, I always sought refuge at NPR for displaying good taste. Shame on you!
I am a woman in the same age range as Mr. Barker, and just out of curiosity I took a look at the picture. It made me want to throw up!
The programmer who did that piece should have their head examined along with Mr. B!!
One listener, Lynn Gordon did enjoy it:
Hi, thanks for the Bernie Barker story. What a way to wake up us gray
panthers!
And according to NPR Online, it was the most e-mailed story among Web site users over the past week. As of Monday, July 7, 571 people e-mailed the story from the NPR Web site.
Serious Documentaries
The feature was produced by Sound Portraits, a freelance production house in New York. Sound Portraits has been responsible for some of the most compelling, important and most honored radio documentaries ever aired, such as Ghetto Life 101, Witness to an Execution and The Sunshine Hotel. This little portrait was, in my opinion, not part of that noble tradition.
Although it was not highly offensive, I wondered whether it shed any insight into this particular human condition. Evidently, it did not. It took audio voyeurism (auditeurism?) to a new and lower level. I tend to agree with these listeners (and some NPR employees) who felt that this was a waste of valuable airtime.
Too Hip for NPR?
It points out a trend that other listeners have noted -- that some of the feature material is starting to feel a bit light and fluffy.
· Some listeners objected to a recent Madeleine Brand report on how to be a hipster. The Web site link included a chance to take the hipster test (full disclosure: the Ombudsman scored only 59 percent) and other details of hipster life.
· Other listeners wondered why NPR would devote any time to interviewing specific musicians who are not to their taste, such as Lou Reed or Lucinda Williams.
But NPR spends the vast majority of its airtime devoted to matters serious and consequential. It has always tried to balance its journalism with issues around cultural trends and directions. But for some listeners, those cultural reports are more arcane than necessary and as a result, not always successful, according to some listeners.
In fact, cultural journalism is the most subjective, personal and often the most challenging part of any journalistic endeavor. What interests you may bore me and vice versa.
NPR's attempts to move slightly away from the "broccoli broadcasting" school of journalism should be applauded. There is probably a way of even doing a story on a male stripper that works both as journalism and as a radio documentary. But this effort wasn't it. There just didn't seem to be an answer to the "why should I care?" question that always comes up in these sorts of reports.
Pacifists or Provocateurs?
Recent NPR reporting on the International Solidarity Movement (ISM) showed that NPR's Middle East coverage still remains flawed for some listeners.
The ISM is the group that has tried to stop Israeli demolition of Palestinian houses on the West Bank and Gaza. One ISM volunteer was Rachel Corrie from Washington state. She was killed when an Israeli-operated bulldozer ran over her as she tried to stop a house from being demolished in Rafah, Gaza, earlier this year. When it happened, some listeners felt that NPR did not give the story the attention the death of a young American deserved.
On the other side, Dr. Jonathan Reich objected to reporter Linda Gradstein's reference to the ISM as "peace activists" and NPR's failure to report the results of an Israeli investigation that cleared the bulldozer driver from responsibility in Corrie's death.
In the case of the ISM and Rachel Corrie your obvious sympathy with these "peace activists" is apparent, inaccurate, and appalling. NPR is hesitant to present Rachel's past and deeds, NPR insists on calling these "pro-Palestinian, pro-armed resistance" activist as "peace activists." And NPR has refused to give the Israeli government equal time. This is bias.
Dr. Reich objects to the assumption that the ISM is truly committed to non-violent action as its Web site (www.palsolidarity.org) claims. The ISM says it supports the Palestinian right to armed resistance and at the same time says it is committed to non-violent opposition to the Israeli occupation:
As enshrined in international law and U.N. resolutions, we recognize the Palestinian right to resist Israeli violence and occupation via legitimate armed struggle. However, we believe that nonviolence can be a powerful weapon in fighting oppression and we are committed to the principles of nonviolent resistance.
Dr. Reich asks if NPR is letting the ISM have it both ways. In addition, he notes NPR never reported the Israeli government accusation that the ISM "hosted" two of the terrorists who blew up Mike's Place, a popular nightclub in Tel Aviv. Three were killed and 35 were wounded.
It is absurd, adds Dr. Reich, to claim that one is "non-violent" if one "supports" armed resistance. Nothing in the tradition of non-violence in the tradition of Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi allows for the "support" of violence in the pursuit of non-violence. In fact, Dr. King argued that all violence in the pursuit of justice is counter-productive.
NPR's reporting on the Middle East has always been subject to scrutiny from many who feel strongly about this story. In my opinion, NPR has done a better job of late in making sure the nuance and complexity of the story is told. But in the aftermath of Rachel Corrie's death, and with attention being focused on Iraq, NPR seems in this instance to have fallen back into some less than solid journalism in its Middle East coverage.
Clarification
In the previous column ("And Then There Were Nine: NPR Talks to the Presidential Candidates"), I referred to some unlikely Democratic Party candidates (Clinton, Gore, McCain, Jackson, Glenn) who are still registered as presidential candidates with the Federal Election Commission. NPR's redoubtable political reporter Peter Overby reminds me that --
These guys are listed not because they're running, but simply because their old campaign committees haven't gone out of business. Glenn's is famous for this, among us campaign finance wonks -- he ran in '84, rolled up a huge debt & never settled much of it. Under law, you can't shut down the campaign committee until the books are closed.
Listeners may contact me at 202-513-3246 or at ombudsman@npr.org.
Jeffrey Dvorkin
NPR Ombudsman
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