I dropped in to a broadcasting school last fall and saw kids being trained for radio careers as if radio were a branch of computer processing. They had no conception of the possibility of talking into a microphone to an audience that wants to hear what you have to say. I tried to suggest what a cheat this was, but the instructor was standing next to me.

Clear Channel's brand of robotics is not the future of broadcasting. With a whole generation turning to iPod and another generation discovering satellite radio and Internet radio, the robotic formatted-music station looks like a very marginal operation indeed. Training kids to do that is like teaching typewriter repair.

Public radio is growing by leaps and bounds because it is hospitable to scholars of all stripes and to travelers who have returned from the vast, unimaginable world with stories to tell. Out here in the heartland, we live for visitors like those.

In the article, Keillor suggests a few recent stories; here's another one for you. From the June 3 episode of This American Life:

Act Two, God Said, Huh?, Julia Sweeney, a Catholic, tells the story of how her faith began to crack after reading a most alarming book ... called the Bible. Her story is excerpted from her play, "Letting Go of God," which ran in Los Angeles. (29 minutes)

Confessions of a Listener, by Garrison Keillor

Is there perhaps a hint of irony in William Safire's On Language column for today's Times?

To retract, from the Latin for "to draw back," is directed to a specific statement more than a body of work. The most famous retraction this year was made by Newsweek magazine after it apologized for a portion of an article alleging that an internal military investigation had uncovered an instance of desecration of the Koran. The article was seized upon by an anti-American Pakistani to trigger demonstrations that cost 17 lives.

Meanwhile, only pages away, Frank Rich directly contradicts Safire's account:

In the most recent example, all the president's men slimed and intimidated Newsweek by accusing it of being an accessory to 17 deaths for its errant Koran story; led by Scott McClellan, they said it was unthinkable that any American guard could be disrespectful of Islam's holy book. These neo-Colsons easily drowned out Gen. Richard Myers, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Afghanistan's president, Hamid Karzai, both of whom said that the riots that led to the 17 deaths were unrelated to Newsweek. Then came the pièce de résistance of Nixon mimicry: a Pentagon report certifying desecrations of the Koran by American guards was released two weeks after the Newsweek imbroglio, at 7:15 p.m. on a Friday, to assure it would miss the evening newscasts and be buried in the Memorial Day weekend's little-read papers.

It seems clear to me that one of these men is "in error." I wonder if there will be a correction? Or would it be a retraction? You be the justice. Er, I mean, judge.

If You're Simultaneously Right and Wrong, Is a Retraction Really Necessary?

Pirate radio. E-zines. The blogosphere.

Proof that dissatisfied customers of any institution will, if the tools are at hand, build their own substitutes.

Revenge of the Amateurs

Sales of general-interest books are thriving, in sharp contrast to recent downturns in other communications and media businesses, including Hollywood, where movie attendance is in its third straight year of decline; recorded music, in which sales have fallen for four of the last five years; and network television, which has steadily lost viewers.

In fact, for all the talk about the death of "old media" and the ascendancy of the new, digitally fueled media that rule the airwaves and cyberspace, Americans still spend more buying books than they do going to movies or buying recorded music, video games or DVD's.

This may be true, but what the author fails to mention is that the average American -- remember her? From the Presidential campaign? -- has a lot more unread books than unwatched movies, unheard albums, or unplayed games.

Sales aren't everything; those numbers can disappear on scarcely more than a quarter's notice. What really matters is mindshare. And demographics. And if you look at these same sales numbers according to age group, I suspect the glee will fade from the faces of booksellers.

Books Are Back!

For the first few centuries after Johann Gutenberg started churning out Bibles, books had it easy.

Even in this high-tech age, old-fashioned books appear to be holding their own.

Remarkably, Americans still spend more on books than they do on moviegoing, recorded music, video games or DVD's. Despite all the advances in technology, books still have no equal when it comes to telling complicated, nuanced narratives.

Yes, Obi-Wan, There Still Are Books

Perhaps no element of the current conflict in Iraq engenders more emotion and acrimony within the military than debate concerning the role and influence of the news media on public opinion and national policy. Debates regarding this subject are nothing new.

As a result of this reemerging debate, it is useful and appropriate to revisit the relationship of press reporting, public opinion, and war policy, and to seek a theoretical understanding of how these relate to each other.

This essay is also available in a PDF version.

War Policy, Public Support, and the Media

If misery loves company, then there is solace in knowing that many people bristle at the mere thought of being Googled because of the photographs, news clippings or blog entries that they feel do not reflect who they really are. Such is the plight of the Google-ee.

"With information that's put on the Internet, you pretty much have to assume it will be around forever."

The secret to burying unflattering Web details about yourself is to create a preferred version of the facts on a home page or a blog of your own, then devise a strategy to get high-ranking Web sites to link to you.

From here on out, I will live by a new creed: Google unto others as you would have them Google unto you.

Loosing Google's Lock on the Past

The marketing clout required to generate an audience will make it harder for smaller players.

"Marketing is getting much harder as people's attention gets fragmented."

Still, word of mouth and community building can work.

With Audiences Fragmenting, Marketing Faces New Challenges

As more people start digesting even super-sized stories on the Internet, they will demand [prompt Web access to the content] of their favorite publications.

If they don't get it, they will go elsewhere.

Is the Washington Post taking pot shots at the Gray Lady?

All The News That's Fit For Print

Extension 720 with Milt Rosenberg is utterly implausible radio, whether the topic is international politics, the state of the English language, the latest discoveries in astrophysics, the history of baseball or what local chefs cook for their own dinners. You won't hear anything, anywhere, quite as stimulating or quite as fascinating.

Recent shows discussed Stanley Milgram, Iraq, Nepotism, Rwanda, jazz, Afghanistan, the great books, Freakonomics, the Rapture, and more.

Extension 720: Utterly Implausible Radio