Salon.com Life | Letters:

"Gotta write this anonymously, sorry. I'm an NPR reporter, and I have to say that those of us inside the newsroom are dumbfounded by Bob Edwards' enduring popularity. He does the show in his sleep. When he does "two-ways" with us (i.e., interviews with correspondents about late-breaking news), he reads the questions we send to him verbatim. No follow-up questions, no engagement, nothing, because he's simply not listening. The whole show is scripted.

"It's like anyone else, in almost any kind of job: He's been doing it too long, and he's gone stale.

"Public radio "fans" are some of the most conservative people on earth when it comes to this stuff. Weird.

"-- Anonymous "

Well of course it's scripted. Every decent newscast is scripted, it makes it so that you can fit the most stuff in the most time.

Also, since 70% of public rado listeners actually are conservatives (Ann Coulter on Booknotes on C-Span), it's not that surprising that they are conservative.

I dunno, if he's stale in his work maybe he should go. What's sad is that we can't keep "the voice". It's so wonderful that begining of the broadcast where he says what's going on in the world today, like "so-and-so testifies before the x committee" and "the Arab League meets in Cairo", etc. I love that part and I love it at least party because of Bob.

I'm not completely persuaded, but I think it will be OK.