A missed 'Connection'
AS A LONGTIME listener to and supporter of WBUR, I was shocked to learn of the decision to cancel ''The Connection" and to let host Richard Gordon go.
It is no secret that serious news media have been under stress. Once-admired CBS News is now the butt of ridicule by comedians and bloggers. The stately New York Times, rocked by the misdeeds of reporters and the hubris of editors, is slammed by the left for its uncritical coverage of the Iraq war and by the right for nearly everything else.
At the local level, WBUR has received unwanted headlines for huge deficits, its mishandling of a Providence affiliate, and, some years ago, the public conflict between the station's then general manager, Jane Christo, and the widely admired ''Connection" host Christopher Lydon. But why this still formidable station should voluntarily cancel its flagship program is a mystery, and the reasons given only deepen the mystery.
Begun over a decade ago, ''The Connection" gained national renown for its excellent mix of interviews and audience participation on a wide range of subjects. During a given week, one could hear hourlong, in-depth discussions of headline events, occurrences in remote regions of the world, discoveries in science, controversies in economics, and, more rarely, forays into poetry or philosophy. Individuals of genuine achievement, as opposed to celebrities of the moment, jockeyed to get on the program.
Much of the initial credit belongs to Chris Lydon and his producers, and yet his carefully chosen successor was able to maintain both the mix and an equally impressive level. Gordon's Canadian calm matched Lydon's Boston brio. With the possible exception of Terri Gross on ''Fresh Air," a different kind of program with a wonderfully idiosyncratic host, I cannot think of a comparable broadcast program in America. ''The Connection" showed talk radio at its best and reminded us that Boston is still a formidable center of thought in this country.
In explaining the cancellation, management offered a number of unconvincing answers. The first is that the audience for ''The Connection" was not growing. No figures were given. While a growing audience is desirable, that should not be the chief criterion for a public broadcast outlet. Public broadcast was created four decades ago precisely so it could aim for quality. Moreover, I would wager that ''The Connection," broadcast twice a day and heard all around North America, had a larger audience than most WBUR programs and was certainly far more discussed than the programs that will replace it.
A second reason is that listeners were complaining about too many fund-raising sessions. No one likes these public nags, but certainly the cancellation of a highly admired show -- one of the major reasons why people like me contribute -- is no solution to that quandary.
The third reason is most disquieting. WBUR intends to put more resources into local news and programming. Wait a second, guys -- are we Butte, Mont.? Are we Jackson, Miss.? This is Boston, once the Athens of America, still a center of intellectual and cultural life, still a magnet for the young and the ''creative class." Do we really need more on-air discussion than already exists of State House politics or local crime or the Red Sox? How much more preferable to devote precious broadcast hours to the kind of literate, civilized program that could not even be attempted in most other cities.
Nowadays, it is out of fashion to admit publicly that one has made a whopping mistake and to correct course. But this is just what the management of WBUR should do. It may be too late to rescue Dick Gordon or recruit Chris Lydon, but it is not too late to resurrect ''The Connection." This could be the finest gift that the acting general manager, Peter Fiedler, bequeaths to his successor.
Howard Gardner teaches cognitive psychology at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. His most recent book is ''Changing Minds: The Art and Science of Changing our Own and Other People's Minds." 
