Nothing against the BBC, of course. They have a fine website that I have been too, and their world news seems more than adequate. But let’s think about this. NPR. What’s wrong with ABC, NBC or CBS radio news? My WAG, NPR* is pretentious and they like the sounds of British accents on their network.
*People talking about boring things slowly.
My guess is, it’s to do with the fact that the news organizations you named are for-profit, therefore much of their content will be proprietary, or at least would cost more than the also-public BBC.
My theories:
I noticed from when I lived in the US that NPR is more international than the rest of radio news. And according to what I’ve read, the BBC is the largest news organization in the world - buying bulletins from them means that you’ve got access to correspondents in pretty much every region in the entire world.
The reports are largely from the World Service (and some of the NPR transmitters run the BBC World Service when they’re not on the air), so there might be some kind of discount arrangement. Since NPR is poorly funded, and the Beeb is (presumably) cheap relative to US commercial news stations, then it’s a logical purchase.
BBC news is geared to radio. Reuters, CNN, and so on aren’t radio-oriented. ABC, NBC and CBS radio news might not want to sell to NPR for commercial/competitive reasons - the BBC won’t be competing with anyone.
I don’t know how the BBC World Service compares to Voice of America, or why NPR doesn’t use this outlet, though.
Fiver beat me.
THat’s always been my assumption; all the alternatives that BD suggests would be competing with themselves; they all have commercial radio ventures already in the market.
Plus, NPR kills two birds with one stone: not only does the BBC provide them with more news content, but it offers a more international perspective, to the extent that such a closely allied nation, with a common language, CAN offer a different perspective.
And by the way, only people who don’t really listen to NPR would describe it as “People talking about boring things slowly.” SNL is a parody show, dude; it’s not real.
Damn, so did jjimm!
Isn’t the voice of America largely a propaganda operation? And it would hardly offer a different perspective, IMHO.
I’m glad we’re theorizing in parallel, lissener.
BTW, does your username allude to you “listening” to things, e.g. radio?
Ya know, the whole point of NPR is to serve as an alternative to the big US networks. If NPR used the US networks for their international news, they’d just be duplicating something that’s already being broadcast in the US already. So what’s the point?
News is also very expensive to produce. NPR can’t raise the amount of capital it would take to support a world wide news organization.
So the NPR network stations affiliate with BBC, much like your local station affiliates with their radio network.
It’s probably also a programming choice to go with BBC. Besides ABC, CBS, etc., there’s Westwood One, Launch, BET, FOX, Bloomberg, and many other networks that deliver news & entertainment
At least where I live, we get local/regional news that is produced locally/regionally. It is just international news that comes through the BBC (from 11pm-5am, and 9am-11am).
Oops, I bet it might also violate ‘non commercial’ charter to use ‘commercial’ networks.
About NPR:
http://www.npr.org/about/index.html?loc=topnav
About BBC:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/info/purpose/
“The BBC is financed by a TV licence paid by households. It does not have to serve the interests of advertisers, or produce a return for shareholders.”
Nope. It’s a literary reference.
Um, NPR produces Morning Edition and All Things Considered. These are not the BBC.
Some public radio stations purchase NPR’s news programs. Some public radio stations also purchase BBC’s news programs. However, I think the assertion that “NPR uses the BBC for news” is pretty inaccurate.
I didn’t say exclusively.
And thanks everybody, for the input. So NPR gets the BBC feed for free? Makes sense to me.
For national news, NPR uses its own reporters in Washington, plus contributing reports from member stations. For example, if the arch falls over, you might hear a sentence intro on the hourly news and then “From member station KWMU in St. Louis, Bill Raack has this report.” Bill Raack is the news director here and helps collect news specific to the St. Louis area.
The major networks don’t seem to do as much of this; if you watch the CBS Evening News, they’ll probably send their own reporter to St. Louis rather than have the local CBS affiliate make a package for them.
NPR has also expanded its west coast operations with a new broadcast center in Los Angeles, called NPR West.
I don’t know that all NPR stations carry the BBC World Service - KWMU here does at 11:00 weekday nights, but every station gets to pick its own content. Others have music or repeats of daytime programming.
This NPR listener likes BBC News. I suspect a lot of other NPR listeners also do. It seriously broadens our perspective and our understanding of world events beyond the typical corporate-media perspective we normally get. At times, it’s surprisingly different. Anyway, the point is, given how NPR gets its funding, I suspect the input of listeners like me goes a long way toward influencing their decisions.
That would be Garrison Keillor’s “Writer’s Almanac.” If you think that applies to all of NPR, then you’re not a listener. Check out “Car Talk” sometime, for example.
It’s from Russell Hoban’s book Riddley Walker.
I don’t know if that is correct(although it might be). The rate NPR pays for affiliation would be less than gathering world news on it’s own, and might be a ‘noncommercial’ rate.
** NPR** has a largely left leaning audience primarily because it broadcasts left slanting news. And compatibly, the** BBC** reports events with a sharp left liberal bias. So what’s to understand?
Of course you could argue these points if you don’t mind being considered foolish.
I don’t mind being considered foolish. Please provide examples of the left bias of NPR and the BBC.
Re bias of BBC - here in Brtain the Beeb gets flak from “both” to put it very crudely, ends of the political spectrum.
I guess the N would just indicate that it’s broadcasted nationally. Not that they only broadcast things concerning this nation.