unfortunately it's not exactly a shocker that npr has been slow/remiss to do meaningful stories on the issues of oil consumption, oil wars, oil addiction, peak oil, or to admit the existence of (let alone analyze or critique) the "oilygarchy" squatting in the whitehouse at present. npr takes enormous amounts of $ from oil companies, as "underwriting." this is inexcusable but true. we could call them "national petroleum radio" because of this. their editorial policy is on a par with those of the major "corporate" networks. i'd go so far as to say that npr "news" is just fox "news" made palatable for college educated white liberals. we need to hold our media - especially media calling itself "public radio" and supposedly representing a left-of-center perspective - accountable! npr finally did a story mentioning peak oil, but their emphasis was on price gouging, not on the larger looming "monster" crises, like the end of our economy as we know it. their abominable, unquestioning coverage of the lead-up to the iraq invasion / occupation is another example of how, sadly, npr is problematic. cravenly so, in my opinion. i dont want to be divisive or part of one of those "circular firing squads" so prevalent on the left by saying this...i do want to suggest that critical thinking is absolutely - critical! - while listening to npr news. www.fair.org (fairness and accuracy in reporting) does excellent, thorough analysis of mainstream media coverage. and www.democracynow.org is an excellent alternative to npr news. it can be heard in the bay area on kpfa 94.1 freespeech radio at 6am and 9am every weekday, or streamed from the website anytime. thanks for the info stephen, i hope we can hold their feet to the fire and shift the goalposts for their editorial policies. suggestions?