NPR's "On the Media" is failing its supporters

I don't know if it has been through corporate infiltration or what, but "On the Media," a program that used to provide critical commentary on media issues, has become a megaphone for corporate interests. This would be an understandable role if it were run by Microsoft or General Electric, but it is presumably supported by the public and has the public interest in mind. Presumably...

Here is my recent letter.

Dear On the Media,

A long-time listener to your program via WNED AM 970 in Buffalo, NY, I listened with my jaw dropped to the floor this weekend as you reached new depths of corporate-minded mediocrity by bashing Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 with the help of Newsweek's Isikoff (who repeated the claims that have been publicly debunked and exposed as ideologically driven) and by giving a defense of the Carlyle group with the help of its recently hired damage-control PR man.

It is easy to research these issues better than you have. Here is one source that, at the very least, would have provided you, and your listeners, with a reasoned rebuttal to Isikoff's claims.

With this new emphasis at On the Media on defending corporate interests to the exclusion or denigration of opposing voices, I have a few suggestions for future topics that you might enjoy covering.

i) How Howard Zinn's "A People's History of the United States" is pure liberal conspiracy theory which, if burned, would add less ozone-depleting compounds to the environment than does Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines. Guest: Rush Limbaugh.

ii) Why Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! is a treasonous liar who editorializes the news. Guest: Bill O'Reilly.

iii) The charitable works of the Tyco Corporation. Guest: anonymous publicity man recently hired by Tyco to speak its good deeds far and wide.

I would be greatly pleased if any or all of these ideas would make their way to your esteemed program soon.