The same report said the CBC is considering an online streaming service showing Canadian music in multiple genres.  Sources said “as many as 35 stations” could be added, ideally all streaming from one central website.

Wednesday’s announcement makes that rumor more official, although details of the digital player remain under wraps:

“Through this new relationship with AVLA and the Canadian music labels, CBC will be able to offer its programs on demand complete with music while at the same time building a new digital music service, that will be unlike any other available today in Canada,” Chris Boyce, executive director of radio and audio of CBC English Services, said in a statement.

“As part of our on-going commitment to Canadian culture, this will be accomplished by combining the power of context, curation and community in new and innovative ways,” he added, noting that more details about CBC’s new digital music service will be announced in the coming weeks.

The Toronto Star noted the service is slated to launch later this winter, though it wasn’t disclosed if the digital stations would be free.

Today, much of CBC’s musical content is edited from podcasts and streaming broadcasts due to high licensing fees.  CBC Radio 3, which primarily showcases independent Canadian music, already streams online and on Sirius Satellite Radio.  I can’t recommend it enough if you’re a fan of indie music, Canadian or otherwise.

A subscription model for said services could be a new revenue stream for the CBC, who receives about $1.1b annually from the Canadian government, with approximately $348m going towards radio.  But a 2011 report found 53% of Canadians surveyed would like to see the CBC’s funding cut, with a move towards a model aligned closer to PBS’s.  Online streams could be a creative way to receive more funding from outside the country, although it may be a tough sell for those unfamiliar with CBC’s broadcasting.

WSHU Acquires 2 more stations

The FCC just approved the proposed assignment of two Cox-owned AM radio stations in Connecticut to Sacred Heart University for use as non-commercial radio stations. Stations WSTC (Stamford, CT) and WNLK (Norwalk, CT) will convert from commercial to non-commercial status and will be used by public radio group WSHU for its broadcasts of public radio programming (mostly syndicated shows from NPR and BBC).

The purchase price is $500,000 and a local marketing agreement currently in place allows for $15,000 a month in expenses to be reimbursed to Cox up until the sale closes. According to the asset purchase agreement, Cox believes that the sale price is “substantially below the fair market value” and therefore intends to qualify the difference between the purchase price and the market value of the stations as a charitable contribution. It’s intriguing that Cox can potentially get paid and get a tax write-off for this deal since the purchaser is a non-profit university.

WSHU began airing its programming over WSTC and WNLK in November, 2011 after the proposed sale was announced. Before that time, both Cox stations aired a news and talk format. This isn’t the first time that WSHU has entered into a deal with a commercial station. Last year they began leasing airtime from Ridgefield Broadcasting Corporation for the use of commercial FM station WQQQ. WHSU broadcasts classical music programming and a public radio news format across a number of AM and FM frequencies in both Connecticut and New York. Although there doesn’t appear to be any student involvement in these public radio stations, Sacred Heart University also has the Internet-only student radio station WHRT.

Mr. Rollins is patiently expecting your roast

Henry Rollins is a Gen X renaissance man, starting out as the former lead singer of the seminal hardcore punk band Black Flag, in addition to being an author, actor, spoken word artist and perhaps the man with the most independent music documentary appearances on earth. On top of all that, Mr. Rollins is also a host on music-centric public radio station KCRW in Santa Barbara Monica.

However, it looks like he’ll be away from the station during its pledge drive next week, which is apparently a big faux pas, especially for the man who famously bellowed, “gimmmie gimmie gimmie, I need some more / gimmie, gimmie, gimmie, don’t ask what for!” (How’s that for a pledge drive pitch?)

So, as a form of discipline the station has decided to take a page from the Comedy Central book and is going to put on a roast of Rollins next week when the pledge drive starts. Instead of limiting it to a single show, KCRW will be interspersing the barbs throughout the week’s programming.

