All Things Considered, Public Broadcasting Should Be Abolished
National Public Radio, a taxpayer funded network with a decidedly leftward tilt, has fired longtime commentator Juan Williams. Ed Driscoll reported on this last night, and it’s all over the blogs today. The story arc here is that Williams said something the left and CAIR didn’t like, the left and CAIR raised a stink, and NPR immediately capitulated to them. Juan Williams’ decades of dedicated service at NPR as one of its few credible, mainstream voices ended in a flash.
Three points should be front and center. One, Williams made the comments for which NPR fired him not on their air, but on the Fox News Channel. Two, Williams’ actual comments weren’t all that incendiary and were factually accurate, yet the Muslim Brotherhood mouthpieces at CAIR made an issue of them and so NPR, ever the dutiful dhimmi, fired him. Hey, it’s either that or face whatever maumauing CAIR was cooking up as a next step. And three, this is the second time this week that a public broadcaster said or did something controversial and politically charged, yet only one of the two has faced any disciplinary action. Here are Mr. Williams’ comments:
The move came after Mr. Williams, who is also a Fox News political analyst, appeared on the “The O’Reilly Factor” on Monday. On the show, the host, Bill O’Reilly, asked him to respond to the notion that the United States was facing a “Muslim dilemma.” Mr. O’Reilly said, “The cold truth is that in the world today jihad, aided and abetted by some Muslim nations, is the biggest threat on the planet.”
Mr. Williams said he concurred with Mr. O’Reilly.
He continued: “I mean, look, Bill, I’m not a bigot. You know the kind of books I’ve written about the civil rights movement in this country. But when I get on the plane, I got to tell you, if I see people who are in Muslim garb and I think, you know, they are identifying themselves first and foremost as Muslims, I get worried. I get nervous.”
Mr. Williams also made reference to the Pakistani immigrant who pleaded guilty this month to trying to plant a car bomb in Times Square. “He said the war with Muslims, America’s war is just beginning, first drop of blood. I don’t think there’s any way to get away from these facts,” Mr. Williams said.
There’s nothing factually wrong in that. The first part is just an honest admission with which one is free to sympathize or reject. The second part is a factually accurate rendering of the failed Times Square bomber’s sentiments. Honesty and factual accuracy constitute firing offenses at NPR?
It’s always the simple things that get overlooked. If I hire someone in software development I’ll own the copyright unless there is some prior agreement. If the PUBLIC invests in a pseudo-news gathering organization (NPR) or hire street talent to record their drunkeness (NEA)the powers that be will let those organizations retain copyright. We’re financing trash AND protecting the capitalist inclinations of people like Moyers and other CPB recipients. Congress could easily say Public radio production is OWNED by the public. Public investment in investigative reporting is OWNED by the public. There. What’s not fair about that?
There’s at least one precedent that I know of for not leaving copyright in the hands of the PBS broadcasters: NASA. All those lovely space and rocket pictures available from NASA are free to the public to download at will and not subject to copyright. Given that the American taxpayer has funded NASA, it seems only fair that the American taxpayer is entitled to these pictures for no additional charge.
Then again, NPR receives only a percentage of its funding from the taxpayer. I’ve seen that percentage stated as 25% and as 2% here on PJM today. I’m not sure what percentage of the PBS budget comes from the taxpayer but I’m sure it’s not 100%, given that all of their programs indicate that various foundations, presumably private in nature, such as the John T. and Catherine McArthur Foundation, are responsible for major proportions of the costs of that program. I’m not sure who owns or funds the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Is that just the vehicle by which the government contributes its share of PBS’s costs? Or is the government just one of many contributors to that group?
“What’s not fair about that?”
Just about everything.
I could not agree more. Why should taxpayers pay for a service they don’t receive. I think it is illegal to charge people for goods not delivered.
And MSM does not deliver the goods. We are fraudently being charged.
Let Sorots and his henchmen foot the ENTIRE bill. They want a bigoted, biased media? Fine. Just pay for it and quit charging hard earned dollars for delivering nothing.
You think you’ve got it bad? Try being Canadian.
We have a national public broadcaster called the CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), inspired by the British BBC, and subsidize it to the tune of a billion dollars a year. We’ve done this as long as I can remember and I’m in my 50s. (I assume the amount of the subsidy has gone up over time given the increasing costs of everything.)
The CBC has no programming I watch, aside from the very occasional documentary on its news channel. In fact, I don’t think I’ve watched a regular series on CBC since the 1990s or perhaps the 1980s. Unlike the BBC though, the CBC has commercials and I believe there are just as many minutes of commercials as on the private networks. So we get the worst of both worlds: a heavy taxpayer subsidy for them to produce shows that relatively few people watch PLUS as many commercials as the private networks in Canada air.
