This isn't the first rant we've been on about the programming inanity going on at NPR. But that was really about the selection by WNYC of lousy shows over better ones.
Today our topic is truly poor editorial choice, and the culprit is Morning Edition. David Frum's bloviations, which used to intrude upon the dawn, are now confined to the State of the Union address, which at least only comes along annually. But yesterday's broadcast included a really irritating spiel by one of our fellow Brooklynites about how it's so cool to be unemployed.
Apparently, it's GREAT to be unemployed for all twentysomethings -- twentysomethings being in her world relatively privileged urban types. "We're former magazine editors, marketing executives, commodities traders, and assistants." What a surprise -- these people are all..."still very confident" they'll get another job soon. In the meantime, they're discovering the joys of hanging out in coffee shops. How cool for them!
What are the issues for those "twentysomethings" who don't come from enough money to make unemployment the equivalent of a little vacation? Who have kids? Or need health benefits? Well, it's a matter of semantics -- these people must not be "twentysomethings" at all. And thus have no bearing on the world of dog-walkin', self-re-inventin' and coffee-shop hangin' with which this reporter is concerned. Gosh, this recession isn't so hard to get through after all, especially if you don't think about the people it actually affects.
If this weren't (1) an old story, (2) a fatuously "reported" piece of vague meditation on the lives of one media type and her pals, and (3) unbearably smug, we might have simply observed that it must hard to find enough hard news to fill up the show these days (which would be a silly thing to say, but we try to be generous). But as it's all those things, we must breeze right past blaming the "essayist," who simply indulges in the kind of ain't-my-life-interesting myopia which is, of course, the stuff of weblogging. But the editor/producer who assigned, approved and aired this piece of drivel is, in our view, a fine candidate for a little time hanging in the coffee shop, chatting up former magazine editors about the joys of unemployment.
Posted by BT at March 06, 2002 11:44 AMRight on, brother, channel that positive rage... your criticisms were dead-on as usual - and but plus the especially galling thing is that NPR seems to have been running fairly empathetic reportage about suffering unemployed people lately. Blood-boiling that they'd let a young Maureen Dowdy wanna-be put this crap up after yesterday's piece about the unemployed janitors from the WTC, the steel workers' shafted benefits, &etc. You've inspired me to write a nastygram to Bob Edwards et.al.
(Speaking of unemployment, I know of one severely underpaid IA who's thinking of quitting her newly found Barnard job, if only out of desperation. I can make more money teaching part-time. Any leads over that at B&N? Have you started yet?)
The Dole is more generously applied here (for now), it would seem; and there is also something called "youth allowance" for those twenty-somethin's. I had an interesting discussion with a friend about the rights of people in their early 20s to take some time to live on the dole and be free spirits (uh, hanging out in coffee shops and pubs).
In part, I'm sympathetic (though I can't get past the way I've been socialized into believing the Protestant work-ethic) and I want to say "whoo-hoo--fuck the man!" But sometimes it seems like the money spent on free-riders (not the truly destitute and despondent) could go toward trying to rectify social ills. But as long as it keeps going to large corporations and other business-community schemes, I say "fuck the man!"
Posted by: Art on March 6, 2002 04:20 PMoh yeah...I'm told that the Dole/youth allowance is something like $200/week, which means you can eke out an existence, sort of--especially if you live in a "share house".
Posted by: Art on March 6, 2002 04:22 PMDude, I don't think any of us Wombaters have an issue with the Dole/welfare/&etc per se, but it was such an egregiously joyous celebration of what most people regard as a major struggle; she diminished the worries of anyone not as isolatedly privledged and out of touch as she is - namely, all the recently unemployed people NPR have been reporting on. It was the *story* that was crass beyond belief - shoot, man, unemployment is a grand idea! If only I could get some. When I was in India, I met dozens of europeans who had worked out scams wherein they managed to collect their monthly dole checks, which are quite a generous salary in the developing world; I understand that kind of fraud is increasingly difficult as govt's there upgrade their systems.
And plus:
Bollox to the poll tax!
What she said, man!
Posted by: BT on March 7, 2002 12:06 AMIn the UK the dole is £53.05 a week. Average price of a cappucino is £1.50 to £2, so bingo, that's five coffees a day! See, all it takes is a little arithmetic and the problem goes away.
Posted by: Rory on March 7, 2002 11:05 AMWhat everyone else said, and don't let's forget my favorite media conspiracy: NPR (at least the big "news" shows) runs pieces by people born in the late 60s/early 70s if and only if those people sound like idiots and prove themselves as such with their spiels. Why? Ummmm . . . maybe to feed the egos of their baby-boomer and up primary fundgivers. Or, like, not. What were we talking about again?
Promise you'll do a rant about how stupid is the April Fool's joke that 'All Things Considered' must certainly be planning now.
And then one about 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me.'
f--- NPR and their conscious enforcement of all the worst gen-X stereotypes. i'm sure i've tripped over this reporter's sorry ass as she slums it at diners and dollar stores on 5th avenue in park slope, so she can then sit in her beloved coffee shop (no doubt the Tea Lounge) and pen breathy, self-involved pieces about how educational it is for her to get down and dirty with Real Working People Out There. christ. methinks i'm going to quit morning edition cold turkey in favor of AM radio news. for the last 2 years it's been dollars to doughnuts i'll start at least one day a week in a cranky mood because some piece like this one rouses me from my slumber.
Posted by: uberdeb on March 10, 2002 02:22 PM