The twist is that KCRW is asking listeners and fans of Rollins to call in with their own punchlines. They only ask to “keep it clean, make it weird, but don’t pull any punches.” They have a toll-free number set up to take messages at 877 789 8355.

I just recommend not leaving your real name or home address.

As a bonus, here’s a Disneyfied version of that Black Flag classic I mentioned above:

NPR isn’t going to sit idly by while critics call a news story on domestic drone use “much more akin to a commercial for the drone industry.”

“Just because you don’t like the subject of a story doesn’t mean that the story was wrong,” responds NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos to Glen Greenwald’s Salon takedown of Brian Naylor’s report on police drones.

The December 5 All Things Considered piece was titled “Look, Up In The Sky! It’s A Drone, Looking At You.” Naylor reviewed industry videos that push drones as a way to pursue crime suspects or search for missing persons.

One company, AeroVironment, brands its unmanned air device The Qube, “and while it may look like something kids would look for under the Christmas tree, it’s no toy,” Naylor’s report observed.

The story did quote someone from the Center for Democracy and Technology expressing privacy worries, and mentioned that the Federal Aviation Administration will have to establish flight standards for the gadgets.

All these devices “have some people a little wary,” Naylor noted.

None of this assuaged Greenwald’s concerns:

So NPR listeners heard for 4 1/2 minutes about the wonderful, exciting uses of drones from an executive of a drone corporation, an official with the drone industry, and a sheriff’s spokesman using drones, and then for about 10 seconds at the end from someone who is “a little wary.” If the drone industry had purchased commercial time on NPR, how would this report have been any different?

Some NPR listeners have also protested the story. Naylor has posted his own response. “I was surprised at the amount of criticism this story drew on the blogosphere,” he says:

I think much of it is because it didn’t reflect the view, apparently held by those who found fault with the story, that civilian drone use poses an existential threat to our liberties. I don’t know if that’s the case, and I don’t know if anyone does, since relatively few (less than 300) are in actual use.

The idea behind the piece was this; while we’ve all been made aware of the growing use of drones by the military and CIA overseas, drone use is something relatively new within the US. (By the way, these are small, maybe a bit bigger than model aircraft, and only weigh a couple of pounds, a fraction of the size of those used by the military…which I  pointed out in the story, but I’m not sure if our photo corresponded.)

So I thought it would be informative to detail how those in the industry see their potential use. I was surprised, as I venture most of our listeners were, just how many potential applications there are for these things, everything from crop dusting to pipeline inspecting to search and rescue uses.

Of course I interviewed someone, in law enforcement, who has had firsthand experience operating one. And I then raised the concerns about the privacy questions regarding widespread use of drones. I reject that the issue was somehow glossed over. There were two, admittedly short, sound bites, which touched on how drones could be used in all manner of potentially troublesome ways. That those concerns came at the end of the story doesn’t mean they were an afterthought. In fact, in radio, what comes at the end of the story is often what listeners most remember.

So I reject the idea that this was a long commercial for the industry. In my mind it was an objective, informational piece about an issue most of our listeners were probably unaware of, presenting the facts, and raising important questions. Just what we aim to do here at NPR.

But Greenwald clearly sees NPR’s mission differently.

“While one can certainly envision how drones could perform legitimate police functions,” his commentary concludes, “the importation of instruments like drone technology into domestic police activities raises a slew of profound questions, and there is one thing we can be certain of: establishment media outlets like NPR will do their best to obscure and belittle those questions while glorifying these weapons. That’s what it means to be the ‘establishment media’.”

Elivs Mitchell (left) and Marc Maron (right)

Elvis Mitchell, that is, host of public radio KCRW’s half-hour interview program, the Treatment. This week’s edition of the program has comedian and podcast host Marc Maron as guest, and at the beginning Maron makes a point of the fact that Mitchell was willing to say the show’s abbreviation name (though clearly not what it stands for), while the New York Times declined to even mention his podcast’s innocuous three-letter name.

