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Instead of defunding NPR, we should ask them to please explain why their editorial board consists of 87 registered Democrats and 0 registered Republicans, and why they suspended senior editor Uri Berliner after he mentioned that information...
Wordpress ^ | July 19, 2025 | Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

Posted on 07/19/2025 11:57:41 AM PDT by grundle

https://danfromsquirrelhill.wordpress.com/2025/07/19/instead-of-4/

Instead of defunding NPR, we should ask them to please explain why their editorial board consists of 87 registered Democrats and 0 registered Republicans, and why they suspended senior editor Uri Berliner after he mentioned that information in an essay that was published by The Free Press.

By Daniel Alman (aka Dan from Squirrel Hill)

July 19, 2025

According to the political ideology that I subscribe to (libertarian), I’m supposed to be in favor of ending government funding of NPR. And from a theoretical point of view, I agree with that position.

But for me, the real world always supersedes any theory. NPR, along with its government funding, is a long standing tradition in this country, just like the national parks, the national museums, and the Post Office. So even though it goes against libertarian theory, I support a continuation of all of those things.

I like to call myself a “bad” libertarian because I am always happy and willing to disagree with libertarian theory whenever there is real world evidence against it.

Anyway, a lot of people who subscribe to libertarian (and conservative) ideology want to end government funding of NPR.

But I have a much better idea.

We should continue with government funding of NPR, but we should also ask them to please explain why their editorial board consists of 87 registered Democrats and 0 registered Republicans, and why they suspended senior editor Uri Berliner after he mentioned that information in an essay that was published by The Free Press.

On April 9, 2024, the Free Press published this opinion column by NPR senior editor Uri Berliner:

Original: https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240409095542/https://www.thefp.com/p/npr-editor-how-npr-lost-americas-trust

In that opinion column, Berliner wrote the following:

I looked at voter registration for our newsroom. In D.C., where NPR is headquartered and many of us live, I found 87 registered Democrats working in editorial positions and zero Republicans. None.

Seven days later, on April 16, 2024, NPR published the following:

Original: https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244962042/npr-editor-uri-berliner-suspended-essay

Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20240423030602/https://www.npr.org/2024/04/16/1244962042/npr-editor-uri-berliner-suspended-essay

NPR suspends veteran editor as it grapples with his public criticism

NPR has formally punished Uri Berliner, the senior editor who publicly argued a week ago that the network had “lost America’s trust” by approaching news stories with a rigidly progressive mindset.

Berliner’s five-day suspension without pay, which began last Friday, has not been previously reported.

Yet the public radio network is grappling in other ways with the fallout from Berliner’s essay for the online news site The Free Press. It angered many of his colleagues, led NPR leaders to announce monthly internal reviews of the network’s coverage, and gave fresh ammunition to conservative and partisan Republican critics of NPR, including former President Donald Trump.

Instead of defunding NPR, we should ask them to please explain why their editorial board consists of 87 registered Democrats and 0 registered Republicans, and why they suspended senior editor Uri Berliner after he mentioned that information in an essay that was published by The Free Press.


TOPICS: Miscellaneous
KEYWORDS: democrats; mediabias; npr; starvetheleft

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To: grundle

>>Instead of defunding NPR, we should ask them to please explain why their editorial board consists of 87 registered Democrats and 0 registered Republicans,

Can’t we do both?


21 posted on 07/19/2025 12:41:39 PM PDT by vikingd00d (chown -R us ~you/base)
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To: grundle

We might also ask why they need 87 people on their editorial board. I think major newspapers only have 8 to 10 on their editorial board.


22 posted on 07/19/2025 1:08:07 PM PDT by Steve_Seattle
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To: frank ballenger

Whenever someone questions whether Democrats have communistic leanings, I just ask them why the actual Communist Party never fields any candidates under their banner. They don’t need to. Democrats.


23 posted on 07/19/2025 1:09:45 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Disambiguator

Communist Party member folk singer Pete Seeger first refused to answer at HUAC hearings about being a Communist, saying “That’s not the question you should be asking. You should ask....” Then the Fifth.

