John (Sunset Coast), you say "If NPR wants to circumscribe the duties and activities, within and without NPR broadcasts, of their employees and contractors, so be it. It makes, to my mind, pretty sterile radio."

If you want to call news reporting and analysis "sterile" because it doesn't seek to be glitzy, propagandistic, provocative, or "info-tainment," fine.    I think we need less provocation, punditry, and titillation in our "news" and more straightforward, uncensored attempts to just report important political news and make it understandable to the public.