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Carl Kasell, the longtime NPR newscaster who breathed new life into his career as the judge on the public radio station's "Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!," has died, NPR reports. He was 84.
The radio personality reportedly died Tuesday in Potomac, Md. of complications from Alzheimer's disease.
Kasell, who was known as the steady voice of the news on NPR for more than three decades, grew up in Goldsboro, N.C. with the dream of one day getting his pipes on the air.
"Before I even started to school," he told NPR in 2009, "I sometimes would hide behind the radio, which would be sitting on a table, and pretend that I was on the air, and try to fool people that came by to listen."
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Famed NPR Newscaster Carl Kasell Dies at 84
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Nadia Comaneci, simple perfection.
-- '76 Olympics
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:53AM (25 children)
NPR is the United States' 'National Public Radio'. It's mostly funded by government grants but independent of government control (unless you talk to some conservatives, which call it a propaganda arm of the liberal media). NPR news covers global topics.
I listened to Carl Kasell as part of daily news updates for most of twenty years. I can still hear his voice with "Live from NPR news, this is Carl Kasell" in my head.
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:57AM (23 children)
s/some conservatives/anyone not extremely left of center/
It's a fairly polite bias over at NPR by comparison to the majority of US media but it's most assuredly there. The choice of topics, questions, and guests is where you'll see it if you're not inclined to blind yourself to avoid doing so.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday April 18 2018, @12:01PM (5 children)
In the last two weeks they interviewed a member of the Republican Freedom Caucus and several other Republicans in state and federal governments across the country on things like the tax cuts, the growth of the oil industry and thus state economy of Texas, and the Republican primaries. So specifically which people and which topics are they avoiding?
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @12:45PM (2 children)
Yes, they're fairly good about at least letting people they disagree with have a say. However they usually pull in several times as many voices to oppose them, though not necessarily in the same segment. The questions they ask and how they steer the discussion when they do have an opposition voice is also telling. It's not as bad as "Mr. Trump, how long since you quit beating your wife?" vs. "Senator Clinton, do you like puppies?" but it's not too subtle so as to be invisible unless you just don't want to acknowledge it.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @02:10PM (1 child)
In your opinion.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @02:55PM
No shit, Sherlock. It's a fairly disinterested opinion though as I only listen to NPR when The Roomie forces it upon me during road trips. I prefer music.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Wednesday April 18 2018, @10:19PM (1 child)
As much as I hate to agree with the troll, Mr. Buzzard has a kernel of truth -- just a kernel -- in what he says. I'm far more liberal on some issues than NPR hosts, and more conservative than them on others. (Because I don't buy into the standard "spectrum" analogy, which resolves around a lot of logically inconsistent opinions.) And I've donated to NPR for years, so overall I'm a fan.
Yet, it's pretty clear if you actually pay attention that it tends to slant a bit liberal. It mostly comes out in interviews and how aggressive the hosts are in questioning guests, the types of questions they ask, etc. Often liberal-ish guests get a "pass" when they say something a bit strange or problematic or even extremist. More conservative guests will often get more intense and critical questioning in such a situation. Some hosts are more prone to this than others, and in general the effect is often less pronounced on standard daily "news segments" (Morning Edition, All Things Considered), but it sometimes still appears.
That said, NPR is far from "liberal propaganda," and I honestly think the hosts attempt to do a good job at being balanced. That's why I contribute money to NPR, because many other sources don't even try so hard. It's just difficult really being balanced when the assumption you (and all of your colleagues) have is liberal perspectives as "norm." You're just not aware sometimes about your blindspots.
And honestly, I like the aggressive questioning of conservative guests a lot of the time. I'm just disappointed that liberal guests don't get called out as much for faulty logic or BS.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @10:50PM
S'all I'm sayin, yo. I know they ain't MSNBC.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by bob_super on Wednesday April 18 2018, @05:22PM (4 children)
> s/some conservatives/anyone not extremely left of center/
I just wish people with affinities to the Republicans acknowledged how far to the right their party has drifted, dragging "the center" with them.
Trump fits perfectly with the European extreme-right, Hillary would be too right-wing for many Europeans, and Bernie is near the Euro center, a bit left of it (social democrat).
