Free Republic

Recently defunded NPR apparently thinks it's funny to falsely accuse Michelle Malkin of being a birther while making lame jokes about her family. This, at a time, when Malkin's kin is frantic with worry over the disappearance of her niece. Malkin has a transcript of the inane little radio skit so I won't duplicate it here. Her comments: The premise of Jobrani's p.c. comedy gag is completely false, as actual readers of my work know. I was one of the first conservatives to criticize Birthers who go to the extreme and have never accused President Obama of being a "secret...

NPR remains perhaps the strongest, most trusted brand in the news business. It is the envy of its competition. According to the Pew Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism, NPR's listening audience increased 3 percent in 2010, to 27.2 million members weekly, up 58 percent overall since 2000. Meanwhile, other members of the fraternity of heirloom media continued to lose ground as audiences drifted toward sexy, gadget-oriented insurgent media. According to Pew, television networks slipped 3.4 percent; newspapers 5 percent; commercial radio 6 percent; and magazines almost 9 percent. How come NPR is headed to the gallows when its news...

When Sarah Palin talks, people listen. They might not always agree, but they certainly hear the former Alaska governor loud and clear. Recently the hockey mom was a guest on the Sean Hannity show and like many conservatives, Palin took aim at National Public Radio and several other federally funded arts and educational agencies. "NPR, National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, all those kind of frivolous things that government shouldn't be in the business of funding with tax dollars -- those should all be on the chopping block as we talk about the $14-trillion debt that...

The Republican-dominated House on Thursday voted to block taxpayer funding for National Public Radio programming, dealing another blow to the broadcasting network that already is reeling from a yearlong series of missteps. Though the bill is not likely to pass the Senate and the White House issued a statement opposing the bill, it marks another black eye for NPR, which saw its chief executive officer and its top fundraising executive resign earlier this month after being filmed denigrating conservatives and the tea party. “We’ve see NPR and its programming often veer far from what Americans would like to see as...

The House just voted 236-181 to remove federal funding for National Public Radio via the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.

In wake of conservative James O’Keefe’s Project Veritas sting videos of National Public Radio (NPR) senior executives, House Republicans are set to vote Thursday to defund NPR completely. They’re expected to pass a bill that would pull all taxpayer money out of NPR, including the money that’s funneled through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The bill’s sponsor, Congressman Doug Lamborn, Michigan Republican, told The Daily Caller he thinks NPR will survive in a free market situation. But, even if it wouldn’t, he questions the need to fuel it with taxpayer money. “Certainly, it would survive,” Lamborn said. “They have...

It just keeps happening. NPR's leadership keeps tripping over its microphone wires and then asking everybody else to plug them back in. I know everybody thinks I must be in a vindictive mood, celebrating the sudden departure of NPR CEO Vivian Schiller after her hand-picked personal fundraiser was caught on tape disparaging Tea Party activists, Jews and taking more shots at me. I'm human and do have some thoughts but it's okay to keep them to myself. I will not slander her in the way that she impugned my intellect and my integrity with condescending comments after my firing. She...

Enables of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, CPB are coming out of the woodwork to defend the taxpayer largess that they have been feeding from. Most of this centers on NPR and the arguments seem to be that: first they aren’t biased and second defunding CPB will only hurt the rural stations. Seriously. Lost in the noise is that CPB also funds via your tax dollars, other public broadcasting entities such as PRI and Pacifica. Pacifica is the most amusing as they are staunch, avowed communists and hate capitalism and Republicans. They are also very urban. Berkeley, LA, NY, Houston,...

Forget the recent scandals involving National Public Radio. Go back to the days before NPR chief exec Vivian Schiller resigned, before a conservative prankster videotaped NPR fundraisers disparaging Tea Party participants as "seriously racist, racist people" - to even before NPR fired senior news analyst Juan Williams after he said on Fox News TV that he got "nervous" flying with passengers in Muslim garb. Banish from your mind the recent controversies involving NPR's perceived or (I believe) real liberal bias. Even then, fiscal conservatives in Congress had called for cuts in federal funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Rep....

President Obama defended public broadcasting from cuts on Friday, emphasizing that defunding networks like NPR and PBS would do little to rein in spending. As Republicans in Congress hope to defund government assistance to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn supports NPR and PBS stations, Obama said the cuts make little sense. "I think it's going to be important for us to have a conversation after we get the short-term budget done, about how do we really tackle the problem in a comprehensive way," Obama said at a press conference on Friday. "And that means not just going...

