Tuesday ME Hi/Lows

Low Points:The theme today is meta: talking about talking about stuff.

Baseball! Baseball! (I’ll write about my weariness over NPR’s obsession with baseball in a future post.) Today they talk about baseball officials testifying before congress, when, in fact, they should be talking about why they should be wasting time talking about talking about baseball.

Another low point: Talking about the ridiculous, media-created kerfuffle about whether or not Hillary gives enough responsibility for civil rights victories to Martin Luther King. Please find something less stupid to cover or skip election coverage for the day.

High Point: Gwen Thompkins’ unblinking, poetic, nightmarish story about election-related tribal violence in Kenya. I’m as jaded and horror-numb about insoluble African tragedy as anyone, but this report, prosaically entitled “Kenya’s Parliament to Convene First Meeting,” ripped that emotional scab right off. Her lovely clear, calm voice recounting this gruesome story with telling details (“missing eight teeth”) and vivid sound clips should send everyone to their keyboards demanding news agencies double funding for actual reporting. This was an old-school NPR pre-produced report, not the usual so-called “two way,” which is when a reporter in the studio asks agreed-upon “give us a sense” questions to another reporter on the scene. I hope she wins an award for it.