All Things Not Considered: Why NPR Won’t Tell Listeners Why It Fires Its Black Employees
National Public Radio has always struck me as a highly-polished jewel in the crown of hard-left, Jewish-dominated media. On my drive home from work, I listen to Robert Siegel, a quintessential liberal Jewish male, and Michele Norris, a quintessential liberal Black female, co-hosts of All Things Considered, the nightly news reflections program.
All Things Considered is a laughable title, given that the only things NPR will consider are jazz, the Holocaust, and the plight of the yellow-breasted Amazonian snail darter. The voices ooze with calm contempt for the White suckers whose tax dollars pay their salaries — a uniquely twisted form of White dispossession.
I once called it Not So Fresh Air.
So I had a chuckle when I heard about the recent firing of Greg Peppers, a long-time Black news producer for NPR, and the reaction it caused. Reportedly, Peppers had to be escorted from the building.
A Black media blogger, Richard Prince, reported the firing, and the reaction of the National Association of Black Journalists.
Neither Prince nor the NABJ, of course, is actually interested in whether the firing was justified. Any time a Black person is fired, by their standards, it’s because of “racism.”
I personally have no idea. If you do, send me an email.
NPR’s response is predictably apologetic about not having enough non-Whites, NPR President Vivian Schiller stating, “I couldn’t agree more that NPR must increase the diversity of its staff — particularly in management and editorial.”
Surprisingly, the response pointedly notes that listenership for NPR’s flagship programs is made up of a much lower percentage of Blacks and Latinos (5% and 4% respectively) than their percentage of the population — even though these groups constitute 18% and 25% of the entire radio audience.
It’s not clear why they point this out, but the most obvious interpretation is that they are suggesting that NPR management ought to reflect the ethnic composition of its listenership, not the population at large.
This would be rather obviously illiberal for such a far left outfit. Imagine what that might do for, say, sports management where one could argue that the management of the National Basketball Association should reflect the audience, not the percentage of Black players. Networks that appeal primarily to Whites would be able to have White management. Companies that sold products mainly to White people wouldn’t have to worry about diversity quotas.
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Sounds like leftist Whites (and Jews) in the media are starting to get worried about all that diversity they are pushing on the rest of us.
I have only speculation about Peppers’ firing. In my journalism experience, Blacks were erratic and profoundly incompetent. The notorious Jayson Blair was less of an aberration from Blacks than Stephen Glass was from Jews. (In general, Jews — hostility to Whites aside — are amazingly hard-working journalists). The Black journalists I came across made mistakes, didn’t put in much effort, and generally put out lousy work-product. Inappropriate behavior wasn’t uncommon.
One of their arguments was that only Blacks could properly cover Blacks, an argument that, if consistency reigned, would mean that only Whites can properly cover Whites.
As recounted in books like Coloring the News: How Political Correctness Has Corrupted American Journalism, loading the paper with Blacks often meant that criminal Black politicians, like Washington, D.C. mayor Marion Barry, got cover-ups instead of coverage.
Yet Blacks demanded to be anywhere and everywhere, and could rely on the bullying of racial interest groups like the NABJ to get their way. Blacks would be promoted over much harder-working — and much more talented — Whites on a regular basis.
All of which created a particularly sticky problem for American journalism, dedicated to multiculturalism and liberalism as it is. It desperately wants to hammer Whites and elevate Blacks, but it ran into the problem of actually executing this plan internally because of Black incompetence.
NPR, I’m sure, would love to have dozens of smart and talented Black reporters and producers. But they don’t, for the simple reason that the talent pool isn’t there. And NPR is not about to squander its reputation as a left-wing media powerhouse in order to indulge the demands of Blacks. Viewed more broadly, NPR is a deadlier weapon against Whites when controlled by smart liberal Jews than incompetent, erratic Blacks.
I have this fantasy (which I do not intend to act upon) of breaking in to the NPR studios in the middle of a story about Afghanistan troop levels, grabbing the microphone, and reading some key passages from The Israel Lobby.
It’ll never happen.
But it’s comforting to know that the racial reality NPR hides from listeners can be found right there in its own building — the raucous and uncomfortable clash between Blacks and Whites (or Jews) clamoring down the stairway, soundproofed out of the studio where Michele Norris’ warm voice smothers us with notions of multiracial harmony. It’s enough to make me want to make my pledge.
Christopher Donovan (email him) is the pen name of an attorney and former journalist.
