Originally Posted By mawnck >>Actually, The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), the parent company of PBS and NPR, received $420 million in taxpayer funds in 2010 and has requested $608 million for the next funding cycle that begins in 2013.<< It appears I was misinformed. This is correct.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Does NPR lean liberal or does it just lean toward fairness? I listen to some NPR crap and they tend to allow conservative and liberal folks to show up and air their views. I was listening to one program in which a democrat and a republican were going to debate about insurance in California. The republican canceled at the last minute.
Originally Posted By SpokkerJones Oh, and when only the democrat showed up for the interview, the host definitely stuck up for the republican in his absence, asking the hard questions and offering the arguments he would have given had he shown up.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>Does NPR lean liberal or does it just lean toward fairness?<< As with all genuine news organizations, NPR News leans whichever direction the people doing that particular program lean. The question is, how much of an effort are they putting into NOT letting their biases affect their reporting. I've always found NPR News to be particularly diligent about presenting both sides without patronizing the nutcases, and covering news stories that aren't "sexy" enough for the commercial channels. They're our BBC only better, assuming you have hours in your day to devote to Morning Edition and All Things Considered, which I never do. Of course, we all know that reality is liberal, which is why the GOP is so opposed to it and to NPR. That being said, I think Vivian Schiller and the other folks at NPR responsible for this decision need to "spend more time with their families." Regardless of their reasons, the timing of this announcement was so irrational that it couldn't have been anything other than a vendetta against the guy. Over THIS particular comment, THIS close to an election, during PLEDGE DRIVE SEASON? Here's your sign.
Originally Posted By mawnck Viv Schiller explains the Federal Funding question - it was reading this Q&A way too fast that led me to make that mistake in post 39: >>There’s a misperception about federal funding and public radio. There’s the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They receive $90 million a year and a vast majority goes to member public radio stations. Those stations pull in more than $1 billion collectively a year. It’s significant and important but not even close to the lion’s share of revenues for public radio. NPR gets no allocation from CPB. Zero. We are a private 501(c)3. We’ve had journalists call up and ask what department of the government we report to. That’s laughable. Have you listened to our shows? We do apply for competitive grants from the likes of the Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation. As a result, some money from CPB does come to us when we win grants. Depending on the year, it represents just one to three percent of our total budget.<< And explains the firing. Or tries to. Sounds like splitting hairs to me: >>Q: So did Juan really get fired over just those Muslim comments? A: There have been several instances over the last couple of years where we have felt Juan has stepped over the line. He famously said last year something about Michelle Obama and Stokely Carmichael. [The quote on Fox News early last year: "Michelle Obama, you know, she's got this Stokely Carmichael in a designer dress thing going" and that she'll be an "albatross" for President Obama.]. This isn’t a case of one strike and you’re out. Q: So this is obviously not an isolated incident. A: There’s so much misinformation on the blogosphere, it’s nuts. This has been an on-going issue. When he does that, when anybody does that, it undermines their credibility as a journalist or in Juan’s case, a news analyst for NPR. Those two things cannot go together.<< <a href="http://blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-talk/2010/10/21/first-interview-with-nprs-vivian-schiller-on-juan-williams-firing/" target="_blank">http://blogs.ajc.com/radio-tv-...-firing/</a>
Originally Posted By mawnck Please forgive the three in a row, but Juan Williams has responded. >>... my comments on "The O’Reilly Factor" are being distorted by the self-righteous ideological, left-wing leadership at NPR. They are taking bits and pieces of what I said to go after me for daring to have a conversation with leading conservative thinkers. They loathe the fact that I appear on Fox News. They don’t notice that I am challenging Bill O’Reilly and trading ideas with Sean Hannity. In their hubris they think by talking with O’Reilly or Hannity I am lending them legitimacy. Believe me, Bill O’Reilly (and Sean, too) is a major force in American culture and politics whether or not I appear on his show.<< >>And now they have used an honest statement of feeling as the basis for a charge of bigotry to create a basis for firing me. Well, now that I no longer work for NPR let me give you my opinion. This is an outrageous violation of journalistic standards and ethics by management that has no use for a diversity of opinion, ideas or a diversity of staff (I was the only black male on the air). This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought.<< <a href="http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2010/10/21/juan-williams-npr-fired-truth-muslim-garb-airplane-oreilly-ellen-weiss-bush/" target="_blank">http://www.foxnews.com/opinion...ss-bush/</a> Enjoy your time at Fox News, Juan. (I miss the miners.)
Originally Posted By DAR <<or a diversity of staff (I was the only black male on the air).>> That's interesting
Originally Posted By mawnck >>That's interesting<< >>Ms. Schiller said that was true “for a little while; we recognized that that was an issue; and we’ve been rectifying that situation so he is now not the only black male voice on the air.”<< <a href="http://mediadecoder.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/10/22/nprs-schiller-says-juan-williams-was-fired-because-of-ethics-guidelines/" target="_blank">http://mediadecoder.blogs.nyti...delines/</a>
Originally Posted By Dabob2 It's worth noting that NPR News is but a small part of NPR. Most of the programming is apolitical - shows like "Prairie Home Companion," "Car Talk" and stuff like SNL parodied as "The Delicious Dish." So the conservative voices predictably already bleating about the need to kill NPR resemble nothing so much as those who objected to things like Bill Moyers' program and insisted PBS needed to go, leading to observations that they would "kill Big Bird" in order to silence voices they didn't like. And mawnck, kudos for simply admitting a mistake, quickly and unambiguously. Some folks here (mostly not here any more) could never quite grasp that one, but that's how it's done.
Originally Posted By gadzuux >> [Juan Williams comment:] This is evidence of one-party rule and one sided thinking at NPR that leads to enforced ideology, speech and writing. It leads to people, especially journalists, being sent to the gulag for raising the wrong questions and displaying independence of thought.<< And so he's going to fox instead? Actually, he'll be fine over there. He's already a "known entity" for his views, and the spectacular way that he came on board will allow him some latitude to still be an opposing voice - kinda like having Pat Buchanan on MSNBC. Plus, he's got two millions to swallow hard and suck it up.
Originally Posted By mawnck >>And mawnck, kudos for simply admitting a mistake, quickly and unambiguously. << It was excruciatingly painful. I don't think I could do it again. ;-)
