31

Monday, February 1, 2021, 8:50 AM Eastern Standard Time

Mary drove to work and listened to National Public Radio, as she had surreptitiously done for some 14 years, ever since her family’s lives had started to fall apart. It was a habit she had not quite broken, despite the change in her political opinions; NPR seemed to have more plain news than the other stations, and fewer loud-mouthed editorialists and commercials. Though the frequent breaks for sponsor shout-outs had begun to erode that advantage in the past decade.

“For one final time, this is NPR News in Washington,” the smooth-voiced announcer intoned.

So it’s over, Mary thought. And this guy is the one telling us. I wish it was the old guy who did the morning show, or the nice Jewish lady. They seemed more human, less like a radio voice, like this guy has.

“This will apparently be the last broadcast of Morning Edition for at least some time to come, maybe forever,” the anchor continued. “Our facilities and our web sites have been sold to a private equity fund, and our affiliates will be taken over after today, and their formats changed; to what type of programming, we have not been informed. Our ability to operate as a radio network is controlled by a federally-supported private corporation, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The board of that corporation has voted to shut down our network. They have not given us any reason why this decision was taken.

“I have worked for various parts of National Public Radio for some twenty-five years, and it has been my privilege to bring you the news as I have seen it, to give both sides of any issue, and to question advocates for every political side as vigorously as I knew how. Any suggestion that political bias has determined any of the editorial decisions I or any of the colleagues I know have made is, I can assure you, absolutely false.

“Like many of my colleagues here,” he continued, “I have seen NPR grow and expand and become more professional. Maybe in some ways too professional. We have at the same time seen our government support shrink. On this, our final day, less than ten percent of our funding comes from the federal government. The remainder, as you have often heard from us in recent years, comes from corporate sponsorships and from listeners like you. I have in the past strongly supported this shift in sources of support; I believed that it gave us more independence from political influence by whatever party happened to be in power in the White House or Congress.

“I have to say today that I was almost certainly wrong. It appears that political influence from the highest level, as well as influence brought to bear by some of our more recent corporate sponsors, has been behind this decision to shut the network down. The people who caused this change to be made have refused our repeated requests to explain why we, and PBS News, no longer will be on the air. I can only conclude that they have determined that strong, independent, objective media reporting facts as they see them is a danger to their political aims.

“Many of us, like so many of you, now unemployed, will be searching for other ways to continue our mission of bringing the American people the truth. I would simply urge all of you to remember that the great danger to this country, to your freedom, to your way of life, may not come from lies spouted endlessly from partisan propaganda mills, nor even from the sort of superficial corporate-sponsored scandal- and celebrity-obsessed pablum you see on network television, nor even from the crude falsehoods of social media. No. The real danger, ladies and gentlemen, comes from the silence, the lack of outlets even attempting to bring you objective truth. After today, we will be part of that silence. And silence is always harder to recognize than the loud braying of partisan or commercial cacophony that surely will replace us.

“For fifty years, NPR News has tried to bring you the plain unvarnished truth. We have not been perfect, to be sure. Bias is human. But perhaps our greatest error came in not standing up strongly enough against a regime that from the beginning stated its open intention to shut down all points of view other than its own. If I had it to do over again, I would be far harder on the people who were doing their best to fool you, and perhaps a bit easier on those who were desperately trying to warn you about the danger.

“I don’t know if it would have changed anything if I had done so. I do know I would feel better today. It is a sad moment for us here at NPR. But more significantly, it is a dangerous moment for America. We are on a slippery slope now – in fact, we have been sliding for some time, and we are picking up momentum. I ask you to do whatever you can, from wherever you are, to halt this slide, and to help reverse it. We have lost our particular fight. But we live to fight another day. Thank you, and from Morning Edition, for the last time, so long.”

Mary listened to the theme song and credits.

It’s sad to hear them go, she thought.

Then she thought, But they have only themselves to blame. They haven’t been the same recently. They used to have that nice old guy with the smooth voice doing that variety show on Saturday nights. It was like the olden times, like church. It had a homily, and songs, and humor, and it was midwestern, like us. Even Jeff liked it, even if he complained about that guy’s politics. But they kicked him out, and Saturday night hasn’t been the same since. They replaced him with a strange loud show with strange loud bands and strange comedians saying stuff I don’t like. And that quiz show they have with those smartass people all trying to one-up each other and laughing too loud at their own jokes, usually making fun of the President, who was sick, and who was paying for all this, right? And all the shows about minorities, always complaining how everything’s so terrible. I know things are bad for them, but there’s nothing to make us feel good anymore. Why should taxes pay for stuff that makes fun of the President and people like me?

And if they’re so smart, she concluded, how come they keep losing elections? Let them try to get real jobs with those smart mouths.

Mary switched the radio to Jeff’s favorite station. The theme song for their big show was just starting.

She heard Guns N’ Roses, and felt the anticipation of a real radio personality about to rev his audience up with red meat.

© 2020 Nolan O’Brian