A Black media historian and proponent shouldn’t be indifferent to the cancellation of a national Black-created show, right? I mean, I hate to say what’s in this headline (I was a big fan of the struggle “Tell Me More” had relaying non-white experiences to the whitest, and elitist, audience in radio), but okay, these kinds of shows are not its kind of thing–particularly when the network is broke(ish) and had to cut back.

Maybe the spin NPR is doing is right this time. Michel Martin will get a larger audience for the perspectives she so expertly brings, and NPR will stop pretending it wants a Black-controlled editorial voice. This is the third NPR show that tanked, right? (The first radio “Tavis Smiley Show,” “News and Notes,” and now this!) It’s enough.

JUNE 2nd UPDATE: Below are my reactions (“tweets” of a sort) to the Steiner discussion (see the link “not its kind of thing” above)

————————————–

8:00 – NPR’s “future” is people of color? LOL! Okay, Peterson, let me get out my lyrics for the Optimist’s Anthem …… 😉

9-12:00 – Thanks, Jared, for setting them straight! *WHEW* (At an HBCU, huh? LOL!)

12:00 – “They SHOULD?” And I should be The Silver Surfer! LOL!

14:00 – They will “ride on the rims,” but they will buy new tires THEMSELVES; their vision is CLEAR.

17:00 – I could tell “Tell Me More” was trying hard to mainstream even further, because much of it was about Mom issues. I stopped listening to it because I’m not a Mom and probably will not be one in the future 🙂

18:00 – Damn, Jared! “White rule?” Can tell Pacifica doesn’t pay you! LOL!

20:00 – Diana Ross?!? Let’s just give Steiner some melanin right now! LMAO!!!

21:00 – Farai’s podcast is nationally syndicated on PRI. (She’s back in the game, without having to make a living doing so.) So she’s making the only argument that somebody from Harvard, in major media for 20 years, etc., can make. She’s not going to waste time on Pacifica when she can get, say, young white women to fund her.

24:00 – “Democratization of content?” Yeah, okay, Peterson, if you’re okay with having your own thing and 20 listeners…..

24-25:00 – There is no benefit of diversity if whites have to pay for things they don’t want!

26- 28:00 – WHEW! Thanks, Jared! They really don’t want to talk about how whites control this stuff, do they? 🙂 Except the white host! LMAO! (So an estimated 600 people read my Baraka stuff on imixwhatilike and The Root: so what? I’m not confusing access with agenda-setting!)

29:00 – Farai thinks she is going to be the “Black voice” of the next digital media forum that Zuckerberg and them, or billionaires like them, will put together! Ahh……now she makes sense! Well, good luck, Farai! I’ve been one of your biggest fans since Newsweek. One question to you, though: You are 45 next month, and why would they (the omniscient, omnipresent “they” 😉 ) want you when they can get the next Ivied, 25-year-old, surely bi-racial Farai who they can control, I dunno :)?

30:00 – Jared: yep! The DRAKE FORMAT!

32:00 – Peterson wants to be seen as radical as Jared, but also as an optimist. 🙂

33:00 – Farai doesn’t want to address Jared’s concerns, because it doesn’t get her any grants! (Jared: Do you notice you are the ONLY person mentioning Richard Prince’s column here? That says A LOT! Farai knows better, but all she can do is articulate her hustle.)

36- 38:00 – Tavis does a good job here breaking down the history of PBS/NPR, and his history with NPR. (Tavis once said he told NPR at the beginning of the deal: “I’m an activist who hosts a radio program, and I will continue to be so.”)

40:00 – “Budgets are moral documents” 🙂 Ah, the PK flow….. 🙂

41- 43:00 – “NPR doesn’t cut its research budget, I can tell you that.” 😉 And Tavis is now saying what Jared was saying.

43-45:00 – “Super-serve the white audience!” YES, Tavis! He is trying to bridge the gap between Jared and Peterson. Tavis is funny about his sounding WAAAAY too Black for NPR! LOL!

46:00 – Tavis is trying to be an optimist, but he agrees with Jared.

———————————