NPR’s Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin was interviewed this morning by Dick Gordon on The Connection. One theme kept running through his comments…he keeps talking about the role of “public radio” being to serve its listeners. What drives me crazy about this is his myopic confusion - NPR is not identical to “public radio,” which is a far larger thing than his organization. It’s the hubris inside NPR where they think they are “public radio” that allows them to ignore the wishes of their listeners.

It’s also clear to me that while public radio’s mission is to serve its listeners, NPR’s clear mission is to serve itself, dumping “older” listeners in its insane quest for younger ones. So stop pretending NPR is public radio…it isn’t.There’s a whole lot of better public radio programming being produced outside of NPR than there is inside it. (Don’t believe me? Contrast and compare the excellent newsmagazine “Here and Now” (produced by WBUR Boston) to NPR’s lame short-attention-span-theatre production, “Day to Day.” We won’t even mention the new Morning Zoo…)