BOB GARFIELD: This is On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

BROOKE GLADSTONE: And I'm Brooke Gladstone. In a recent piece in the Philadelphia Inquirer, David Hiltbrand observed that U2, soon to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, hasn't put out a decent album since Achtung Baby in 1991, even though the critics have propelled its latest release up the charts.
"I'll let you in on a little secret," he writes. "Under their cynical crusts, music critics are a remarkably nostalgic breed. Over and over you'll find them fulsomely praising the newest release from faded heroes such as REM, Bob Dylan, Elton John, Prince or Elvis Costello." "Their loyalty is a disservice to consumers," he goes on, "because, swayed by their enthusiasm, we go out and plunk down some serious coinage for yet another stale and dreary disappointment."
That's pretty brutal, but our reporter Brian Wise suggests that you save your pity for the aging critics, because they don't even have a hall of fame.
[MUSIC CLIP: "BROWN SUGAR"]

BRIAN WISE: Rock critic Larry Nager had just turned 50 last January when he was fired from his job at the Cincinnati Enquirer. The paper claimed that he wasn't being aggressive enough in his reporting, but Nager believes that his age was an expiration date in a business obsessed with youth.

LARRY NAGER: Turning 50 was not a problem, but being unemployed and turning 50 - terminated without a dime in severance pay - I mean, after 8 years and after - I mean, Best of the Enquirer for the entire year of 2000, and then I need to be escorted out of the building?

BRIAN WISE: Nager also contends that he was discriminated against not only for his age, but also for his gender.

LARRY NAGER: There were literal signs that the Enquirer was trying to attract a younger and more female readership. There were signs posted in the newsroom: Remember the Ladies - Think Women 18 to 34 - and we were instructed to write with women in mind - to get as many women in our stories as we could. And then it went further than that in the belief, apparently, that only young female writers could attract young female readers, which I feel is incredibly condescending and patronizing to young women.
[ROCK MUSIC CLIP]

BRIAN WISE: Nager is suing the Enquirer for age and gender discrimination. His lawsuit asks for his job back as well as compensatory and punitive damages. Enquirer editor Tom Callinan declined to comment for this story, citing the pending suit.
Nager's case is not unique. In 2002, San Francisco Chronicle senior music critic Joel Selvin was a 30 year veteran of the paper when he was re-assigned to a staff writer job and re-instated only after extensive negotiations with the paper. And in 2000, Richard Harrington, a 57 year old music critic for the Washington Post, was re-assigned to a part-time position, prompting an age discrimination suit that was eventually settled out of court.

RICHARD HARRINGTON: You know, if you've committed yourself to being a music journalist for a long period of time, there's nothing usually to suggest you're ready to call it quits.

JIM DeROGATIS: I think there are older critics at established papers who - it's almost as if, you know, their job has been given to them by divine right.

BRIAN WISE: Jim DeRogatis is the pop music critic of the Chicago Sun-Times. He says that age matters less than one's enthusiasm.

JIM DeROGATIS: I've seen 22 year old reporters who are no longer doing their job, and I've seen 62 year old reporters who are no longer doing their job, and it comes down to a certain fire in the belly. I don't think you have to know who the Rolling Stones are. You could be completely clueless before you get the assignment to go see that concert, but you will go in as a prepared journalist, and you will find out who they are, and if you're a good listener, and I trust you as a writer and a critic and a listener, I know you're going to come back with something interesting.
[ROCK MUSIC CLIP - BRITNEY SPEARS]

BRIAN WISE: So what causes this divide between older male critics and younger music consumers, if not age?
[CLIP PLAYS] Some say it's the gender gap. Evelyn McDonnell is the pop music critic at the Miami Herald. She says the music industry, in promoting acts like Britney Spears and 'N Sync acknowledges the fact that young women have become the most influential music consumers.

EVELYN McDONNELL: Certainly the success of Britney Spears or of 'N Sync, which were the biggest records of the last several years, could never have happened without the female market, and you know, I think that was a wakeup call.

ASHLEE SIMPSON:
[SINGING] ON A MONDAY
I AM WAITING,
TUESDAY,
I AM WAITING…

BRIAN WISE: Others say the problem has to do with the biases that a critic forms during his or her younger years. Roger Catlin was the music critic of the Hartford Courant from 1988 to 2002. During his time on the music beat, he found himself frequently at odds with audiences when he criticized artists who would lip sync on stage.
[CLIP OF SIMPSON SINGING]

ROGER CATLIN: There was a period there where the music that was popular with young people was music that was not popular with critics, and that had to do with - they were pop stars, and they were cute, and you know, I'd write about lip-synching all the time, and the fans of the artists wouldn't really care about it, and…

BRIAN WISE: This divide between a critic and his subject can work both ways. Think about the younger critics who are increasingly forced to cover geriatric rockers like the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney or Simon and Garfunkel, all in an attempt to capture aging Baby Boomers. Still, it's up to every music critic to recognize his or her own personal moment of truth. Roger Catlin.

ROGER CATLIN: There were some, just some strange scenarios. I mean I remember one being at a, at a club where a band, a young band was playing, and they stopped and said - "Oh, our parents are here. We want to introduce them," And all the kids clapped, and I saw the parents and I saw, I saw that I was older than the parents, too. So there's these points where you find yourself in a room of rock and roll, and you suddenly feel very self-conscious that you're the oldest person in the building.

BRIAN WISE: Catlin now covers TV for the Courant, and he isn't planning a comeback tour as a music critic any time soon. For On the Media, I'm Brian Wise.