This is the view of National Public Radio brass: "L.A. kind of reflects America a lot more than Washington does." If you believe that, you'll believe the "Real Housewives of Beverly Hills" represent housewives. There are even fewer conservatives in Los Angeles than there are in DC, so that might be their wish. But then, "All Things Considered" very often fails or refuses to consider conservative views.
The Los Angeles Times reports NPR is moving production of its weekend “All Things Considered” evening newscasts to Culver City, California, where they work in a large, posh space with fancy wall art (thank you, taxpayer subsidies):
The program's nine-person staff hopes to use the NPR West facility, a 25,000-square-foot space with furniture and wall art worthy of a Silicon Valley start-up, as a starting point for covering a broader swath of news that will make the program relevant to more listeners.
"L.A. kind of reflects America a lot more than Washington does," said Steve Lickteig, supervising senior producer for the show that has been broadcast from Washington for 36 years. "I think that will come out in the show in ways we haven't thought of yet."
Indeed, on Saturday night’s show, their lead story was about how they shifted studios to Los Angeles, and they did report on the Sunset Strip. They also featured “heavy” stories like “Hollywood Chinese Theater Reopens After Makeover,” “Black Widow Spider Fan Gets Dangerously Close to His Subject,” and “Epic Pale Whale Fail.”
"They've got an extremely loyal audience," radio analyst Tom Taylor said of NPR. "They know they need to feed their base but they also need to grow the base." So they changed the long-running theme song, which Rath said was like messing with a “sacred text.” If there’s one thing NPR knows little about, it’s the sacred.
