Whad'Ya Know? Time for Big Bird to Stand on His Own

I've been a follower of National Public Radio for many years.  I'm not a supporter, although I enjoy their Saturday morning shows, "Whad'Ya Know" and "Wait Wait, Don't Tell Me!", usually while traveling back and forth to Minnesota, Iowa or Illinois.  Both of my sons have National Public Radio as their home pages on their laptops and listen to their various programs throughout the week.  Occasionally, I'll even listen to "Prairie Home Companion" even though I can't stand Garrison Keillor.  So it's safe to say that there's enough NPR voices coming through the radio to give me a good idea of what they are all about.

This week those voices are about two of their very own:  NPR's president and CEO, Vivian Schiller and NPR senior vice president, Ron Schiller.

On Tuesday, Ron Schiller resigned following controversial statements about Tea Party people, conservatives and the need for taxpayer-funding. Within hours, Vivian Schiller resigned after the Board of News for NPR threatened to oust her after losing confidence in her leadership.  To summarize, Ron Schiller, a major fundraiser for NPR, was caught on tape saying that the GOP had been "hijacked" by groups hostile to Muslims.  He later added that the Tea Party is a "... sort of white, middle-America, gun toting.  I mean, .... they're seriously racist people."  If that wasn't bad enough, Mr. Schiller condescendingly said "there is a real anti-intellectual move on the part of a significant part of the Republican Party..."  Perhaps most damning, however, was his comment on being "better off without government money", which accounts for about 10% of its yearly budget.

His last statement is bad news for the Corporation of Public Broadcasting, which funds PBS and NPR.  Since the 1970's with Nixon and more recently in 1994, when the Republican-controlled Congress began pushing for the draw down of public funding for PBS and NPR, there has been heated debate about the need for taxpayer money to keep Big Bird and company afloat.  Mr. Schiller's comments puts renewed doubt on the subject, especially now that that Republicans control the nation's spending and are looking for ways to cut fat from Washington's budget.

NPR's and PBS's main argument for continued funding comes from an "elite ideal" that they are too important and too valuable to people who rely on their foreign and domestic departments for news.  An example of this was given by Mark Shield's of PBS who said recently, "There are 934 public radio stations.  A lot of them are in very remote and rural areas and their only source of the kind of information we are talking about.  I mean, really, that factual, worldwide, great reporting...."  Another argument made is that they are the only source of good reporting in an era when newspapers are failing and most cable news channels ( FOX among them) are covering stories like Charlie Sheen.  NPR's Nina Totenberg, of Inside Washington, said the following: "In an era when newspapers are disappearing in droves... and where commercial forces, both in television and radio, have driven out -- you know.  There's a reason that a big story like BP actually broke on NPR.  The Obama Administration was not telling us the truth about the amount of the leak.  I mean -- there, we do the job that news organizations used to do, and really don't anymore..."

It's bad enough that NPR and PBS think so highly of themselves.  It's worse that they think so little of the rest of us.  At least, a large segment of us living somewhere other than the left or east coasts of America.  In a 2004 FAIR study, NPR's target audience was documented to be 1) highly educated, 2) white and 3) liberal.  Their elitist perspective of "the rest of us" falls firmly in line with that of President Obama when he said, " they are bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."  To NPR and PBS, we are the unwashed masses that need to be enlightened to the ways of green environmentalism, gay marriage/adoptions and native American/Black reparations, to name a few.

NPR thrives in liberal college enclaves like Madison, Wisconsin -- which continues to make news by fighting Governor Walker's attempt to neuter public service unions.  I wonder how unbiased their reporting of the situation has been in light of a their usual guest list:  academia, journalists, think tanks, and students?  As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I'm not a big listener of NPR -- but I do wonder how many non-public union employees were interviewed.  Business owners who are able to make payroll by limiting the amount of money going into their own retirement plans?  Employees who pay 75%-100% of their health care benefits , including deductibles and co pays?  The average worker, who is too busy working to spend time in Madison protesting work benefits that are the best in the country?  Maybe their voices were heard, but I suspect it was drowned out by those shouting "Shame!  Shame!"

I'm not saying that I want NPR or PBS to go away.  On the contrary, I want to hear opposing views and opinions.  And as I've said, I like some of the their programs, which are intelligent, musical, humorous and interesting.  Give me more of "Whad'a Know" and "This Old House" and less "Morning Sickness" and "Real Housewives of Atlanta."

If Mr. Ron Schiller and Ms. Vivian Schiller think so highly of their one-of-a-kind product -- tailored to an educated, white,  and democratic base -- they need to pay for it by selling it the same way other radio stations do.  NPR and PBS claim they are growing.  If so, then it's time for Big Bird, Elmo and Ernie to stand on their own.

Without this Wisconsin taxpayer's money.



Update:  This past Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to stop funding NPR for all public sources, including the Corporation of Public Broadcasting by a vote of 228-192.  The bill cuts off all federal taxpayer money from being used to support NPR,  as well as the Department of Education, the Department of Commerce and the national Endowment for the Arts.  Not a single Democrat voted in favor of this bill.