As you likely know, the House of Representatives has passed bill that would defund National Public Radio. It doesn’t defund public broadcasting. Sesame Street has not yet been slashed. And the rest of non-commercial public broadcasting is not included in the bill’s cuts either. Just NPR.
Furthermore, the bill prohibits regional radio stations that receive federal dollars from using any of those dollars to buy NPR’s programs.
This last is the most troubling. It’s one thing to defund NPR, but to say which programs that other non-commercial stations may or may not buy with their federal dollars means the congress is attempting to dictate content, which might be a tad problematic from a, you know, constitutional perspective.
It should also be said that the anti-NPR bill has exactly zero to do with saving money. It is addressed to the perception that NPR has a liberal bias.
The bill is unlikely to pass in the Senate, so the whole legislative exercise is mostly for purposes of political posturing and grandstanding.
However, it brings up an interesting issue—namely the question of whether or not NPR does in fact have liberal leanings
SO IS NPR PUSHING A LEFT-WING AGENDA,—OR NOT?
With this question in mind, Ira Glass—the host and creator of This American Life ––has challenged NPR, specifically the show On the Media, to actually go out and research the accusation that public radio is biased in a leftest direction
True to Glass, he made his challenge in a provocative and very chatty manner. Here’s a snip:
I feel like public radio should address this directly, because I think anybody who listens to our stations understands that what they’re hearing is mainstream media reporting. We have nothing to fear from a discussion of what is the news coverage we’re doing. As somebody who works in public radio, it is killing me that people on the right are going around trying to basically rebrand us, saying that it’s biased news, it’s left wing news, when I feel like anybody who listens to the shows knows that it’s not. And we are not fighting back, we are not saying anything back. I find it completely annoying, and I don’t understand it.
(You can find the both the podcast and the transcript of Glass’s challenge here.)
The producers at On The Media agreed and the results of the research were supposed to appear in a week, which would mean today or soon thereafter.
I’ll let you know as soon as I know.
PS: Speaking personally, I think NPR ought to refuse federal funding at this point—bill or no bill. It would do better without the constant paranoia that it will be accused of bias by those who are themselves biased. Instead, it should simply do its damnedest to do what it does best even better—which is to supply great radio in the public interest.
It’s a symbolic bill, no chance of passing the senate, and an even lesser chance of Obama signing it. I think it’s time for Speaker Bohner and his Republican congress to get to work on real issues, and stop playing politics as usual.
And, yes, NPR is left biased. But I wouldn’t say far left. I think they’re just the only media agency in America on t.v. or radio to speak from a truly progressive point of view without fear of reprisal from the corporate (CNN, MSNBC, 3 major network) and right wing (FoxNews, commercial AM radio) agencies. Of course, we can’t say the same for NPR’s management, which hasn’t seemed to reject a command by Bill O Reilly to fire someone yet.
As an example of “far” left media in America I would point to Pacifica, which is not directly affiliated with NPR. KPFA in the bay area is a Pacifica station. The station is anti-war in its very nature, with its very name coming from the term “Pacifist”.
Contrary to right wing myths, there is not much of a “far” left media on the American airwaves, radio or television. I think NPR is just a progressive, left of center agency. And, if they seem far left to some, even some liberals, it’s only because the network’s hosts and programmers don’t buckle to the corporate and right wing medias in America, and spend half their time recanting and retracting reports and editorials at the right’s command (the ever so nauseating, “now, I never said that I didn’t love this country. I do!” lol). I could see why some would mistake that as “far left” in Bush’s America (which I still believe we’re in, despite having a different president…), but it’s not. A true leftist speaks truth to power and only apologizes for having facts wrong.
This was funny – Anthony Weiner mocking the GOPers for “getting serious” about the country’s problems, the budget, etc. by attacking NPR:
http://titanicsailsatdawn.blogspot.com/2011/03/gop-gets-serious-about-cutting.html