It was that language about giving voice to the voiceless, casting light into shadows, generally behaving like humanitarians, and public servants, and artists. I believed it. Believed in it. People trusted us because we weren't selling anything, except at pledge time. And despite this drip, drip of corporate underwriting, despite the overbearing oversight of Congress, despite Cokie Roberts's handsome fees from speeches to corporate heavyweights, NPR manages to cling to a mantle of independence.
Listeners somehow trust that the public mission still comes first.
That NPR, after all, is not for sale. Now, we are told, NPR must sell its name to survive. Perhaps reality makes this so. In a world where global commerce quickly paints over the idea of a common public good, selling your name brand name is perhaps the only means of survival. Now, that is almost sure to change.