I was in my Facebook feed when I saw an article from NPR about an ESPN correspondent that had a rant against the company that towed her car. It's pretty scathing stuff, and there's no excusing the amount of asshole-ishness on display.
Still, I couldn't help but ask myself, "why is this a short little blip on NPR? Surely, this is something I would expect to see from TMZ." The title was literally something akin to "ESPN anchor rants..." Or something like that.
I made a comment akin to:
What are you doing NPR? Why?? I've been a fan my entire adult life, why go the YMZ route?
Well, it was amazing the amount of people that came out to defend this piece of shit, little, link-baity pile of garbage. People blindly love things and public radio is one of them.
Am I cynical? Cause aside from the music of the Beatles, and the cuteness and abilities of my children, there's nothing I blindly agree with.
But people love their NPR and how dare you suggest it's fishing for page views?!!
BY THE WAY, NPR IS ABSOLUTELY FISHING FOR PAGE VIEWS
Yep, without a doubt. But I didn't "reply" to anyone, I just made a comment on a post in my feed. But still, it was ill advised. Honestly, hanging out online anywhere, that isn't here makes me hate the internet. I'm sure there are plenty of places that are fine, but apparently, my FB feed isn't one of them.
Facebook's comments are particularly wretched hive of scum and villainy. I don't know if the majority of people are actually that dumb, I'm looking at a focus group, or I'm just oblivious, but WOW there's some stuff in there that's actually made me swallow 3 tylenols.
I so much agree with this. A lot of people just throw common sense out of the window when they're commenting on facebook. It's as though people see others acting really dumb and just join in because they want to fit in.
Yes, and trying to sway them towards sanity is a fools errand
I will defend certain subreddits like AskScience but Christ I never want to go back to reddit. Too much temptation to wander into the comments of a good story and get blown back by stupid. I whittled my subscriptions down to like ten and it didn't work. I might try using it in no participation so I'm not tempted to look at comments
Funny you mention that. Last night I spent WAY too much time reliving the whole Jay Leno vs. Conan O'Brien episode because of an "auto play" situation. That said, it was incredibly intuitive and seemed almost chronological. It was like watching a documentary on the subject. What I can't believe is that I still need to borrow b_b's cable provider and login to watch the NHL playoffs!! You watching?
NPR always has stupid stories on Facebook. Every story they cover gets a write up on the website and some social media intern picks which ones to share. They're the best at actual news but if you listen to a whole day of Morning Edition and All Things Considered you're going to hear some fluff. And that's just their main news shows. Calm your tits
My tits are calm. I have been listening to their programming for many years, I'm well familiar with it. This was more of "you don't need to fish for page views" indictment than anything else.
Personally, I really like seeing powerful or famous people getting shamed as widely as possible for treating regular people terribly. When people talk down to their waitress or checkout person I usually step up and tell them to get a soul and go fuck themselves. Glad to see NPR do it, wish you all would.
Personally, I really like seeing powerful or famous people getting shamed as widely as possible for treating regular people terribly.
most people do, I'll admit that there is some justice that I enjoyed, knowing that she's getting the public shaming she deserves. That said, there are no shortage of vehicles for this shaming, literally thousands of online and print publications that would run this, I would prefer that NPR stay above the fray, or at least frame it in a more constructive narrative about the service industry and power. This is just click-bait.
Eh. Like most nonprofits, public radio has to do stupid shit to fund itself. Everyone does, and if you manage to put half as much of your efforts into what it was you set out to do as the stupid shit you need to do to fund yourself you're ahead of the curve. I say if you can forgive the fundraising drives you should forgive the clickbait, because they serve the same purpose.
Nope. I give $ so I don't HAVE to forgive the clickbait.