NPR Is the Only Thing Saving Poor, Barefooted Children From the Information Kalahari

We have been told there are food deserts.

Some low-income communities in the United States lack stores that sell healthy and affordable food. The lack of store access in these communities–sometimes called food deserts–may contribute to poor diet, obesity, and other diet-related illness.

The Departments of Agriculture, Treasury, and Health and Human Services (HHS) are bringing together resources and expertise to support sustainable projects and strategies to eliminate food deserts. Private companies, local and Tribal governments, and nonprofit organizations will be able to apply for Federal funds from these three Departments to implement strategies to increase access to healthy, affordable foods.

Anyone who watched Wild Kingdom growing up or has ever seen a National Geographic special knows there are desert deserts.

        

Desert islands.

        

But I had never connected huge swaths of the country, what used to be dismissively referred to as ‘flyover country’, with an information desert. Being so isolated from civilization and any form of media or communication, the people living in these rural enclaves and lone outposts far from any organized society were – and still are – essentially living in a state of suspended ignorance. Until a chance signal could break through the impenetrable wall of distance, shattering their solitude.

And I have come to learn that only the magic sine waves of an NPR or PBS signal can reach them, of all the frequencies available in this big, wide world.

Seriously.

This is from an impeccable and unimpeachable source. You know I wouldn’t be telling you this otherwise.

Literally, I got it from the horse’s mouth.

NPR CEO Katherine Maher argues rural America often has no other possible source of news or connection to the outside world EXCEPT through PBS and NPR: “Large rural communities, large tribal communities” don’t have “a lot of other options. Broadband service is not universal, and… pic.twitter.com/OFWuQTCa2E

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) July 16, 2025

Now, growing up on top of a mountain in the wilds of Northwestern New Jersey – HEY! I DID! – long before the advent of cable, innerwebs, and Dish, we still, isolated as we were, managed to catch a few more incoming news sources than just the big PBS station out of New York on our sad antenna. The radio had several local stations, AM and FM, that did admirable jobs, and we could even pick up a pirate station once in a while from over the Pennsylvania border. 

Basically, the dial was full.

The real PA treat was a retro-minded station that would broadcast an episode of The Shadow on Sunday nights, I think (have to check with Bingley). Being the teenager with a killer stereo, we’d all sit in the dark in my room to listen in the green ambient glow of the faceplate, and it was wicked cool. Good memories.

There are plenty of other folks taking issue with Maher’s characterization of the most rural of Americans as God-forsaken hinterlands, most of them amounting to a ‘Lady, you don’t get out of your ivory tower much, do you?’ snort of derision and disgust.

That’s funny.

I live in literal Oregon wildland, and yet I can get news from Starlink, ViaSat, HughesNet, DSL, Dish, DirecTV, Verizon (phone), SiriusXM, AM radio…

Prediction: Ms. Maher has never lived outside of a city, and her ignorance of rural life shows.

— Brigadier Ketchup (@Random_Walk_PDX) July 16, 2025

She must screen Grapes of Wrath on a loop and write checks to Human Rights Watch.

I lived in “rural America” for the last few years. It was a town of 2000 people in a county of 8000 residents and zero stoplights.

My town had gigabit internet. I had cell phone connectivity across the prairie. There was AM and FM radio and, of course, television.

I grew up in… https://t.co/7sl1aEM8PO

— Mike Kupari 🚀💥 (@RocketPulpHack) July 16, 2025

…I grew up in a small town in Upper Michigan. Again, we had cable TV, local TV, and radio. By the mid 90s  we had internet.  

There may have been a time when small towns were isolated, but that time was probably 50 years ago, and I seriously doubt the only news source anyone had was PBS/NPR.  

I swear to God, these people think “rural America” is like it was before World War 2.

And frankly, while there are a lot of liberal llama-farming pot smokers out there in the weeds and wilds, there are still some cowboys, lumberjack ladies, and dirt-covered types who don’t appreciate NPR in the least and have happy alternatives in any event. Because this is the 21st century…even there.

Maher and NPR’s elitist schtick, as Matt Taibbi pointed out, is past its sell-by date.

…For most of its history, PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting have been a combined net plus for American citizens. They produced pioneering programs ranging from NOVA to This Old House to Frontline, and introduced Americans to cool foreign programs like Doctor Who, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and I, Claudius. The quintessential PBS show was informative and quirky without pulling ideological threads, even if its Masterpiece roster sometimes over-scratched the upscale viewer’s costume-drama itch. From nature shows to comedy to documentaries, PBS was a sound counterweight to the boobs-and-car-chase lineups on commercial TV, providing the most remote communities with quality programming.

It should have run forever. National Public Radio ruined the enterprise, turning the country’s signature public news shows into an endless partisan therapy session, a Nine Perfect Strangers retreat for high-income audiences micro-dosing on Marx and Kendi. Forget conservatives, NPR’s trademark half-whispered stylings linking diets to rape culture or denouncing white teeth as a hangover of colonialism began in recent years to feel like physical punishment to the most apolitical listeners, like having a blind librarian hacksaw your forehead. Even today’s New York Times piece couldn’t argue the bias issue, instead offering a mathematical deflection:

And, woof. Does it stink.

Every NPR story:

“And here’s Latinx Equity Reporter Esperanza Van Zandt.”

::knocking:: Candide, a biracial amputee opens the door ::creak:: and welcomes me with a smoldering smudge stick ::sizzle:: as is the way of her cholangana Peruvian collective ::alpaca grunt:: dedicated… https://t.co/3Ykh2hqgj7

— Jon Gabriel (@exjon) July 16, 2025

… ::alpaca grunt:: dedicated to a socialist future for the Andes and her home of Manhattan ::car horn::

Nothing and no one illustrates the concept of the elite progressive bubble-person better than the self-confident Ms Maher. From her creepy TED talks assuring ardent believers that truth is subjective, to sitting in a CNN studio years later, smearing rural America as smoke signal using aborigines who have only the Great Pure Spirit of Government to guide them in their splendid isolation, she is a clueless Brahmin.

She would look that soothing and rational telling you to calm down and understand why the needle is going in your arm.

All true believers have that aura. https://t.co/RAq9lnPfRQ

— tree hugging s*ster 🎃 (@WelbornBeege) April 17, 2024

And trying to justify the government sinecure that financially supports her messaging.

The folks out in flyover country can handle themselves.

Besides – when it’s come to real news and not ‘the message?

But 7 local private radio stations jumped into action on July 4th, breaking into their programming to interview the Kerrville Police Department chief information officer. He provided urgent advice to listeners to seek higher ground and provided updates throughout the day. BUT the…

— Dan Schneider (@Schneider_DC) July 14, 2025

…He provided urgent advice to listeners to seek higher ground and provided updates throughout the day. BUT the NPR stations never reached out to him or the Kerrville Police Department for interviews

Ms. Maher’s brand might as well be wandering in the desert for all that matters and the good it does.