CHICAGO —An appearance by Kim Kardashian on the National Public Radio show “Wait Wait … Don’t Tell Me!” has angered some listeners.

NPR received hundreds of complaints about last week’s episode of the humorous quiz show. Kardashian was in a segment called “Not My Job,” in which she answered questions about North Korean leader Kim Jong Un. She answered two of three questions correctly.

Kim Kardashian delivered funny lines on NPR’s “Wait Wait ... Don’t Tell Me!” but hundreds of listeners have no sense of humor about her. The Associated Press

But many listeners were outraged that she was on the Chicago-based show. Some have threatened to stop donating to the nonprofit NPR.

In a response posted on NPR’s website, ombudsman Elizabeth Jenson said she wasn’t sure what to make of the outrage over Kardashian’s 11-minute appearance. She said while Kardashian wasn’t a great guest, “she was gracious” and had a couple of funny lines.

Sharonn Flaucher of Tuftonboro, New Hampshire, a monthly sustaining donor, wrote to Jensen that she’s thinking of dropping her NPR membership. “I thought NPR had a certain class/values and it looks like we might be heading in another direction that I’m not willing to go with you,” she wrote.

Mike Pesca, a former NPR reporter who interviewed Kardashian for news site Slate, said there’s a history of NPR listeners getting angry about popular or mainstream culture infiltrating NPR programming.

“There is a type of NPR listener … that defines themselves by what they are not. To some extent, we all do this. ….But with them, it’s a much huger deal.”

– From news service reports

Related Stories