NY Post: Paul Harvey to be replaced?

[Dan Strassberg]

I really enjoyed Scott Simon when he was teamed with Daniel Pinkwater on
Chin-Wag Theater, but Simon gets awfully old awfully fast for me when NPR
brings him in in the wake of some disaster. Whether it's genuine or not, the
"Scott Simon whisper" strikes me as a horrible and totally inappropriate
pure show-biz affectation. Makes me want to throw the radio through a window
and never give another cent to WBUR or WGBH. Different strokes for different
folks, I guess.

Simon is OK--sometimes pretty darned good--when he's doing routine news and
lighter stuff, but that whisper, which he uses in moments of tragedy, makes
my skin crawl. I don't need the f!@#king whisper to be reminded of the
gravity of the situation and I don't need to direct my animosity toward the
guy whispering at me on the radio instead of, say, Osama bin Laden.

I think Scott Simon whispering in the wake of a disaster is as offensive in
its own way and Randi Rhodes on a rant. Maybe that's one reason that I like
Rachel Maddow a lot more than I like Randi Rhodes. Both have a sense of
humor but I don't forget that Rachel has a sense of humor when she is doing
serious stuff. After about five minutes, Randi's rants make me yell "enough
already." And the rants often go on for a whole hour (with time out for
commercial breaks).

--
Dan Strassberg, dan.strassberg@att.net
eFax 707-215-6367

----- Original Message -----
From: "Bill O'Neill" <billo@shoreham.net>
To: "Scott Fybush" <scott@fybush.com>
Cc: "Dan Strassberg" <dan.strassberg@att.net>; <bri@bostonradio.org>
Sent: Sunday, February 12, 2006 1:18 PM
Subject: Re: NY Post: Paul Harvey to be replaced?


> Scott Fybush wrote:
> > Much as I respect the journalism practiced at NPR, I've never been
> > much of a fan of most of the on-air delivery there (Scott Simon is a
> > notable exception.)
> Couldn't agree more. One of the best radio moments I will ever
> experience was Simon in the wake of 9/11, actually when the airliner
> crashed into the NJ neighborhood, he was interviewing a firefighter who
> was telling the horrible story of the loss of his friends, family,
> neighborhood. Simon paused, took a breath, and started to cry while
> asking him, "How can you stand it? How do you do it?" Even before that
> moment I have considered Scott Simon in a class by himself at NPR.
>
> Bill O'Neill