At 11:34 AM 3/9/2002 -0500, Seth wrote:
>That's the least of it. The worst is the local station's loooong list of
>sponsors, and what those sponsors want you to know about.
A few years ago one of the NPR stations around here started a micro
advertising system. For some relatively large donation, they will
essentially run ads for people's birthdays, anniversaries, and other events
right after they read the local news. So you give them $200 and on your
wife's birthday they'll slip in a little "And happy birthday to X" on that
person's birthday (or anniversaries, etc.)
I guess I would actually prefer to hear a traditional ad rather than the
"brought to you by the xxx foundation." The other problem I have with NPR
is that they rarely do any reporting on those foundations so it is
difficult to follow who is paying for what. The Weekly Standard had an
article a couple weeks ago, for example, about Bill Moyers funding groups
with a foundation that he administers and then having reps. from those
groups appear on his television show as experts. I've often wondered about
the same thing with the foundations on NPR. (I.e. I'm always wondering when
I hear a show funded by the X Foundation that featured a representative
from say Common Cause, if that group receives X Foundation donations).
