Some on Twitter criticized NPR for plugging its new voice-controlled app for Ford vehicles on its news programs, but I also saw tweets from people who were excited about the product. (“COOL!” “May have to buy a new car now.”)
Here’s the “Morning Edition” report on the new app.
An NPR listener complained that “when anything is mentioned on NPR concerning religion, it seems that the only religion mentioned is the Catholic religion.”
NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos examined the coverage and, with the help of librarian Elizabeth Allin, found that Islam was most-often mentioned on the network over the last 12 months. The findings:
Islam: 148
Christianity: 63
Judaism: 55
Catholicism: 39
Buddhism: 14
Mormonism: 12
Protestant: 6
Amish: 2
Hinduism: 1
This just in from NPR:
National Security Correspondent Rachel Martin will step in to host Weekend Edition Sunday beginning in January, as Audie Cornish heads to All Things Considered for 2012. (Remember: Audie is on a one-year assignment with ATC while Michele Norris is not hosting through the inauguration.)
Rachel Martin
About Rachel: For the last year and a half, Rachel has been NPR’s National Security Correspondent, providing coverage of military and intelligence issues. Her reporting this year has included a vivid portrait of Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta and a series on women in the military.
Rachel has been a foreign correspondent for NPR based in Berlin, and before that she reported extensively from Afghanistan and later from Iraq where she covered the U.S. troop surge and the so-called Sunni awakening in Anbar province. Rachel got her start at KQED in San Francisco as producer and reporter. She was also part of the team that launched NPR’s morning news show – the gone but not forgotten Bryant Park Project. She frequently guest hosts for our programs, too – as she just did for the weekend version of All Things Considered.
Artist Gaelan Kelly’s “How the NPR voices look in my head” blog post from early summer was such a hit that he did a follow-up in September that included sketches of “Click and Clack,” Steve Inskeep, Diane Rehm and other NPRers. Kelly told readers:
It’s probably no surprise to anybody that after I had finished with the drawings I needed to go online to find the correct spelling and fill in the names. This was (for the most part) the first time I actually saw what these NPR personalities really looked like. Turns out their photos are all over NPR.org, huh, who knew?
Justin Kaufmann of WBEZ radio in Chicago learned of Kelly’s sketches this week and did an email interview with the artist, which was posted yesterday. Kelly told him:
With the possible exception of Terry Gross, I think I may have come closest to capturing what Ira Glass looks like in reality. I can hear his thick framed glasses and tall lanky frame through my ear-buds.
I also sent the artist a few questions. He told me:
My contact with the actual NPR personalities has been pretty limited aside from seeing my work promoted on their various program’s websites. Which I take as a ringing endorsement! Those that have responded have mostly done so through Twitter and have said nice things, Peter Sagal sharing it with Steve Inskeep was pretty great. The one that really made my day however was Bob Edwards who left me a comment on my site in response to my post: “I was not retiring. I have hot retired. I likely never will.” Beautiful.
So far I haven’t offered prints because I can’t see other people wanting my interpretations of the NPR voices. Everyone has their own mental image, which in my opinion is kinda the fun of it. But that said, if Terry Gross or Click & Clack or any of the others wanted a print I would certainly do it!
What kind of traffic is he getting from social media? “There is a lot of activity from Facebook and Twitter though… G+? Eh, not so much.”
