Was there a topic that caught your attention? Was there a guest on a show that you were interested in? Was there a piece of music that you liked? Discuss it here!
I am a big fan of public radio and many of the programs of PRI, but I don't find "Fair Game" w/ Faith Sallie to be up to your usual standards. The guests are good, the information is interesting, but the bit about the Middle East Summit being a wedding was stupid and boring, and the show, in general is just silly and poorly constructed.
I appreciate the concept of The State of The Black Union, but why do you all go to the most commercial cities? I have been trying for years to find ways to help improve the social, political and economic issues in Columbus, Ohio but it falls on deaf ears. I even tried to e-mail "black leaders" and black intellectuals but I am ignored. I am a frustrated, multi-cultural black woman and I am fed up with the b/s.
I particularly enjoyed the program, Hanukkah in Story and Song, hosted by Leonard Nimoy and broadcast on my local station last evening, Dec. 3, at 7:00 p.m. Thank you.
While pleasantly surprised to come across the piece on Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, the number of Palestinians who fled, or were forced to flee from their homes in Palestine in 1948 was approximately 750,000. UNRWA could confirm that this is the case.
I am stopping my subscription to America Abroad. I found it to be a wasted opportunity. The attention to history and international relations really excited me. I was terribly disappointed to find it nationalistic and lacking in sharp critique of American imperialism.
I'm listening to Bob Edwards weekend on Sunday, Dec.30, 2007. Right after the section on Music of Coal, you started the next section about bad weather. The first song in this section you noted you were still researching its origin. l remember the lovely tune from my childhood(I'm now 75)as "Little Joe the Wrangler", which I new as a "cowboy song". I also have a faint recollection of connecting the tune with an Irish song -- or maybe English. I'd love a response when your researchers finish their research. Thanks, Peggy Campbell
Today's (1/4/08) program on Army PsyOps personnel in Iraq revealed a military mind-set that is deeply troubling and misinformed. Your interviewer and PsyOps soldiers reported frustration that local Iraqi citizens are failing to see "the big picture" and only complain about wanting local action -- drinkable water, regular electricity service, affordable oil. But it is the military that is either hoodwinked or is actively misleading the US media when its officers state that "Iraqis need to create solutions to [[]Iraqi[i] problems. The Iraqis interviewed were complaining about "no money:" hundreds of the billions of US tax dollars sent to Iraq have disappeared down the pockets of US companies and US contractors who privatized every Iraqi company they could get their hands on while turning qualified Iraqi employees out of work. Electricity supply in 2007 was [i]below[i] that of 2006. The massive problems facing every locality in Iraq are basic necessities for sustaining life. They were [i]not[i] [b]Iraqi-created problems[b]: they were created through the repeated looting by private US companies like Custer Battles of monies dedicated for Iraqi reconstruction. "Reconstruction" has been a disaster: it is merely a euphemism for massive corporate rip-off of both the American people and the Iraqis whose country we have destroyed.
I listened to "Shouting Across the Divide" -- in fact stayed in my car for 30 minutes to hear Suri's and Chloe's story. Suri's pain resonated with me as a single parent of a daughter the same age. I was stunned by the insensitivity and hateful behavior of Chloe's teacher and the public school district administration. And very disappointed that Suri's husband bailed on the family, unable or unwilling to overcome his own demons to support his wife and 5 children. It was an incredibly moving interview, and I hope that Suri and her family are living in a more tolerant and accepting community. I missed the first part of the program and did not hear in what part of the country they had been living. I surmise it's an area where many get their news from hatemongers like Rush Limbaugh, hatred and bigotry are modeled by the parents (and at least one teacher) and it trickled down to the elementary school playground and classroom. Thank you PRI for putting together this interview. I hope Suri and her family are able to find peace and healing in their lives, and I hope that Suri will one day be in a position where she does not have to work 2 jobs to support her family. It's a story I will be thinking about for a long time, and maybe an opportunity for Suri and Chloe to write their own book about tolerance and peace.
Dear PRI,
I listen to This American Life on KERA in Dallas and I enjoy it immensely. Nevertheless, I must correct a narrator who said "..he took SHE and her sister to the park." He took HER and her sister to the park for God's sake. You're compounding bad grammar with pomposity.
Thanks for letting me get that off my chest, and keep up the good work.
