“Hi, I'm Robert Seagull, and you're listening to NPR.”
January 7, 2018 9:14 AM   Subscribe

NPR Host Robert Siegel Signs Off [NPR] “The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the median number of years that American workers have been working for their current employer is a little over four. I say that to acknowledge how unusual it is that I have been working at National Public Radio for a little over 40 years — 41, to be precise. For the past 30 years, I've been doing the same job: hosting All Things Considered. And doing it very happily. No one is more surprised by my tenure than I am.”

• Robert Siegel Superfans Say Farewell To 'All Things Considered' Host [NPR]
“After 30 years, the time has come. Robert Siegel is stepping down from the host chair of All Things Considered. And so many listeners have said just how much they'll miss him. They come from all walks of life, working as truck drivers, speech therapists and Lyft drivers. There are a lot of things they'll miss about Robert, but one thing most of all. "This will sound funny, he has a soothing voice to me, like it's not soothing where it will put you to sleep, but it's just really calm," says Eurdora Evans, 35, of Harvey, La. And Evans isn't the only one. Many others recognize Robert's soft, direct voice, saying they get a sense of peace and calm; that "all is right in the world" when they hear it.”
• After Confronting Her Boss on Air, NPR’s Mary Louise Kelly Lands Her Dream Job [Vogue]
“Nevertheless, Kelly’s appointment signals what Turpin calls “a new era” of All Things Considered and a new direction for NPR. As a host, Kelly plans to continue to report out the #MeToo story, in whatever shape it takes. As to how we begin to parse through what needs to change for abusers to be held accountable, and victims to be safe to speak, Kelly doesn’t “know what the answer is, other than feeling awfully excited to have the chance to come in and figure out how we shape this story and how we shape our team in the newsroom, and to mentor the younger producers coming up to find their voices in all of this.” And she would like to tell a lot of stories that “do not have to do with creepy men.” Without Siegel, who will have hosted for 30 years and who many listeners nationwide associate with NPR’s news programming, Kelly, who joins remaining hosts Audie Cornish and Ari Shapiro, will make up part of a younger generation of veteran NPR journalists who are quickly becoming the new voices of authority on the airwaves. ”
posted by Fizz (33 comments total) 14 users marked this as a favorite
 
That's how I always heard his name in my brain and I know it's not spelt that way. But in my brain it is. Also, socks.
posted by Fizz at 9:20 AM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


I'll miss Siegel, but Kelly is a great replacement; from the second link:
A crowd of mostly women NPR journalists watched the conversation between Kelly and Mohn, which took place in NPR’s main glass-walled studio. “I’ve never felt that kind of power, that day I was interviewing Jarl,” Kelly recalled. “The sense that I was posing those questions on behalf of all the women at NPR, all the journalists at NPR, all the women in public radio. All the women across this country who would like to be able to grill their bosses about harassment in the workplace, and how it has been allowed to happen and for so long.” She was outraged that at NPR, where “empowering women at the higher ranks is something we’ve already done . . . other women, particularly those coming up behind me, have had a different experience . . . . It makes me mad as hell.”

The conversation was remarkable for a few reasons, among them, Kelly’s frankness when questioning Mohn, who she pushed on specifics, like how many allegations he and other executives had known about, and when they decided to act. But it was also notable for its existence alone—that NPR aired the interview to its millions of listeners, on its biggest afternoon news show—which, to Kelly, is an important signal of the organization’s commitment to transparency moving forward in the #MeToo movement. As is her promotion in the wake of that interview: “It certainly won’t be lost on anyone that the female journalist who went and questioned our CEO—a move that my mother was convinced would get me fired, grilling my boss on air—that they ended up promoting that person.”
That's what I call journalism.
posted by languagehat at 9:23 AM on January 7, 2018 [26 favorites]


Peter Sagal mentioned this a couple weeks back on Wait Wait Don't Tell Me, and congratulated Robert Siegel not only for his impressive tenure, but also joking that it was impressive he was not yet another NPR staffer who is leaving in the wake of allegations of misconduct.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:27 AM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


First Noah Adams, then Susan Stamberg, now Robert Siegel... it's like NPR is trying to demolish my childhood through retirement. #old
posted by hippybear at 9:36 AM on January 7, 2018 [7 favorites]


I was pretty impressed with the Robert Siegel impersonator segment. You have to be pretty nerdy to even attempt it.
posted by acrasis at 9:57 AM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


"a new direction for NPR"


Let me know when the new direction happens, because the direction they're going in now features a constant parade of Republicans and other Trump apologists in lazy softball interviews. Seriously, if you want to know how so many white suburban women could vote for Trump, all you have to do is turn on NPR for a couple hours.
posted by mikeand1 at 10:35 AM on January 7, 2018 [35 favorites]


