[wharvle]

NPR when I was in college used language and an affect very similar to broadcast news from the 60s or 70s, which is before I was born so it's certainly not like it was "speaking to me on my generation's terms" or whatever.

And I preferred it that way. The new "hip", vernacular style they go for sucks. If I want that shit, podcasts exist. I thought it sucked when they were starting to do it and I was still in the young, "hip" demo they were trying to target.

[photonthug]

At the risk of ranting.. yeah, it's pretty bad and I also remember how much I used to like it. It's one thing if it was only style changes, but the dumbing-down of much of the content also is pretty hard to miss. Banter, "fun" stories, piles of shameless fluff, the fan-service moving closer to social-media levels of pandering crap, the podcast-level of contempt for the time/intelligence of the viewership. I guess we all become what we hate. Today is actually a pretty good day for them, but above the fold it's still This week's news quiz separates the winners from the losers. Which will you be?, and the search term "Barbie" appears before "Boeing".

[wharvle]

I get actively angry with them over their absolutely terrible election coverage ("what are the implications of this event for so-and-so's campaign, and how might they respond? Let's ask our panel..." OH MY GOD MONDAY MORNING QUARTERBACKING CAMPAIGN STRATEGY IS NOT FUCKING NEWS, I yell at my radio before getting ahold of myself) which is a real problem now that election seasons, which used to be best measured in months, have somehow expanded to encompass the entire calendar of every year.