Lots of Snooty NPR Listeners Don't Get NPR

Farhad Manjoo loves NPR, but he doesn't like the listeners who write in every time the network dabbles in coverage of pop culture. Maybe "doesn't like" isn't strong enough: "Oh, I hate them, hate them, hate them," he writes at Slate. These "snobby pseudo-intellectuals" think NPR should be a "high-minded palace that should never be sullied by anything more outré than James Taylor." In short, they "perpetuate the worst caricature of public radio."

Even when Michael Jackson died, these "insufferable snobs" wrote in to complain with the I-listen-to-NPR-to-avoid-this-kind-of-thing argument. (Example: "Et tu, NPR? I thought you would offer a safe refuge from the barrage of Michael Jackson coverage on every other media outlet, but alas, no," moaned a women from Pennsylvania.) Sorry folks, but pop culture is a valid topic, and NPR does a nice job with it, writes Manjoo. (With that in mind, we'd like to point out that a lock of Justin Bieber's hair sold for $41,000 on eBay today, reports People.)