NPR is cancelling News and Notes with Farai Chideya

Though many people are calling it an African-American show (oddly I never really got that) I called it the people of color, multiculty orgy show. It was awesome she regular had people on from the African-American, Latino-American and Asian-American blogosphere (and not just during our appropriate month you didn’t even have to be married to a white person to get on her show) pretty much the only person in the established media who viewed non-white people in the blogosphere as relevant to the editorial conversations of the day.

A link to Farai Chideya’s page: LINK

The demise of this show will be a sad day.

Please go over to Jasymne Cannick’s site to get all of the juicy info and to sign the petition, because this truly is some bullshit.

Browne

edited 12/12 to add Farai’s link

This entry was posted in Greater Los Angeles, La Crisis, Media, The Ethnics and tagged , , , , by Browne Molyneux. Bookmark the permalink.

About Browne Molyneux

My name is Browne Molyneux. I'm a lady. I'm a radical feminist. I'm black. I'm an Angeleno. I'm an artist. I'm carFREE. I'm a freelance writer. I'm a blogger. I'm a philosopher. I'm a humanist. I'm a journalist. I formerly wrote a column on transportation, Tracks for LA City Beat. The above are all of the things I have to work on being, got questions email me. browne@shametrainla.com My topics of interests include but are not limited to politics, transportation, dark green issues, economics, race relations, feminism, culture, working class urban life, media, art, Los Angeles and literature.

15 thoughts on “NPR is cancelling News and Notes with Farai Chideya

  1. Gosh, you’re right. The folks at NPR must really be racist to be cutting 7% of the company’s staff during a recession that’s raging its way on to becoming a depression.

    Why would they be cancelling “Day to Day” but “The Tavis Smiley Show” gets to remain on the air?

    They must be very anti-white.

    Oh, wait, that’s not really the whole picture, is it.

  2. I never heard this show, when is it on?
    I hated Day to Day when it first started but it had gotten much better lately.
    Wasn’t Tavis Smiley canceled and then brought back after his success on PBS?
    The show I wish they’d cancel or update is Talk of the Nation. Ugh, can’t stand that show!

  3. Soc,

    Tavis is uh, well just because two people are black doesn’t mean they are the same.And Day to Day, hey their most recent multi culty story is about a black jazz musician, pretty pedestrian and pretty much what white middle class MEDIA people like to talk about in regards to people of color I think all of the American public would like a more broad discussion.

    As a person of color I’m pretty sick of people of me being relegated to these stories: gangs, AIDS, fighting in various African countries, gangs, homicides, unemployment, various music and food in regards to our respective cultures.

    Seriously progressive white people should really get I do more than play jazz, eat ethnic food, dance around and avoid getting shot and I don’t sit around all day wishing some nice progressive priest will help me (oh yeah I also don’t have conversations with my girlfriends about my big butt,) but if you looked at PBS or NPR, you pretty much would think all people of color’s lives are pretty much that narrow in focus.

    It is as if we can’t have a conversation about the economy beyond our own ethnic group’s unemployment.

    Yeah and Tavis, if he weren’t black he would be on Fox. I don’t listen to him or watch him.

    And if you are going to cut such a few of your work force why would you cut the one show that talked to people outside of the middle aged yuppie demographic…just saying, but go ahead and continue to be sarcastic instead of constructively adding to the conversation.

    But you know if you are going to cut 7% why would you cut your one true multicultural show? Hey maybe NPR is racist? I mean in general how many story people do we have over there that all look the same, why cut the one thing you have different. You cut people who are redundant and Farai was not redundant.

    Chimatli:
    Here is a link to the webpage, I mainly listened to the podcast

    http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=11

    Browne

  4. Oh, wait, that’s not really the whole picture, is it?

    You KNOW it’s not, Soc. Morning Edition this morning Steve Inskeep announced with great trepidation the line-up of pink slips and it seemed to be pretty “color neutral” right across the board. A sad day, and he conveyed that. It’s sadder that we can’t lay off the greedy bastards that prompted “La Crisis”.

  5. @trini:

    I was being sarcastic and pointing out how I felt browne’s original post was one-sided and perhaps too narrow in scope.

