Mission Accomplished

One more, and presumably final, update on the MPR November Membership Drive totals. I sent an email to MPR asking about their fundraising goal and their success in achieving it and I got a cordial response from a guy in their Membership/Listener Services department. According to him their goal was $1.7 million and they did indeed reach it on Friday afternoon (cue the trumpet fanfare).

Regarding the on air hosts' comments that they were "way, way behind," according to my source, the overall goal is broken down into hourly and daily goals and there were indeed points in the drive where they were not on target and way behind. But due to the "phenomenal outpouring of generosity from the listeners" they were able to make it.

Needless to say, the hosts don't typically make the distinction between hourly goals and the total goal in their appeals. In fact, I've never heard an update as to their success relative to achieving their total goal. But, reasonably speaking, the techniques they're utilizing are designed to maximize contributions, no matter what the goal is, and there's nothing inherently unethical about it. Yet it does feel vaguely manipulative. And I wonder how the MPR news reporters would treat a private company engaged in fundraising who were, say, being investigated by Mike Hatch for "not being upfront with their customers" or engaging in "anti-competitive practices." I guess we'll never know.

Ultimately it appears Garrison Keillor's recent politically charged and regrettable comments on Norm Coleman didn't have a deleterious affect on fundraising for his employer. So I think it's reasonable to presume that either the MPR membership agrees with Mr. Keillor or they simply didn't see a link between their financial support of the station and support for Mr. Keillor's rhetoric. Maybe Tom Daschle's recent comments regarding hate speech associated with radio personalities will open their eyes to the truth. I mean after all, Mr. Daschle is probably a regular listener to NPR and although I don't agree with his characterization of Garrison Keillor as a "Rush Limbaugh wanna be" who else could he be referring to when he says:

''What happens when Rush Limbaugh [and his wannabe's?] attacks those of us in public life is that people aren't satisfied just to listen,'' Daschle, Democrat of South Dakota, told reporters yesterday. ''They want to act because they get emotionally invested. And so, you know, the threats to those of us in public life go up dramatically, on our families and on us, in a way that's very disconcerting.''

''If entertainment becomes so much a part of politics and if that entertainment drives an emotional movement in this country among some people who don't know the difference between entertainment and politics, and who are then so energized to go out and hurt somebody, that troubles me about where politics in America is going,'' Daschle said.

An ominous sign for Garrison Keillor and his future popularity. It appears that even the leadership of the Left has had enough of his hate speech. For their own good, I think it's time for MPR to start distancing themselves from the stench and mabye cut the cord with the Bard from Lake Woebegone, or their next pledge drive truly might end up falling short.