What I’m missing is links to articles in which conservatives decry ‘ironic detachment’ and so on. Any love?

NPR’s Bryant Park Project failed because there was no demand for it. Nobody was saying, “Gosh, I’d listen to public radio if only people my age were hosting the shows!” (For what it’s worth, Morning Edition co-host Steve Inskeep is only five years older than Bryant Park Project co-host Mike Pesca.)

The real issue was whether or not new shows in public broadcasting arise organically or by fiat. And I’m speaking from experience.

In 1998-9, I co-hosted an NPR startup called Anthem. Part of its mandate was to reach the coveted younger audience — the Gen-X-ers and so on who didn’t seem to be as enthusiastic about public radio as their Boomer elders. And while I — and many of my colleagues on the staff — fit the profile of the younger demographic, the show didn’t work.

That had little to do with us but a lot to do with our situation: Anthem was created by fiat. It wasn’t allowed to germinate and grow naturally. The Bryant Park Project had a similar provenance.

The real groundbreaking shows in public radio grew organically. Nobody in management said, “Hey, we need a show that references old-time radio and dwells on the lives of people in a nonexistent town!” or “I think what we need is a show that drills deep into topics in quirky and risky ways.” To the contrary, execs at NPR turned down both A Prairie Home Companion and This American Life. This deprived both shows of the big audiences that their creators may have wanted from the get-go, but it allowed both to develop … naturally. A radio show — or TV show, for that matter — is a bit of a work of art. The chaotic, incalculable forces of ego, passion, and skill have to align correctly if the show’s to succeed. No executive can decree their alignment by fiat.

Commercial broadcasters — and well-funded state broadcasters can issue fiats, then spend money on progressive iterations of ideas until they work. But neither NPR nor PBS has the money to do that.

Public broadcasters won’t understand how to generate “hits” until they understand their own history.

On last week’s Bill Moyers Journal, I had a piece on the link between unionization and middle-class wages.

Earlier last week, I posted a web-exclusive video essay on the Bush Administration’s latest stupid plan to spy on you no matter what you do.

The Three Stupidest Guys in the Universe are now all blogging: I’m one of them, Ron Pyke is, as mentioned previously, is the second. And Steve ‘Zim’ Zimmers, is the third.

Bonus home town content: The Three Stupedist Guys’ friend and former bandmate, Joe P, is also bloggin’ up a storm.

After you watch it, please listen to this.

The first time I encountered the phrase “Milton Keynes” was in the title of a Style Council song. And, like Ron, I thought it was a fusion of disparate ideas. He thought it was John Milton crossed with John Maynard Keynes. I thought it was Milton Friedman crossed with Keynes.

The difference says something about our personalities, but I’m not sure what.