Carnegie
Corporation
of New York
Fall 2006
The Sound of NPR
Reporting is undeniably subjective. What the producer chooses to cover, what the reporter records, where the editors cut—all shape the unique identity of each station and each report, and reflect its overriding ideology. All of those elements come together in the unmistakable voice of NPR and its member stations. Even “NPR’s tonal quality is identifiable,” says Mike Calvo. Blind since the age of 18, Calvo is president of Serotek, manufacturer of FreedomBox, a voice-controlled device that assists blind and visually impaired computer users with e-mail and surfing the Internet. “They once interviewed me about the FreedomBox. I heard the interview that afternoon on my radio, and I was amazed how much I sounded like NPR.”
As for content, critics of NPR’s point of view run the gamut, some saying it’s too liberal, others too conservative—even too neutral. Former NPR ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin points out, “NPR’s job is not to provide informational comfort food but to help people understand the issues of the day, and I think NPR does that more often than not. We have achieved a large audience in part because NPR does a good job in a reliable and somewhat more sophisticated way than large commercial broadcasting.”
Has NPR maintained the spirit of its mission statement, to “regard the individual differences among men with respect and joy rather than derision and hate”? Bill Siemering says, “I think so, though perhaps we haven’t had enough diversity on the air. There has certainly been diversity of gender, but I’m not so sure in terms of ethnicity. But I believe there has been a spirit of respect for people and for hearing different voices.” Siemering maintains, “Even though NPR is often characterized as liberal by the conservatives, I think composite analysis shows that it’s really balanced. One of the problems has been in story selection. For example, NPR was one of the first in media to deal with HIV/AIDS, a story that originally didn’t get much play within the conservative talk radio circle, probably because it was viewed as ‘the gay disease.’ That’s a philosophical perspective as opposed to a journalistic perspective.”
Other criticism of NPR focuses on its audience demographics, which tilt heavily toward a white, middle class, college educated listenership. To attract a more varied audience, NPR debuted The Tavis Smiley Show in 2002. A respected African-American broadcaster with an established following, Smiley delivered a spirited combination of news and analysis, and the show’s ratings had promise. But Smiley left NPR in 2004 when contract negotiations stalled. In “Good, Gray NPR” (The Nation, May 23, 2005) Scott Sherman writes, “It has to be said that the reasons behind Smiley’s divorce from NPR remain murky: On one side is his assertion that NPR wasn’t doing enough to promote the show. But NPR, which rushed to create a new black-oriented show hosted by Ed Gordon, claims that Smiley insisted on a $3 million promotional budget for his show, when its entire advertising budget is less than $200,000.”
Says Kevin Klose, “When Tavis unexpectedly pulled out of negotiations for his contract, very quickly there were a number of accomplished men and women of color who were eager to host a show in that time slot on NPR with that perspective.… Tavis helped us create that.” Klose admits, “What we need, for sure, is greater diversity of perspectives and participants in programming and content inside NPR and in the listeners and the web site visitors. I think there needs to be a redefinition of public radio and how to increase public support, particularly in a financial sense. There are many challenges, and we need to be much more in a learning mode about how to connect to listeners and others who realize the great public service that NPR provides to the nation.”
As listeners connect in new ways, NPR is keeping pace, actively creating and tailoring content for high-definition radio, podcasting, cell phones and satellite radio. It is researching the use of radio as a textual medium for the hearing impaired and exploring the possibilities of enhanced user-designed programming. As NPR moves through its fourth decade of operation, it continues to gain public support (from 1999 to 2004, for example, listenership increased 66 percent) but many challenges still loom: financial, certainly, but also the need to remain relevant, even cutting-edge, in an era of fast-evolving media. But Klose is confident that NPR is on the right track. Likening their mission to that of Carnegie Corporation of New York he says, “The advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding is what nurtures the human mind. And that’s what NPR does.”