Posted on 03/12/2011 1:14:08 PM PST by STARWISE
After the public shaming of NPR this week, Nina Totenberg was given the option of taking a day off from PBS's "Inside Washington" so that she wouldn't have to face the music concerning the so-called "news organization" she works for.
Demonstrating admirable spunk, Totenberg showed up to "defend the product" her radio station produces only to have Charles Krauthammer say in the midst of a lengthy discussion about the issue, "If the product is so superior, why does it have to live on the tit of the state?" (video of entire segment follows with transcript and commentary):
Transcript Excerpt:
GORDON PETERSON, HOST: Nina, fasten your seat belt. NPR's bumpy ride just ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON SCHILLER, NPR: It is very clear that we would be better off in the long run without federal funding. NPR would definitely survive and most of the stations would survive.”
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PETERSON: That is Ron Schiller, formerly NPR’s head of fundraising, caught in a sting at a Washington restaurant by people posing as members of a fake Muslim group. They said they were potential NPR donors which is why it was there. Some members of Congress are ready to take Schiller up on the offer, by the way, and cut off funding. Schiller also had some very unpleasant things to say about the Republican Party, the Tea Party, said they were racist, some are Jews. After the story broke, NPR’s President and CEO Vivian Schiller, no relation, resigned . Now I offered Nina the chance to take the week off. She declined. She wants to defend her company. So, you’re on.
NINA TOTENBERG, NPR: I can’t defend the executives, the top executives, and I can’t necessarily even defend the board, but I can defend the product. There is a reason that we are the only news organization, other than Fox, with a growing audience. It is because of our product which is straight-shooting, factual, and spends an enormous amount of money gathering news from all over the country and the world. Judge us by our product. The people in the newsroom were probably more mortified than Charles or anybody in the Tea Party, or any, any anybody else. I mean, we were just horrified, and not by the political incorrectness of what he said, but by the fact that he even thought this way.
PETERSON: Well, this plays right into the belief that you’re a bunch of lefties.
TOTENBERG: I know it does, but it’s not true. [Laughter]
Was that nervous laughter by Totenberg or a subconscious admission of guilt? Regardless, Krauthammer wasn't buying any of it:
PETERSON: Charles?
CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER: Well, all I would say, I mean I don’t want to rehash all the grounds, it obviously is a liberal organization. Obviously what you're getting is a taste of what people say to each other internally. Everybody knows that. But I have no objection to liberal news organizations. I read the New York Times. The difference between NPR growing, Fox growing, is that Fox is not holding out a tin cup for taxpayer money. I want NPR to thrive, but not on my dime.
PETERSON: Colby?
Prepare to be shocked, for Washington Post columnist Colby King actually agreed with Krauthammer:
COLBY KING, WASHINGTON POST: I think NPR ought to take that initiative and say we do not want the subsidy.
PETERSON: Wouldn’t that kill some of the stations?
TOTENBERG: It would kill a lot of stations.
And therein lies the truth. Supporters of NPR claim on the one hand it would do fine without the public's money, but folks inside the organization know that not to be the case. King seemed to know it as well:
KING: Yeah, then this is a test of public support…
KRAUTHAMMER: We got a market in the country. We have thousands of stations.
KING: …and whether the public will step forward. And let's go back to that performance we saw on TV. I mean, it was disgusting, and it was disgusting because he was pandering. He was pandering to get some bucks, and he would say anything to get five million bucks. That’s the despicable thing.
“KRAUTHAMMER: We got a market in the country. We have thousands of stations.”
Really? Thousands??
Let's think this through before we go and get all goosey about cutting funding for government TV and radio.
First, “we the people” are supposed to own government TV and radio. That means we own the equipment, offices, translators, and all the other stuff like cars, trucks, etc.
“We the people” are not just going to give this massive investment away ... instead the proper course would be to sell the assets.
Now whether to piece meal it or sell it as a whole, that needs a proper study. I can imagine there is benefit to selling whole, but just giving it to the people who operate it right now is not an option. They will have the opportunity to bid on the assets just like everybody else. I further suggest that all proceeds be soley used to help pay down the out-of-control national debt.
As this “de-funding” debate goes on its merry course, I encourage you to make these points that the assets should be properly disposed.
I personally enjoy some PBS programming, but anybody who thinks that the news portions of PBS aren’t liberal is a frickin fool.
When has Frontline ever gone after a liberal or liberal corruption?
And NPR might as well be publicly financed Air America.
I sometimes listen to NPR in the car and it takes a lot for me to muster the patience to listen to 10 minutes of that Marxist drivel.
