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  <h1>What we offer: the case distinguishing NPR news</h1>
  
  <p class="editnote">A longtime NPR correspondent -- then vice 
    president in charge of the network's news division -- adapted this article from his remarks 
    at Washington State University. Buzenberg now heads news at Minnesota 
    Public Radio. </p>
  <p>Originally published in <em>Current</em>, June 19, 1995<br>
    <span class="commentarybyline">By Bill Buzenberg </span></p>
  <p>Critics of sleaze, sex and violence in movies, music and the media have 
    given public broadcasters their best chance yet to make a positive case 
    for the value of public broadcasting to American society. </p>
  <p>In contrast to the anything-goes-as-long-as-it-makes-money values of 
    some commercial media, public broadcasters have a compelling story to 
    tell. It is a story of high standards and public-service journalism, even 
    though public broadcasting also has been under attack, the most serious 
    since it was established by Congress in 1967. </p>
  <p>In making the case for National Public Radio and its 530 member stations, 
    a number of key reasons illustrate how NPR gives society valuable things 
    that are not available elsewhere, despite more than 9,000 commercial radio 
    stations across the country. </p>
  <p>One reason why the nation needs public radio, and that makes NPR distinctive, 
    is that <i>we have the luxury of time to explain issues and ideas.</i> </p>
  <p>In-depth reporting takes time, both on and off the air. As a democracy 
    we depend on accurate information. We know an informed and knowledgeable 
    citizenry is needed for successful self-government. In order to understand 
    complex issues, ideas and events, we need context, background, history, 
    and most of all analysis--we need to know the why and the how, not just 
    the who, what, where and when. </p>
  <p>Oversimplification has become a disease of modern broadcasting. NPR devotes 
    extra air time to our reports so they are more than headline summaries. 
    It takes time on the air to clarify issues. Ten-second sound bites sometimes 
    only add to the confusion. On <i>Weekend Edition Saturday</i> recently, 
    Scott Simon reported on the 50th anniversary of the death of Anne Frank. 
    It was a 40-minute report, which took more than four months to produce. 
    It has also become one of our most requested tape cassettes. </p>
  <p>A second distinction for NPR is that <i>we demand good writing and use 
    authentic voices.</i> </p>
  <p>Writing for the ear is everything on radio. A strong narrative line carries 
    a good story and makes for irresistible listening. NPR reports are written, 
    edited, and then rewritten and reedited to make them more lucid, more 
    literate. Our aim is to use language carefully. We try to hire people 
    who can write, and think; how they talk is less important. We shy away 
    from personality cults built around a fresh face, a fancy hairdo, or a 
    booming voice: what we want is to hear from people who have something 
    to say, and their natural way of saying it is okay. </p>
  <p>Many listeners will recall the voice of Kim Williams from Missoula, and 
    Red Barber. You can now hear Andrei Codrescu in New Orleans, or Bailey 
    White in Georgia, or Baxter Black in Texas--great writers and storytellers 
    all. Listeners may also remember a couple of kids from Chicago who produced 
    an award-winning radio documentary called &quot;Ghetto Life 101.'' None 
    of these people are stars in the television sense, but our audience knows 
    them and knows more about America because of them. </p>
  <p>A third reason NPR is distinctive is that <i>we strive for solid content 
    based on high standards.</i> </p>
  <p>Because of competition for ratings in commercial broadcasting, entertainment 
    values now influence much of the commercial news media. The new term is 
    &quot;tabloidization.'' Bill Kovach, the curator of the Nieman Foundation 
    at Harvard, has pointed out that entertainment values lead to sensationalism, 
    hype, brevity, conflict, urgency, action and immediacy. Why? Because they 
    sell. And a reliance on ratings leads commercial broadcasters to give 
    people what they want, not what they need to know. </p>
  <p>By contrast, NPR tries to put content at the center of our value system. 
    What do people need to know? We know our audience is intelligent and we 
    assume they care about making our democracy function better. Again, we 
    know a democratic society cannot function without solid information, so 
    we start with fact-based journalism. Parts of our news programs are also 
    entertaining, to be sure, but there is a seriousness of purpose in much 
    of what we do. We believe talking heads can be valuable, not boring, if 
    they have something to say. </p>
  <p>A few recent awards illustrate the point that NPR today is setting standards 
    in American broadcast journalism. This year, NPR reporters, editors and 
    producers have won just about every major broadcast journalism award, 
    including the Peabody, Dupont-Columbia, Robert F. Kennedy, Overseas Press 
    Club, Congressional and White House Correspondents Association. </p>
  <p>A final reason is that <i>we at NPR are proud of our public service mandate 
    and we take it seriously.</i> </p>
  <p>Perhaps the greatest distinction between NPR and the commercial media 
    springs from a difference in our basic purposes. As Daniel Schorr likes 
    to say, the thing to remember about commercial broadcasting is that it's 
    about commerce. NPR's mission on the other hand is public service: to 
    inform and educate; to try to make the complex coherent, to challenge 
    conventional wisdom, to tell a diversity of human stories that define 
    and enlighten our era. We address our listeners as citizens, not as consumers. 
    NPR News programs have relatively large audiences, but these programs 
    are not profit centers, and we do not exist primarily to bring a mass 
    audience to hear an advertiser's message. </p>
  <p>If public broadcasting is not subsidized, but commercialized as some 
    are urging, six or eight minutes of commercials in every half hour of <i>All Things Considered,</i> or <i>Barney &amp; Friends</i>, for that 
    matter, will fundamentally change these programs. They won't be the same 
    because their bottom line reason for being won't be the same: their purpose 
    will no longer be to educate but to sell products. I strongly believe 
    we should keep the public role in public broadcasting--not because I want 
    to protect a special interest, but in order to preserve a public service. </p>
  <p>Commercial broadcasters make billions of dollars each year using the 
    public's airwaves. They pay not a penny to the public for this privilege. 
    It strikes me as a sensible idea that a tiny portion of those commercial 
    profits, or a small tax on the sale of commercial licenses, be placed 
    in a trust fund for public broadcasting. Public service journalism is 
    thus preserved and American society along with a growing worldwide audience 
    benefits. </p>
  <p>But for this idea, or some other, to work, Congress will have to recognize 
    there is value in preserving public broadcasting. That is the bottom line 
    of this year's long, drawn out debate. Actually, I think one of the things 
    Congress and all of us have learned so far is that the public <i>does</i> value public broadcasting. Many thousands of people have written to their 
    members of Congress to say they want a small part of their taxes to support 
    public TV and public radio. In the battle to uphold cultural standards, 
    and uplift and inform a more tolerant society, public broadcasting is 
    indispensable. </p>
  <p>A new book about Eric Sevareid describes the CBS tradition of Edward 
    R. Murrow as a tradition in which &quot;news broadcasting had a noble 
    purpose: to educate and inform, more than to entertain and make money.'' 
    I believe that this is the value NPR and public broadcasting embody today, 
    and one which continues to merit public and private support.</p>
  <p class="editnote">Web page created July 5, 1999<br>
    Copyright 1995 by Current Publishing Committee
   </p>
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  <p class="smalltext"><a href="../rad/rad701b.html">Buzenberg resigns as news chief</a> after seven years, 1997.</p>
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