I hate Bob Edwards.

Okay, “hate” is too strong. But I couldn’t understand all the hubbub around his departure from NPR’s “Morning Edition” earlier this year. He was a moderately competent newsreader and a poor-to-middling interviewer. (The man didn’t seem to get that an interview could be more than just a series of disjointed, unconnected questions.) Since his ouster, all he’s done is bitch bitch bitch about how NPR screwed him over. And the bizarre anti-NPR rage from listeners seemed to bring out the worst aspects of the NPR demographic: smug self-satisfaction, resistance to change, and a innate sense of superiority. His successors on “Morning Edition” are, in every way, an improvement.

Anyway, what pushed me over the top was this article, which touches on what Bob is up to these days. The reporter remarks on Howard Stern’s new gazillion-dollar deal to move to Sirius radio. Edwards plays the poverty card: “I’m still making public-radio money.”

Bob Edwards made $256,000 a year (see page 7) at NPR. Not bad for a guy working for a non-profit, taxpayer-supported organization who reads what’s put in front of him and can’t do a decent interview.

18 November 2004

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