Random Kvetching

I feel like kvetching.  How about you?

Is National Public Radio going corporate?  Ever since NPR started airing commercials (although they call them “sponsor notices”), their talk shows have become noticably Fair & Balanced™.  I’m thinking specifically about the Diane Rehm Show, where, whenever she discusses politics or national policy, her guest list now invariably includes some administration hack, there to pitch the White House line.

Remember the 2004 brouhaha over the monitoring of NPR for liberal bias?  Apparently that monitoring . . . like every other John Bircher crackpot wingnut proposal floated by the Bush administration . . . hasn’t gone away.  My guess is that some of NPR’s corporate sponsors, sensitive to right wing hostility toward taxpayer-funded public programming, are behind the watering down of Diane Rehm’s show.

A few weeks ago, when an administration hack on Diane Rehm’s show referred to the “Democrat Party,” Diane jumped right in his stuff, telling him in no uncertain terms it’s the “Democratic Party.”  Last Friday, during Diane Rehm’s weekly news roundup show, several administration hacks used “Democrat” for “Democratic,” and she didn’t utter a peep.  Has she given up?

What I get from the Long-Awaited™ Petraeus Report: we’re in for a generations-long occupation of Iraq.  Start thinking Germany.  Start thinking South Korea.  Only with a hostile population dedicated to killing its occupiers (when they’re not busy killing each other).

Here’s an open question to politicians, military leaders, and media types: why can’t we name the vital national interest that’s keeping us in Iraq?  Last time I checked, that vital national interest was oil.  Wouldn’t we all be thinking more clearly . . . and making better decisions . . . if we acknowledged reality?

It could be argued, though, that we had an equally-vital national interest in Vietnam: rubber.  Indeed, where would we be without rubber?  And yet we pulled out.  So . . . have you had any problem finding a new set of tires lately?

Okay, one more and then I’m done: the Blues Channel on Sirius Radio.  How come they have such a restricted playlist?  It’s the same old stuff, all the time, and never any new blues.  Apparently they’d rather spend my subscription money on executive salaries, not royalties.  My son tells me XM’s blues channel has a larger play list.  I’m considering switching over, but what’s holding me back is the proposed merger between Sirius and XM.  Based on my experience with the Blues Channel, competition is XM’s sole impetus for offering better blues.  If the competition goes away, you can bet your bottom dollar the surviving satellite playlist will shrink.

Kvetched out?  Me too.