    @browne:

    I’m not trying to say that all black people are the same – I was simply saying that you only told half the story, then put spin on it. The first time I heard the Tavis Smiley show I instantly thought of Tim Meadows on SNL doing the sketch of the guy in the 11:55pm time slot on sunday nights. It’s terrible.

    The Zocalo is a far better show, and it’s staying on the air… and it’s about being multicultural.

    I guess what I’m concerned about is why you’re so peeved that this one show is being cancelled. Is the cooking show on the weekends staffed by people from the AB? Is Larry Mantle pushing a secret agenda? NO. The shows aren’t targeted at yuppie white folks, they’re aimed at everyone. Everyone likes to eat, and everyone is affected by the stuff on the cover of the NYTimes every day.

    Hell, I especially like the CBC news show that’s on LATE at night – not because it’s staffed entirely by white folks, but because the hosts aren’t afraid to grill the everloving shit out of CEOs that fuck up. I heard a lady tearing an oil-exec a new asshole a couple weeks ago and I was clapping in my car. You don’t get that with domestic media.

    When I heard Linda Sanchez on All Things Considered on the way home from work the other day, I wasn’t thinking “Oh goodness, they’ve got ethnic people on the radio!” I was more interested in what the congresswoman had to say about her life and the way she and her sister got into the House.

  6. Lets see everyone and their grandma puts up a freaking post about a person who got laid of in media, so I put up the person that I liked.

    I like Farai Chideya and since people read this blog I put it up and what does my post was too narrow means?

    Zocalo only picks people to talk to from the old school of establishment of multiculuralism. Do they have anyone on there under 45?

    Oh I forgot Zocalo will pick people under 45 if the white mainstream media says they are ok and safe.

    I think it’s totally unfair that ethnic people of color in their twenties and thirties get pretty much no acknowledgement in regards to what they are doing, unless they water it down to be entertaining to the typical Santa Monica yuppie moderate Democrat.

    White people in the alternative media get airtime and book deals before their 40th birthday (and they can be totally outrageous and innovative and it is completely ok) and people of color have to turn 50 and then they get to be on a group panel at Zocalo or get to talk to Tavis, and sorry that’s not good enough.

    Farai was the only person talking to YOUNG (that’s the key) YOUNG people of color (who are from American neighborhoods, because of course if someone is from some other place and ethnic they are different) in the alternative media of the blogosphere since I fit in this demographic and she was giving us acknowledgment, I acknowledge her.

    Feel free to express your opinions on this matter, but too narrow of a focus? Please, isn’t every post or column or piece of media info out there a narrow focus. How do I write more broadly, should I make it more Fox News and stupid for you?

    Sorry if me putting up someone black bothered you, because for some reason that’s what I think the problem is for you Soc. I could have put up a progessive white guy and put the same words and I suspect you would have been fine completely fine with it.

    I never even said that NPR (in the post, that was what you took from that, if I thought NPR was racist I would have just said that in the post, I’ve never pulled punches on it before I dedicated a whole post to Kevin Roderick and the LA Times doing things that I perceived as racist, so…) was being racist or whatever certain other people implied I simply said this show was good and this show should be supported, now of course you can put whatever spin you want to put on that, but those are your issues not mine.

    Browne

  7. First, I’m glad we can have this conversation. I think it’s awesome.

    Secondly, how is “and not just during our appropriate month you didn’t even have to be married to a white person to get on her show” not racist? I calls ’em as I sees ’em, and I’m sure you’re the same way.

    Thirdly, you’re right about keeping a tight focus in your article. That’s a good thing, I guess I was just put off by the overtones of the above quoted passage, and remember hearing on NPR earlier that day about the other show that was canceled and the chunk of staff the organization was losing.

    Fourth, putting up someone black doesn’t bother me – and I don’t watch Fox News. How does my questioning of your post illustrate either of these points?

    Lastly, I think I found the root of the problem. I’m upset that NPR has to lay off a bunch of people and cancel some of its programming. You seem to be upset that they’re canceling a show by a young black woman who was/is “pretty much the only person in the established media who viewed non-white people in the blogosphere as relevant to the editorial conversations of the day.”

