John Fund, the righteous insufferable snob associated with FauxNoiseCorp's Wall Street Journal put his dirty hands to keyboard and wrote about "the truth" behind NPR funding yesterday in the WSJ. It isn't enough that the conservatives in congress are after this institution but now the states are getting into the act. Let me explain a little about this entire matter because if you listen to the FauxNoiseCorp propaganda machine you won't stand a snowball's chance in hell of understanding it.
NPR is a radio program syndicator. The two programs you might recognize and are the targets of sorts are "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered", both being on air for decades. I suppose Fund et al dislikes them because they are interesting and curious and don't adhere to any party line. Juan William's firing is at the heart of this in case you didn't get it but let me tell you, this has nothing to do with program content but 100% to do with the party affiliation of the management of NPR. Car Talk truly isn't a liberal harangue. Neither is Fresh Air or any number of programs. Their "problem" is that they are created by liberals so, ergo, they must be liberal programs. Not to be too blunt but the toilet paper is probably next because it is used by liberals to ....well you get the idea.Anyway, NPR gets no direct public money. None. Money does go to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which, in turn, helps some underwriting but to the tune of only a couple percent of all programs produced by NPR....a couple million dollars. What the boys at FauxNoiseCorp and their butt-boys at the state level are after now are the Radio Stations themselves.
Make no mistake about it, the super majority of radio stations that carry NPR produced programs are on University Campuses and/or run by State Radio Networks. Because this programming is expensive, most of these stations don't carry all of it but a few here and there and generate their own programs the rest of the time. Now Barbour and other knuckle dragging jerks are going after the funding that keeps these stations alive within their state's university system.
The chain is NPR which produces a wide range of programs that are bought Alla Carte by state affiliated university radio stations who use them to fill in a minor part of their broadcast day. Get it?
This is the target and it, like all witch hunts, stinks.
If all they use the money for is to fill in a minor part of the program "here and there" then it shouldn't be that big an inconvenience. If the money is so inconsequential then wouldn't it be better for all parties if there was no teat to suckle? Just do it all on donations and eliminate federal funding as a point of controversy, broadcast on the merits and let the chips fall where they may. win win!
ReplyDeleteDo you seriously contend that "Morning Edition" and "All Things Considered" don't slant to the left? They sure do when I listen to them. If they are the most well know NPR shows, as you say, it's understandable that the unwashed public would infer that NPR as a whole is a media outlet for liberals, just as MSNBC is.
ReplyDeleteIf the funding they get from government is so miniscule, why are they worried about losing it?
ReplyDeleteThat money from "members" all comes ultimately from capitalism. Why not just admit it and sell some air time. The truth is that NPR depends on state-sponsored college radio stations. It's a big scam pretending to be more objective and intellectual, when all it really does is peddle a sense of elitism.
Just curious, Harold - do you really believe that this Loughner fellow was inspired by right wing rhetoric as opposed to being psychotic and more or less random in his acts? In some ways your rants resemble his to be honest. I'm just trying to understand why you (and NPR, etc) are so eager to turn the shootings into a political act when most agree that it was not.
ReplyDeleteRight wing psychotic rushes to mind.
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