[Peace-discuss] [Fwd: A Letter to All NPR Listeners]

[Jay Mittenthal]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: A Letter to All NPR Listeners
From: CHUCKFAGER at aol.com
Date: Thu, May 22, 2003 11:33 pm
To: cf at kimopress.com



Dear fellow NPR listener,

Somebody named Sue sent me a copy of a letter she wrote a few weeks
back,  when the Iraq invasion was still all over the news.

I set it aside for awhile. But with all the talk now about the FCC
getting  ready to give away the rest of the media to the
megacorporations, it's back on  my front burner.

Sue's letter was directed at national Public radio (NPR), and its angry
message was, in sum:

"I QUIT!"

Sue was horrified at how fully NPR had been absorbed into the rah-rah
glorification of a pre-emptive, illegal war. For her this was not only a
disgusting  spectacle and an abandonment of journalistic independence,
it was also the last  straw.

She'd listened for years, she wrote, getting attached to some of the
star  personalities, and writing many checks during those guilt-trip
pledge drives. She  had also tried to ignore a growing sense of unease
over the increase of  corporate funding and influence, as she clung to
the image of NPR as the last  bastion of reliable, independent, quality
broadcast journalism in America.

But all this collapsed for her in March, going down like a Baghdad
office  building. Despite all her loyalty and devotion, when the chips
were finally,  really down – there, right before her ears, NPR had
morphed into no more than a  high-toned, self-important echo of the
warnography-mad corporate media, cheering  the illegal invasion and the
cowboy empire like all the other embedded pups.

This inglorious spectacle was finally TOO MUCH to take, she said.

This was THE END.

On first reading, my reaction to Sue's letter was, "Right on, sister!" I
 could almost see her smashing her station coffee mug collection, and
tossing all  those tasteful tote bags in the trash.

Talk about shock and awe.

I'd been feeling much the same way as Sue, altho – remembering NPR's
similarly spineless performance during the first Gulf War – I wasn't
as shocked by it  as she was.

But maybe, I thought, this WAS the time to kiss NPR goodbye. For me too,
it's  been 30+ years and a some coffee mugs and tee shirts, but maybe my
listening  hours would be better spent downloading oldies and tuning in
foreign  broadcasts on the net.

That was my thinking, for maybe a day.

Then, I had what felt like a better idea. And that's what this letter
– mine,  not Sue's – is about.

Here's the proposition: Instead of peace folks just being pissed off at
NPR  and stomping off in a passive-aggressive huff, why not turn the
tables and make  them work for US??

It can be done. With the FCC poised to give the rest of the media away
to Fox  & Co, it demands to be done. Hear me out:

It's all about those pledge drives, which we despise so much, but
respond to  with depressing frequency. I must know dozens of people who
obediently "Make  That Call," every year, sometimes more often. Sound
like anybody you know . .  .?

And that's the key. NPR and its stations love it when you, and I, and
Sue,  and all our listener buddies send them our INDIVIDUAL checks.
There's no  strings; all the money goes into the general budget pot, to
be spent on whatever they  want. But even with all that corrupting
corporate money coming in, they still  NEED our listener donations
(that's why they never shut up about them).

Okay. So what if, next time there's a pledge drive (and it won't be
long)  suppose that you and me and Sue and our buddies DON'T SEND THEM
our individual  checks.

But stay with me, here – remember, I'm NOT talking boycott.

Instead, suppose you and Sue and me and our listener buddies put our
money  TOGETHER.

Or to paraphrase Joe Hill, suppose we quit moaning and ORGANIZE?

That's right. Instead of ten or twenty of us sending $50 each, we pool
our  checks, and have $500 or $1000. (Or lots more really, if we talk
this up; NPR  listeners tend to run in packs.).

And then we take that ONE check down to our local station. And rather
than  just dropping it on the fundraiser's desk, we tell them we want to
be  "underwriters" (That's NPR-speak for advertisers).

