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No Comprende Public Radio
I’m not very familiar with National Public Radio. Some friends listen to it. It seems to cultivate a pre-modern image of folksy characters, early 20th century music and no irony. An American Gothic cocktail party. It leaves most of the heavy stuff to the BBC. Recently, NPR’s website home page displayed not a single story about the Middle East, out of over 30 headlined items. I, for one, find that odd, even if it’s for less than a day. Also, they tend to avoid science, unless it has a “human interest” angle. Yet it’s also a “station within a station”, because it features widely diverse stories, plus hours of globe-trotting alternative youth music. It even employs a “free lance ethicist”. Therefore, I have never been able to focus on NPR. I enjoy radio that gets into a groove and stays there. I love driving through the South and listening to everything from gospel stations to border-blasters.
Nevertheless, I was honored as well as delighted last spring, on Sunday, April 22, to talk about new plants from Heronswood Nursery with an NPR anchor, the cheerful Liane Hansen, on Weekend Edition. I answered her questions about our 2007 hellebores, one by one. I recounted how they were developed. As Hansen attests, at no time during the interview did I claim to have created the work of someone else, as Ketzel Levine accused me of doing in a later broadcast. I simply stated that “we”—meaning the Heronswood Nursery—bred four exciting new hellebores. I was enthusiastically and passionately praising our new plants. I did not take personal credit for anything. I represented the company in a press interview. Apparently, this is too common a practice for Ms. Levine.
I have never heard of a company president being obligated to point out during an interview the various employees who not only worked for some time on a project, but also quit several years prior to the product’s launch, which happened in our case. When did Bill Gates publicly credit software designers during a product-related interview? When did Ebay’s Meg Whitman, when talking to the press, mention department heads or software designers? When did Howard Schultz of Starbucks cite the research staff involved in the development of their new coffee? One would think that if there was a standard practice, large public companies would use it. Moreover, at many non-profit botanic gardens—which by definition serve the public trust—one has to dig (pun intended) for the names of their plant breeders. In some cases, entire committees and advisory boards decide collectively what new cultivar to introduce. The breeders are identified as “the gardens”. So much for common practice.
Nevertheless, Ms. Levine believes a private specialty nursery should follow an extraordinary standard of public transparency. It would be helpful if she shared some examples of this high-minded, politically correct behavior in the nursery business, or any other industry. Other than NPR, of course.
Furthermore, in their April 29th broadcast, the producer and host got several other things wrong, in addition to the generally accepted use of pronouns. Technical accuracy certainly isn’t their strength; criticizing perceived interlopers to the horticultural elite apparently is. Ms. Levine seemed to enjoy “talking out” the matter, presumably part of her edgy approach to journalism. However, accusing someone of making a false claim of accomplishment is serious. A person’s reputation can be damaged. She did not contact me or anyone else at Heronswood. NPR might ask their “freelance ethicist” to give her a hand.
Indeed, the NPR commentator and producer fabricated the entire “Hellebore Hullabaloo”, as they called it. I understand an unfriendly or jealous competitor resorting to these tactics, but not a professional journalist. A garden writer without a branch to prune might better direct her attention to the exciting new 2008 hellebore cultivars—7 in total, including a black—that Heronswood will introduce next month, some with color combinations never seen before. She can visit our research gardens in Kingston, Washington, and see for herself their jewel-like blooms. Or she can take my word for it. They’re ravishing. I personally guarantee it. After all, we bred them.
Even though I love NPR, I think your points are well taken. But I guess you just roll with the punches. At least you are able to make your points and reply on your blog.
ve NPR, I think your points are well taken. But I guess you just roll with the punches. At least you are able to make your points and reply on you