    I guess, perhaps, that I’m sensitive to divisive/exclusionary language. When someone talks about stuff that’s about “non-whites” my ears prick up and I have to wonder why they’re putting aside a cultural/ethnic group.

  8. Soc,

    “Secondly, how is “and not just during our appropriate month you didn’t even have to be married to a white person to get on her show” not racist? I calls ‘em as I sees ‘em, and I’m sure you’re the same way”

    How is me calling out the obvious racist? It’s kind of true. You do see lots of black people doing black history month in February. Most progressive people of color who get mainstream acknowledgement are married to white people. I mean seriously we can’t say that?

    I didn’t know you were the PC type, oh yeah PC only is negative when it doesn’t talk shit about people of color or women. I totally forgot about that.

    Being PC in regards to white people and their feelings is just being reasonable and fair.

    And I think it’s super duper awesome that you want to have a conversation TOO!!! FABBY DADDY!!!

    “I guess I was just put off by the overtones of the above quoted passage,” Soc.

    Well that was my point, to put you off and to possibly illicit some flame type commentary. This is the internet, we have to keep it interesting.

    “I guess, perhaps, that I’m sensitive to divisive/exclusionary language. When someone talks about stuff that’s about “non-whites” my ears prick up and I have to wonder why they’re putting aside a cultural/ethnic group.” Soc

    Well you know Soc, I’ll tell you I too am sensitive to divisive language. Do you go on LAist, Blogging LA, LA Curbed and talk about their divisive language, I want to see some proof of your sensitivity. Show me when you were offended when white people did something divisive, there are LOADS AND LOADS of examples online. Since this is your thing, provide me of some links to your outrage. I doubt you have any, but you know I’m not god. I have been wrong before.

    And the reason I exclude your ethnic group (I’m assuming your white), because I think you guys are pretty well represented in the media, I could be wrong, but it seems to me that it’s white people media day all day everyday to me, don’t think I don’t appreciate white people and all of the awesome things you’ve done. My step mom is white, my boyfriend is white, so don’t think I don’t love yah lots. I totally do, but I think that other people’s views are important too and the only way for that to happen is to acknowledge that some people aren’t represented.

    And maybe the common thread of those people not being represented are that they aren’t white. How is me saying that offensive? I didn’t exclude anyone the media did and I’m just restating what they did, maybe you should talk to the people who own the media.

    Now I also often go into class, but often that’s too much for the average Angeleno to grasp and I think it’s a bit too easy for people to pretend that racism doesn’t exist when I go into that vein of discussion.

    Browne

  9. News and Notes got horrible carriage, though. No carriage in Los Angeles, its alleged home. Nothing in Washington, DC., Portland, Seattle, New Orleans. Shunted to late evening time slots in many markets like New York and San Francisco.

    Personally, if there is an NPR show that I would dump in place of News and Notes, it would be The Diane Rehm Show. The woman has spasmodic dysphonia, which is a problem when you host a two hour talk show. The coverage of topics overlaps that with Talk of the Nation. Although produced by WAMU in Washington, it is syndicated by NPR and NPR gives its funding (the same arrangement for Fresh Air). Give Diane Rehm a well deserved retirement for 35 years on the radio. Of course, when your niece is the person firing folks, it’s not going to happen.

  10. You know I’ll tell you I get all of my misinformation online. I don’t know if NPR looks just at the broadcast radio numbers, I hope they don’t. I listen to NPR exclusively online through the podcasts. I don’t have a radio and don’t listen to the radio, probably owing to the fact I don’t have a car. I also don’t have TV, so even with PBS I only look at the clips that seem interesting via online. I think that’s pretty much the future and in regards to NPR and their decision to cut this show, a show that had a large blogosphere following in the progressive editorial blogsophere (which is pretty much NPR’s future audience) is to me a very stupid move for them in building a future audience.

    NPR and PBS needs to get that babyboomers are going to die and they need to stop tailoring all of their programs to that person. I am not interested in having a conversation with a 1970 perspective.

    See as the print world didn’t get it and the music industry didn’t get it the next group of people that need to figure it out before all of their programming is cut and they are completely irrelevant are the PBS and NPR set.

