Bozell: Time to Cut Off NPR (tax $$ pay for bias)

[raccoonradio]

Brent Bozell argues the time has come to cut off fed funding for NPR, at this time when the govt has
multi-trillion $ deficits.

http://townhall.com/columnists/brentbozell/2011/10/26/time_to_cut_off_npr

>>In an era of trillion-dollar deficits, how much longer are we going to pretend that it is an essential function of government to prop up the wholly unnecessary NPR to spew on the air the same warmed-over '60s bilge the OWS rabble spews on the streets? It's time for Congress to cut the umbilical cord and stop bankrolling this rogue political operation.

(I would say NPR may be necessary but not a publicly financed NPR! Let them survive on other sources--in fact if the FCC allowed them to run ads, I say, fine. Let them compete in the free market.)

Bozell mentions a YouTube video where Simeone angrily declares, ""The time has come to stop these wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and all the other places we're now bombing with our drones and other equipment, and to demand that money that's being spent and wasted on slaughter come home here to spent in the U.S. on human needs."

She can have her opinions, but not on an outfit financed by my taxpayer dollars. I'm not so sure NPR
should sell off its equipment, etc. as he says, but NPR can survive on listener contributions, corporate giving (even movie studios and Fox Broadcasting have done this), and foundations. Take the tax
money out.

And if NPR airs a show produced by the Tea Party, and somehow I haven't heard of it, I apologize...
Yeah. Didn't think so. Even that shouldn't be paid for with taxpayer dollars. Get the government OUT
of public broadcasting.

 

[TheBigA]

It's fine to use the federal deficit to justify cutting all of public broadcasting. The mistake Brent and conservatives make is to use ideological reasons for cutting funding. They take the example of one person like Lisa Simeone and extrapolate it to an entire company in the way Senator Joseph McCarthy once focused on one person and then say there are Communists in the State Department. What he seems to also want is for NPR to base hirings on political opinions. If you're liberal, you can't host a show. This whole right vs. left battle is perpetuated every day by conservative radio, ignoring the broad and diverse cultural and political diversity that makes up this country.

Brent can have his opinions too, but the public needs an option from corporate-owned broadcasting whose only purpose is to create profits for shareholders. Public broadcasting was created in 1967 because even back then, corporate broadcasting had stopped serving the public. Right now, big radio companies are cutting back on local staff. For hundreds of cities, the only news comes from the public stations because the commercial stations needed to cut their budgets. Government funding takes the profit motive out of media and broadcasting. It's the only solution. Brent doesn't have to listen. But it's wrong to use the federal deficite for a political witch hunt.

 

[aaronread]

Yes, get the government out of public broadcasting...cut off funds to WMWM, which is owned by Salem STATE College.

Come to think of it, I don't want my taxpayer dollars going to support crappy college radio anywhere. Make state-run colleges sell their stations NOW!!!

:

(that's called sarcasm, son)

 

[aaronread]

Less sarcastic, I don't see Bozell complaining about the billions in lost tax revenue that commercial radio stations...like those that air like-minded Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh...thanks to a tax code that allows for companies to deduct advertising costs.

That's essentially my tax dollars subsidizing right-wing hate radio. What's the difference?

In fact if the FCC allowed them to run ads, I say, fine. Let them compete in the free market.

But they don't allow that, and they're not going to. In fact, the FCC just reaffirmed that they are neither legally able to allow non-commercial stations to run commercials, nor are they inclined to have the law changed. If the government is going to tie NPR's hands behind its back financially, I don't see why it shouldn't be forced to help make up some of the difference.

 

[raccoonradio]

Salem State University Student fees... but I get your point! And we aren't crappy radio, so...

Who's to say left-wing hate radio* (yes it does exist, Malloy, Steph Miller, Ed Schultz--see articles on
Radio Equalizer, Newsbusters etc) doesn't benefit too?

I still say let 'em run ads, FCC.

And when NPR runs "The Tea Party Show", maybe the accusations of liberal bias will go away

*--WORLD NEWS DAILY, 2005
>>Randi Rhodes, the leftist talk-radio host who found herself in hot water yesterday for airing a skit that warned President Bush with gunfire, has joked about assassinating the commander in chief before.
Last May, Rhodes, who hosts a show on the struggling Air America network, imitated the sound of gunfire while saying somebody ought to take the president fishing and then shoot him.
http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=44025

 

[TheBigA]

And when NPR runs "The Tea Party Show", maybe the accusations of liberal bias will go away

NPR doesn't do one-side-or-the-other shows. They don't do talk shows either.

Those who accuse them of liberal bias simply don't listen.

 

[raccoonradio]

Note also I said public radio, not college radio

WMWM: 130 watts, not an NPR affiliate, college
WGBH, 100,000 watts, NPR, public

 

[raccoonradio]

"They don't do talk shows"

Talk of the Nation
Fresh Air
Locally produced talk shows (Candie Crossley, Emily Rooney, WGBH)

And content on news shows. If they are doing some conservative content, great, but I still remember
the situation where Morning Edition did a few weekly 7-minute profiles of conservative figures.
The core NPR audience protested. How dare they offer a non-liberal opinion!

Bias...(and I say this as someone who does have a couple liberal views--abortion rights, gay marriage;
otherwise I am conservative--some would call a "classical liberal" as opposed to a current "progressive")

Laura Ingraham played a couple clips from Fresh Air in which Terri Gross fawned over Al Franken
but was hostile toward Bill O'Reilly (who fought back against her). Laura refers to the show as
Stale Air with Terri Gross-Me-Out.

Wikipedia entry on Classical Liberalism:
>>Classical liberalism is the philosophy committed to the ideal of limited government, constitutionalism, rule of law, due process, and liberty of individuals including freedom of religion, speech, press, assembly, and free markets....Some conservatives and right-libertarians use the term classical liberalism to describe their belief in the primacy of economic freedom and minimal government. It is not always clear which meaning is intended.

 

[TheBigA]

"They don't do talk shows"

Talk of the Nation
Fresh Air
Locally produced talk shows (Candie Crossley, Emily Rooney, WGBH)

They're interview shows, not conventional host-oriented talk shows, where the hosts espouse opinions. Therefore, they are not liberal or conservative. Merely vehicles for guests to espouse their opinions. Very different from the world of conservative talk radio, where the hosts dominate, don't have guests, and even refuse to take calls from listeners.

Laura Ingraham played a couple clips from Fresh Air in which Terri Gross fawned over Al Franken
but was hostile toward Bill O'Reilly (who fought back against her). Laura refers to the show as
Stale Air with Terri Gross-Me-Out.

And that is precisely the difference between conservative talk radio and public radio. Laura takes clips out of context and comes up with hateful names for people she doesn't like. Terry doesn't do that. Bill O'Reilly fawns over Dennis Miller every week. So what? The point is that she invited Bill on her show. I don't think he's returned the favor.

 

[listener-in]

Get the government OUT of public broadcasting.

The government IS the public.

What's next, keep your govt. hands off my Social Security? Oh, sorry - someone said that already at a TP gathering.