The other day, a friend forwarded me this link. It opens:

Ira Glass, the man who captivates countless National Public Radio (NPR) listeners with his quirky accounts of daily life around the country, recently asserted that NPR should be supported by free market capitalism and advertising.
Glass came under fire for this presentation, essentially a ( Read more... )

Well, I can't say I didn't see this coming. Andrea Seabrook, former NPR Washington correspondent, went to a different project some time ago, Decode DC, a podcast purported "to help Americans understand how crucial political issues affect everyday life."

We do this by using every narrative tool we can - from straightforward analysis to podcasts to ( Read more... )

I recently tripped on yet another rhetorical caltrop in an online discussion thread, a seemingly off-handed observation that sought to quiet the Sturm und Drang of yet another whiner (this whiner being myself); it was the notion that "advertising has . . . been the fuel for art and entertainment for decades, if not centuries." And while yes, this ( Read more... )

As well everyone knows who reads my keyboard droppings, I have been trying to get commercial ad content out of my life for some time now. In this phase of life, this means writing letters to content producers asking them to please, please, please let me pay for ad-free shows. No dice ( Read more... )

Just stumbled upon a New York Times article concerning sustainable development that posits a problem with a popular model, that of the Three Pillars of Sustainable Development. Those pillars are the Environment, Society, and the Economy. Here's a National Council for Science and the Environment page discussing the issue, and an image from the ( Read more... )

Just caught a piece of rage-inducing news: a Washington State House bill proposing selling naming rights to elements of public transportation to raise money. As he almost always does, I think Goldy says it best:

Personally, I'm opposed to selling the naming rights on state bridges and highways because I think it cheapens the commons and ( Read more... )

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jwz shares this delightful and disturbing "debate" about the Do Not Track feature of browsers. When someone proposed "marketing" be allowed on a list of "Permitted Uses for Third Parties and Service Providers" in future standards definitions, a few expressed confusion. This prompted Marketer Rage-On:

Marketing fuels the world. It is as American as ( Read more... )

On recommendation of the guys at Radiolab, I started listening to and thoroughly enjoying 99% Invisible. Short, well-produced, thought provoking; just darned good podcasting. There was the little turd at the end of each episode, though, a commercial plug for some shit or another that simply doesn't belong on public radio, even good public radio ( Read more... )

I got another rude interruption to my podcast listening the other day, this time from The Skeptics Guide to the Universe, a podcast I've shoved in my ears now for over four years. The interruption came this time from two of the skeptics themselves schlepping wares for an online audio book purveyor. ( I'll cut the gory details of this particular campaign. )