As for their political orientation, need you ask? They are relentlessly liberal in tone and outlook. And if that isn’t bad enough, the French portion of the CBC, which is called Radio Canada but includes the French language television service, is frequently accused of being a hotbed of Quebec separatists! So, not only does the CBC inflict its liberal viewpoint on all taxpayers, including those that don’t watch their programming, while deluging us with commercials, it also provides a home and employment for people dedicated to breaking up this country!
Just imagine if NPR and PBS showed as many commercials as NBC or CBS and also made welcome significant numbers of staff who proposed that the Southwest leave the US and join Mexico and you start to get the picture of what we face in Canada….
We have the same set-up here in OZ. Ours is called the ABC [the Australian Broadcasting Commission], also inspired by the BBC and also publicly funded to the tune of a billion a year.
It is unremittingly left in its outlook. Every lefty cause is actively promoted and no dissent from the party line is allowed to sully its leftoid purity.
The idea of publicly funded broadcasters probably started with the best of intentions, 50 years or so ago, but every single one of the anglosphere public funded broadcasters have been captured by the left and they are now no more than sheltered workshops for unaccountable leftoid hacks who would be unemployable in the private sector.
There are active calls in Australia for the ABC to be disbanded or sold and the sooner it is done the better in my view.
I wish I could say there was a mass movement in this country to privatize the CBC but if there is, I haven’t heard about it. Maybe the lefties have completely brainwashed our “masses”. Or maybe the CBC is less blatant than NPR or ABC in promoting its views. Good luck in privatizing ABC!
What is the legal recourse to a monopoly, if the monopoly happens to be the government?
I think that’s why we have elections. I will urge my new Republican/Tea-Party Representative to DEFUND PUBLIC RADIO AND TV.
Can we have a monopoly without the government? A monopoly always needs the power of law because it lacks the power of persuasion. Whether it is the Subversive Left, the Bolshevik revolution, Religious persecution or enforced patronizing health insurance it all requires the power of the state and when we allow the state to control us we get monopolies. You will note that all these programs favor the left so it is not misplaced good intentions. That is a conning of the public. The intent always comes from evil. We must rule ourselves in order to rule our government.
Well, CBC does a good job with its NHL telecasts. And Don Cherry is good for comic relief.
Soros can take over PBS, too. Oh, and while we’re abolishing government entities in the media, let’s lose the FCC, too.
Bryan, you hit on a number of important points here. Thank you.
One I would like to add to the mix is this:
The evidence is mounting that the extermination of liberals is now firmly entrenched within the extreme leftist machine in this country. We witnessed it with Joe Lieberman, who was drummed out of “the Party” with a viciousness and ferocity that was jarring.
Even Geraldine Ferraro and the Clintons got the full baring of teeth in 2008.
Going full fang on Juan Williams, therefore, is not a surprise…or shouldn’t be.
There are no more “liberals” in this country. The leftists ate them.
The radical extremism that pervades “the Party” does not allow for any…ANY…diversion from the lockstep, jackbooted, one-note message of radical extreme leftism.
Had Williams said the following:
“As an African-American male, I get a bit nervous going to a Tea Party rally of white, Christians”, does anyone believe that NPR would have fired him? Scolded him? Admonished him? Given him a detention? A demerit? A slap on the wrist?
Don’t make me laugh. They would have ADVANCED the notion. Pumped up the volume. Expanded on why that would be true.
Fear of Evangelical Christians, (or Israelis or Jews in AIPAC) is “fair game”.
Of course, there is not one iota of evidence of violence stemming from Tea Party enthusiasts, Evangelical Christian churchgoers or AIPAC supporting Jews toward anyone. But NPR would be fully on board with the implication that fear is justified.
It’s more than mere hypocrisy. It’s hate-filled extremism and we do not need to fund it.
Defund NPR. If you can’t trust them to even augment “debate” on an issue and if they only advance radical leftist hate, they don’t deserve public funding. Let Soros and Kos Kidz and MSNBC fund them. It’s just Air America tripe in a Brahman accent anyway.
Your article is spot on target. NPR has been a liberal stronghold for years. I listened to it daily in the 70′s.
I have been incensed by many other comments and issues they have postured as ‘news’. They should have their tax exempt status revoked, as well as all their grants and taxpayer contributions suspended.
NPR is as partisan as you can get.
Juan Williams’ comments on O’Reilly were only the pretext NPR had been seeking ever since Williams committed the real crime; he went on FOX NEWS. He left the reservation and worked with the other tribe!
