I was surprised to come across a story on Maine Web Report talking about a controversy between MPBN (Maine Public Broadcasting Network) and a long-running DJ called The humble Farmer. The humble Farmer is a quirky show with 30s and 40s jazz and big band music with occasional dry-witted humorous stories that comment on the state of affairs of our times in a classic “Mainah” style.
Well, it seems MPBN is setting an ultimatum with the humble Farmer after some more objectionable political opines went out on the air. The problem with stating your opinion, I guess, is that it may be misconstrued as the station’s opinion despite the fact that the opinion is wrapped in humor. And as we all know, MPBN, and all of public radio, is entirely politically neutral.
I don’t want to get too much into the specifics, as I’m not a journalist and have to take this story at face value, but I’ve long been lukewarm as to the operation of so-called “public” radio as it’s mostly a pipeline for national programming, classical music, and a whole lot of literati banter. The network does anything but reflect the diversity and local culture, and this attack, however well-warranted, against one of their few shows that features true local flavor, is unfortunate.
I guess we shouldn’t expect a station that takes government bucks to welcome lively political opinions, though the other question raised is why the national political programming from NPR seems to be subjected to a different set of standards (as they have plenty of political humor, much of it at Bush’s expense). I also wonder why an organization that receives over 75% of its revenue from local listeners has such a small amount of local programming. Does all of Maine really donate to MPBN so they can listen to another edition of Car Talk?
With on-demand programming growing in versatility, radio remaining and increasingly becoming expensive, and an increase in the number of NPR products available on satellite radio, I begin to wonder what the future of our rather sad public media is.
Who knows why MPBN did this…they picked up and broadcast many of the lies that Dutson had invented.
At any rate, don’t believe anything you hear from H.F.’s new partner Lance Dutson.
http://bangorreports.blogspot.com
If we didn’t get humor at G. W. Bush’s expense, we wouldn’t get anything useful at all from him.
DG
Public radio neutral? You haven’t listened to WAMC in Albany, NY. It’s chief honcho, political science professor emeritus, is billed regularly as Political Observer or Political Analyst. Just today I heard him comment on a published claim that Massachusetts Governor’s vehical was “expensive”. Dr. Chartock says they wouldn’t say that about a white man!
Go to the WAMC website and give a listen to The Media Project: Issues confronting the media. A week ago Chartock was tying together the U.S. Attorney (a Republican) investigating the majority leader of the New York State Senate ( a Republican) who allegedly bought some stock in a company that was acquired by a company for which a friend of the majority leader works; but if there’s no action within 2 weeks then it will have blown over {suggesting the firing of the 8 U.S. attorneys has had more effects that previously suspected}.
It’s edgy news and public affairs public radio stations that get ratings and pledges. Properly labelled commentary is kosher. Just so it never comes from anyone labelled a journalist.
John,
Point taken. I was being somewhat facetious with my charge than NPR is “politically neutral” as there’s never any shortage of commentary, often leaning to the political left, enough that many conservative pundits write it off as a treehugger’s station. The issue then, is why is certain kind of commentary allowed while others are not?
I can see why expressing opinions as flagrant as the farmer’s were without any sort of disclaimer is unacceptable for radio. There’s need to be a firm line between the opinions of the people on the air and the opinions of the station itself — at WMPG, it’s no exception, and any political beliefs we espouse are mean to be prefaced with a disclaimer. And no journalist should *ever* be caught voicing biases in a public forum.
My issue with the whole situation is the way in which the incident was treated, with the Director of Programming giving a gag order on opinions on any “controversial issues.” There’s a big difference between radio decency and censorship, and this issue leans heavily towards the latter.