Fair And Balanced NPR

I like National Public Radio. It is a nice change of pace from what I normally listen to in the car. Nothing.

I have about a 4 minute drive to and from work, and that is hardly enough time to listen to one car dealership commercial. Even when driving to Nashville or Louisville I forget to turn the radio on until I have gone though my catalog of thoughts, which takes about 30 seconds. With reruns. Ten minutes after that, and with a totally blank cranium, I realize I could be doing something more productive, like listening to rap music, which I hate. That is when I turn on the radio.

When I do, I sometimes listen to NPR. Sometimes is about twice a year. I know this because I tuned in during the kickoff for their semi-annual fund raising campaign, and the time before it was the middle of their previous semi-annual campaign. Sadly, I missed the kickoff for that one. I hate missing kickoffs. It's like you missed the start of the game.

NPR works the guilt buttons to get donations. They explained that those of us who do not pledge are mooching off those of you who do. This did not work on me because I only listen during fund raising drives and get less listening hours out of my lack of donations. I feel this is a fair trade.

There is one reason they gave to donate that I loved, primarily because I agreed with it.

The announcer explained that public radio is able to support itself though listener donations because it is so great that listeners want to donate to keep it on air. He further explained that this greatness is because public radio knows it has to be great to deserve the donations, so they work at being great. In other words, NPR is a poster child for the free enterprise system.

I realize that associating NPR producers to the free enterprise system could make their skin crawl off their bodies and on to California, leaving a lot of ugly producers, but they know they have to produce something worthy of being produced and that the market (listeners) will hold them accountable if they don't (by not funding them), so they produce something worth producing. That is free enterprise.

While I suspect they still get some tax money, at least I like the concept.

As if to drive home the importance of accountability, another segment focused on defaults in a government college loan program for parents of students. There are billions in default because the government agency administering these loans does not look to see if the borrowers can, and I realize this is a radical concept, repay the loan. No one is accountable, so it's just not worth the trouble.

I was thinking, “There is hope for NPR.”

Then a commentator opined that papa government and momma congress should take care of its inept citizens (definition: you and me) and fund all college educations. Okay, that wasn't exactly how he said it, but that's what I heard.

In the time it takes to drive from Bowling Green to Louisville, NPR went from capitalist pig to Marxist commie. Now that is fair and balanced.