The public broadcasting network in Mississippi has booted Terry Gross and Fresh Air for "recurring inappropriate content."
Since this is totally two of my worlds colliding, I'm going to admit conflict and let the aggrieved Serenity Home proceed with a scan of the Fresh Air lineup:
Recent reviews included these: July 13th, "Robert Randolph: A Gospel Guitarist's Secular 'Road';" July 12th, "A Star Named Marilyn (But Not The One You Think; " and July 9th, "Cholodenko's 'Kids' Flick: More Than Just All Right." Anything that stands out as recurring and inappropriate here?
Recent political topics included "CPAC, The Tea Party And The Remaking Of The Right," "Connecting The Dots Between PhRMA And Congress," and "'Clinton Vs. Starr': A 'Definitive' Account." Anything inappropriate that the average American could not handle in these topics?
Now what could possibly be inappropriate about the content of these shows? Couldn't possibly be the interview with Colin Firth regarding his role in "A Single Man." He plays the part of a gay man grieving the loss of his partner. The story line of grieving the death of a loved one is as old as the story of David and Jonathan in First Samuel of the Hebrew Scriptures. And it certainly could not be the movie review of Cholodenko's "The Kids Are Alright." That story line of parents dealing with their rebellious teens goes all the way back to Adam and Eve. Oh wait, the parents are both lesbians. Nah, it couldn't be that.
Serenity Home thinks is might be the gay thing. Me, I'm betting on "CPAC, The Tea Party And The Remaking Of The Right," with Dave Weigel.
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Gee, Mississippi hiding its head from reality, education and diversity? Who'd have thunk it?
Your comment is really offensive to me as a Mississippian, one with little love for MPB's decision to cut this excellent program from its "Think Radio" line-up.
I'm sorry if I offended you. That was not my intention. My sincerest apologies, sir.
Apology accepted with deepest appreciation, sir! :)
And I hope that you aren't affected too badly by the BP oil gusher.
If you guys are finished with your lovefest, Tom, I hope you folks are contacting MPB to tell them that they're making you all the laughingstock of the NPR community, and maybe they need to rethink their Jim Crow mentality. Listeners all over the country are looking down their collective noses at you, without the benefit of knowing you. Unjustified? Yes, but you can thank MPB for that. I like you, but, I'm just sayin'...
Terry Gross is one of the best interviewers in the business. This is Mississippi's loss.
The original participants in the Boston Tea Party disguised themselves as Native Americans to hide their identity. The current Tea Party is doing the same type of thing, except this time it is arrogant bigots who have disguised themselves as Patriots.
Clinton Vs. Starr is a little racy for me.
HAAA!
As one of our dem gubernatorial candidates says on one of his commercials, "If cutting budgets was the answer, Mississippi would be a national leader".
Can we PLEASE ask MS to secede, and to take TX with it?
You got that idea from ME!
Matt Entenza, one of our dem gubernatorial candidates, uses it in his commercials. I'll see if he can fork over some royalties to you! :)
Terry Gross, Fresh Air, NPR, and inappropriate content in the same sentence....quoting from yesterday's Classic Bloom County comic seems appropriate: "You, sir, have bats in the belfry!"
This is especially important is pointing out how vulnerable our public radio and TV broadcasting is with the previous 8 years of constant funding cuts and the current economic crisis - and maybe more importantly, the reliance on corporate donations...a difficult as it is, we all need to make room in our budgets to help fund the NPR's/PBS's/etc and their local affiliates - the 'cost' of a free press is not free...
Oh, I definitely think it's the gay references.
Thanks for the heads-up, Rach. Responsible and conscientious Mississippians are respectfully reaching out to them via social media and telephone now.
I'm not sure they realize from whom they receive their financial support. But they will.
Terry Gross IS one of the best interviewers in the business, as well as host of one of the most responsible, fair and interesting programs on radio anywhere. I'm glad to have read Degringolade's response and to know people in MS are responding to this stupidity.
We have become fairly practiced at responding to stupidity.
Not that NPR is the bastion of liberalism conservatives make it out to be, but this is sad, particularly so for progressives in MS who want to listen to something other than Sean, Glenn, and Rush.
Terry Gross is one of the best people on earth. Literally. It's a fact. My skull pulsing with anger, I am now officially boycotting the state of Mississippi. Not that I had any intention of ever ending up there.
On the bright side, South Carolina's happy: "At least I'm not Mississippi!"
Give it another week, SC. You'll be right back on top! ( ;
I lived in WV for a number of years, and we were usually #49 in just about any category you could mention. The oft-heard response when this was brought up was "At least we aren't Mississippi", as they were usually #50 on any list. Unfortunately, that was used as a justification not to do more in the area under discussion, rather than saying "#49 isn't good enough!"
I bet us here in Oklahoma give you good competition though, huh?!
I lived in OK for three years, and it was during the days of the oil boom, and then bust in the early to mid 80s. During the boom, I remember oil rigs festooned with banners saying "Let the bastards freeze in the dark", referring to folks, especially in the northeast, who were suffering from extremely high heating oil prices. Not long after that, the oil market went bust, and I remember schools suffering some massive budget cuts.
Check out our statistics. We have the best cost of living in the nation. We are third most business friendly in the nation. In every other statics we are crawling under rocks...education expenditure, rate of high school drop outs, teen pregnancy, rate of incarceration...per capita and total, highest total of women incarcerated in the nation (think about that for a moment...higher than states that are more populous than us by MILLIONS,) rates of uninsured children, mental health care...on and on and on.
This place sucks. We have a tea party candidate for govenor Randy Brogdon...look him up. We wants to roll back "Obamacare," start a state funded anti-federalist militia. and is on record saying that BP should have gotten away with alot more than they did. We're leaving if he he wins.
Our Tea Party candidate for governor, Tom Emmer, had a rough time at a town hall yesterday, and even his friends said he did badly. I linked the story on one of the threads today.
THIS IS NOT about the LGBT stories or conservative criticisms. I've received input from various people within MBP that confirm this.
I suspect you dig a little deeper (or to the top) to find the culprit.
The internet crosses state boundaries
My wife is from Mississippi.
15 years later, I still have no reason to cross into that state of Despair.
May I suggest to the good people of Mississippi that this story simply exacerbates the stereotype of the uneducated, über-conservative southern redneck, probably leaving you with the same taste in your mouth as a PHd in West Virginia? I like both states, but maybe it's time for the thinkers, in both states, to stand up and say to the folks who are reinforcing that stereotype that they're doing their home states a grave disservice. You are, however, keeping the rest of us entertained.
As a senior citizen who was born in Mississippi and lived there for much of my life, I am deeply grieved at this loss of Freedom of Speech. The state is beautiful, and the soil will grow anything twice as well as anywhere else...including marijuana, tomatoes, watermelon, kudzu, wisteria, day lilies, etc. As a lesbian who will be attending her small town reunion in October with her partner, I will not be doing any public displays of affection. Whatever the cause of the cancellation, I do wish the educated people of Mississippi would seriously protest this censorship. If my redneck, Tea Party, conservative, undereducated cousins can accept me and my partner, what's wrong with a bit of talk that's not in agreement with them?
Dear sharecropper - consider this 'in solidarity' support from your sister's in the west - enjoy the reunion (regardless of freedom of expression), and, my thoughts and support are with you...
hear hear!!