March 6, 2007
The Left and Books
This post has some interesting stuff on cultural attitudes, but the money line is the last sentence. I have long noticed that "Leftists talk about books, but they don't buy books" as well as the fact that they are the first to point that Republicans don't support the arts, when they are the last to do so as well, at least with their own money.
Take NPR, for instance. I love NPR. It offers a lot of great programming, news and culture talk as well as some decent arts broadcasting. However, more and more NPR stations, primarily with affluent liberal audiences who pride themselves in their culture and wit, are totally abandoning any music programming. In the Bay Area, one of the more cultured areas in the nation, we do not have a decent classical radio station. We have a commercial "dentist's office" station (no vocal, nothing too difficult, no complete works (just movements), narrow range of programming, etc.). Yet if you listen to some Volvo driver with a KQED sticker jabber on, you would think that the GOP is solely out to destroy public access to the arts.
Watching the music/policy talk ratio on Pacifica is even more depressing.
The thing is, the left has, for the most part, the exact same attitude towards the arts as the right. They just pretend otherwise. The right wing at least admits that they don't think that the Good and the True are always linked to the Beautiful.
Now, this is painting with a broad brush, but it is fairly accurate, and it goes back to the Puritan influence on our culture. For the Puritans, the Beautiful was the deceptive, when Puritanism was secularized, anything outside of a market framework became the irrelevant. For leftists, anything outside of policy is irrelevant.
So, when it comes down to it, the left would rather rebroadcast the same newscast four times, than devote one part of that time to interesting cultural programming. They just have the indecency to sneer at the right for doing the same thing.
Posted by erik at March 6, 2007 2:46 PMJohn,
Unless I am in Sacramento or Santa Cruz, I have long learned to look for classical music in places other than the radio. The problem is that most of my collection is vinyl, and transfering it to digital takes a long time (especially if one is a nitpicker, which I am). I already have an all-harpsichord playlist (or five) on the iPod (and a number of general early music and avant-garde music playlists as well - both seriously underrepresented on classical radio).
Posted by: Erik Keilholtz at March 6, 2007 9:29 PMSeveral comments:
Erik already knows some of my opinions. I point to the very evident (to every one but the network and stations) 'point of view' of NPR stations. Catholics are the sole "targetable" minority. The Catholic point of view is so foreign to them that they resort quite often to simple ridicule. This is particularly true with "life issues" "The Catholic Church says .... " presented with a very clear sneer.
There is also a tendency to believe that fairness is when you present every point of view. This might be a good thing unless at the very end of a balanced report you conclude it with a "zinger" that makes it very clear just what the audience SHOULD believe.
The "every point of view" approach is only valid if you have the opinon that every point of view is equally valuable. In my personal opinion it is intellectual sloth.
I'm a Broadcast engineer by training and trade. There is very little difference between the technical side of either commercial or non-commercial radio. The difference is the funding model. One model hawks their wares in public, in the open for all to see. The other does it in the back room. The first is on air begging. The second is selling advertising. It begins to blur when you think about NPR's national underwriters and large foundations. Underwriting sales is just that : sales!
Finally, the non-com side tends to underpay the staff so that the donors money is put to "prudent use". The managers still get their bonuses. The commercial side tends to underpay the staff so that the investors get their returns. The managers still get their bonuses. Both are increasingly satellite fed with decreasing local references.
Erik, you may be forced to do what the kids are increasingly doing. Buy an i-pod. Load your classical music on it. "Why would I want to listen to the radio? It is so repetitive and boring!"
Another (but not boring) opinion.
Posted by: John Huntley at March 6, 2007 8:54 PMIf the left believed that Tchaikovsky's music would cause listeners to esteem his manner of life, they'd play it without ceasing. Instead they figure that the constant repetition of the dysangelion du jour (of which the demonization of all but the truest of true believers is a crucial part) is more effective.
Posted by: Gregg the obscure at March 6, 2007 3:49 PM