“I Stopped Listening to NPR When…”
Do you remember when you stopped listening to NPR?
Do you remember the moment you stopped listening to NPR? Your “drive-away moment,” so to speak?
I’m looking for short videos from former listeners explaining why they stopped listening to NPR. You can record these videos on your phone or laptop. Nothing fancy, and maximum length is three minutes—just look into the camera and be honest and sincere. Was it a particular story? The way an event was covered? What did you think? How did you feel?
Follow this link to share with us why you stopped listening to NPR. (Note: you have to log in with a Gmail account in order for your response to be recorded.)
I’m producing a series called “All Things Re-Considered” about NPR programs, like All Things Considered, Morning Edition, 1-A, Here & Now, etc. If your segment is selected, I’ll share it as part of the show!
I am doing this because I used to be an NPR listener and financial supporter. NPR was my go-to source for news and culture. But NPR and its public media affiliates have changed—subtly at first, and quite dramatically over the past few years. Tuning in has become a kind of intellectual vandalism where listeners become more ignorant and develop a honed bias as a consequence of prolonged exposure.
If you need any technical assistance with your video, please contact erisapple@protonmail.com
It is time to get your story heard.
Thank you.
I stopped a couple of years ago, when they replaced the old guard with every ethnic/racial/social group except straight white men. After that, I would occasionally turn it on and -- not exaggerating -- 90%+ of the time I would hear a story about either race or gender within 1 minute. I eventually made a game of it, one I called "Skin or Genitals?": to play, pick a random time and then time how long it takes before racism or sexism comes up. It's uncanny how quickly. Do they really think there are no other, much more consequential issues? Juvenile, simplistic, and divisive. Sorry, NPR, you lost another life-long supporter.
I don't want to do a video, but I appreciate this project. I grew increasingly disenchanted with NPR back in 2015–2016 during the election campaign, which escalated all through the Trump presidency when there was no vestige of balanced reporting. The disenchantment ripened into disgust over the years since, to the point where I finally sent them this comment during one of their insufferable fundraising drives:
"I'm not a Republican. I'm not a Democrat. I have many progressive views, many classically liberal views, some conservative views, some Libertarian views. I am one of many 'politically homeless' citizens in the United States of America who are searching for fair and balanced news coverage from a variety of sources, and who pine for classical journalism marked by high integrity and rigor, inclusive of many viewpoints. I used to appreciate National Public Radio as one of these sources, bur that notion of 'fair and balanced' is a swiftly receding memory.
"Increasingly over the past decade, every story and program I hear on NPR becomes more blatantly biased and left-leaning. Where are the counterpoints? Where are the alternative views? Where are the representatives from parties other than the left? There isn't even the decency to attempt to hide the agenda anymore, only smug expectations of political foreclosure from your listeners. There is no open marketplace of ideas here. Just propaganda.
"I can no longer bear to listen. I will seek new sources. I am very disappointed in you. I will no longer patronize your fund drives. I will not donate any used car to you. I resent any public tax money helping support what is no longer a NATIONAL public radio news network. Who do you think We The People are? You are not reflecting us. Is this why you want to switch your name to only its acronym? A fitting diminishment indeed."