The Weekend in Foolish Attention

Bits and bytes of the week

ALL IN TIME. Back in 2013, when the Chicago Public Media Board of Directors unceremoniously ousted CEO and Torey Malatia and brought in a broad from Condi Nast and the Washington Post to take his place, I knew it was a harbinger for worse times for WBEZ. A few years later, her agenda (and the Board’s by proxy) was obvious—less public radio, more money. Her approach was to hire someone with a different job title but the same duties until the void left of work prompted people like Justin Kaufman to look elsewhere for work.

I was a stubborn holdout, opting for a voluntary split with a healthy severance but I could see that the company was going in a decidedly un-NPR direction even in 2017 when I walked out the doors.

This week we are greeted with news of CPM eliminating their podcast division as well as Malatia’s brainchild, Vocalo. Fourteen folks got the axe just following a $6 million studio build and the purchase of the Sun-Times and the increase in CEO salary (Matt Moog, who was on the Board that shitcanned Torey, received that increase just as he announced his departure) to $633K.

Torey taught me that the operative word was public not radio. Apparently, the leadership did not get that memo.

A DIFFERENT SOCIAL CURRENCY AT PLAY. Being as I grew up a Gen X male with a direct relative who survived WWII under Patton, the stories that resonated with me then and now are about people overcoming adversity. The social currency that came with being the legless kid who became an Olympian or the ugly kid who grew up to be a super model was both a spotlight on those who worked hard to avoid being victimized and a call to do so myself.

Today’s version of that capital are stories of failing to cope with trauma and merely the bravery of admitting weakness and the wallowing in the victim status so craved by everyone looking to set up a GoFundMe to pay their rent. Trauma and its effects are all in the framing of it and that framing is a choice: perceive yourself as someone with the sack to fight back against the obstacles thrown your way or as someone who simply can’t handle life so applaud me for existing. The former feels better than everyone applauding you for acknowledging your brokenness onstage.

SPEAKING OF THOSE WHO OVERCOME… Star Trek: Discovery has launched its fifth and final season on Paramount+. Yeah, it’s definitely the SJW of Trek sagas but gimme a break. Criticizing a Star Trek series, long known for championing social issues in the veneer of space, of being too progressive is like being frustrated that the Marvel X Men ‘97 (which features a trans mutant and Storm in Hillary Clinton pantsuits) focuses on kids maligned by normies for being different. As someone recently said about my drinking black coffee, “That’s on brand.”

HMMM… THE VAGUENESS OF HATE. The Scots have pushed out a law that pushes legal penalties for being offensive to new levels of subjectivity that rivals the most dystopian of tales

Laws meant to protect Scots from hate crimes on grounds of race, disability, religion, sexual orientation and transgender identity already exist.

But the Scottish government, led by the pro-independence Scottish National Party, argues they don’t go far enough.

The law adds a new crime of “stirring up hatred” against groups with protected characteristics, including on the grounds of age — and echoes an offense that already exists in a law on racial hatred in place since 1965.

Under the bill, someone behaving toward, or communicating material to, an individual in a way that could be considered, by a “reasonable person,” to be “threatening or abusive” could face a maximum penalty of seven years in prison — but only if it’s found they intended to “stir up hatred” against a protected group.

What defines someone as a reasonable person? Who decides if something uttered is threatening or abusive? And contrary to the new metric that impact is far more important than intent, is the intent to stir up hatred even necessary? Few things are scarier than vague laws with seven year penalties.

NOT EVERYTHING IS FOR YOU. Back to the financial troubles at NPR because the layoffs and carnage isn’t limited to Chicago. Somewhere around 2020 (do your cultural math) the mission statement of public radio became not everything is for affluent white people and pushed the idea of diversifying the programming into a full court press for podcasts and radio shows devoted to the cultural and ideological preferences of an increasingly narrow cohort in America. Certainly an expansion of programming that focused on the political ideals of the eight percent of the population on the furthest arena of the left side of America was long overdue but rather than expansion it became a nearly universal drumbeat to shift the definition of which public public radio targets.

Eschewing the moralizing of this institutional choice it is a simple equation to see that when a broadcast platform as large as NPR changes it's programming to decrease the more centrist sort of shows to more niche audiences, revenue from the previous audience is going to slip. If FOX News decided to shift in the span of ten years from jaw-dropping, MAGA disinformation and rightwing propaganda to a moderate American tone to increase a more reasonable perspective, they’d be in massive financial trouble as well.

Correction of the national narrative is a necessary choice from time to time. Overcorrection happens but no one can expect an overcorrection to be met with deference and fealty for too long before the support dries up. White guilt is a terrible metric to count upon and NPR is seeing that in real time.

DIPPING THE TOE BACK INTO A FAMILIAR POOL. Next week I’m hopping back into getting up on stages and telling a few stories. To be completely frank, I’m not entirely certain that I’ll jump back into to the storytelling scene again—it looks to me that it hasn’t changed much in the non-stop preening and pettiness I encountered years ago and I’m not certain if I’ll feel the same electricity I felt before—but this month is my opportunity to test my reaction. There are some pockets out here that do not feel attached to the ugly competitive Moth environment so there is hope.

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That’s the week! Keep dry, stay warm, and be helpful.