Japan, Libya, Afghanistan, the US Economy and NPR

I don't know about you but when I get up in the morning I have certain rituals - coffee, while brewing empty the dishwasher and feed the cat, glass (yes glass) of coffee in hand, the dog goes out for his business, a few minutes of CNBC and MSNBC, a switch to CNN to find out what might really be going on and then a 3 minute swoop into Fox for my morning chuckle as their anchors grapple with maps and which way is north. Then it is email and blog time and my day.  This is 530-8am and it sets my priorities straight for the rest of the day.

President Obama caught a lot of flak from the right wing yesterday because he took 9 minutes out to pick the "final four" in the NCAA basketball tournament...roughly the time I spent on the dishwasher.  The House of Representatives, led by the Republicans spent the day on NPR - that's National Public Radio.  So we are clear, there is no allocation of money from the federal government to NPR. None. Zip. NADA.

NPR gets its money indirectly because the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (think public TV and that liberal perch of culture and liberal arts ..... gasp! wash your monitor) helps underwrite some programming on NPR - from Car Talk to All Things Considered, Morning Edition to Fresh Air.  Second, low and behold, the federal government gives money directly and indirectly to states, colleges and universities in the form of assistance in one sort or another and some of this money finds its way to support college radio stations which are non-commercial and mainly NPR affiliates. This has the republicans all cranked out of shape because - and let us be clear here - universities are often not the hotbed of republican support one might imagine or they may hope for. So the republicans in the House of Representatives want to make sure that no money whatsoever makes its way to the Halls of Ivy in support of the campus radio station.

About 45 years ago, when I was a freshman in college, our independent Lutheran University started WVUR...Valparaiso University Radio...all 1 watts worth of broadcast power.  The country was ramping up in Viet Nam and generally there was, to put it mildly, a lot going on in the world. We had a decision to make, those of us who spent a few hours a week at the "broadcast studios", to either "rip and read" ... which meant going to the AP/UPI ticker tape and simply read what came over the line... or to subscribe to a lot of newspapers (this is 20 years before CNN by the way) and make someone an "editor" and distill our own news to go along with the ticker tape.

The "editor" thing won out because we thought it would be beneficial to have a multiple point of view and that "THE LISTENERS" could decide, ultimately, if what was broadcast was trustworthy or not. This was a big deal debate because the $2,000 the University gave us to operate and hold our FCC license would be pulled if there was no interest and no good service to the community.

Like so many campus radio stations, we thought only as far as our campus borders and felt that "rebel" streak that our audience was somewhat captive and eclectic enough to "get it". Our little 1 watt station did, however, bleed out to the "townie" community and it was different than the University - conservative as the college was - and some comments were made in the order to be more "inclusive".  As the fine arts contributor/DJ (Symphony Tonight - 8p M-F), we started the Porter County Arts Roundup and the "newsie" types also permitted the people running for office some free air time to hold forth in a forum of issues. OK. Got it?

As independent as we wanted to be, we knew that there was a listenership out there that, rightly or not, needed service. NPR was born of this recognition and diverse programming ensued. Some of it is highly disliked by the republicans in congress because (and those prior small caps was intended as they don't deserve proper noun recognition) they don't carry the message...that these stations tend to be independent and reflect the communities they service.

With Japan melting down. With Libya in civil war that, unlike democracy, will be a hotbed of conflict that will spread sure as shootin', and the US economy in 1930's turmoil, that these clods in congress spend a day bashing NPR, which receives no direct funds, proves once and for all that the nabobs we send to congress go there for motive and not for result, for gain and not for progress.

Just sayin'.