This is actually the best interview I’ve heard with Maron since he started his podcast. He and Mitchell develop an almost immediate chemistry, and Mitchell sounds like an actual fan. He is quickly able to dive in and discuss how Maron is able to get comedians like Norm MacDonald to let down their guard, drop their persona and go deep.

What’s notable about this appearance is that the Treatment more often features actors, authors, musicians and other personalities who are there to promote a project that has been validated by a studio, publisher or label. While Maron is a working comedian and former Air America radio host, his podcast is self-produced. Maron does make TV appearances on shows like Conan, but those primarily feature his stand-up bits. The Treatment interview, on the other hand, is really about Maron and his podcast, treating WTF as a media production just as legitimate as movie or television show from a studio or network.

Now, it is true that an edited version of WTF aired on some public radio stations this past summer. But Mitchell made no mention of it in their interview; there’s no indication that the brief public radio run was used as the bona fide to justify Maron’s appearance. Rather, it sounds like Mitchell is listener and fan, and actually wanted a chance to talk with Maron.

I see an interview like this as another sign of the growing prominence and legitimation of podcasting as an actual media form, rather than being simply dismissed as the audio equivalent of bad public access television. While there are certainly the audio equivalents of Wayne’s World in iTunes, there is an increasing number of thoughtfully produced programs that could belong on radio, if only radio were interested in more diverse and creative fare.

John Coltrane, Cannonball Adderly, Miles Davis, Bill Evans; (Photo by Frank Driggs Collection/Getty Images)

NPR asked its jazz listeners to rate their favorite songs, and gleaned from those responses a list of the top ten Jazz songs of all time[1]. What is interesting about the lists is not that they can establish what is “best,” whatever that might mean, or what is most popular (sales records, etcetera, show that). Looking at the lists causes people to discover or rediscover great music to listen to – that is of course what matters most. It also can prompt us to think about what we love and why. Below is NPR’s list, then mine, then some discoveries that I made, in the process of choosing songs, about how I think about jazz – questions about what is a jazz song, and whose song is it.

Also, because he is so central, I try to explain my complicated feelings about John Coltrane’s work, and then finish with a short note about each item in my list.

NPR’s List:

Dave Brubeck, “Take Five”
Miles Davis, “So What”
Duke Ellington, “Take The A Train”
Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight”
John Coltrane, “My Favorite Things”
John Coltrane, “A Love Supreme (Acknowledgment)”
Miles Davis, “All Blues”
Weather Report, “Birdland”
Stan Getz & Astrud Gilberto, “The Girl From Ipanema”
Benny Goodman, “Sing, Sing, Sing”

Here’s my list:

Miles Davis/John Coltrane/Bill Evans, “So What”
Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight”
Billie Holiday/Lester Young/Ben Webster, “Fine and Mellow”
Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat”
John Coltrane, “Naima”
John Coltrane, “Alabama”
Thelonious Monk, “Tea for Two”
Lester Young, “Tea for Two”
Duke Ellington, “Solitude”
Miles Davis/John Coltrane, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top”
Bud Powell/Charlie Parker, “Ornithology”

The criterion I used in picking mine was to ask myself, What music could I not live without? What music, if subtracted from my world, would leave me feeling bereft and forlorn? So if my list of ten has eleven in it, that’s why.

Now for the discoveries:

Gershwin, Kerns, Monk and Coltrane: What is a jazz song, and who is it by?

The first thing I noticed working on my list is that I wasn’t sure what a jazz song is. Not in the sense of “is it jazz or is it rock or pop or whatever,” but because a jazz song is not simply a tune with a name and an author. Many jazz pieces, including the very best, began life as tunes written by songwriters who were not ‘jazz’ songwriters or musicians. Later, a jazz musician (or just as often a jazz group) picks it up, plays with it, works their imagination on it, thereby creating something new. This is not an accident of history, but fundamental to what jazz is – music rooted in improvisation, hungry for ideas from the wider culture around it, from the past and from the wider world.  For example, “Tea for Two” began as a song written in 1925 for the musical “No, No, Nanette”, but it is on my list (twice!) in the completely reworked versions by Lester Young and by Thelonious Monk. So I found myself thinking of items for my list as particular great jazz performances, particular recordings or renderings, not an abstract/concrete copyrighted object.