NPR, PBS campaigns to keep federal funds called unlawfulBy Seth McLaughlin and Stephen Dinan The Washington Times 8:47 p.m., Monday, March 7, 2011 NPR and PBS stations nationwide are rallying their audiences to contact Congress to fight against Republicans’ proposed spending cuts, but some affiliates’ pleas may violate laws preventing nonprofits or government-funded groups from lobbying. Interrupting popular programs, the stations air warnings that cuts could end beloved children’s television shows such as “Sesame Street.” Some stations urge their audience to call and let Congress know their feelings, while others go further, instructing viewers to “stop the Senate” or “defend...

KUED and KBYU, the two local PBS stations are having their Spring fund drives again. Again the quality of programs goes down and you see non stop every 15 minute hosts that have come out of the woodwork asking you the viewer to give to public television so they can continue to give us quality programming.

Puppet Pork: If you wonder why it's hard to cut spending, consider the throng of U.S congressmen lining up with Arthur the Aardvark to defend PBS funding from budget cutters. A $14 trillion deficit doesn't tickle us, Elmo. It wasn't an episode of "Sesame Street," but it might have been. There on the Capitol steps was Rep. Ed Markey, D-Mass., accompanied by fellow Democratic Reps. Paul Tonko, Bill Owens and Nita Lowey of New York and Betty McCollum of Minnesota, with a bevy of Muppets to fight against cuts to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting's budget. "This is an ideological...

Hours after the House passed aggressive cuts to public media funding, the organization that oversees government money for NPR and PBS is sticking up for federal funding. Patricia Harrison, the chief executive of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), made a case for public television and radio in a media landscape dominated by cable and migrating onto the Internet. Her selling points: public media is local, trustworthy, and educational.

Oregon Congressman Earl Blumenauer (D) says he knows there's a need to cut back, but doesn't understand why the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) got the ax. During a Saturday interview with Fox News, Blumenauer lamented, "It is unfortunate we are zeroing in on this little piece." The House of Representatives voted to eliminate the CPB's funding as part of a government spending bill that was passed in the early hours of Saturday morning. The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides support for ventures like National Public Radio (NPR) and PBS, home of "Sesame Street." Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colo., says the...

This month, there are four bills pending in Congress that would eliminate federal funding for the most trusted institution in America. For the last seven years, according to the annual Roper opinion poll, more Americans put their trust in this institution than any other. In 2010, it ranked two times higher than the criminal justice system, 2-1/2 times higher than network television and a whopping 7-1/2 times higher than Congress. One hundred and eleven million Americans use it every month, yet the U.S. spends less per capita on this institution than any other First World country spends on the equivalent....

The co-chairs of the President's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform has recommended zeroing out funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting as one way to help save $200 billion. -snip- According to a draft of the proposals, released Wednesday, that cutting the $500 million worth of funding for NPR and PBS stations is just one of many "painful" cuts that could help achieve that savings.

Congress awarded the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) $533.3 million in fiscal year 2010, $420 million of which was distributed to public radio and television stations in all 50 states and U.S. territories, according to the CPB Appropriation Request and Justification report. Taxpayer money for the CPB is allocated through the Department of Commerce. According to the CPB report, 583 public radio and television stations nationwide received $420 million in FY 2010. For example, KQED TV in San Francisco received $3,734,192 and KCET TV in Los Angeles got $4,066,328 that year. WAMU, the public radio station in Washington, D.C., received...

Juan Williams once again got himself into trouble with NPR for comments he made at his other job, at Fox News. And NPR's reaction has unleashed an unprecedented firestorm of criticism directed not at Williams – but at NPR. (snip) Thursday was a day like none I’ve experienced since coming to NPR in October 2007. Office phone lines rang non-stop like an alarm bell with no off button. We’ve received more than 8,000 emails, a record with nothing a close second. (snip)At noon, the deluge of email crashed NPR’s “Contact Us” form on the web site.

Of the thousands of complaints that have saturated NPR in the wake of Juan Williams’s firing earlier this week, some of the most telling have been from callers describing themselves as long-time “viewers” of NPR who warn that they are going to “stop watching.” NPR, of course, does not have viewers, it has listeners. But the public radio organization has come under severe criticism — largely from people who are not listeners, it believes — for having fired Mr. Williams, an analyst who was employed by both NPR and Fox News when he said on Fox that he felt fearful...