Conversely, if the federal government was financing conservative talk radio, the liberals would be screaming to cut it off. In fact, it would have been cut off a long time ago.
Defund NPR.
Take NPR’s non-profit status from them.
NPR is a political organization and should not have tax deductible status for its donors.
I remember Nina Totenberg and how she lynched Clarence Thomas at his hearings.
Tit for tat...or to be PC, teat for tat.
Yep. Thousands of TV stations, when one counts all the UHF, VHF and low-power stations together.
As for radio stations, we have (last I looked) over 10,000 AM & FM radio stations in the US.
Well, now.
Just where was the assertion that defunding NPR would "save this nation"?
Obviously, you have the solution in mind, lemme guess....elect sarah Palin?
Some of us think the "save" will consist of many battles, large and small, and this is just one of the small ones.
Even the small victories are vital, they invigorate the fight, and discourage the enemy.
There are few wars won in a single battle.
Krauthammer is an inside the beltway shlub. He worked for Carter and Mondale what else do you need to know?
I say elect someone who will shrink the power in Washington which is the same place where Krauthamer gets his marching orders from.Demint, Palin or Bachman all people that Krauthammer loaths for good reason.
This story is for the RINOS plain and simple we have a 14 trillion dollar debt that is going to levels where they can never be paid.
NPR will not change anything, so why post something and get all excited over a bread crumb?
Nina, not being as sharp as she would want me to believe, should have known the word was “teet”. Tit is a sexist term, and well placed by Krauthammer. Good job.
And Ronald Reagan campaigned for abortion.
What's your point?
Two cheers for Kraut. He’ll deserve three cheers when he also comes out against taxpayer funding for the VOA, especially the Arab language network that nobody watches. Why the silence on that issue, Charlie?
I worked for Kennedy & Johnson, and have little affinity for either. And that means what?
Why get excited over a bread crumb? Simple, there are no large slices on the table now, and the whole loaf is made up of crumbs.
By the way, I looked at your posting history. It appears as though you are convinced you are the only conservative on FR, the rest of us are simpletons who followed those dreadful Republicans down the road to socialism. Oh, and that you and Palin are the only ones who recognize the problems the nation faces. I, on the other hand, consider JimRob and FR to be, for the large part, reflective of what our founders hoped our future would be.
And I consider you to be a one string guitar trying to play in an orchestra.
Guess you haven’t noticed the pattern of Charles undercutting the conservatives because he says they just don’t cut it.
Guy is a joke but people like you fall for it every time. But maybe you aren’t conservative?
We already determined you are the only conservative on FR...the rest of us are dupes.
Well I would disagree, most people on FR understand what Krauthammer is doing and would call out any person who undermines the most conservative candidates.
She’s a repulsive, snarky witchhag .. and here’s another connection to her leftist hypocrisy.
~~~~~~~~~
*snip*
Totenberg has broken a number of stories about the Supreme Court, leading Ann Louise Bardach to lionize her in Vanity Fair as “Queen of the Leaks”.[1] In 1977, Totenberg first received a level of fame for her NPR reports that included the private Supreme Court deliberations about cases relating to the Watergate scandal.
In 1986, she broke the story that Douglas H. Ginsburg, who had been nominated to the Supreme Court by Ronald Reagan, had smoked marijuana. As a result, Ginsburg withdrew his name from consideration.
In 1991, Totenberg reported on confidential documents leaked to her on allegations of sexual harassment against Clarence Thomas by University of Oklahoma law professor Anita Hill.
Totenberg’s report about Hill’s allegations led the Senate Judiciary Committee to re-open Thomas’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings to consider Hill’s charges, and nearly derailed Thomas’ nomination to the court.
Personal life and family
Nina Totenberg was born in New York, the elder daughter of violinist Roman Totenberg and Melanie Totenberg, who was Executive Vice President of the Massachusetts Chapter of Americans for Democratic Action.[2] She is the widow of U.S. Senator Floyd K. Haskell (D-Colorado), whom she married in 1979.
She remarried in 2000 to H. David Reines, a trauma surgeon and Vice Chairman of Surgery at Inova Fairfax Hospital. On their honeymoon, he treated her for severe injuries after she was hit by a boat propeller while swimming.[3]
In March 2010, Totenberg’s sister Amy Totenberg was nominated by President Barack Obama to the U.S. District Court in Atlanta.[4
http://www.enotes.com/topic/Nina_Totenberg
Sleazy leaker AND blatantly biased, vested lib and RAT lover! Defund her.
Very good point. Defund NPR and give us, the taxpayers, the money back that we spent developing and supporting it!
Thanks STARWISE.
Thanks for the ping!!
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