All Things Considered

In exploring the rhetorical strategies employed by the media from the eyes of NPR, I will be analyzing “All Things Considered” as aired on March 18, 2008.
http://www.npr.org/templates/rundowns/rundown.php?prgId=2&prgDate=03-18-2008&view=storyview
I listened to this news show using the website media they offer after 7:00 p.m. As a newcomer to the world of National Public Radio, I had assumed that there would be stories ranging from across the globe about issues that were of high importance that the nation would be interested, as a nation should have unique and varied curiosities. Interestingly enough, I realized a few other things that I did not expect to. The term National Public Radio sounds like an unbiased place where the nation can tune in and gather necessary information that will affect them in their daily lives. While listening to the radio broadcast via website the audience hears the first two stories and some of the longest (5:13sec.; 6:47sec.& 3:53sec.) on the topic of Barack Obama. The stories covered were about the racial divide Barack has had to face in the Southern states and still managed to come out on top. The second story addressed how Barack has a developed sense of speaking to different audiences through his various citations of “women hitting glass ceilings and families struggling with healthcare, jobs, and good jobs.” In both of these first two stories it is mostly Black men that are interviewed and they have nothing but positive pathos towards him. This is biased because these views are one sided, on the side of his Black male supporters, giving him free advertising in a way through NPR. The last story about Barack Obama is under the panel called “religion” explaining Barack Obama’s faith, relating the misunderstanding of it to racism. By this time in the show the listener may feel that NPR is left-winged Democrat, and that they are just trying to back their political favorite. These two stories definitely make a gender and cultural statement that they are varied in race, as the white man interviews the black interviewee. The other stories on NPR hit on the Dalai Lama being concerned about the peace in Tibet, threatening to step down if it gets worse. There is a story about China censoring the internet among its people, which may emote a sense of fear in the American public, as many fear they are already being intruded on anyway. Issues that liberals may be interested in are the gay rights in Massachusetts story, in which an amendment was looked up from long ago that “should never have been written” claimed a guest. NPR seems to have a very liberal tone, using many racial teasers as stories.