NewsBreakingOnline

On February 12 many NPR stations aired the show “Smiley & West” in which comedian-actor Garrett Morris caused peals of laughter from Tavis Smiley and Cornel West by joking about the small space between “hate Whitey” and “kill Whitey.” West also lectured about how police brutality on the “vanilla side of town” in New York would get condemnations from the White House. NPR ombudsman Edward Schumacher-Matos predictably told me on Twitter that this wasn’t in his critical purview, since it’s not produced by NPR, but by Public Radio International. But on February 23 , Schumacher-Matos devoted a post to charges of anti-black racism on “Fresh Air,” which is also not produced by NPR, but by Philadelpha affiliate WHYY. It was far less racially transgressive than Smiley & West. He claimed: “NPR distributes Fresh Air so it is NPR programming. PRI distributes Smiley's show so it is PRI programming.” On the February 8 “Fresh Air,” critic David Bianculli was recommending a DVD called “How to Be a Jewish Son,” which aired on “The David Susskind Show.”