The money quote is NPR’s admission that “Williams’ presence on the largely conservative and often contentious prime-time talk shows of Fox News has long been a sore point with NPR News executives.”
Several things are revealed in this. First, NPR was not embarrassed to admit that an association with FOX News was sufficient to taint an opinion analyst. In fact, they offered no explanation as to why contact with FOX would be a “sore point with NPR”; they regarded that as self-evident.
Second, the “smoking gun” comment NPR finally seized upon as their pretext is so innocuous that it is only offensive if you are really, really looking to be offended. One can picture the NPR-CAIR-SOROS “enterprise journalists” watching every Williams’ appearance on FOX over and over, sniffing for any scent of offense. The trigger was probably his use of the “M-word”, for “Muslim” is now the name that nobody else dare speak.
A sad performance for a tax-funded organization.
The hypocrisy of NPR’s firing of Juan Williams is truly breathtaking. You’d think they would be DELIGHTED to have “one of their own” appearing on Fox, presumably to moderate the “extremist” views that they feel Fox presents. But clearly they feel Williams is hostile to NPR simply for having any contact at all with Fox that isn’t an outright attack on Fox. This suggests that the leftist media slanders against Fox for being a propaganda machine for the right is a complete farce: they WANT Fox to be one-sided! In fact, they are going out of their way to make it harder for people that aren’t on the right, like Juan Williams, to appear on Fox. If Fox actually lives up to its slogan of “fair and balanced”, it undercuts the leftist media which is itself anything but fair and balanced. It fits their narrative much better if Fox includes only people that are indisputably from the right of the spectrum.
liberalism is a religion. many adherents to the religion of liberalism enjoy the psychological benefits so much, they’ll defend it to the death. logic, reason, and holding oneself to an objective standard require humility and self-reflection… that’s just too much work and involves too much cognitive dissonance… no match for the easy answers provided by the religion of liberalism. much easier to cling to your vision of yourself as a member of the anointed elite and your religion as “the answer to everything”, and if you and your kind end up messing up the entire world in the process, fine. (soviet union comes to mind here)
The winnable argument against NPR is that it’s no longer needed due to technological obsolescence. Attacking NPR on the assumed political beliefs of their reporters hired is useless and sounds like whining; it’s the position of the powerless.
“NPR esse delendam” due to it being a waste of money is sufficient. Adding your political view actually subtracts from the argument.
That makes sence. Defund based on current need rather than current bias.
The real reason NPR fired Williams is because he is black. NPR is racist! There is no other conclusion.
Touche!
And George Soros ought to have to pay the taxpayers back for the NPR assets he has taken over for his own personal use.
Many of us used to listen to NPR, All Things Considered and the like, for years. When the bias became so painfully obvious, and the network became the speaking voice of all things liberal, most clear thinking individuals who don’t drink the Kool-Aid decided to bail out. I’ve always had a problem with public funding of a purported news agency. It just doesn’t pass the sniff test. Perhaps this incident will place NPR in the dustbin of history, where it belongs. National Progressive Radio indeed.
Firing Juan Williams for speaking plain truth and sense should be a wakeup call for him to realize that he has finally experienced the real intolerance and bigotry of liberalism.
Perhaps in a couple years with a new President, we can cut the g-d gonads off NPR once and for all.
When will the American people wake up to the intolerance of PC? National Proletariat Radio should be protested against; they should be a lightening rod for a whole lot more than 378 angry emails. Everyone who reads PJ Media ought to write to the Commissar of NPR and tell them that we believe in equality. If they’re going to fire Juan they ought to fire Ifill as well.
silence! i keel you!
Lets face facts. Neither public broadcasting (generally) nor NPR (specifically) will ever be abolished. The rationale for public broadcasting (based in a 1960′s mindset) was to provide an outlet for programs that were not commercially viable in an era when there were only three networks and far fewer radio options than there are today. With a zillion commercial and cable television channels catering to very niche and radio operations like Sirius broadcasting ther is no sane argument for any of this to continue.
However public broadcasting is something more – It is a great gig that allows certain of our entrenched elites (and their unemployable relatives)to enjoy the eclat of a Washington lifestyle in the uper reaches of polite society. To me the epitome of public broadcasting was Daniel Schorr, a sonorous old windbag of impeccably liberal credentials who could be counted on to put his tweedy boot into whatever policy Republicansmight propose. (All with the proper amount of j-school gravitas.) NPR is equally fusty and vindicates Tom Wolfe’s observation that American journalism is in reality “the Victorian gent” that seeks to put “the proper tone” to whatever comes their way. This is all very well and good but can’t the left pay their own way on this?