Wow, NPR where you live, mikeand1, is vastly different from what it is from where I live.
posted by hippybear at 10:42 AM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


NPR is NPR. Local public radio varies widely.
posted by snuffleupagus at 10:53 AM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


I wouldn't call NPR a constant parade of Republicans, but at the same time they aren't exactly beating Chuck Todd in the liberalism department.
posted by rhizome at 11:30 AM on January 7, 2018


I'm talking about NPR. Go look at this morning's Weekend Edition" lineup. The very first guest you see in the politics category: "Michael Warren of the conservative Weekly Standard." He explains to us why it's so reasonable for all the other Republicans to keep supporting Trump notwithstanding his batshit crazy proclamations (and no, that's not the phrasing anyone used to describe them.)
posted by mikeand1 at 11:31 AM on January 7, 2018 [12 favorites]


I agree about NPR's editorial drift, it's galling, but if I understand how public radio works it's the local programming that sharply diverges in terms of what you hear on the public radio airwaves in City A vs. City Z, and that NPR (or PRI) itself should not be different place to place.

Although I guess what particular NPR programming local stations choose to carry and/or co-produce could be.
posted by snuffleupagus at 11:46 AM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Seriously, if you want to know how so many white suburban women could vote for Trump, all you have to do is turn on NPR for a couple hours.
Meh. I'm pretty pissed off with NPR at the moment, but I think there's pretty much zero overlap between the suburban white women who listen to NPR and the suburban white women who voted for Trump.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:07 PM on January 7, 2018 [5 favorites]


Yes, we love our local programming that we can listen to in the four separate hours per day they scatter around the clock.
posted by rhizome at 12:08 PM on January 7, 2018


Thanks to the magic of the internet, I can listen to NPR's local programming whenever I want, which is good, because the actual air times aren't convenient for me.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 12:28 PM on January 7, 2018


I have a lot of respect for Mary Louise Kelly. She's a talented journalist, and I know when I hear her name that a story will be worth listening to. But does anyone else see the humor in following a link about Seagull's soothing voice with a link about Kelly? She, uh, has a voice for print journalism.
posted by kevinbelt at 2:00 PM on January 7, 2018


She has a voice for jouralism, and this whole "has a face for radio" and "has a voice for print" needs to stop because it's the quality of the information being presented that is important and not the attractiveness of the presenter that is important. Jeebus! Grow up!
posted by hippybear at 2:07 PM on January 7, 2018 [6 favorites]


As a former college radio station director, I may be less than objective, but having a 'radio voice' is a less pernicious concept than a 'TV face.' It's more akin to having a pleasing singing voice -- or not. I'd bracket gendered expectations about how any given person's voice "should" sound -- I'm talking about purely tonal characteristics. And, to a certain extent, delivery -- which is learned.

That said, I'd agree 100% that it should not be the prime consideration, especially when it comes to news and such. And especially for reporters or commentators, vs. anchors.
posted by snuffleupagus at 2:53 PM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


Where am I going to get my Friday news on spoits and the business of spoits now?
posted by tclark at 2:55 PM on January 7, 2018 [4 favorites]


. . . I have been working at National Public Radio for a little over 40 years — 41, to be precise. For the past 30 years, I've been doing the same job: hosting All Things Considered.

I think of Robert Siegel as the 'new guy'.

I just missed Bob Edwardseses move to Morning Edition, but I was listening when Noah Adams replaced Sanford Ungar -- and the theme music was played on a analog synthesizer [mp3].

Haven't been listening as much lately.

First Noah Adams, then Susan Stamberg, now Robert Siegel...

Wait, what . . . ?
 
posted by Herodios at 3:30 PM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Wait, what

I know, right? And let's not even mention what went on with Neal Conan.
posted by hippybear at 4:25 PM on January 7, 2018


if you ask me npr's been going downhill since they canned bob edwards
posted by entropicamericana at 4:38 PM on January 7, 2018 [1 favorite]


Be sure not to miss the wonderful interview with racist junk science huckster Charles Murray on NPR news tonight! That guy sure needed another national platform to sell his books on!
posted by mikeand1 at 5:37 PM on January 7, 2018 [13 favorites]


I do a decent Robert Siegel impression and I was kind of tempted to post a Youtube audio clip of my karaoke version of him talk-singing Green Day's Good Riddance as a farewell tribute. I thought there was something funny about that familiar, comforting voice saying, "Time grabs you by the wrist, directs you where to go," and then summing up with a wry, "I hope you've had the time... of your life." But I had a feeling it'd be one of those things that seems funny when you're doing it but then a month later you're like, "Ugh, WTF was I thinking?"
posted by Ursula Hitler at 6:17 PM on January 7, 2018


He explains to us why it's so reasonable for


Or: We get to listen to why other voters believe it's so reasonable for...