Individual and Collective jazz performance

My list favors ensemble performances where we think of more than one performer as leading the song: so “Fine and Mellow” is by Billie Holiday, Lester Young, Ben Webster and more; the performance of “Ornithology” on my list is by Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, equally. While I dropped it off the list, the cut of “Embraceable You” that I love is not one of Charlie Parker’s 3-4 minute takes, but the ten minute version consisting of five great horn players succeeding and comparing each others version: Roy Eldridge, Lester Young, Tommy Turk, Parker, Flip Phillips. This also is not an accident: the live communication between performers is part of what makes jazz jazz. Reaching into the past for tunes with unexplored possibilities, and connecting one performer to another in the live creative moment, are of the essence in jazz.

John Coltrane’s Sound and Fury, On and Off These Lists

John Coltrane’s name stands out in both lists, as writer, lead performer, as well as ensemble member. But whereas NPR’s highlights him for “My Favorite Things” and “A Love Supreme,” he’s on my list “Naima”, “Alabama”, and (with Miles Davis) “Surrey with the Fringe on Top.” This divergence is the only one I want to talk about. As it happens, in both cases I’m talking about pieces that I once revered but now have come to question.

It is an understatement to say that Coltrane’s ballads are the most beautiful ever recorded. I could have chosen “You Don’t Know What Love Is”, or “After the Rain”, or many others, instead of or along with “Naima” and “Alabama”. In the sixties Coltrane moved from hard bebop to abstract ‘out-of-the-box’ compositions, showing amazing virtuosity in this avant-garde “New Thing”. Though many brilliant pieces of music came out of this style, so did some unfortunate consequences: young saxophone players learned how to play extravagant solo riffs a la Coltrane and impressionistic compositions, and neglected rhythm and melody and traditional notions of sonorous beauty. Much of jazz drifted in that direction. Therefore, although Coltrane is as great a horn player as ever walked the earth – only Charlie Parker, in my opinion, is his equal – I think that his legacy, particularly as composer, is mixed. The two Coltrane pieces on NPR’s list exemplify this perfectly, as follows.

The Many Contradictions of “My Favorite Things”

Coltrane’s version of this originally super-sweet Mary Martin/Julie Andrews tune from “The Sound of Music” might seem the ultimate example of jazzman-reworks-pop-tune-into-jazz. The song became Coltrane’s signature tune as he toured the world. He ingeniously releases the melody from its original context, and demonstrates its intriguing power. But everything else is changed as well – not just the pure-as-the-driven-snow words, but the feel, mood and the meaning of the song. As he reprised it over the years it moved away from the original sentiment of gratitude and pleasure into one of pained searching, and in the end one with an ominous, perhaps angry tone[12]. It became an assault on the original song, disguised as a reworking of it. I think it expresses Coltrane’s attempt to bring together the more gentle, soulful side of his work with his later cacophonous saxophone exploits. I loved this song for a decade or so after it came out, but now when I listen to it I feel a sadness. I think that’s because I sense that no one’s favorite things are truly expressed here; I imagine that I hear Trane looking for them, but not finding them.

Jazz, Spirituality, and “A Love Supreme”

“A Love Supreme” changed the course of jazz music, and was a watershed experience for those of us listening in the sixties. It’s a masterful and beautiful piece, and its four movement structure successfully makes a bold classical statement. But for me it is flawed by its emphatic religiosity. Late in his life Coltrane, along with a number of other jazz musicians of the time (notably, his wife, Alice Coltrane) became involved with a sort of pan-religious sentiment, ascribing to the popular notion that all the “world’s great religions” “teach the same thing.” He supposedly said that “I believe in all religions.” He joined Alice, Pharaoh Sanders and others in apparently believing that Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam, Christianity, and Ancient African/Egyptian religious traditions are all reconcilable and worship the same God.