However as long as surplus Ivy Leaguers continue to need well-connected jobs we will continue to have NPR and public broadcasting.
All things distorted !
I vote to get rid of NPR. For a long time it has been the mouthpiece of the left. The PC crowd has gone to far and I am just plain tired and angry at minority groups telling the majority how to think, speak and act! Mr. Williams point of view is a Constitutional right and NOT NPR’s bias views.
With increasing frequency in recent months, Juan Williams has been expressing subdued disenchantment with the Obama Administratioon, and especially with Obama himself, Holder and Clinton during Juan’s appearances on Fox. THAT was why NPR fired him. But then, Progressives have always severely punished blacks who have left their plantation, if only briefly.
I channel surf like most males to take a listen to NPR,Rush and even Air America during the short life span. My wife the former Democrat found Air America offensive with the name calling which I thought was hilarious. NPR is more subdued but they have an agenda and sometimes they make mistakes like hiring Juan Williams. One mistake was when Madison, Wisconsin NPR (a center for open minded people, LOL!) accidently let Peter Morici, U of Maryland Economist on one of their radio programs. There were so many people calling in that had no clue that their heroes of the agenda were taking them to the cleaners. He pulled no punches against bad politicians on both sides of the aisle but these people were convinced their Democrats were innocent when it came to Wall Street and big bank excesses. I almost spit up my Starbucks I was laughing so hard.
Can anyone imagine Fox’s firing of its journalists for appearing on NPR? Hmmmm…
You forgot Williams’ greatest sin: He works for Fox News. Mara Liasson is not doubt next on the chopping block at NPR.
I’m looking forward to the lawsuit which I’m sure will follow. How dare the NPR attack, or censor, or fire anyone for doing what he/she wants to on their own time. The is no felony or missdimeanor that would justify such action by NPR. That means that there is a question of due cause. I’m sure that there are plenty of attorneys out there who would take the case and many of them would do it pro bono. It’s time to take on the PC bunch and play pay back.
On the other hand I’m sure that there are plenty of broadcast entities which would be honored to hire Williams. Look for him to appear on many of the conservative radio shows and also get an offer from one of the stations.
Surely the fact that NPR got 378 angry emails about Williams and therefore consider him a lightning rod truly indicates just how few people actually listen to it. Why waste any more taxpayer money on this joke of a network?
karlito: I wonder how many letters they got today ?
I demand that George Soros forevermore be introduced as “NPR’s Sugar Daddy George Soros.”
If Congress can fund NPR, and it’s liberal drivel, the correct balance would be for Congress to fund FOX, Limbaugh, Hannity, and Beck, in the same amounts.
I think this would pass the Constitutionality test.
[Heh, heh; I can see the blood vessels of the liberals eyes popping at this very moment.]
This makes me wish that I was contributor to NPR so I could cancel my pledge in protest.
Juan expressed his personal opinion therefore it is not out of line according to what NPR wishes it to be. Had he said it in a different manner then NPR might have a leg to stand on therefore I hope like hell Juan takes them to the cleaners and forces them into bankruptcy !! Then after that by weeks end Congress should remove there Tax status and defund every penny they may have coming in the future.
I’m still waiting for an NPR documentary celebration of the PissAlah commissioned by the NEA; no guts no glory.
I’ve had the opportunity to see a lot of what PBS offers for pledge drives. I bet that minorities and the poor are just sitting there enthralled watching Masterpiece Theater and Celtic Women. Okay, I like Masterpiece Theater (most of them anyway) and I first heard of Riverdance through it (yes, I am a straight male). And it was pretty interesting watching the Pink Floyd concert. But most of what they have are for the rich elite of which I am not (okay, Red Green Show and some British Comedies are definitely different). The actual viewing public is probably small. The rich people like Soros and the charitable organizations that support liberal ideas can certainly donate a few more bucks to take the place of Government funding.
Soros is certainly the hypocrite of the 21st century. In the 20th century, he was a Nazi collaborator in Hungary. In
the 21st Century he funds a host of baloney organizations like Media Matters and MoveOn and loves to bring down
nations thru his well-known hedge funds. Yet the dumb-ass media ignores. Those of us on the center right are
going to have a lot of fun taking down these creeps.
Abolish National Propaganda Radio? Yes! That’s a concept I can get behind, but not just because of their moronic leftist droning, rather because they’re so boring. Sometimes I wonder how these people can spend their entire lives in one job–has Terri Gross ever done anything else? Some career diversity or even adversity would probably be good for them. Let’s hope Juan Williams flourishes at Fox and never fails to remind everyone of how he ended up there.
