I've had this one on my list for awhile. I'd started a list of things on The Ticket, those few islands in the ocean of excellence that is The Little One where I just have to change the channel. Since the boys have been reviewing their own "Ticket Krytonite" these days, I thought this might be a time to roll out this series.
(I don't always turn to NPR. In fact, I don't like NPR all that much, but if I'm not going to listen to The Ticket I might as well get some news. A fair amount of the time I'll flip to KNTU 88.1, the University of North Texas jazz station, or Little Steven's Underground Garage (Sirius 25) or one of the satellite jazz offerings or the Sinatra channel. Seems odd that with my tastes I'd be listening to The Ticket instead of these joints -- but, as Mike R says, its great to listen . . . .)
There are several things that tend to make me wander off the dial, but I'll just hit one of them today that I was reminded of listening to The Musers yesterday:
The Ticket hosts should never, ever, discuss serious current events.
Sure, everyone's entitled to his or her dumb opinion. And heaven knows it's all over the radio. But one of the reasons I like The Ticket is that the hosts give an impression of intelligence and knowledge.
This impression is seriously damaged when they talk politics or other more-or-less serious non-sports topics. You know, stuff other than farting and conspicuously hot and non-hot women. And this is the impression I get even when I agree with their viewpoint. Yesterday, for example, Junior dreamed out loud of a day when someone would create a third party called -- hell, I forget, something like "the Centerist" party. It just sounded puerile and dumb. George sounds awful when he tries to defend his views, views that I agree with most of the time. The one guy who seems like he might read news articles all the way to the end is Gordon. (Gordon is an interesting case in this regard, and I'm going to write about him sometime in the near future.)
The Musers stray into this unfamiliar territory more frequently than the other shows, and I'm not entirely sure why. Maybe because it's the morning, which is generally more news-intensive across the board. By the time The Hardline rolls around, there's some fresh sports meat for consideration. When The Hardline strays from sports its usually into show-biz or some pop-culture scandal or the like. But when they do talk politics -- whew.
Anyway, there's one of my NPR Moments. Yours?
My ticket Kryptonite? Norm and steroids. To me it is a deadhorse subject. I dont mind the current event discussions, BUT like you I dont care for the uneducated host not prepared for a segment. I understand how they might meander on to a topic, but sometimes it seems like they (especially Corby)online read a headline of an article & are completely unprepaired. I thought they would have interns to have notes like that.
ReplyDeleteMine is whenever it's apparent the hosts didn't do their homework on a topic. I think the worst offender of this is Corby - ever notice how he'll throw out names or facts in an effort to appear knowledgeable about a sports topic, only to be shot down by either Mike or Danny?
ReplyDeleteBut the inspiration behind my post is Mark Elfenbein from this morning. The topic was Jordan Spieth, and he didn't. know. anything. Either about Spieth or golf in general.
Elf: What a remarkable story. First he had to qualify for the Nelson.
Producer Stewart Cedar: He got a sponsor's exemption.
Elf: Then he made the cut on the first day.
Producer Stewart Cedar: Uh, he made the cut after playing Thursday and Friday. And he's the sixth youngest player to make the cut.
Elf: Who was the youngest? Tiger? Hahaha.
Producer Stewart Cedar: Uh, no, Tiger didn't make the cut when he played as an amateur.
What was really frustrating in listening to the exchange was how I knew (and perhaps most of the listening audience knew) all those facts just from listening to the ticket tickers throughout the week.