I guess this kind of straining after God was (and remains) very compelling to some people.  But I find it emotionally and intellectually discordant. I hear the chanting of ‘A love supreme, A love supreme’ as the low point, not the zenith, of this piece. I suspect that many who praise this piece are engaging in a kind of Musical/Spiritual Correctness – i.e. “If Coltrane was into it, it must be profound,” or, even worse, “White people shouldn’t criticize the intense mystical beliefs of this holy African-American artistic genius.” On the contrary, I think the powerful, angry, brave, beautiful and secular free-thinking tradition which jazz is a part of – the yearnings expressed by Miles, Monk, Ellington, Parker, Lester Young, Mingus and Coltrane at his best – these very human expressions of truth, beauty and courage are more bold, compelling and therefore spiritual than the self-conscious mysticism of “A Love Supreme.”

Notes on my favorite songs

Miles Davis/John Coltrane/Bill Evans, “So What”
Also on NPR’s list, this opening song on Kind of Blue is eternally fresh and astonishing.

Thelonious Monk, “Round Midnight” [2]
Has a special and exalted place in the jazz repertoire. Almost everyone has a stab at recording it, but no one displaces Monk as the master of this masterpiece.

Lester Young/Billie Holiday/Ben Webster “Fine and Mellow” [3]
Made famous by being captured on film by CBS, this performance has a glorious depth to it and gives us a sense of the connection between the members of this ensemble: Roy Eldridge, Gerry Mulligan, and Vic Dickinson are soloists, along with Young, Holiday and Webster.

Charles Mingus, “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” [4]
An loving elegy for Lester Young so lovely as to be worthy of the man.

John Coltrane, “Naima” [5]
One of Coltrane’s many extraordinary ballads, a love song to his first wife.

John Coltrane, “Alabama” [6]
The most beautiful protest song ever. A response to the bombing of a black church in Birmingham that killed 4 young girls; an elegy like no other.

Duke Ellington, “Solitude”
This tremendous composition, like Round Midnight, became a platform on which a never-ending stream of musicians could build their versions: Duke’s big band arrangement[7], his trio with Max Roach and Mingus[7b], Sonny Rollins’ astonishing 8 minute solo version[7c], as well as versions by Louis Armstrong alone[7d], or in combination with Ellington[7e].

Lester Young, “Tea for Two” [8]
Young’s take is different from Monk’s but has a magnificent sense of width, of openness: as if his horn is ready to express anything he finds in the world.

Thelonious Monk, “Tea for Two” [9]
The 17 note ending that Monk plays here is stunning, perfect, elegant,
beautiful and unforgettable.

Miles Davis/John Coltrane, “Surrey with the Fringe on Top” [10]
A perfect piece: spare, acute, pure, lovely. For me, this is the most remarkable transfiguration of a show tune (Oklahoma!) into high art. Davis etches a magnificent and brilliant outline, and Coltrane fills it in such rich sound.

Bud Powell and Charlie Parker, “Ornithology”[11].
The two great geniuses of jazz in the fifties showcase what can be done with an alto and a piano playing off each other.

