NPR is good at some things

I hate folding laundry.  I don’t know why.  It’s not particularly difficult.  It’s a clean task.  It brings order from chaos.  I ought to like it.  But I don’t.  Still, it needs to be done, and one of the things I do to make it palatable is to listen to Terry Gross interview people about the American Popular Songbook.  Right now, I’m listening to a Frank Loesser retrospective.  Should the laundry outlast Loesser, I’ll hunt around for retrospectives about Harry Warren, Richard Rogers, Irving Berlin, etc.  It’s very pleasant to fold towels with Frank Loesser and one of his wives crooning “Baby, It’s Cold Outside.”

Given the choice, I would defund NPR’s political reporting, because I think it consistently takes money from 100% of the taxpayers to present a political world view that only half of those taxpayers support.  However, I wonder if there is a reason to continue some small funding to NPR to keep alive its fascination with America’s past popular culture.  Without NPR, programming like this would, I think, vanish.

What do you think?