It was a refreshing deviation (god, we love deviation) from the usual sweet puddin' of lofty arcana on KUOW's Weekday (m-f, 9-11a) Friday.
Hosted by Marcie Sillman (filling in for Steve Scher) Friday's show had a couple of newcomers to the media panel who comment on the week's news every Friday at 10: Naomi Ishisaka, editor of ColorsNW Magazine; and D. Parvaz, columnist and editorial writer for the Seattle P-I.
(Known on BlatherWatch as the Cardigan Hour for its amiable but bland predictablity, regulars are Crosscut columnist Knute "Skip" Berger, and Seattle Times pundit Danny Westneat with occasional fill-ins by such as Eli Sanders and Erica Barnett of The Stranger. The segment is in flux at the moment: P-I columnist Susan Paynter has retired, which has lowered the futz-factor slightly, but left an opening).
Though we rarely miss it, we've always complained of the tediousness of the hour; but this week, the two new women really spruced up the conversation. Presumably the show is casting around for a new member to replace Paynter- either of these would certainly more than suffice.
(Dorothy Parvaz is one of our favorite local writers- she's funny, and has written many original and sometimes risky stories at the P-I such as when she (a native Iranian) walked around town- just a month after 9-11- in an Islamic hijaab- a full-body head scarf- inspiring one guy in her neighborhood to lovingly try to shove her into oncoming traffic).
KUOW is always striving for diversity, it seems, and to achieve that
worthy ideal, they're always up for adding another gender, race, or
ethnic flavor. Good on 'em for that- Ishisaka, and Parvaz are diverse
in one or more of those ways from certified white men Danny and Knute-
and pithy to boot. We say hire 'em both!
But the diversity we'd really love to hear is
diversity of opinion- not just one of the white guys being
cranky. We know it's hard, but can't they find a conservative to
provide real opposition? We realize they won't be finding a gay, black
Republican anytime soon, but the predictable and amicable consensus and
bloodless agreements to disagreements we're getting aren't only unrepresentative of
the listenership, but really boring radio.
It's certainly comfortable for KUOW to color inside the lines of what they perceive to be the community political consensus, but how about giving more than just high-minded verbage to diversity and small L liberalism?
Is it about not disagreeing with, or challenging the subscriber base who so generously supports the station? We hope not, but if that's the case, it's intellectually dishonest; not truly serving listeners; and no different than commercial talk radio's corporate decisions not to stray from conservative talk because it's a known entity that sells. What happened to the high-minded notion that public radio serves the public good and somehow flies above tawdry market-driven fray?
(No wonder Seattleites were so stunned after the 2004 election: living in the bubble kept inflated in part by such as KUOW, even after all those years of Republican realignment, we had no idea who these people were who'd just wrested control of the national power structure so handily).
When the Friday group talks about Republicans, it's like anthropologists discussing Hutus. We know, Skip and Danny have their contrarian streaks, and definitely aren't doctrinaire liberals, but the lack of the tension of real debate, and the few voices of true opposition buttresses the meme the right has implanted: public radio is a liberal circle jerk.
We don't really agree with that, but about that hour on KUOW- they're correct.
Holy crap Batman. I am working way to many hours. I just read this thread from start to finish. Probably one of the most interesting in a while. Wish I could chime in and enlighten all.
Don't have it in me.
Posted by: chucks | September 11, 2007 at 10:04 PM