[1]NPR list http://www.npr.org/2011/02/19/133479768/the-mix-the-jazz-100
[2]Monk, Round Midnight http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMmeNsmQaFw
[3]Holiday,etc Fine and Mellow http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YKqxG09wlIA
[4]Mingus, Pork Pie Hat http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6sfe_8RAaJ0&feature=related
[5]Coltrane, Naima http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_ywkpVJ624&list=PL6F2DB771EC0A05A2&index=1&feature=plpp_video
[6]Coltrane, Alabama http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8j_TDoOPnIA
[7]Solitude, big band version http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rOJT6HoAwn4
[7b]Solitude Ellington in trio w/Max Roach and Charles Mingus] youtube.com/watch?v=oraWwHYKKig
[7c]Solitude, Sonny Rollins solo version youtube.com/watch?v=hPHAsnGagQ&feature=results_video&playnext=1&list=PLC640413B08DAD7BC
[7d]Solitude, Louis Armstrong]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHcL8UjvlKI&feature=related
[7e]Solitude, Ellington & Armstrong]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIBzSnTBTzQ
[8] Young, Tea for Two[8]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imrYnZDxfpk
[9] Monk, Tea for Two on the album “Criss Cross” http://www.amazon.com/Criss-Cross-Thelonious-Monk/dp/B0000AVHBS
[10]Davis & Coltrane, Surrey http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KvHt08Opi2g
[11]Powell/Parker Ornithology http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYNnJBom0ro
[12]See Geoff Dyer on “My favorite things” in “Lives of the Great Song”, ed. Tim De Lisle, Pavilion Books, 1994.

NPR has finally gotten around to responding to a column in Slate describing the network’s army of listener e-mail and letter writers as “snoots.” In March, Farhad Manjoo went medieval on NPR listeners who protest various items on popular culture aired on All Things Considered and Morning Edition. He was particularly incensed at listener tirades against a story on Justin Beiber fans—upset at their idol losing a Grammy to Esperanza Spalding and defacing her Wikipedia entry.

The post quoted several screeds: “Was it really necessary to spend any time, even four minutes, on one account of teenagers being mean to people online?” one NPR fan fumed. Another: “I hope ATC isn’t turning into a tabloid!”

The “stodgiest, whiniest, most self-importantly insufferable snobs of all time,” Manjoo called these complainants. But now NPR has come to their rescue.

“I don’t think that’s true,” responded NPR Ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos on Thursday. His commentary on how NPR picks which missives to cite in its letter section quotes ATC Executive Producer Christopher Turpin, who reiterates observations made in Manjoo’s essay:

Generally, criticism trumps praise; the letters segment is an opportunity for listeners to take us to task, not a space for patting ourselves on the back—not that we’re immune to a little back patting once in a while. When a story generates a lot of mail letters are selected in approximate proportion to the audience response. For example, Laura Sullivan’s recent story about Native American children taken into foster care generated hundreds of e-mails complementing her reporting, as well as a few dissenters. We aired three letters praising aspects of the story and one critic.

But it’s worth excerpting a little more of the Slate piece, which gradually morphed into quite a conniption fit. Here’s my favorite paragraph:

I’ve grown to hate these listeners. Oh, I hate them, hate them, hate them. Every time one of their narrow-minded, classist letters makes it on the air, I contemplate burning my tote bag in protest. The problem, for me, isn’t just that some people don’t like some things NPR covers. It’s that these reflexively snobby pseudo-intellectuals see NPR as their own—a refuge from the mad world outside, a “safe,” high-minded palace that should never be sullied by anything more outré than James Taylor (whom, of course, they love).

This screed reminds me of an observation that I made in my book about the early years of listener-supported KPFA-FM in Berkeley, California (Pacifica Radio: The Rise of an Alternative Network). Describing the philosophy of the station’s 1950s opera aficionado Anthony Boucher, I wrote:

From Boucher’s doorstep, the American people seemed incapable of preserving their democracy, and those in the know appeared powerless to hold the American people in check. . . . This genteel editor and his opera collection—embodied the culture KPFA helped create in the early 1950s, a culture of refuge. He represented a radio audience that experienced the world as a problem taken out of its hands, carved up between senators from Wisconsin and commissars from the Kremlin.

I am convinced that the reason why NPR is able to produce those funny little pieces about Justin Bieber and other tabloid-like subjects that Manjoo (and I) defend, is because of the support that NPR stations receive from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. If not for the CPB, these stations would depend more on their “core” audiences, who see their donations as quid-pro-quo gestures entitling them to editorial oversight.

