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Comment by UncleOxidant | Hacker News Reader

But Seattle (and Boston) are very blue areas, the issues that Berliner is suggesting wouldn't seem to apply to those areas, they would seem more likely to apply to the hinterlands. The Boston situation probably implies that they just need to combine the two stations into one.

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Mostly because the issues he mentions are not related to the actual reason people are dropping, the reason is _there is a lot of competition for everyone's attention_. Last time I turned on the radio i was a teenager, maybe 20 years ago, with the internet and podcasts there's very little reason to tune in, i have car play in the car and both pocketcasts and spotify, why would I ever tune in?

I listen to a lot of NPR podcasts and contribute to WHYY monthly but I don't think i ever tuned into WHYY, i don't even know the frequency they use :P

Reality is that all media is pretty much toast unless you're some big name like the NYT and this is really sad because i really love the NPR podcasts, but not sure how they can survive long term without the local radios.

NPR is (or was) one of those "big names like the NYT".

The goal wasn’t really to make a profit so no, definitely not like the NYT. And that might be the demise, had they done something like NPR one much sooner with direct subscriptions it might have been easier to make it work.

I hope they survive though, hard to find content with the same quality and consistency elsewhere.

I don't think making a profit has to do with being a "big name" though.

I agree that I really want NPR to thrive!

I'm probably in the minority here, but I'm trying to get away from digital media. I've got a pretty cool shortwave radio, and am always looking for interesting things to listen to. But, our local NPR station is insufferable at least half the time, so much so that I don't even bother trying it most days. As an aside, we are almost always listening to the NPR classical music station. It's absolutely beautiful, and a gift to listeners everywhere. I just wish they'd give up their jazz Fridays and opera Sundays.

Yeah, this seems more likely than Berliner's political explanation. There are so many podcasts now vying for your auditory attention.

Either that or their ideological fart-huffing has finally alienated even the "very blue" reservoirs.

NPR has always been a very particular neoliberal bent as well, with equal skepticism for leftists as for the right. The both-sidesism and he-said she-said reporting, and the general third-way-ness of it all has always been fucking intolerable for half of the blue party too.

There probably is no org more emblematic of the backslide of journalism into “reporting facts, not taking perspectives” than NPR. They are simply craven, they have no perspective or spine, they stand for nothing, and that makes them instinctually repulsive. Like they literally are the journalists in movies who will happily say whatever their masters want this week. It’s disgusting, you might as well be VOA for all the perspective you’re getting.

Swapping Diane Rehm for JJ Johnson or whatever is emblematic of that change for example. Diane Rehm never let a guest gish-gallop unopposed etc, JJ just went into sputter mode and was like “I don’t think all of that is true but-“ and gets run over again on his own show etc. It’s just bad in an aggressively “it’s your right to feel that way but…” kinda milquetoast way. They stand for nothing and have no position or perspective. And I know that’s the new school of journalism today but jesus christ it’s pathetic to see in action.

What makes a man turn neutral? Unironically.

I think your response is terrifying. I think you are actually the problem.. and people like you of course. You want a news organization (who should be reporting the facts in a method completely devoid of emotion) to decide to sway their content either to the left or to the right? That is terrifying quite frankly because it's exactly what has happened. NPR is almost perfect like it is, if they would just stop overemphasizing "woke terminology" into every story they publish. Otherwise the stories are fine it's just annoying as hell.

"You are actually the problem" good grief, the vaunted HN manners and couth in action.

I think if they really are losing a lot of listeners (for whatever reason), it must be mostly from exactly those blue areas, because that's where they have a lot of listeners. You can't lose listeners in places you don't already have them!

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