Anonymous wrote:Maybe this was covered earlier in the thread, but: I can't stand Terry Gross. Can't STAND her. Her questions are often inane; she's pushy; and if she's not talking to her idol Jon Stewart, it's someone from a hip TV show. She's on during my afternoon commute, and I'm starting to rotate through CDs instead. Am I alone in my dislike?
You are not alone! Gross actually gets some really good guests at times but her constant ums, ahs, and other pauses and repeats sound very unprofessional. Her interviewing style seems to be an attempt to be more "having a conversation" and chatty than doing an interview. It works somewhat, with some guests, but not all the time, and no matter what, the many pauses and hesitations are immensely distracting.
And that's saying a lot coming from me, because I have no issues at all with any of the other WAMU or NPR people mentioned in the many posts above. I kind of find "IIIII'm Michael Pope" a bit endearing now and say it along with him at the end of his reports.....And Kojo may do a rackety show at times, but it sounds like he and his guests know how to have a good time together (witness Tech Tuesdays on his show, or his back-and-forth with Tom Sherwood). I don't always need more hard news in the day; Tech Tuesday or food stories on Wednesday are fine by me.
A lot of hate in some posts for "Tell Me More." I can see how the style wasn't for everyone, but I was sorry to see Michelle Martin (who has a great voice, to me) and "Tell Me More" taken off the air.
That show was the only place -- including newspapers and TV outlets -- that paid much attention at all to the ongoing issues in Zimbabwe a few years back; the show kept a spotlight on problems there when other news outlets had pretty much forgotten about it. I'm not from Zimbabwe or anywhere in Africa but I felt that the show really opened my eyes to things going on in the world that just were ignored by the usual news outlets (even the rest of NPR). The reporter Ofeibea Quist-Arcton who covered African issues for "Tell Me More" (and still reports for NPR) is excellent and I wish they'd give her more and much longer pieces. "Tell Me More" also covered parenting issues pretty frequently, and even if you didn't like the format of having "just us girls together" discussing things, at least the show did give some attention to parenting issues beyond just education issues.
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