Conservative sting activist James O'Keefe helped further impoverish America with his hidden-camera attack on ACORN, which folded as a result. Recently, he turned his sting operations on National Public Radio, threatening to make America's airwaves even more of a vast wasteland.
O'Keefe had his henchmen pose as Muslim activists and approach NPR fundraising executive Ron Schiller with a generous donation offer for the semi-national radio non-network. They got him to declare on a hidden camera that Tea Party Republicans are rabid gun-toting racists and xenophobes. Schiller could have stopped there, but he added that NPR would be better off without federal funding. To be fair, Schiller told the O'Keefe operatives that he was expressing his own personal views, not those of NPR. His personal views, though, were good enough for House Republican leader Eric Cantor and South Carolina GOP senator Jim DeMint, who renewed their commitment to zero out funding for public broadcasting, and Schiller's comments were also good enough to force his resignation from NPR. Confronted by the failure of her own leadership, NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller - no relation - resigned as well.
Despite NPR's condemnation of Ron Schiller's comments, and despite O'Keefe's failure to entrap other NPR officials (or any PBS officials), no one on the right is giving NPR any benefit of doubt. Conservatives have always regarded National Public Radio as a domain of liberal elitism and highbrow snootiness, and Ron Schiller's comments only confirm their prejudices. (I don't see how the Magliozzi brothers's national show "Car Talk," devoted to the very middlebrow - and very American - obsession with automobiles and how they work, fits into the right's theory. Maybe it's because the Magliozzis are from Boston.) This comes on the heels of Juan Williams's dismissal from NPR for his comments about a fear of Muslims on airplanes, which lowered morale at the radio establishment. Now there's no one in charge of NPR fundraising or of NPR itself. Brian Stetler of the New York Times reported that this would mean a loss of ten percent of funding for the average station. For from being a minuscule amount NPR stations can live without, it makes the difference for many NPR stations in hiring reporters for their local news departments, buying transmitters, and getting quality programming. Remember - NPR is not a uniform collection of national stations with different formats like BBC Radio is. Many stations are pretty much on their own, even when it comes to nationally syndicated programming.
O'Keefe had his henchmen pose as Muslim activists and approach NPR fundraising executive Ron Schiller with a generous donation offer for the semi-national radio non-network. They got him to declare on a hidden camera that Tea Party Republicans are rabid gun-toting racists and xenophobes. Schiller could have stopped there, but he added that NPR would be better off without federal funding. To be fair, Schiller told the O'Keefe operatives that he was expressing his own personal views, not those of NPR. His personal views, though, were good enough for House Republican leader Eric Cantor and South Carolina GOP senator Jim DeMint, who renewed their commitment to zero out funding for public broadcasting, and Schiller's comments were also good enough to force his resignation from NPR. Confronted by the failure of her own leadership, NPR chief executive Vivian Schiller - no relation - resigned as well.
Despite NPR's condemnation of Ron Schiller's comments, and despite O'Keefe's failure to entrap other NPR officials (or any PBS officials), no one on the right is giving NPR any benefit of doubt. Conservatives have always regarded National Public Radio as a domain of liberal elitism and highbrow snootiness, and Ron Schiller's comments only confirm their prejudices. (I don't see how the Magliozzi brothers's national show "Car Talk," devoted to the very middlebrow - and very American - obsession with automobiles and how they work, fits into the right's theory. Maybe it's because the Magliozzis are from Boston.) This comes on the heels of Juan Williams's dismissal from NPR for his comments about a fear of Muslims on airplanes, which lowered morale at the radio establishment. Now there's no one in charge of NPR fundraising or of NPR itself. Brian Stetler of the New York Times reported that this would mean a loss of ten percent of funding for the average station. For from being a minuscule amount NPR stations can live without, it makes the difference for many NPR stations in hiring reporters for their local news departments, buying transmitters, and getting quality programming. Remember - NPR is not a uniform collection of national stations with different formats like BBC Radio is. Many stations are pretty much on their own, even when it comes to nationally syndicated programming.
Where I live, in northern New Jersey, I occasionally listen to WNYC in New York for nationally syndicated and local public affairs shows, as well as interview shows about art and culture such as "Fresh Air" and "All Things Considered." (Okay, maybe public radio is a little snooty.) For music, I listen to two local NPR-affiliated stations - WBGO-FM in Newark, a jazz station, and WFUV-FM in New York, a folk/indie-rock station. These stations all have the sort of programming commercial radio can't be bothered with. Go to commercial AM talk radio in the New York area and you find right-wing commentary that at worst is redolent of the Third Reich's Volksempfänger broadcasts - and at least is just plain redolent. Commercial FM radio around here offers a lot of stations playing power ballads and pulsating dance tunes - not fascistic but still like a sledgehammer to my brain. If not for WCBS-FM (oldies) and WRXP-FM (rock, not all overplayed classic tunes), there'd be no alternatives to public radio for me . . . and any commercial radio I do like is susceptible to ratings. If WRXP-FM can't compete against other stations in the Arbitrons, it could be forced to change its format. Other rock stations have done so.
If federal funding for NPR is eliminated, New York-area public radio might manage to survive; the region is affluent enough to support it. In many other parts of the country, it's very doubtful that NPR stations could function at the level that they do now, if at all. In which case, if you don't live in a metropolitan area like Greater New York, your only recourse for good music and intelligent talk may be satellite radio, or BBC Radio on the Internet. Internet broadcasts from New York-area public radio? Oh, no, that might be what they have to eliminate to survive.
Good news: The White House has come out in favor of continued funding for public broadcasting. Bad news: The White House supported the public health insurance option, and look how that turned out.
If federal funding for NPR is eliminated, New York-area public radio might manage to survive; the region is affluent enough to support it. In many other parts of the country, it's very doubtful that NPR stations could function at the level that they do now, if at all. In which case, if you don't live in a metropolitan area like Greater New York, your only recourse for good music and intelligent talk may be satellite radio, or BBC Radio on the Internet. Internet broadcasts from New York-area public radio? Oh, no, that might be what they have to eliminate to survive.
Good news: The White House has come out in favor of continued funding for public broadcasting. Bad news: The White House supported the public health insurance option, and look how that turned out.
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