The demotion of Bob Edwards by Alan Chartock
Here's a special note. National Public Radio has pulled a bone head play. They demoted Morning Edition host, Bob Edwards, one of the most competent and honored journalists in America, to be a senior correspondent. Edwards made it clear that wasn't to his liking. In fact, the NPR blokes broke the late Lucille Ball's injunction not to "fool" with success." We are talking about the most listened to morning radio show in America. Edwards has just the right voice for the early morning and we have all woken up with him for years. His questions to news makers are short, to the point and devoid of ego needs. In short he's the best. Now some junior genius at NPR decides to fix what ain't broken and all hell has broken loose. At WAMC we have been deluged with mail from listeners who are fit to be tied. They have asked what I'm doing about it.
Well, you can be sure that I was the first guy to the barricades. I got right in NPR's face and asked them what the H they thought they were doing. When they sent those of us at member stations "talking points" and suggested answers to listener questions and complaints I issued a public response and told them that they had done a stupid things and their suggested answers sounded like manipulating the news, something that I didn't think that National Public Radio stood for.
Along with my friend, Linda Ellerbee, I've been working the phones and e-mail suggesting that the only way NPR could extricate itself from the tidal wave of protest is to issue a statement of abject apology suggesting that the listeners had spoken and that NPR would listen and reinstate Bob who, I said, "Should live a thousand years."
If you go to the WAMC home page you will see a link to "Save Bob Edwards," a petition that has already been signed by thousands of people. You might want to sign that.
NPR spends thousands of dollars on Congressional relations so they must have been pretty dismayed yesterday when Illinois Senator Durbin stood up and blasted NPR for dissing Edwards. The deeper they dig, the more they are going to hurt themselves. They have their sycophants doing statistical studies suggesting that people will forget about it. Interesting that they don't talk about what's right.
They don't scare me. I've been quoted in newspapers and in electronic media on this because I know that's what you'd want me to be doing. The whole thing smacks of ageism. NPR is searching for a younger demographic but there are a lot of us who do not think that we have ended our productive years. I'll bet our children feel the same way about what their parents are contributing. I know mine are.
So that's what I've been doing. I can be reached at Alan@wamc.org.




- posted by Alan @ 3/27/2004 08:43:00 AM