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Comment by alephnerd | Hacker News Reader

Even NYT didn't suspend Bari Weiss despite her bringing similar criticisms about NYT.

In all honesty, I never understood the appeal of NPR, and I've been consuming news all the time since I was in elementary school (I even got my elementary school library to get a weekly subscription for The Economist).

I love PBS, but NPR always felt like cultural commentary with no actual in depth reporting. NYT occasionally feels like that as well, but their track record has more than redeemed themselves.

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I don't listen to NPR directly, but I think RadioLab and This American Life are generally pretty good. I don't know how much those are NPR as a whole or works by affiliate stations, but they are media that I enjoy, so I kind of see why people would listen.

I will say, though, PBS is generally better. I think Frontline is very consistently excellent.

This American Life is from PRI not NPR. Radiolab is NPR however, though of course not really news-focused.

Fair enough; I'm pretty sure I've listened to This American Life on NPR at some point but it was probably just a syndication thing.

Yeah, neither are really news-focused, more human-interest stories or deep dives into newer tech.

RadioLab did the same thing. Was science for the first ~10 yrs, then turned politics from a fairly left POV. I finally stopped listening after they passed the torch.

This American Life is also pretty far left. It's still on my podcast list but I only listen when I run out of others. And then, 2 out of 3 times the story a race/identity piece and fast forward to the next part.

Older episodes of RadioLab are absolute gems. Around the time Robert Krulwich retired I noticed a palpable shift. The new hosts' motivation shifted from inform to influence. It still has good stories, but the framing is somewhat more manipulative, in a way that's hard to pin down but makes me distinctly uncomfortable and sometimes exhausted.

The way Radiolab chops their interviews into tiny little pieces and then glues them back together with snippets from the hosts is basically the best way to make sure your guests always tell the story YOU want them to tell...

Their news programming used to be pretty good (‘00s and earlier, maybe a little into the 20-teens). Now it’s at its best when my local station’s syndicating news from the BBC. :-( It’s markedly better, really highlights how bad NPR has gotten.

On the Media remains good. Their market show’s ok. I like Wait, Wait. That’s a complete list of their programs I’m still happy about listening to.

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