NPR Suggested We Are All ‘Morally Dubious’

This is an archived page from 2022. Find out more

(By Troy Price) On August 24, 2022 National Public Radio presented a news piece titled, The rise of the ‘Morally Dubious Podcaster’ in pop culture. While I love that the title implies that podcasters are part of pop culture, I think that the news piece carelessly maligned all podcasters by focusing only on the ‘Morally Dubious Podcasters’ that have been featured in recent Movies and TV shows. It is newsworthy that podcasting and podcasters are being included in main stream media more and more. Some may find it newsworthy that several recent movies and TV shows have featured podcasters with questionable morals in their narrative. This news piece was crafted in such a way to make all podcaster’s motives suspect.

If you listened live you became privy to the news piece’s inflammatory perspective when at the beginning it played sensational clips from different shows that portrayed podcasters in a negative light. This perspective was further cemented when one contributor commented, “Look up and down the Apple Podcasts and you find any number of, frankly, morally dubious true-crime shows…” Even though including the phrase, ‘any number of’ suggests that not all true-crime podcasters are evil, at this point listeners are ready to hate all true-crime podcasters.

But we non-true-crime podcasters were not safe! Not 20 seconds later, another contributor stated, ‘Morally dubious podcasters of all genres are showing up in popular culture.” I am sure listeners were ready to grab their pitchforks and axes to storm any podcaster’s studio. I say that a little tongue in cheek, but let me say this clearly -Shame on you NPR!

You did not provide your listener with any context of the real world of podcasting. Not once did you offer anything like, “While the number of these morally dubious podcasters is alarming, they are greatly outnumbered by the majority of dedicated, serious podcasters.” Or “These fictional characters do not reflect the true diverse tapestry of the podcasting landscape.” Heck, you did not even say “not all podcasters are bad”.

NPR, I ask you to offer equal time (4 minutes) to present a narrative counter to your one-sided hack job that you presented on August 24. Present the joy that today’s podcasts bring to listeners and maybe even the sense of satisfaction that releasing a quality episode gives a podcaster. I am afraid you have fanned the flames of hatred towards podcasting’s good name. I hope that you can quickly address your own one-sided sensational journalism that in and of itself may be ‘morally dubious’.

Troy Price is the co-founder of Front Porch Studios in Berea, Kentucky. He has been involved with podcasting for over a decade. Listen to his show “Podcasting Tips From The Front Porch” HERE.

Comments:

Tim - Sep 4, 2022

It’s morally dubious to say “NPR Suggested We Are All ‘Morally Dubious!’” when they, in fact, did not, as you yourself cite here in the article and as the transcription linked. The fact that you are trying to #notallpodcasters here is part of the problem. The story isn’t about all podcasters, the story is about the rise of the morally dubious one, which again, already implies not all. So you are trying to fuel an outrage machine on behalf of all podcasters that isn’t necessary or warranted here. Talk about hack jobs, podcaster shame thyself.

Don’t bother asking for four minutes to state your case. It’s NPR and they will edit comments down to fit whatever narrative they are wanting to spread. Time has long passed that NPR be defunded. There is nothing “National” or “Public” about the organization.

Oh, I respectfully disagree. I usually appreciate NPR’s work and usually applaud their journalistic integrity. I think they just went too far with this piece.