Bozell Column: NPR's Ridiculous Denials
In the public policy conversation today, there is nothing funnier
than hearing the leadership of National Public Radio deny there's a
liberal bias at play over there.
Even when the Daily Caller posted sting video of their top
fundraiser Ron Schiller describing America as remarkably under-educated
and the Republicans as ruined by racist, gun-toting, phony Christians,
NPR's reaction was repeating Sentence One: Who, us, biased?
Schiller resigned, and then the NPR Board ousted CEO Vivian
Schiller (no relation), who hired him. She was only a sacrificial lamb.
Nothing has changed, policy-wise. The new interim CEO, Joyce Slocum,
picked up exactly where the last boss left off. "I think if anyone
believes that NPR's coverage is biased in one direction or another,"
she suggests, "all they need to do to correct that misperception is
turn on their radio or log onto their computer and listen or read for
an hour or two."
This is some serious denial - like arguing that if anyone doubts
that Japan is a terrific spring vacation spot right now, they should
just observe the TV news and see how wonderful it looks.
This anti-NPR sting video reveals an NPR fundraising drive that's
clearly focusing on financiers that are hostile to conservatives. Last
year, leftist philanthropist and hedge-fund billionaire George Soros
announced a $1.8 million donation to NPR and days later, Juan Williams
was canned for offending liberals by appearing on the Fox News Channel.
The same week that NPR unveiled that donation, Soros announced
another million-dollar contribution to the censorious left-wing thugs
at Media Matters for America, to "more widely publicize the challenge
Fox News poses to civil and informed discourse." Their campaign slogan
to advertisers and cable companies is "DROP FOX." (Am I the only one
who finds it curious that the "Open Society" folks want Fox closed?)
The reporters at NPR are in even more denial than the executives.
NPR rushed to interview Susan Stamberg, hailed as a "founding mother"
of NPR, who insisted that executives have caused some "terrible,
terrible hits," but the "news" product is superb: "The work that we do
has been so consistently extraordinary, the strongest news organization
in electronic broadcasting, and that has been untarnished."
Since NPR lives in a bubble of their own arrogance, their media
reporter David Folkenflik sought no opposing view. (He didn't even fish
through NPR ombudsman Alicia Shepard's box of listener complaints, such
as NPR's recent erroneous on-air declaration that Rep. Gabrielle
Giffords was dead.) Folkenflik allowed for House Majority Leader Eric
Cantor to say NPR doesn't need federal funds, but that's not an
evaluation of NPR's professionalism. It implies Republicans are
indifferent to a liberal political slant.
Most Republicans do want to focus simply on how NPR is an
unnecessary federal expenditure, because it's more true today than
ever. In response, public broadcasters predictably cry that rural
stations will shut down - as if NPR really cares about those people
they consider uneducated, less-than-Christian, gun-toting hayseeds.
Anyone who looks at CPB's grant budget knows the government offers
scads of money to multiple NPR and PBS stations in urban areas. In the
Baltimore-Washington TV market, there are three stations - why three? -
that took almost $7.5 million in "community service grants" in 2009.
The $4 million-plus given to D.C. superstation WETA is more money than
TV stations receive in 19 states.
The public radio situation has even more pots in the fire, with
three D.C. stations - why three? - and four Baltimore stations - why
four? - taking another $2.2 million in 2009. If poor rural stations
were so precious to CPB, couldn't they limit themselves to one station
per market?
And why is allegedly suffering NPR building a 330,000-square foot
headquarters in downtown DC right now, complete with roof terraces, a
fitness center, and a theatre for live performances?
But NPR is also in denial about how evolving technology has ruined
the argument of "scarcity" of news. Take NPR anchor Michele Norris
asserting on Sunday's "Meet the Press" that if Republicans defunded the
Corporation for Public Broadcasting, people in small towns in Indiana
would no longer have news.
"These are small stations where people don't necessarily have
access to news because a lot of the news stations and radio have fallen
away. Take the state of Indiana. We just heard from Governor Daniels.
If public broadcasting went away, there are people in small towns,
small stations, that would not have access to news."
Apparently, people in small-town Indiana don't have television,
cable or satellite, or newspapers, or access to the Internet.
Everyone's on a starvation media diet of nothing but NPR.
These are about the most insulated and arrogant elitists anywhere.
No wonder George Soros likes them. Fine. Take his money. Do his
bidding. Leave the taxpayer alone.
