I've listened to NPR's News and Notes for a long time. Farai Chideya is a great moderator, and the show regularly deals with issues in the black community that you rarely see reported on elsewhere on NPR. Chideya was one of the first reporters to recognize the black blogosphere, News and Notes regularly reported on gay issues in the black community before some people decided it mattered after Prop 8, and their roundtables regularly featured a broader set of black views and opinions than any other show on radio or television. It's really a disservice to say that their handling on issues of "race" was better than just about anything in broadcasting, it's more that News and Notes took the time to actually talk to black soldiers, activists, artists, intellectuals, politicians and writers, rather than just picking someone with a famous name and asking them to speak for every black person in the country.
And naturally, now that NPR is downsizing, black oriented programming is among the first to be cut. Barack Obama was elected president so why would anyone need to hear news about what's happening in the black community? Can't he just tell us?
Look, I'm not sure what News and Notes' ratings were, or how they stacked up against other programs, but I know that the rationale was that the show didn't have enough listeners. It's also very clear that NPR is struggling financially, judging by this email sent out to staff. But part of the point of public news broadcasting is that it should be somewhat shielded from certain market forces for the purposes of providing quality reporting and not hiring hacks or doing Britney stories to bring up ratings. It's more a public service than a commercial venture, and there's something frustrating, if predictable, about watching News and Notes get the ax. Jazmyne Cannick is urging her readers to call NPR and tell them how much they love the show, and Baratunde Thurston pretty much summarizes how I'm feeling:
Seriously, I'm seeing rappers as actors and comedians as reporters. Maybe we can figure out a way to get some black people in the jobs the jobs they've trained and worked hard to get without them having to be famous already? I'm just saying.We’ve got four years of people picking on the Obama Girls’ Hairstyle or Michelle’s Rear End or Is Obama Really The Black President. We’ve got four years of Is Racism Over or Who’s Gonna Be The President For White Folks and other ignorant questions headed our way. We know it’s coming. Yet it’s at this time that one of our most prized outlets is switched off.
But fear not black people. CNN has hired D.L. Hughley.
--A. Serwer