If Manjoo doesn’t like the attitude of these listener letter writers now, goodness knows what he’d say about those stations in a post-CPB public broadcasting environment.

“KALW is considering some significant changes for 2012, and before we move forward, we want to know what you think,” the announcement explains. The station is overseen by San Francisco’s Unified School District.

The questions involve whether to put All Things Considered on an afternoon drive time schedule, moving BBC Newshour and As It Happens to various other times, bringing some new shows like Crosscurrents and Snap Judgment to the schedule, dropping Whad’Ya Know, and several other changes.

But what really surprised me is that KALW management is asking these questions at all. Most public radio stations rarely go through this process. Not a few community stations skip it as well.

So if you’re a KALW listener/subscriber, get in there and give the station your input. But here’s some free advice. You know why stations often don’t go through this process? Because they think they know from the getgo what the answer from listeners will be to their proposed changes:

No, no, no, no, and no.

Thus, if all you do is angrily oppose everything that KALW is suggesting, you are pretty much confirming to the public radio management crowd that exercises like this are pointless, and that the best thing they can do is whatever they want, then tough out the bitter response.

Bottom line: KALW is being thoughtful. You be thoughtful too.

Michelle Norris

The This is NPR blog discloses that All Things Considered host Michelle Norris’ husband Broderick Johnson has taken a top position with the Obama Campaign.

“After careful consideration, we decided that Broderick’s new role could make it difficult for me to continue hosting ATC,” Norris explains in a published memo:

Given the nature of Broderick’s position with the campaign and the impact that it will most certainly have on our family life, I will temporarily step away from my hosting duties until after the 2012 elections.

I will be leaving the host chair at the end of this week, but I’m not going far. I will be wearing a different hat for a while, producing signature segments and features and working on new reporting projects. While I will of course recuse myself from all election coverage, there’s still an awful lot of ground that I can till in this interim role.

“I will certainly miss hosting,” Norris adds, “but I will remain part of the ATC team and I look forward to contributing to our show and NPR in new and exciting ways.”

Lisa Simeone

The good news is that Occupy DC participant Lisa Simeone will retain her job as host of NPR World of Opera. The This is NPR blog has a brief notice mentioning that World of Opera sponsor WDAV will keep Simeone on. She came under fire yesterday for her participation in the Occupy Wall Street related protests.

Simeone fared less well, however, when it came to holding onto her position as host for Soundprint. Here’s that program’s statement about her:

Soundprint and Lisa Simeone have ended their work together after fifteen years. Soundprint is a journalistic program and Lisa’s leadership role as a member of the steering committee and a spokesperson for the October 2011 protest activities, associated with the Occupy DC movement, conflicts with her role as the host of a documentary series. Soundprint adheres to the highest standards of journalism which include maintaining appropriate distance from marches, demonstrations and other political activity. These are standards held by many other journalism organizations, including National Public Radio.

Lisa has been a dynamic and engaging host for Soundprint, and we wish her well for the future.

Simone has been less sanguine about the termination. Here are her reactions, made to David Swanson of the WarisaCrime blog:

I find it puzzling that NPR objects to my exercising my rights as an American citizen—the right to free speech, the right to peaceable assembly—on my own time in my own life.  I’m not an NPR employee.  I’m a freelancer.  NPR doesn’t pay me.  I’m also not a news reporter.  I don’t cover politics.  I’ve never brought a whiff of my political activities into the work I’ve done for NPR World of Opera.  What is NPR afraid I’ll do—insert a seditious comment into a synopsis of Madame Butterfly?

This sudden concern with my political activities is also surprising in light of the fact that Mara Liaason reports on politics for NPR yet appears as a commentator on FoxTV, Scott Simon hosts an NPR news show yet writes political op-eds for national newspapers, Cokie Roberts reports on politics for NPR yet accepts large speaking fees from businesses.  Does NPR also send out ‘Communications Alerts’ about their activities?