Replies

One of my responses to a local PBS affiliate 'beg letter':

Friday, March 07, 2003

TO: Claude Kistler, KSPS station manager
RE: Request for contribution

Dear Claude,

I received your letter asking me to contribute to Spokane’s ‘public’ television and radio stations. It was very kind of you to offer me a membership in what I’m sure is an exclusive and sophisticated group, the “Friends of Seven.” But something tells me that I might not fit in.

Sure, you mention programming such as “The Antiques Roadshow,” NOVA and “Masterpiece Theater.” Great stuff, mostly. But you failed to mention some of the other programming that you routinely present. There’s your history of showing anti-Israel / pro-PLO programs such as "Days of Rage" and "The Faces of Arafat." But this is hardly a recent phenomenon. Let’s go back ten years or so. In a well-documented example, NPR ran 32 – yes, that’s 32 – reports concerning Baruch Goldstein's killing of Arabs in Hebron in February 1994. In each case, much time was spent on the type of weapon used, and the exact nature of the casualties was described in detail. By way of comparison, let’s look at NPR's coverage of Arab terrorist attacks in that same time frame. Two months after Goldstein’s rampage, Hamas blew up an Israeli bus in Afula – multiple hideous casualties, body parts strewn about; NPR ran a total of 3 stories. One week later, Hamas bombed an Israeli bus in Hadera – same hideous toll; NPR ran 1 report about it, and like the previous report, no mention of the nature of the casualties. How about the October 1994 Tel Aviv bus bombing, which left 22 dead? Eight – count ‘em – eight whole stories on NPR – and one of them called Hamas "terrific community organizers" who help to "develop young people" and who promote "business projects like honey, cheese making, home-based manufacture." You left out the hate preached in their schools, the “home-based” bomb- and rocket-making enterprises – yes, indeed – great “community organizers.” That’s about as fair and balanced as a carnival ring-toss game.

Others besides myself notice that when Israeli men, women and children are slaughtered by these monsters, you merely call them ‘Israelis.’ True as far as it goes, but by failing to mention that the casualties are in fact men, women and children, your use of the sole term ‘Israeli’ is an attempt to strip them of their human identity. It’s an old propaganda trick, and pretty transparent to the attentive observer. But you seem to recover your sense of humanity when you report Palestinian casualties - NOW we hear about women and children and ‘unarmed’ men.

I don’t know – perhaps I lack the sophistication, the requisite multicultural sensitivity to grant a pass to the Islamic Jihad and Hamas homicide bombers for what is, to NPR at any rate, an understandable and forgivable approach to dealing with Israel.

I suppose that my outlook is positively Neanderthal by NPR’s lights because I can’t seem to nod my head with approval when you demonize gun owners and gun rights organizations. Perhaps you don’t recall that, during an NPR news magazine and documentary broadcast, an NPR commentator, Bebe Moore Campbell, gave a harangue against the NRA for having attended a particular meeting. She said that the NRA had gone there to tell Korean merchants that blacks are criminals. She said that the NRA initials should stand for the "Negro Removal Association." She said that the NRA wanted sixteen year old boys to carry Uzis because “the gun would probably be used to kill a black person.” Well, hey – one man’s ‘hate speech’ is another man’s courageous crusade against evil gun owners, I suppose.

Somehow, I don’t resonate to the upbeat, hopeful tone of voice your announcers use when the names of prominent leftists and socialists like Bill Clinton are mentioned versus the thinly veiled contempt evident when your announcers are obliged to utter the names of folks like Bush and Reagan.

You bemoan the fact that only 24% of your funding comes from money taken under the threat of force and/or imprisonment from folks like me. That just breaks my heart. In a better, freer world, I’d have some say about the ‘redistribution’ of my hard-earned dollars to your essentially anti-American enterprise. And you would receive none:

• I am not in the habit of supporting those whose views are diametrically opposed to my own.
• I won’t contribute to those whose liberalism amounts to crimes against Man, nature, justice and reason.
• I refuse to send so much as a penny to applauders of socialism, communism and any other tyrant who happens to oppose the United States.
• I will not reward sympathizers of those who bomb innocent Israeli women and children.
• I would have none of my hard-earned money go to those who regard duty, honor and a willingness to fight for one’s country as the sneering punch line to a party joke.

In short, you will receive nothing from me or my family, and I will actively work to see that you are defunded of the government subsidy that you currently receive. And by the way – your letter mentions your ‘slowing membership growth.’ Could your pro-tyranny, leftist bias have something to do with it? Ya think?