I take it as a given that NPR\u2019s feature reporting and programs like On the Media are pervaded with liberal bias.\u00a0 NPR will cover every cop shooting if any fringe element in a community claims racial bias by the cops, however preposterously.\u00a0 It will never cover the racial reality of crime on the streets and the positive effect of proactive policing on law-abiding, inner-city residents.\u00a0 It will cover claims of government heartlessness towards the \u201chomeless,\u201d and never cover the costs of government programs\u00a0for the homeless that the homeless refuse to use or the effect of uncontrolled vagrancy on neighborhood vitality.\u00a0 Rising child poverty?\u00a0 Love the story.\u00a0 All-important role of single-parenthood in child poverty?\u00a0 Sorry, not interested.\u00a0 Alleged gender pay gap, civil rights urgency and benefits of gay marriage, need for more self-esteem programs for girls? Frequent NPR topics.\u00a0 Society-wide discrimination in favor of women and girls, the role of marriage in affirming the obligations of biological parents to their children?\u00a0\u00a0Non-existent topics.\u00a0<\/p>\n
I also am indifferent to the possible loss of federal funding for NPR, now that NPR has decimated its classical music programming starting well over a decade ago.\u00a0 And I am happy to see NPR CEO Vivian Schiller go <\/a>after watching her haughty, entitled refusal to speak about the Juan Williams firing at the National Press Club on Monday (not that the sycophantish National Press Club host pressed her to address the topic after her initial condescending refusal to go into it).\u00a0<\/p>\n But I fail to see the relevance of an NPR employee\u2019s off-air criticism of the Tea Party to the question of NPR\u2019s federal funding or its liberal bias.\u00a0 Conservatives can easily prove liberal bias by analyzing the content of the programming.\u00a0 And it is in that arena alone that liberal bias matters.\u00a0 Does anyone really think that no NPR employee finds the Tea Party racist, or, equally importantly, that no NPR employee should<\/em> find the Tea Party racist?\u00a0 The public is not entitled to a particular political belief system among the recipients of tax payer dollars, just to the scrupulously fair airing of all views.\u00a0 CSPAN\u2019s hosts for Washington Journal are impeccably even-handed in their questioning of liberal and conservative guests.\u00a0 Despite the regular, predictable, and paranoid ranting of conservative callers accusing CSPAN of stiffing conservative entities and individuals, CSPAN is absolutely balanced in its coverage of political viewpoints.\u00a0 But it could well be that some of its hosts believe that the Tea Party is racist, or that Obama is a socialist.\u00a0 Who cares?\u00a0 In believing so, they would merely reflect positions that are present in the public.\u00a0<\/p>\n Conservatives should make their case against NPR based on objective evidence of programming decisions.\u00a0 If they can\u2019t do so, what one employee says in a semi-private conversation is of no import.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The only question relevant to public support of a media or any other institution is what the recipients of those funds do in performing their public duties.\u00a0 What they believe is irrelevant.\u00a0 It should be possible to act objectively and fairly regardless of one\u2019s political position\u2014at least we should act as if that were possible.\u00a0 But to exploit this recent ambush suggests otherwise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I take it as a given that NPR\u2019s feature reporting and programs like On the Media are pervaded with liberal bias.\u00a0 NPR will cover every cop shooting if any fringe element in a community claims racial bias by the cops, … Continue reading