Tom's rants about NPR

[Spike]

 The NPR shows Tom was complaining about are the ones I happen to like: Car Talk, Wait, Wait and Prairie Home Companion .

[Julie]

Yes, Car Talk is so great! How can Tom not like Car Talk? What's better than two hilarious brothers making jokes and telling you how to fix your car?

I'm trying to sound sarcastic so that no one knows how serious I am.

[yesno]

NPR is why iPods were invented.  It's not even that good at the news.

[chrisfoll577]

Jesse Thorpe had some interesting things to say about public radio's deficiencies... basically any listener under 50 is considered 'young' and most public radio programming is extremely expensive to produce.  When I'm not listening to my iPod, NPR's my usual background noise, and I enjoy some shows like Only a Game, Radiolab and Studio 360, but since the individual stations don't want to take any risks, the format is getting stale, just like the rest of radio.

WFMU's Blog also has an amusing entry on 'Ten Things I Hate About NPR'.

[nec13]

I don't care for NPR programming all that much. I mainly listen to NPR for the jazz music, although, the jazz they play isn't that great either.

[Julie]

I listen to it whenever I forget to bring cds with me and when I don't have satellite radio.

[Pidgeon]

Whenever I turn on my NPR station, a cloud of smug comes out of my AC and I have to pull my car over 

[Alvaro from GM]

NPR is boring most times.  I can stand car talk, and Prairie Home, but if there was ANY other sort of non news talk radio options I would probably listen to those.  I use to listen to wait wait, but it all just sounds like the same episode over and over to me now.

[LesSavyFan]

Car Talk is great. Why does Tom have to be so mean to these two nice old guys who have been helping people with their car problems for 30 years or however long they've been doing it?

Tom I love you buddy but you're wrong on this one.

[nec13]

He must have received some bad legal representation from Dewey, Cheatham, and Howe.

[scratchbomb]

Patton Oswalt's bit on NPR pretty much nailed my own feelings about it.

I feel like 99% of NPR is produced by and for 12 adjunct professors at a tiny liberal arts college in the woods of Vermont.

[nec13]

Whenever I turn on my NPR station, a cloud of smug comes out of my AC and I have to pull my car over 

This is precisely how I feel about NPR. "This American Life" and "A Prairie Home Companion," in particular, strike me as being ridiculously smug shows.

[yesno]

While I think the Car Talk radio show sucks, the cartoon is great.

[Alvaro from GM]

Whenever I turn on my NPR station, a cloud of smug comes out of my AC and I have to pull my car over 

This is precisely how I feel about NPR. "This American Life" and "A Prairie Home Companion," in particular, strike me as being ridiculously smug shows.

I forgot about This American Life.  I think this show although sometimes it takes itself too seriously, is usually pretty good whenever it is on.  Also there's a short story show that is pretty good most times.

RadioLab though, which is on some NPR stations is an awesome show which I highly recommend, although I usually just listen to the podcast.

[nec13]

Some of you NPR detractors may get a kick out of The Onion article linked below.
http://www.theonion.com/content/news/this_american_life_complete