    I predict in ten years they are all going to be gone and bitching about how the internet video and video blogs and podcasts stole their audience just like the mainstream print media does now. I mean I would love it if NPR and PBS got a clue, but you know really all we need to do is get a hold of video camera and some flexible software and we can do our own NPR. I hate to recreate the wheel when we have this resource that does have value, but the alt radio media is doing the exact same thing they accused “the man” of when they came into existence in the 1970s.

    Also they need to cancel some people who have been on longer than I have been alive and who are just rambling about nonsense now.

    To me this is the future of NPR, PBS and the likes of them:

    http://www.illdoctrine.com/

    That guy and people like him are the future and that’s too bad that NPR doesn’t want to try to work with that, but you know I guess this is how you get innovative. You fill the need that is not being met, so NPR totally sucks in this move, but this is a future nail in their coffin.

    They’ll be like these print people whining about their jobs, maybe if some of these print journalist had written about something other than their friends they wouldn’t have to teach at a community college now, because about five years prior to all of the layoffs in media most of these reporters (especially in LA) were pretty much dialing it in. They pretty much could have done their job from Las Vegas or India that’s how in depth many people’s writing was.

    Browne

  11. Constant pledge drives, motivational speakers, pyramid scheme financiers, juice gurus, washed-up pop stars, outdated travel shows don’t keep you glued to your PBS station? Or how about the many versions of This American Life, one of the most canned, formulaic shows aired multiple times a week on NPR stations. It is bad programming even without a race, gender, and class analysis. I’m with Browne the baby boomers need to step aside but wait isn’t there a Barry Manilow concert being aired tonight?

  12. Soc,
    Not to attack you brother but:

    As a mexican man, I often wonder how nice it is to have so much of a sense of entitlement that ANY minute subject where your demographic (the demo that runs our institutions and most represented in every aspect of america) is mentioned negatively prompts folks to complain and demand inclusion or PC-feelgood correction immediately. It must be nice to be so sensitive to exclusion or negative representation and not be either disregarded as “ethnocentric” or go utterly insane by the amount of negativity and exclusion that is thrown at your ethnicity.

    I dont know how that feels , nor does any minority man, woman or wombat; because we are CONSTANTLY cast in a bad light and excluded. Im an environmental planner and do you think I have ever been considered for anything beyond “community outreach” (guess what communities?), despite my technical training experience and track record? I’m a muralist and do you know how many times I have heard ” I dont want it to be graffiti” despite my portfolio not having any graffiti-like compositions, lack of using spraycans, and resume of proffessional art experience. Honestly, when I paint at schools I hear old white male teachers say “I thought you were tagging” every single f’n time EXCEPT when I have white artistts with me.

    I mean this goshdarned blog in itself exists to address the exclusion our communities recieve from the blogging world and all other media forms, and there are already countless complaints from folks about excluding or being unfair to ONE specific group of people who are otherwise the center of attention everywhere else. We cant even get these narcissists to stop co-opting the term “eastside” which has been codified by millions of angelinos for over a century. It’s like a spoiled only child complaining because mom volunteers down at the orphanage (not you soc, this who issue). It’s like oakies putting up signs saying “what about my civil rights” when their public housing was integrated.

  13. I was very happy when my NPR affiliate replaced Tavis Smiley with N&N. I really like Farai, and don’t much care for Tavis’ personality. Now that N&N is being cancelled, it’s back to Tavis, but at least they’re only putting him on one hour a week.

    I’ll miss you, Farai.

    –Bryan

  14. I don’t see why people don’t get(not talking about you Bryan, just everytime I bring her up, people bring up Tavis, like that’s the same) that Farai is not Tavis. I don’t know why NPR thinks they can just slide in any black person into her spot and that it’s the same. It’s not her race, it’s her. Farai is awesome. And she’s cool. Tavis is not cool. I’m sort of laughing while typing this, I saw an episode of the Daily Show and the Wyatt Cenac (the black guy) correspondent on the show was talking about how happy he was and then Jon Stewart was like, “Because Obama is black.” And Wyatt says, “No, because he’s cool. Cool families everywhere are rejoicing…” and then Jon is like, “Am I cool?” and Wyatt says, “You’re alright, maybe you have a car or a hot sister…”

    That was the funniest clip to me.

    Browne

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