The purpose of most of this coverage, I think, isn't to spread the message of whomever is speaking, but to give people a chance to answer the question, "What possible reason could people have for thinking that way?"

If you as a listener/person want to have some kind of meliorative or modifying effect on the rest of the world -- and if you care, I hope you do -- then understanding the motivations and informational landscapes of other people is critical. That is, if you want to have an effect by persuasion or education rather than other, more de-civilizing means.

One very good way to get that information is to ask people and listen to their responses. I'm having a hard time thinking of a better way.
posted by amtho at 8:23 PM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


understanding the motivations and informational landscapes of other people is critical.

You're assuming they're expressing their viewpoints in good faith. The vast majority of them are not.

When Republican politicians and pundits come on NPR, they change their message for the audience. They don't say the things they would say to other Republicans in an open honest discussion. They put on the veneer of Nice Polite Republicans who sound more or least reasonable and rational. Their job is to normalize the atrocity that the GOP has become, and NPR is just the vehicle for it, precisely because the audience is so willing to listen to them in good faith.

There was a time when it was reasonable to assume good faith on behalf of one's political adversaries; that time is over. It's time to stop getting played like suckers.

I'm fine with having them come on the air, but the interviewer needs to challenge them seriously and not let them get away with the lies and veneer they put on. Most of the time, NPR hosts are incapable or unwilling to do so.

On the rare occasion an NPR host asks a tough question, the subject just ignores the question and puts forth their own talking points. That's a standard maneuver, but a good interviewer will press the subject to answer the question and make it clear when the subject is dodging it. NPR hosts almost never do this. They are way, way too passive and nonconfrontational. They are getting taken advantage of.
posted by mikeand1 at 9:17 PM on January 7, 2018 [21 favorites]


Who's gonna be around on All Things Considered to call the next Michael Brown a thug now that Robert Siegel is departing?
posted by indubitable at 9:24 PM on January 7, 2018 [3 favorites]


This thread has been therapeutic for me. No major news outlet went out of its way to strive for Balance the way NPR News did during 2016. (And it continues to pull punches for fear of sounding partisan.) As a result, each Trump horror was balanced by a Clinton email story.

Now I hear them leave facts out of stories—facts that would cast the GOP in a negative light. And I think: your audience knows you’re pulling punches. We watch Rachel Maddow and read Vox and WaPo. And regardless the right is going to call you liberal shills. Why not just have some integrity and report the whole story? Yes, it will mean one party looks worse than the other. But one is worse than the other.

I’m more upset with the both-sides media than I am with the GOP.

(And. NPR/=public radio. My local public station is fantastic.)
posted by persona au gratin at 1:25 AM on January 8, 2018 [15 favorites]


Btw, when you hear bad journalism, contact the journalist on Twitter or the like. Do do in a polite fashion, of course. But the reason why places like NPR go out of their way to make the GOP look reasonable is because the right has been working the refs for 30 years. It’s time for the rest of us to let the ref know when she’s not doing good journalism.
posted by persona au gratin at 1:32 AM on January 8, 2018 [6 favorites]


Who's gonna be around on All Things Considered to call the next Michael Brown a thug now that Robert Siegel is departing?

Surely he didn't call Michael Brown a thug, just merely relayed that some are wondering if.

I'm extremely bitter about NPR's transformation over the past, oh, 15 years. It's almost "milkshake radio station" territory.
posted by rhizome at 3:26 AM on January 8, 2018 [3 favorites]


see for yourself:
SIEGEL: To what extent should we question his account of events, knowing that he had just been, if not a participant, an immediate witness to a - you know, a kind of a pretty thuggish moment there in that store when Michael Brown stole those cigars, and more to the point sort of shoved the sales clerk away in a rather aggressive way. Is Dorian Johnson - does he have a stake in his version of events?
posted by indubitable at 6:29 AM on January 8, 2018 [2 favorites]


That Robert Siegel impersonator segment was incomplete without the time former Onion editor Robert Siegel was interviewed and, after being introduced, said "I'm Robert Siegel" in a credible impression of NPR's Siegel's voice.
posted by The Tensor at 10:38 AM on January 8, 2018 [5 favorites]


Wait what? Did this thread just turn into shitting on Robert Siegel? Because that should be an entirely separate thread. Jeebus!
posted by hippybear at 7:54 AM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


i always thought it would be a vast improvement if npr replaced robert siegel with robert smigel
posted by entropicamericana at 8:17 AM on January 9, 2018 [1 favorite]


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