Ha, this reminds me of how angry I got at NPR the other day when they aired this. They were all too happy for the centerpiece of their story to be an interview with some spokesperson who did the classic move of blaming Overbearing California Regulations as a problem, saying that it's forcing them to keep a shitty old system in place, and then they moved on to the next piece without addressing how the real problem was that AT&T is refusing to install new equipment before cutting off service to the old stuff. California's regulations are saving hundreds of thousands of people from losing service, and somehow they're the bad guy here.
Drives me fucking crazy that NPR is somehow considered a left leaning news source. I guess it's all relative, huh...
Edit, I've actually been trying to remember to make notes whenever NPR airs a story that pisses me off. Just for fun, I'm gonna include the few I have here:
Tap for spoiler
I'm American but the dates are d/m/y because this is from my personal notes so whatever:
9/06/26 npr ran a story about copper wire thieves, and painted California regs forcing att to serve rural communities as bad, instead of pointing out att can remove that copper the second they install an alternative for those homes
27/05/26 npr newscast called Texas trump endorsed candidate anti establishment. Technically did beat an incumbent but jfc trump is not anti establishment
20/05/26 planet money's "human certification in the age of ai slop" may just be the dumbest piece of media I have ever heard. They put an H logo on a photo and call that verified??? Then they advertise a data collection service masquerading as a verification service, tell the company ahead of time that they are being tested, then end the episode. Genuinely, the mind boggles. Have they always been this bad and just forgot to lie about it?
23/01/26 I just listen to NPR regurgitate a line about Trump's board of Peace presiding over Gaza without a single moment of criticism (in the politics podcast later I heard them eventually get into criticism but it's insane they didn't include 5 seconds in the original story to mention the price tag or who is slated to be on the board)
