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Former network news anchor and reporter Linda Ellerbee writes on the LAT op-ed page that NPR's removal of Bob Edwards after 25 years is more misguided broadcaster bias against aging.
Were the ratings sinking, perhaps? They were not. "Morning Edition's" audience grew by 41% in the last five years; Edwards' is the most-listened-to morning radio program in the U.S...What message shall we take from this?
We baby boomers, still the basketball moving through the snake, are doing our best to redefine what it means to get older. Can we hang on to our looks, our energy — our jobs? Can we compete with 30-year-olds? Can we learn new tricks? We as a generation have always believed we can have it our way, mainly because we so often have. Tomorrow has always been an important word to us. Then we learn the truth. We can exercise ourselves to skin and bone, eat nothing but broccoli, pay the plastic surgeon, dye our hair, date (and marry) much younger men and women, boogie the night away, start new businesses and change old habits. We can even become, dare I say it, wise with our years, but we cannot stop time.
I understand that NPR wants a younger audience. I don't agree with the simple-minded thinking that says a younger audience will accept the news only if a younger person delivers it. That was used against the first women broadcast journalists, of which I was one. Men won't believe the news if it comes from a woman, they said. They were wrong.
Edwards told the Washington Post this week that he thinks his forced exile by new management is more of "a style thing."
While I do not like the political spin on the news placed by NPR (and its local outlets - KPCC, KCRW), I do listen to Morning Edition at 6 am to get a "clue" as to the "important" stories in the American media first thing in the morning. (In addition to listening to the BBC overnight when I cannot sleep). I can tolerate it because of Bob Edwards. When he was gone for a couple of weeks (within the last six months), I could not listen to Morning Edition's replacements. Bad and irritating voices. Edwards has one of the best radio voices I have heard.
Question for NPR: Was Edwards liberal enough for you? You got rid or Juan Williams for a more liberal East Coaster middays. Another case of (the limited though it is) taxpayer money only showing one side of the story.
Posted by: GregB at March 26, 2004 01:33 PMSpeaking as a somewhat-edgy sorta-youth, let me say this: I cannot imagine anything NPR could do that would make me think they were cool, so they really should stop trying to go that direction.
Posted by: LYT at March 26, 2004 01:48 PMThe day Bob Edwards is gone from Morning Edition, so am I. I wish there were a way to punish the idiots who do these things. Can you imagine throwing Edward R. Murrow out of the old CBS because he wasn't "with it" enough for the new baby boomers who were starting to watch and listen?
Posted by: John Shannon at March 26, 2004 02:50 PMBetter still, how'd you like to go down in journalism (and radio) history as the person who fired Bob Edwards?
I hate to see Edwards ousted, and pray that the Powers That Be suddenly shout "April Fool!." But if they moved Scott Simon over...well, they could do worse. Of course my Saturday mornings would be shot, but there ya go...
Posted by: Todd Everett at March 26, 2004 04:56 PMWhen I heard this, I lamented NPR. I think Edwards is 56, scarcely retirement age, so this is pure suckage. Who will be able to forget his Friday conversations with Red Barber, a link not just to oldtimer baseball but to a truly kinder and gentler America, when television dictated nothing and every man wore a hat. You could almost hear the Florida Spanish moss in those conversations, rustling gently in the spring breeze. I hope at minimum they give him a very weensy slice of Joan Kroc's gift, even one two-hundredth of it, because over the years he made such a gift to NPR possible, more than anyone else there.
Posted by: joseph at March 26, 2004 09:22 PMSerious props to LYT. Liberal inanities are not about the youth market any more.
There was always something preternaturally boomerish in Ellerbee's smugness. It's a sweet sort of comeuppance when boomers finally realize the Reaper has plans for them, and their precious little careers.
Posted by: Crid at March 27, 2004 11:21 PMcomeuppance . . . . the Reaper . . . . their precious little careers . . . .
Yikes. Good thing Joey Ramone died at 50.
Posted by: Stephanie at March 28, 2004 11:34 AM
of LA Observed
Well, I like Edwards' style -- calm, intelligent, with an air of good humor. And, frankly, I have no idea what Ken Stern, the NPR executive quoted in the Post means by "immediacy and depth." The "immediacy" part makes me think they want someone more manic, but I hope that's not the case. All in all, a puzzler.
Posted by: Tim McGarry at March 26, 2004 12:29 PM