Do you really want to make a difference?
I once was a "suit" fairly high up at NPR, back in the 80's, a few careers ago. A lot of things have changed there since then, but the basics are still the same.
Some tips about how you can affect things at NPR appear below the fold. First, here's a one paragraph backgrounder.
National "Public" Radio is a bit of a misnomer. NPR is a private non-profit membership organization made up of its affiliate "member" radio stations. NPR gets almost no money directly from the feds anymore. Congress funds CPB (the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) which gives most of its available money for radio directly to individual stations in the form of "Community Service Grants." The largest portion of each station's Community Service Grant is a matching grant. The CSG is enhanced by the amount of "non-federal financial support" that the station raises -- the biggest part of this for most stations is your donations, i.e., listener support. In other words, the more they raise locally, the more they get from Uncle Sam. More...
We're almost done with the boring part. Got it so far? Years ago, CPB gave $20 million directly to NPR, but no more. The individual stations use the "community service grants" that they receive from CPB in part to "buy back" network programming and other services from NPR and other programming sources. Even though NPR
recently received $200 million from the estate of Joan Kroc, it remains almost completely dependent on its member stations to fund its day-to-day programming and news operations.
So what does all this have to do with changing the editorial slant at NPR?
Point 1: your local station has very little to say about the editorial policies of the NPR News Department. NPR does a pretty good job of insulating its news staff from complaints from individual member stations. You must let your station know about your views, of course, but you must also communicate to NPR directly. NPR has an ombudsman for this very purpose. Send a note today.
Point 2: not donating to your local station does very little to "hurt" or "send a message" to NPR News. Before you cut off funds to your local station, think about what you use it for. If the only thing you listen to is NPR News programming (specifically, Morning Edition, All Things Considered, the Weekend Editions - Sat and Sun - and the election specials, etc.) then you have a point. If you also listen to anything else, be it other NPR programming, Public Radio International (PRI) stuff, or independent or locally produced programming, you should contribute anyway.
Point 3: Media diversity ... You may be aiding the consolidation movement in media by not sending in your money. Your local NPR station likely is one of the few, and may be the only independently owned broadcast outlet in your market.
Point 4: If you insist on not donating anything to your local station, then you MUST let them know exactly why. Calling the pledge line volunteer and reaming out her or him about programming issues will NOT do any good. Whether or not you decide to support your local station(s) you will want to write to (not call) the General Manager of the station. For maximum real impact, follow this precise format. At the top of your letter, include these words:
To: FCC Public File for Radio Station _ _ _ _(insert call letters)
Re: Programming Comments from the public
I guarantee you that this will get his or her attention! All broadcast licensees MUST keep on file -- in the station's official public file which is available for inspection by anyone at anytime during business hours -- all copies of letters from the public about programming specifics. Any letter from the public regarding programming in the public interest which specifically references the FCC public file must be kept in that public file for years. You can even drop in on your local station later and check its public file to see if it's in there! I assure you, again, that these letters do get their attention!
Your letter should be direct and to the point. You may want to touch on issues or concerns about journalistic integrity, diversity of points of view, and independence from governmental and corporate interests. You definitely want to explain if you are planning to continue your financial support and why or why not.
So much for your local station. Now, you have a tool that will also get NPR's attention. Make six copies of that letter and send it to these people at NPR:
* Kevin Klose, President,
* Tim Eby, Chairman of the Board
* Jeffrey Dvorkin, ombudsman
* Jay Kernis, Senior vice president, Programming
* John A Herrmann, Jr., Chairman, NPR Foundation,
* Dana Davis Rehm, VP Member and Program Services.
They can all be mailed, in separate envelopes of course, to the same address:
National Public Radio
635 Massachusetts Ave., NW
Washington, D.C. 20001
I absolutely promise that if each of these people receive a few dozen letters from different people to different NPR affiliate stations within the next few weeks you will have their attention in a huge way. They will worry about it. They will have meetings about it. It will come up at the next Board meeting. It will come up at the next public radio conference (now called the "Public Radio Leadership Forum" scheduled for early May in Washington, DC). I promise. I know, I've seen it happen over and over again.
Are you one of those lucky people with extra "pull" at NPR?
If you live in: Columbus, OH; Nashville, TN; NE Indiana; Newark NJ/NYC area; Pittsburgh, PA; Sacramento, CA; Arizona; or Gulf Coast Florida your local radio station manager is on the NPR Board. You can exercise lot more pull than the rest of us, because you have pretty easy access to this NPR board member. Contact him or her! Let them know how you feel about the editorial direction of NPR News. Don't be suprised if they share your views! Here's a list.
It doesn't take thousands or even hundreds of letters to provide these people with a major wake up call. The public radio infrastructure is a very small fraternity and a couple dozen letters to the key individuals I mentioned will rock their boats in a very big way, I promise you.
Will it change the editorial direction of NPR News? Maybe. I don't know. I do know that if you only whine about NPR on dKos and don't write to your local station's FCC Public File and don't copy those letters to NPR itself, you won't have any effect on NPR News whatsoever.