Bill O’Reilly Has Juan Williams’ BackPlus, Rachel Maddow wants to remind everyone that Williams’s firing is SO not a First Amendment issue, on our regular cable-news roundup.
NPR Discovers ‘Zack’Meet Zack. He’s young, he’s hip, he’s in the know, he’s got money to spend, and he just loves listening to National Public Radio. There’s only one drawback to the advertiser’s wet dream that is Zack, and it is that Zack is a figment of NPR staffers’ imagination. (Perhaps he lives next door to the Baileys?) He recently made his debut in a company memo, “NPR Zack: A New Space for Younger Listeners,” trumpeting new ways in which public radio can entice the slipping 25-to-44 demographic. Those ways, according to the memo, are, well, music and news. Except, you know, cool. Like, for instance, news will be delivered throughout the day by “newshounds.”
in other news
Next on NPR: Also, Sometimes Panhandlers Ask for Money on Subway Cars
Yo, whassup homies — NPR is here to tell us about a fresh new trend: Fly rappers dropping sound underground. Hold on. Let’s put this a little more delicately: NPR’s “Weekend Edition” this weekend discovered a fascinating new phenomenon — rappers on the New York City subways who take over trains and force everyone to listen to them for a stop or two. And not only has the intrepid reporter infiltrated the young folks in question, he’s recorded them doing something called “beatboxing”. (Wait’ll they show him the helicopter!) NPR, represent. Adjust your Kangols and acknowledge crack is whack, everyone: It’s going to be a dope ride. Back to 1986.
A Captive Audience for Subway Hip-Hop [NPR]
in other news
Forget Freshness, Shoppers. It’s Chinatown
A reporter for NPR’s Morning Edition today took on one of the pretty unvexing questions of our era: Why are vegetables in Chinatown so astronomically cheap? We were hoping the piece would reveal that it was one of those unanswerable but poignant New York mysteries “Metro” section columnists love to mull over — like, why are there no good independent radio stations, and where did that smell come from? But in fact, the question has an equally unvexing answer: Residents of Chinatown eat a huge volume of vegetables, and in volume lies discounts. Plus, because these shoppers cook fresh every day, the vegetables can be thisclose to going bad when they’re sold. (Now we understand why our toxic Met Foods apples are doing fine at two weeks and counting.) We confess, though, that we’re a little sad the answer wasn’t “Because they’re made in China.”
Chinatown Vendors Ripe For Bargains [NPR]
