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Posted on 03/01/2005 4:06:39 PM PST by Drango
An open letter to Jeff Devorkian:
In you 3/1/05 ombudsman column about Romania and NPR you said…
NPR, on the other hand is a private, not-for-profit corporation. It receives some money indirectly, from the U.S. Congress through federally funded agencies such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In total, that amounts to about 1 percent of its annual budget.
Say what? Are you suggesting NPR only gets a pittance of tax dollars? Perhaps it’s an example of the "'Innumerates' Among Us". May I suggest you are being disingenuous. As the "listener’s representative" you could do a much better job of explaining NPR "SYSTEM" funding. Much better. You were closer to the truth in an earlier column http://www.npr.org/yourturn/ombudsman/000620.html
As a self contained corporation your statement may be correct in the same sense Clinton tried to torture what the definition of is is. The fact is, the bulk of tax dollars first go to a local NPR station and then are funneled back to corporate NPR in terms of licensing fees. Money is fungible so it doesn’t matter what shell it passes through before it reaches you. And the overall amount of that TAX support for "public broadcasting radio" which the average Joe listener thinks you are referring to, is closer to 33% (including the state and public college contributions). That’s a lot different than the shibboleth of 1% you alluded to above. GASP! Could it be that "Public Radio" gets more money from taxes than from subscribers! And of course I have a link for the overly inquisitive reader how may want to check the facts themselves. Page 2 in particular gives the CPB breakdown. http://www.current.org/pbpb/statistics/pbpbFY01revenues.pdf
33% or 1%? It sorta makes a difference doesn’t it? Which is closer to how much NPR gets in the form of tax dollars to operate? I don’t believe you as a NPR employee need to speak for PRI, Pacifica or the other groups that get funded by CPB. But you do have an obligation to not hide behind the shell game that would make the accounts at ENRON blush. NPR seems to pride itself at making things clear and peeling away the onion layers. You should do that with your funding and apologies to your listeners while you’re at it.
Sincerely,
Drango
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My letter to NPR will be going out shortly. Let's see if Devorkian responds:-)
And they complain about "corporate welfare" on NPR.
Excellent. I e-mailed Devorkian once about my tax dollars and Bill Moyers. I got back some fluff about no tax dollars support NPR. I suggested to my Senator that if this were the case, then NPR would not mind if congress defunded the whole mess.
Might I suggest that you proof read any letter that you send on behalf of the public. It's one thing when posting back and forth on FR, but grammatical errors in open letters to public figures does not do justice to the content and only serves to provide this man with an excuse to wave your truth away as 'ignorant'.
Sorry, don't want to be mean, I just believe that if we're going to confront others, we should do so with the intelligence God gave us.
LOL...It hasn't gone out...
Here's my own exchange with Dvorkin
Saturday, May 29, 2004 11:59 AM
To: ombudsman@npr.org
Subject: Query
Dear Mr. Dvorkin:
Do you care to correct the following list, either as it pertains to Fox or to NPR?
Left wingers employed by Fox:
Alan Colmes
Greta Van Sustern (husband works for Kerry 2004 campaign)
Susan Estrich
Ellis Henican
Eleanor Clift
Geraldo Rivera
David Corn
Geraldine Ferraro
Mara Liasson
Juan Williams
Mort Kondracke
Ellen Ratner
Gloria Allred
Chris Wallace
Julian Phillips
Neal Gabler
Jane Hall
Greg Hymowitz
Conservatives employed by NPR:
None.
Sincerely,
JXXXXXXXXXX (aculeus)
Date: Thu, 3 Jun 2004 08:32:06 -0400
Dear Mr. (aculeus)
I could disagree with your contention that everyone on your list of leftwingers are in fact of that persuasion.
NPR does not inquire as to the political ideology of its employees. It is called a "secret ballot"
for a good reason.
However, NPR asks a variety of people of all political shadings to speak as commentators. They are not paid, aside from a standard honorarium. People who are interviewed as part of news stories are never paid.
A cursory look at self-identified conservatives who have been heard recently on NPR include:
Joe Loconte-Heritage Foundation.
James Carafano- Heritage Foundation
Michael Rubin- AEI
Norman Ornstein- AEI, Public Policy Research
Ed Gillespie- Chairman, Republican National Committee
Senator John Cornyn- Republican, Texas
Mr. Charles Pena- Cato Institute
Mr. Bruce Hoffman-Acting Director, Rand Center For Middle East Public Policy
Dr. Donald Abenheim- Public Policy Researcher; Hoover Institute
David Brooks - commentator
Tom Ridge - Secretary of Homeland Security
Ken Adelman- Pentagon's Defense Policy Board.
Mr. Reuel Marc Gerecht- The American Enterprise Institute
Regards,
Jeffrey Dvorkin
Jeffrey Dvorkin's email is ombudsman@npr.org
And yes I caught the name cirrection...I'm still on my first draft.
You da man! Do you wear butt-kicking boots when you draft letters like that or just pajamas?
keep us posted!!
Good read, please keep us informed.
BTW, I poof reed worh shet!!
Good letter.
I noted a typo you might want to change. Change "accounts" to "accountants" in the 3rd from last line.
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