NewsWorks: Stuff We Like

(via Public Radio Tattoos | This American Life)

Donate during WHYY’s pledge drive, and you can get a collection of temporary public radio tattoos as a thank-you gift.

Rumor has it, this one is modeled after a tattoo on Terry Gross’ ankle.*

(*Not true. It’s on her neck.)

nprfreshair:

Sandra Day O’Connor tells Terry Gross about getting the call from President Reagan that would change her life:

I was working in my office on the Arizona Court of Appeals. I was at the court in my chambers when the telephone rang and it was the White House calling for me, and I was told that the President was waiting to speak to me. That was quite a shock but I accepted the phone call and it was President Reagan, and he said, ‘Sandra?’ ‘Yes, Mr. President?’ ‘Sandra, I’d like to announce your nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow. Is that all right with you?’ Well, now, that’s kind of a shock wouldn’t you say?”

Image via AspenInstitute-Internal/Flickr

Sandra Day O’Connor tells Terry Gross about getting the call from President Reagan that would change her life:

I was working in my office on the Arizona Court of Appeals. I was at the court in my chambers when the telephone rang and it was the White House calling for me, and I was told that the President was waiting to speak to me. That was quite a shock but I accepted the phone call and it was President Reagan, and he said, ‘Sandra?’ ‘Yes, Mr. President?’ ‘Sandra, I’d like to announce your nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court tomorrow. Is that all right with you?’ Well, now, that’s kind of a shock wouldn’t you say?”

Image via AspenInstitute-Internal/Flickr

What are the odds?

nprfreshair:

February 14 has a very special place in our hearts at WHYY because it is the birthday of three of our favorite people around here. Let’s all wish a very happy birthday to Terry, Dave and Marty!

(For those of you who may not know Marty Moss-Coane, she’s the wonderful host of our local news show, Radio Times.)

Yeah. Gotta agree. Reaching back into the archives on this one.

inthedarknessdarling:

This is fucking insane.

nprmusic:

What are the 5 songs public radio can’t stop playing? Download 5 songs from the likes of Yeasayer and folk up-and-comers Shovels and Rope, courtesy of KCEP-Power 88, Iowa Public Radio, KHSU, WUMB, and WTMD.

I realized that there is a part of covering Congress—if you’re doing daily coverage—that is actually sort of colluding with the politicians themselves, because so much of what I was doing was actually recording and playing what they say or repeating what they say. And I feel like the real story of Congress right now is very much removed from any of that, from the sort of theater of the policy debate in Congress, and it has become such a complete theater that none of it is real…

I feel like I am, as a reporter in the Capitol, lied to every day, all day. There is so little genuine discussion going on with the reporters… To me, as a reporter, everything is spin.

I am going to try to focus myself on the stories that none of the other reporters have time to cover. NPR would have loved to have had any of these stories… The problem is, as a modern, esteemed news organization, NPR also feels that it needs to cover the daily news. And the daily news as currently defined is what happened on the floor today, what’s the big debate in Congress, what’s your government doing. And I completely understand that. But our staff is so small on the Hill that it was impossible for me to do more than a story once in a while that agreed with how I felt it should be covered.

“

—

Andrea Seabrook, former weekend host of All Things Considered, on why she left NPR to start DecodeDC, a blog and podcast about Washington politics. Politico, Ex-NPR Hill reporter: Lied to daily

Bonus: Seabrook talks with NPR’s Jennifer Ludden in this July interview about her departure and thoughts on Washington political culture.

Double Bonus: Seabrook is one of 15 Soundcloud Community 2012 fellows. Head over to hear some of the audio stories that each is producing.

(via futurejournalismproject)

Laura Linney plays the robot double of Aimee Mann in this new video from Mann’s forthcoming album, Charmer.

Does this mean Aimee Mann is going to replace Linney as the host of season 3 of Downton Abbey on PBS? Because that would be awesome.

jeffbradynpr:

Yearly Federal contribution to public broadcasting per American: $1.43.

Can’t even get a coffee for that any more.

My parents just didn’t like me. Till I was 9, my mother was trying to get an abortion. That sticks with you. That hurts. She said to her doctor, ‘Is there any possible way to get rid of this thing?’

“

—	Joan Rivers. [full interview here] (via nprfreshair)

nprfreshair:

When the Associated Press said they’d no longer condemn the use of the adverb “hopefully” in their style guide, most people shrugged. But the announcement was a red flag to people who have made the adverb the biggest bugaboo of English usage over the last 50 years.

Hopefully we’ll get some good responses…. What do you think?