Yesterday's program was especially wonderful. I am a great fan of Daniel Schorr's and enjoyed every minute. Bob's programs are always interesting and stimulating. - Now that, all of a sudden, there is a furor about vote fraud and the possibility of it reoccurring in November this would be a most interesting topic for Bob to cover. It boggles my mind that, 7 years after the first botched election, we get within 11 months to fix the mess and will there be any success of making it work as it should?
Thank You for the wonderful programs I hope they will continue for a long time.
I sent the enclosed email to Ed Sweeney, GM of KPCW in Utah.
Dear Mr. Sweeney, I am shocked and surprised that your staff let the anti-Huckabee,anti-Christian, and anti-Catholic skit on the air on "Fair Game with Faith Salie."
I have heard many offensive programs on the commercial stations, but NPR has always had higher standards than the others. However, I have to say, after reading the enclosed transcript, that the skit was more offensive than anything I have ever heard on the radio. I don't need an apology (but apologizing to the Lord wouldnt hurt), but I would appreciate it if you would adopt standards and procedures to prevent a reoccurence.
During Bob Edwards show Sunday, he interviewed a guest about the problems of American health care and how its cost is primarily related to the duplication of services, the lack of oversight and poor patient records management. The guest cited the Mayo Clinic and the VA hospital system as being exceptions, with excellent patient oversight. Edwards never even raised the question of why if this is true was the VA under such scrutiny last year? Hospitals, particularly Walter Reed, were called a disgusting mess and patients were exposed to excrutiatingly delays in treatment because its records system was such a mess. I couldn't understand how he could just let that slide by. I generally think he is among the top five interviewers in the country and that he has about the most enjoyable news and entertainment interviews on radio or television. This seemed an odd oversight.
Jim Lawless
I thought the recent Fair Game segment on "Huckabee Family Recipes" was written in poor taste. While I understand that to produce cutting edge humor and commentary one has to sometimes cross the line, I am nonetheless shocked that this made it through an editing process and was aired. While I am weary of the stronghold that evangelicals have on our political process and argue strongly for a rigorous separation of church and state, the skit regarding "deep fried eucharist" was neither insightful nor witty. I am sure there is a joke linking obesity in America (and our candidates) and evangelical christians, but this is not it. To simply deep fat fry one of the most important sacraments of Christianity seems formulaic and needlessly divisive.
I do not take issue with your right to make these comments on the air nor with their ethical standing. I simply find them poorly conceived, reductionist and unproductive, which is precisely what I think of many evangelical political tactics. As a listener, I expect more from you and will hold you to it. Use your heads and beware of the serpent telling you to take of the low hanging fruit.
You ran a story on Heavy Metal music in Bolivia, with particular reference to the British Band "Iron Maiden" and to their song "The Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner," based on Samuel Taylor Coleridge's poem. You suggested the poem comments on Victorian society. I wish to point out that "The Ancient Mariner" was first published in 1798, in Wordsworth and Coleridge's collection, "Lyrical Ballads." Queen Victoria was born in 1819. This mistake is not uncommon. For reasons that escape me we seem quick to label all English literature post-Shakespeare and pre-twentieth century "Victorian."
mr. feldman, love your show. however; the lady who read re: getting married and the motorcycle and honorable mention, etc. i thought she was TURRRRRRRRRRIBLE. i didn't find her at all entertaining. i actually think she might have some type of disorder. whoa!
Re. the discussion with David Harris about dying languages being preserved:
I entered the room just in time, and didn't catch what language the example was from; but giving the example of saying "four twenties, plus ten, plus six" as a more particularly unusual way to say numbers in the nineties struck me as odd. "That's the same as French", I said to myself -at least for 97 through 98. Sixteen is still a single word, instead of "ten+six". Quatre-vingt seize; then quatre-vingt dix-sept, dix-huit, and dix-neuf. So everybody American doesn't take French in school - maybe he took Russian or Chinese...just a note...
To anyone interested in hippopatami, before or since the mention of researching their sweat for its antibacterial properties: Please check out the song, "Mali Sadio", available in two different versions and languages on the CD, "Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra". It's a traditional song in the North African region about hippos, which are the iconic animal of Mali. The song relates an unfortunate incident of a hippo who has a communal relationship with the woman of a village, who do their chores at the river, being shot by a hunter.
I listen to The World everyday, and thoroughly enjoy it, and Lisa Mullen's great work. However, I believe I just heard her say that someone "could care less" when she meant they couldn't care less. I mean, like, really! One expects a much higher standard from PRI than commercial radio.
11/21/2007 1:36:18 AM
