I also wouldn't call NPR's app spyware by any means unless you call the vast majority of apps and websites spyware too.
Your source implies less than 17% in 2009 and declining since; 50% of NPR funding was from member stations, who in turn get 6% of their funding directly from federal, state, or local government, 10% from the CPB which is mostly federally funded, and 14% from universities (which have varying shares of government funding), and 2% of NPR funding was from competitive government grants that it wins. And since 2009, your source notes several expansions of non-government revenue initiatives for NPR.
> I also wouldn't call NPR's app spyware by any means unless you call the vast majority of apps and websites spyware too
The 'Spywareness' that matters is relative: it's not so much a matter of whether information is collected at all, but rather how much & what information, in what form, for what purpose, and who gets access. The move from an indy content-neutral app to one owned by content providers changes the incentives significantly.
We don't know what will happen, so let's face it, anything we write is just speculation. But it would hardly be unduly cynical to suspect the direction to be towards more surveillance, and less support for the openness of podcasting.
As for other apps, I haven’t found anything that suits me as well. PC has a decent UI, is user (as opposed to publisher/advertiser) focused, and syncs between all my devices. It’s a truly great indie app. Rarely are such things improved by acquisition.
This statement by defenders of NPR always cracks me up. "Only" 20%? Why, that's "only" $445 million, or a mere "$1.35 per citizen," as the President and CEO of PBS put it recently. (Per citizen, not per taxpayer.)
So, what percentage of the funding for NBC, ABC, CBS, CNN, and Fox comes from the government? Or, what service does PBS provide that the others don't?
Oh wait, that's right, they're "neutral." That one only makes me laugh harder.
I have no clue where you get the idea that NPR has a budget over over 2 billion per year, but you are way off.
It also funds most of the SBS, a foreign language service meant to foster multiculturalism and introduce foreign cinema and television to those who wouldn't normally have easy access to it. And they do a lot of English language subtitles for smaller foreign releases.