He much later said “I am out of the Communist Party. I don’t need it any more. Look at what the Democratic Party does. It does everything we in the Communist Party used to fight for. Black rights. Overthrow of capitalism. Power for the working people in labor unions. Affordable housing and public transportation. Cutting down the power of the defense complex. We get it all from the Democratic Party now.”


24 posted on 07/19/2025 1:15:29 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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Why should any of that be in the stead of a defund?


25 posted on 07/19/2025 1:19:01 PM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: frank ballenger

They will just get half of them to reregister as Republican. They will still be lockstep liberals.


26 posted on 07/19/2025 1:24:22 PM PDT by Dutch Boy (The only thing worse than having something taken from you is to have it returned broken. )
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To: Dutch Boy

Good ploy. Get Murkowski and Collins to sweet talk them into the changeover. “Political labels are just labels.”


27 posted on 07/19/2025 1:26:59 PM PDT by frank ballenger (There's a battle outside and it's raging. It'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls. )
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To: grundle
Instead of defunding NPR, we should ask them to please explain why their editorial board consists of 87 registered Democrats and registered Republicans, and why they suspended senior editor Uri Berliner after he mentioned that information in an essay that was published by The Free Press.

The author seems to think that public shaming is going to change the ways of committed leftists?

Just defund them already.

-PJ

28 posted on 07/19/2025 1:30:28 PM PDT by Political Junkie Too ( * LAAP = Left-wing Activist Agitprop Press (formerly known as the MSM))
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To: grundle

What a ztupid idea.

Ask them?

Why?

Do you think they care whether you think that they are logically consistent.

They just want your forced to provide by the muzzle of a gun dollars.


29 posted on 07/19/2025 2:02:27 PM PDT by Chickensoup
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To: grundle
Instead of In addition to defunding NPR ...
30 posted on 07/19/2025 2:27:20 PM PDT by T Ruth (Mohammedanism shall be destroyed.)
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To: grundle

No, not instead of, but in addition to.


31 posted on 07/19/2025 2:28:03 PM PDT by libertylover (The HBM (Has Been Media) is almost all AGENDA-DRIVEN, not-truth driven.)
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To: grundle

It will take years for NPR and PBS to run out of money. You think they’ve been spending the billions they received from the federal government? Hell no, they’ve been stashing it in investment funds against a day like this. It will take decades for them to run dry. It will just slow them down a bit, while they weep and moan about how unfair a majority vote to defund actually is. What needs to happen is for the enabling legislation that created their charter needs to be rescinded as well.


32 posted on 07/19/2025 3:31:51 PM PDT by Pennsyltucky Boy (bitterly clinging to our constitutional rights in PA)
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Defund. There are more than enough tv channels, radio stations, podcasts, independent channels, etc. There’s no need for tax dollars to support one.


33 posted on 07/19/2025 3:33:35 PM PDT by Kipp
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To: grundle

No, we should defund them AND ask them those questions.


34 posted on 07/19/2025 4:01:10 PM PDT by metmom (He who testifies to these things says, “Surely I am coming soon." Amen. Come, Lord Jesus….)
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To: grundle

In addition to defunding....


35 posted on 07/19/2025 4:02:00 PM PDT by 9YearLurker
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To: grundle

Ironic. Uri Berliner punished for using the Free Press....


36 posted on 07/19/2025 4:09:42 PM PDT by minnesota_bound (Making money now. Still want much more.)
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To: Pennsyltucky Boy

It will take a lot longer than many think for them to collapse, but I doubt it will be more than 4 years. They may get enough of an increase in donations to survive the rest of this year without having to make changes, but they will soon enter a death spiral, as they also have a very high cost structure, as that 87 member editorial board is far from the only place they have bloated payroll.


37 posted on 07/19/2025 4:30:00 PM PDT by Fraxinus (My opinion, worth what you paid.)
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