Defunding or Defanging? By Peter Funt | March 18th, 2011 | 3 Comments
There was plenty of passionate poppycock on the House floor Thursday, as members debated the Republicans’ “emergency” bill to eliminate funding for National Public Radio.
Although the bill passed, as did a proposal last month to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, neither measure will advance beyond the House chamber. And while most of the arguments from both sides tap-danced around the issues, a level-headed reassessment of federal spending for public TV and radio is overdue.
Daryl Cagle / msnbc.com (click to share)
Republicans rushed to judgment to take advantage of NPR’s recent spate of bad publicity – the latest incident involving nasty cracks about conservatives by NPR’s chief fundraiser, Ron Schiller, recorded in a hidden-camera sting. Schiller was appropriately asked to leave NPR, as was his boss.
But the secret video proves nothing about NPR as an organization, nor does Schiller’s behavior qualify as grounds to defund an operation that serves some 27 million listeners a week.Read more.
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