It would be fun to make a satirical feature film about NPR. …deep sonorous voice, fade to bells tinkling on collars of goats, proceed to interview some bystander about the latest violation of the cease fire… tinkle, tinkle, tinkle go the bells in the background…. ah, here I am at work. At lunch I can be safely opinionated because I know all about what’s going on (I’ve heard the bells)…
Let’s leave these silly people behind. Just turn them off.
NPR Sugar Daddy George Soros has apparently ordered his Media Matters monkeys to go after Mara Liasson next: http://mediamatters.org/blog/201010210014
I agree that there is NO need for any government subsidized media except for that of C-Span and limited to ONLY the airing of government processes. Today, there are NO shortages of private sector media content choices.
Poetic justice would be for Juan Williams to sue NPR and walk away with an amount at least equal to the 1.8M George Soros just donated to NPR to hire all new reporters.
WHY DOES NPR TOLERATE APOLLOSPEAKS?
If NPR found Mr. Williams’ comments on the Factor so damning and offensive to Moslems as to necessitate the termination of his contract then why do they tolerate ApolloSpeaks? Why do they post my even more offensive and politically incorrect articles about Mohammed and Islam on their website? In several of my 64 pieces that NPR posted I crossed the line and dared call Mohammed a “theiving mass murdering terrorist thug” and said, God knows how many times, that “Islam was a religion of hate, intolerance, discord and war.” If NPR gave Mr. Williams the boot for saying that he’s nervous around traditionally clad Moslems on airplanes then why haven’t they booted me? Why do they post “racist bigoted Islamophobic” articles that blatently ridicule and disrespect the prophet and founder of Islam? A man so great, wise, holy and good that he stands above criticism (according to most Moslems) and was the closest thing to God on earth? What utter puking hypocrites!
Click my name and see for yourself the complete list of my worse than Juan’s anti-Islam articles posted by NPR.
I disagree. Ifill should be fired. Her objectivity has definitely and overtly been compromised and she can no longer be trusted to report the news fairly.
In this day and age, there is no need for taxpayer funding of National Public Radio, the Public Broadcasting System, or the Corporation of Public Broadcasting. The technology that currently abounds for receiving news and opinion no longer supports the contention that NPR, PBS, or CPB are necessary to assure the public has access to that news and opinion and must be preserved as a sacred public trust. The flagrant bias and political correctness run amok at NPR has laid bare the simple fact that its current mission is to support and sustain a liberal elitist cult of mutual admiration and worship of all things progressive. I suspect the Democrats will suffer on Nov 2nd for NPR’s missteps, and judging from Bob Beckel’s and Alan Colmes’ comments, including PA Governor Rendell, they’re distancing the party from NPR as fast as they can. DeMint and Boehner have sensed an opening on this for the Republicans in calling for defunding of NPR.
The funniest part is thinking about the rationalization process in the minds of the NPR listeners. “Oh yes, that was hateful, we can’t have people with those kinds of thoughts on NPR. We need to strive for diversity of everything, except opinion!”
Whenever I try to discuss anything with an Obama-bot, it seems that they always have to qualify their rebuttal with: “I heard on NPR today…”. Do they think that sourcing to NPR buttresses their credibility? What is wrong in these peoples heads that they can’t see NPR’s neatly crafted product for what it really is: traditional government propaganda!
I like to call it Not for Profit Radio! Somehow I’d rather get my news and opinion from a source that is funded by sponsors who are trying to sell me things (like cars, business services, etc.) rather than from a source funded by a sponsor tyring to sell me some pseudo-compassionate politically motivated philosophy!
What’s more shocking? The fact that a defacto state sponsored ‘news’ network exists in this country. Or, that there are millions of lemmings, charmed by the classical bumper music, who rely on the esoteric NPR drivel to stay ‘informed’.
As our company prohibits streaming music, I listen to NPR for classical music while working. That’s a worthwhile service.
The rest of it they can keep.
Paraphrasing something I read on the ‘net yesterday, “I’ve got a lot of Classical Music CDs, and I’m not afraid to use them.”
I worked in a commercial radio as DJ for couple of years. One day I had a chance to visit a “public radio station” They had better, more state of the art equipment than they did at the commecial radio station I worked for. Someone told me they get a new broadcast board every two years. We had the same board at the commercial station for all the four years I worked there. Maybe NPR should tighten its belt a little.
Last I checked, there’s nothing in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to run, or to spend money on, any form of news media that competes with private news media.
Doesn’t anybody ever read that thing any more? The Constitution, I mean!
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