Can National Public Radio, an organization formed before the digital age offered people proliferating options for audio entertainment, make it past the many challenges it now faces? Leon Neyfakh investigates, asking: “What is the value of NPR’s core journalistic offerings—the brief, sober dispatches that air every day on its flagship shows Morning Edition and All Things Considered—in an age when its terrestrial audience is growing older and younger listeners seem to prefer addictive, irreverent, and entertaining podcasts over the news?”
Here’s a fun quote from the piece: NPR CEO Jarl Mohn, addressing some of NPR’s podcasting competitors: “Look, your storytelling is great. It’s fine. It’s fun. It’s interesting. It’s charming. But we’re covering Syria. We’re covering Ebola.”
Boxer Manny Pacquiao, who (possibly temporarily) retired from boxing after winning a fight against Timothy Bradley Jr. on Saturday night, has parlayed his success into a career in politics. But his recent comments calling LGBT people “worse than animals” may temper his fellow Filipinos’ respect for him, writes Rafe Bartholomew.
“Where cheering for Pacquiao and sharing him with the world used to be unequivocally joyful, now, when he stumbles into controversy, supporting him can feel like a sheepish obligation,” Bartholomew reports. “The U.S. can say good riddance to Pacquiao whenever he decides to hang up his gloves, but the Philippines owns him and all his warts for all of history.”
Pope Francis’ “Amoris Laetitia” pronouncement, published on Friday, contains language that denounces gay marriage. But, Will Saletan writes, if you look at the Pope’s document more closely, the caveats meant to validate marriages between infertile straight people could certainly apply to gay unions as well.
“This double standard, between homosexuality and other forms of infertility, is the cracked pillar at the foundation of the church’s policy against same-sex unions,” Saletan argues. “It’s how Catholic teaching on homosexuality will eventually collapse.”
Isaac Chotiner interviews Rachel Maddow, asking the broadcaster about MSNBC’s work this election season, Bernie Sanders’ campaign, and the way the media has handled Donald Trump. Of Chris Matthews’ interview with the candidate, Maddow said:
I love Chris Matthews, but this is not just me trying to be nice to him. I feel like he was born to interview Donald Trump … I want Chris Matthews to get every Donald Trump interview that the media is going to get over the next five weeks because finally there’s somebody who’s the same vintage, [has] the same bluster.
For fun: Colin Dickey investigates the Hum—mysterious and maddening low-level audio emission, or mass delusion?—for The New Republic.
Hmmmmmmm,
Rebecca