The point being that Bernie didn't change recently. The neo-cons, and then the GOP against Obama, moved right by a significant amount (can't be seen to agree with him, even when he's deporting more illegals than anyone before, it MUST be not enough). The "center" as seen by too many (including TMB) is now so far that the Pope, Bernie, and most of the world has become leftie extremists.
When everyone you meet is a radical...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:46PM (3 children)
You know, no other continent has to put up with having their every stance weighed against another, so either get off our asses and jump on the ones who are really fucked up or have a nice, steaming cup of shut the fuck up.
Also, if you think we're moving right as a nation, you have zero grasp of history.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @08:09PM (2 children)
Fine, then let's compare to the US of only 50 years ago. #zerograspofreality
(Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @08:17PM (1 child)
You do know hashtags used unironically around here are going to get whatever you said ignored, yes?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 19 2018, @01:25AM
lol you already noticed #sad
(Score: 3, Informative) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:42PM (11 children)
Yeah, it's those damn facts...the "right wing" in the US has gone so completely fucking nutbar that even daring to state perfectly innocuous facts gets all the little nutbars (like you...) frothing at the mouth. Or beak in your case.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:49PM (10 children)
There are no wings anymore. We have neither liberals nor conservatives as a majority of either party. We have insane shitheads who vote D and idiotic shitheads who vote R.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bobthecimmerian on Wednesday April 18 2018, @10:39PM (9 children)
We have plenty of idiocy on both sides. Support for attacks on privacy rights, insane extensions of intellectual property law, buddy-buddy relationships with big banks, incoherent foreign policy, inadequate treatment of veterans, pork barrel politics, and plenty more.
But if you think both sides are equally bad, you're not paying attention.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @10:52PM (8 children)
Oh they're not equally bad. Voting D is currently significantly more evil. Fifty years ago the opposite was the case. Things change.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 19 2018, @03:34AM (7 children)
You're beyond redemption if you really believe this. The Democrat party is evil and getting worse, for sure, but they're nowhere near as bad as the Republicans now...and their evil stems from their move closer to Republican policies, after McGovern's loss to Nixon. And if you actually think McGovern was *worse* than Nixon...Jesus.
I'm going to chalk this one up to trolling, but you say shit now and then that makes me sincerely hope you haven't reproduced.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 19 2018, @11:08AM (6 children)
It's not a difficult concept to grasp. The Douchebags want to take away more of the rights our founders guaranteed me than the Retards. Simple math if you value liberty over the illusion of security.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday April 19 2018, @09:04PM (5 children)
Really? Because I see only one party stuffed full of advocates for theocracy (Dominionism, a.k.a. Christian Reconstructionism or Theonomy) and it ain't the Democrats. I have a big problem with how the Dems operate, but...look, it's like being on death row and being told "you're going to be executed tomorrow by drowning, here's a big blue barrel full of piss and a big red barrel full of C. diff patients' diarrhea, pus, and toxic waste, which one do you want to drown in?"
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Thursday April 19 2018, @10:46PM (4 children)
You're seeing something scary in a very small minority of that party. The religious right hasn't had any significant national power even in the party that used to embrace them in twenty years or so.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 20 2018, @03:45AM (3 children)
Horseshit. Pence is a Dominionist, for a start.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday April 20 2018, @10:34AM (2 children)
And what has he managed to do to further a single religious belief of his?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by Azuma Hazuki on Friday April 20 2018, @02:40PM (1 child)
You haven't been paying attention, have you? Look up why there was an AIDS problem in his state for a start. Plus, getting an actual Dominionist into the second-highest position in the land is quite an accomplishment for that camp. They're infiltrating, and let me tell you, it is precisely as bad and for precisely the same reasons as communist infiltration; these are people who think even less of the Constitution than George W "Just a goddamn piece of paper" Bush, and THAT is saying something.
Do you understand why this is a problem?
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday April 21 2018, @02:17AM
Nope. If most of the rest of the government is going to think they're loons and block any stupid bullshit they try, I don't see a problem. That's kind of how our governmental system is deisgned to work. You have to let people you disagree with be represented, even if you think they're loons, or you're just another oppressive asshat.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @01:37PM
NPR is too right-wing for me. They support imperialist wars and male genital mutilation. They can go to hell.