Brian Feener

A little while ago, I talked about how NPR was running a registration drive and part of their promise to listeners was to not deliver about Lohan, Spears, or any of that other gossip-style news. (Read article here.)

Today, on Super Tuesday, NPR promised to stay away from election coverage and wait until all the results were in before making any calls about any races.

Just because you can give a zillion opinions about everything and anything, sometimes it is better to hold back a little bit. The long-tail is not universal.

[FYI: Today's post is YouTube heavy - Ed.]

So as not to simply piggy back the Pruple Cow’s success, here’s a little story that must be told…

I have stopped listening to regular FM radio. I have had enough of Soulja Boy (hereforth known as the macarena), Timbaland, Timbaland, Timbaland, and Timbaland. The non-ranting reason is because I have heard these song enough times that I don’t want to hear them anymore. Because of this, I exclusively listen to my iPod or to NPR whilst in the car.

During the past week, they have been running a membership drive in order to fund the station. As one of their selling points, a reporter promised to bring us only the important news of the day, and maintain a “Lindsey-Lohan-free and Britney-Spears-free broadcast.” I had two immediate thoughts: 1) the sales pitch is that the listener-base will be kept ignorant of celebrity gossip; 2) is this what we’ve come to in journalism? - competition has to promise to NOT bring typical news?

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