Free Republic

The flagship of public television, WGBH — which claims taxpayer money accounts for just a small fraction of its budget — has in fact scored more than $80 million in obscure federal handouts over the past half-dozen years, a Herald review found. The public broadcasting titan has pulled in more than $50 million in federal funding over the past six years from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — including $11.5 million this year, or about 8 percent of its 2011 operating budget. However, WGBH honchos acknowledged yesterday they have received another $80 million in federal money for various programming. including:...

UPDATE: NPR released a statement condemning Liley’s statements in the video. “The statement made by Betsy Liley in the audio tapes released today regarding the possibility of making an anonymous gift that would remain invisible to tax authorities is factually inaccurate and not reflective of NPR’s gift practices. All donations – anonymous and named – are fully reported to the IRS. NPR complies with all financial, tax and disclosure regulations.” Liley, who was caught on the initial videotape laughing at the suggestion that NPR was sometimes called National Palestinian Radio, was placed on administrative leave with Ron Schiller on Tuesday...

National Public Radio President Vivian Schiller, who made headlines for firing news analyst Juan Williams, a Fox News contributor, told an audience Sunday that NPR's viewers are a league apart from those of other media organizations -- a hypothesis proven by its comments section on the network's website. Schiller, who was speaking at St. John's Episcopal Church in Washington, D.C., said the comments section of most media websites are full of "people yelling at each other" and "going off-subject." But NPR's commentators - and, she infers, its audience - are "intelligent and informed." ...... "If defunding to public broadcasting were...

The NPR CEO who fired Juan Williams runs away from an O’Reilly Factor ambush interview. For anyone who’s ever watched the O’Reilly Factor from time to time, you know that one of the highlights of O’Reilly’s brand of journalism is taking the interview to the guest, if the guest is a major-league coward who’s too afraid to enter the so-called "No Spin Zone." As it just so happens, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, the villain responsible for the Juan Williams firing out of political correctness and liberal double-standards, fits the brand of "coward" perfectly. So after less than a week of...