James Lileks in the current edition of National Review on Tax and Beg Radio (sub req):
I know people who work in public radio, and they’re good journalists. But I grit my teeth when I go to the local station for interviews or shows. I’ve spent time in private radio, where the dank ugly studios lack only leaking barrels of water with Civil Defense markings. The local public-radio stations are like the bridge of the Enterprise. Here, put on these silk-sheathed headphones, cushioned with our special mixture of ambergris. Grapes? Peeled or pre-peeled?
If the Congress defunds NPR, then Ernst Stavro Soros, sitting in his underwater lair stroking a white Persian, can foot the bill for the rest. Or Bill can foot the bill. (Gates, that is.) Or they can run ads, and the audience can suffer the way the AM talk-radio audience suffers, listening to another exhortation to buy gold before the currency gets into a contest with Zimbabwe’s for the greatest number of zeros. If we can’t stop paying however many pennies to public radio, then we can’t push away any piglet from the teat. A hard-working Congress could pass this by 9:02 a.m. on Day One. Unless Amtrak abolition took a minute more than scheduled.
I believe I have a passing familiarity with one of those studios that James so aptly describes.
Meanwhile, in the same issue and on the same topic Rob Long has penned this killer metaphor (sub req):
From the smug, deluded bunker of NPR, Fox News is a big, greasy, angry, hate-filled state fair, where right-wing nuttery is passed along like deep-fried Twinkies to an obese and ignorant public.
Using imaginary from the state fair to perfectly capture how NPR feels about Fox? Beautiful. I gotta believe that Mr. Lileks might be just the slightest bit jealous that it was Mr. Long who came up with that one.