Underwriters, as you know, get to be mentioned on the air, with a brief
message. So with OUR money, we buy time for OUR message. Which could be
something  like . . . .

"ALL THINGS CONSIDERED IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY OURTOWN'S LOCAL
PEACENIKS,  WORKING TO END MILITARISM, REPEAL THE PATRIOT ACT, AND
REVIVE INDEPENDENT  CRITICAL JOURNALISMÂ  IN AMERICA. MORE INFORMATION
ON THE WEB AT:  www.localpeaceniks.org"

(Your wording, of course, may vary.)

Several good things would come out of such an underwriting message:

FIRST, it gets heard on the air, which is more than happens now.

(And the more money you and your friends can pool together, the more
repetitions of your message you can get on the air, and the MORE it will
get heard.)

SECOND, the ones who will hear it most carefully of all will be the NPR
folks.

Trust me on this: Locally and nationally, they are VERY interested in
where  their money comes from. And you can trust this too: they RESPOND
to their  contributors. Maybe not instantly; but before long. (The
corporate funders figured  this out years ago, by the way.)

And THIRD: you'll feel better.

Why? Well, not only because your peace message is being heard, but also
– go  ahead and admit it – because NPR will be getting your money.

I mean, face it: won't most of us who are so disappointed in NPR today
eventually relent, start listening again, and pretty soon send in
another check?  (Truth: liberal guilt, the gift that keeps us giving, is
a key feature of NPR's  audience demographics.) Heck, I bet even Sue
will end up sending in another  check too.

But this gets back to my plea: If we're likely to drift back to NPR
anyway,  let's make our presence COUNT. Once the FCC gives away the rest
of the media to  Rupert Murdoch, it may be our last hope!

The mechanics are not complex. You don't need a new organization, or a
lot of  paperwork:

Talk to your friends; pass along this email. Get them to talk to their
friends. Put your money together. Write (or copy) a simple peace
message. And then  appoint a treasurer/spokesperson to deliver the check
and get the message on  the air.

You don't even need a website. If starting your own site is a hassle,
substitute one of the national peace groups. And you don't have to wait
til the next  pledge drive either; the stations are ALWAYS hungry for
money.

One further thought: It could happen that a given station management
might  BALK at running your message. In which case, be ready to
negotiate – a little.  But if they really get picky about airing TEN
SECONDS devoted to speaking up  for peace, civil liberties and
independent critical journalism – well, guess  what: you've just
learned something important about them.

And in that case, keep your money. You can take it and prospect for
another  station. Or give it to a real peace group. And then get on with
downloading  those oldies and searching for foreign broadcasts. Living
without that NPR  station will be LOTS easier to adjust to then.

But this outcome seems unlikely. Call me pollyanna, but I predict that
if  enough peace-oriented listeners in enough local markets start
pooling their NPR  dollars, the network will listen and respond. It may
not become a center of  activist resistance; but it will get better, and
we all know there's PLENTY of  room for improvement.

And to repeat one more time: For all its faults, NPR is about the only
viable  candidate left for the role of a genuine independent media voice
in this  country. So at least it's worth a shot.

How much difference could this approach make? As far as money goes, the
potential is huge. The American peace constituency overwhelmingly
overlaps with the  NPR audience; which is pushing twenty million or so.
If only five per cent of  these listeners pooled our donations, that
would be a million of us or so;  we're talking millions of dollars.

And then we'd have the ears of all those NPR folks, for sure.

So think this over. If you like the idea, pass it on, talk it up, and
then DO  it. Remember, this will be a locally-directed activity–
nobody in Washington  or New York will be telling you what to do, or
dunning you with petitions or  fund appeals. If this idea takes off, we
can keep in touch on the net, and  you'll HEAR the results.

Sue–are you listening? Let's do it.

Peace,

Chuck Fager,
Speaking for myself

PS. If you and your friends try this out, which I hope you will, let me
know.  There's power in numbers!


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