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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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:38AM (45 children)
Non-USA here, who? What was his contribution to the world, instead of being a local(?) radio host? Hell, even NPR doesn't ring a bell for me. It seems to be a radio station.
(Score: 3, Informative) by takyon on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:42AM
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Kasell [wikipedia.org]
You most likely have to be a fan of Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! [wikipedia.org], a nationally syndicated radio program, to know who he is.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(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.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @11:53AM (17 children)
It's kind of interesting to me that we get a sub and story about someone pretty much nobody in the rest of the world would recognize and none about a former first lady dying [cnn.com].
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @12:27PM
Barbara was famous for having her ass grabbed by George H.W. within the context of marriage.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @02:01PM (6 children)
For a guy who knows more about the workings of this site than most anyone else, you tell us how a story on Bush dying is supposed to get posted here when she had the temerity to die after Kasell? The newswire yesterday afternoon had the Kasell story (because he was so rude to die earlier in the day) while at the same time talking about how Bush was going to hospice and her granddaughter saying shes fine and happy. OMG, must be a Liberal news bent! Ingrahm is right! She is being bullied by those awful Liberal school children!!!! Oh why oh why can't we just go back ten years when it was acceptable to be a dick to someone without getting called out for it? Those were the days . . .
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @02:58PM (5 children)
The same way anything else gets posted. My, aren't we the angry little dipshit today?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @03:05PM (4 children)
Angry shitbird complains stupidly, annoyed reply calls bird names, angry bird is confused. And apparently still stupid.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @03:44PM (3 children)
Was that supposed to rile me up or something? You might want to go practice up on /. or one of the chans before you try trolling here. You'll only end up mocked if you don't.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @04:04PM (2 children)
Oh noes not mockery! Guess you troll so much you just assume others are doing the same. I was observing and offering commentary about the reality of the situation.
(Score: 3, Funny) by Azuma Hazuki on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:45PM (1 child)
Uzzard is the little-known, secret, brown Angry Bird. When you launch him out of the slingshot, he tells all the other birds to go fuck themselves and just flies off the screen without actually hitting anything you aimed him at, though the more or less random shower of birdshit can occasionally demolish small wood structures.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:52PM
At the time that was posted I was simply amused. I am a bit cranky now though. I got distracted by code and missed my nap.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @03:03PM (8 children)
One is interesting while the other is not.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @03:41PM (7 children)
Not really. Neither were especially interesting to most of the world. Babs was unarguably more interesting to $world than Carl though, since most of $world had never heard of him.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @05:02PM (1 child)
Being known to the world != interesting.
There are a load of pop musicians I am aware of through no fault of my own and I find them thoroughly uninteresting. I didn't know of Carl either yet just knowing what he did I am 99.9% sure I would find his life more interesting than Barbara's. She did promote literacy and was probably a great lady, but not my cup of harbor tea.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:53PM
Um, yeah, I already said that...
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 18 2018, @05:03PM (4 children)
Honestly, most people will go "Meh!" about both of them.
But one of the two had a hilarious and informative show.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:59PM (3 children)
If you say so. I prefer tunes to talking heads. I've yet to listen to one who managed more than one interesting, new idea every third or fourth show. Mostly they're dim-witted, over-complicating the issue, or just plain wrong.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 18 2018, @08:53PM (2 children)
"Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!" is a weekly publicly taped show, with guests and comedians, about the funny news of that week, so it's not your average ramblings of a madman, and it only repeats a topic if the news do.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Wednesday April 18 2018, @09:04PM (1 child)
Ahh. The only one I ever found remotely tolerable was Paul Harvey. We didn't always see eye to eye but he had good manners and was not remotely an elitist of any stripe.
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Thursday April 19 2018, @12:36PM
He did The Rest of the Story, so interesting! Always, always an amazing surprise at the end. After the commercials. He was so smart. Not an elitist -- that's so true. A humble guy that loved farmers. So much like me. He asked "why do we have our nuclear arsenal, but we don't use it?" I grew up in New York but I'm conservative. Because of him.
(Score: 2) by realDonaldTrump on Wednesday April 18 2018, @01:37PM (1 child)
RIP Carl Kasell!! Great showman, taken from us much too soon. But, the show goes on. My favorite segment is called The Trump Dump. Brand new segment that's all about me!
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 18 2018, @02:03PM
He made some great voicemail recordings [npr.org] too.
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday April 18 2018, @07:07PM
It's his voice, of course, that i remember fondly from the days when i listened to NPR nonstop because i was too poor for any other entertainment. Alas, when NPR (!) Jumped on the bandwagon to sell the invasion of Iraq, they slipped away and became dead to me. But those last days of real news, delivered by carl kasell, were golden.
Washington DC delenda est.