An Apology

I owe someone an apology. A few posts ago in a rant about the radio, I called NPR a “cure for insomnia” because it is so boring. To be honest, I had never actually listened to NPR on my own free will (a few clips were played in some college classes).

My impressions came from Jon Stewart on the Daily Show and their lackluster presentation (compared to Fox News).

However, today I remembered that my iPod is also a radio. So instead of listening to the radio playing at work or the same music on my iPod, I choose the radio. The first station it picked up was NPR. I loved it.

It was refreshing to hear adults speaking with their indoor voices on deficit reduction. To those pundits who claim that NPR is some liberal garbage, you are doing a huge disservice to the public (obviously, the pundits don’t want you to leave their show to listen to NPR). I thought it was well balanced and the moderator/host of a show would give equal attention to each person and allow them to express their view.

Some of the callers were a little odd (one woman called up asking why we would financially support Muslim nations when Islam’s ultimate goal was world domination).

 *Why didn't I think of putting this in sooner?*

Fortunately, the crack-pot was cut-off (proof of liberal bias!) and the topic was steered to the more legitimate question of “Should we continue to financially support countries like Pakistan with taxpayer money when we ourselves are feeling the pinch?” and “How would budget cuts affect the military and the War on Terror?”.

Yes, some of the programming was a bit dry; an hour of women talking about a vegetarian Thanksgiving dinner feels a lot longer than it did. But mostly I felt like I was informed of current events and my intelligence was not insulted by name calling and the simplification of complex issues.

I still stand by my video I made making fun of NPR from my previous blog because I find it so darn funny.

So, NPR; I’m sorry. It was not as bad as I had said. Most may find it a bit slow, but only because the 24 Hour News-Pundit cycle has made us think yelling and screaming is the only way to discuss politics.