Posted on 05/07/2021 4:27:44 AM PDT by Kaslin
National Public Radio is celebrating its 50th anniversary this week in a classic way: asking its fans for money. A fundraising email gushes, "From covering the Vietnam War in 1971 to the COVID-19 vaccination effort today, and everything in between, NPR has delivered fact-based news and trustworthy analysis to millions."
Some of that "fact-based news" included "founding mother" Nina Totenberg's attempts to ruin Douglas Ginsburg's Supreme Court nomination (successful) and then Clarence Thomas' nomination (unsuccessful). Years later, she did a syrupy sister act with feminist Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, hosting RBG celebrations at awards shows and film festivals.
NPR dismissed the pre-election story about Hunter Biden's alleged laptop as an example of "pure distractions" and then had to issue a correction to a January puff piece that had insisted the laptop story was "discredited by U.S. intelligence and independent investigations by news organizations."
If you're a conservative, you see NPR as a sandbox for liberals and object to your tax dollars going to that propaganda. If you're a liberal, you love it dearly and fight any attempt to cut its federal funding.
On May 2, CBS "Sunday Morning" shamelessly aired an eight-minute segment that was more like a commercial selling NPR's view of itself. Every single person interviewed on camera was a current or former NPR employee. At the end, host Jane Pauley oozed, "By the way, the producer of this report, 'Sunday Morning's' Jay Kernis, was himself a pioneering NPR staffer."
The reporter on this story was Faith Salie, who announced in the middle that she's been a regular panelist on the snarky liberal NPR game show/current events quiz "Wait! Wait! Don't Tell Me!" for 12 years. The notion of a conflict of interest means nothing to CBS.
In 2017, Salie wrote an angry article for the radical-feminist website Jezebel about battling Bill O'Reilly on Fox News. "Our country so condones the hatred and denigration of women that we've voted it into the highest office in the land (with a helping, hairy hand from Fox News)," she said. Don't ask Salie if she ever voted for a Clinton. Nina Totenberg didn't care about Bill Clinton's sex life.
Salie began the "Sunday Morning" segment by touting "60 million weekly followers" and then let NPR's first director of programming, Bill Siemering, insist "it's not about ratings." I'm sure NPR never gives potential underwriters a sheet of how many listeners they'll be reaching.
Then Salie buried the notion that taxpayer money is involved, saying, "Most of NPR's funding comes from corporate sponsors and from independent public radio stations around the country that buy its programming." That's just a lie. Public radio stations often buy NPR programming with so-called community service grants from the taxpayer-funded Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
The only critical note came when NPR TV critic Eric Deggans was asked whether black Americans listen to NPR and he said: "No.... I think black folks -- we have a highly developed sense of when our culture is included in programming. NPR is not that." We're told NPR's audience is 81% white.
But the organization is trying to fix this with podcasts such as "Code Switch," which just touted a story of two friends in Vermont who asked white people "to give money directly to their Black neighbors" as "a DIY, hyper-local 'reparations' program, of sorts." The hosts confessed they're "obsessed with reparations...sweet, delicious reparations."
In this spirit, I would like to ask for a refund. I've been paying taxes for more than 40 years, and I would like my involuntary donations to NPR returned to me. CBS can serve up one-sided stories on its own dime. But NPR is taking my dimes and either excluding or eviscerating my conservative point of view. Enough is enough.
sandbox is kitty litter
Stop using taxes to fund this crap outfit.
Republican Congresses had several opportunities to shut down NPR.
So much for “courage.”
I remember their breathless rumor-mongering during Iran-Contra and then their refusal to cover Clinton’s scandals.
National PINKO Radio
National Panhandler Radio, the Communist mouthpiece that brings us Morning Sedition.
and clearly satirical comedy also
Like most Dinosaur Media their audience demographic is overwhlemingly aging, leftist and white. Mother Nature and Father Time will take care of most of it and when the US government acknowledges its insolvency that’ll take care of the rest.
I will say the same thing about Republicans I said about Barack Obama:
If Republicans were actively trying to destroy the United States, what would they be doing differently than they are doing now?
Cesspool.
Like Castro’s Cuba, NPR never quite goes away... My prediction sad to say.
There are plenty of rich White Liberals who can keep their NPR by funding it themselves. Pull all government money, big mistake that the GOP has not done this. It’s a no brainer 1st day in office decision.
I used to listen to NPR, broke a few radios doibg it, but about 20 years ago it went all gay all the time. I mean every damn story! That broke me.
Not sure how “Liberal” NPR is. They are definitely Leftist though.
But now they are liberal fascists and supporters of the police state.
I just love how NPR claims to be listener supported but the minute Congress even has a thought about cutting funding the screaming starts.
I could go on and on about them, but one point really comes to mind. They are very New York centric, not just North East but New York City. They don’t really understand the rest of the country. Two or three years ago there was the story of the young girl who crossed the New Mexico with a large group of other illegals got sick and died while/after being helicoptered to El Paso. The on the ground reporter did a reasonable job of describing how remote the area she crossed the border was, but the host talking to him simply could not understand the concept. He had no clue about something without a bus stop every 2 blocks. When Cokie Roberts passed away they noted she covered 3 Mile Island for them because almost no one else in office new how to drive a car.
Republicans can always be counted upon to do the right thing . . . as long as the right thing doesn’t remotely threaten reelection.
I managed to hold out listening to their morning drivel until last summer when I couldn’t take any more of their b@tshit crazy jihad against President Trump, his wonderful family and supporters.
The only thing good to ever come from NPR was Car Talk. When the show stopped airing after one of the brothers died, I stopped tuning in and listen to the Car Talk podcasts.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.