End Federal Funding for NPR

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Radio y Televisión Martí is a radio and television broadcaster based in Miami, Florida, financed by the United States government (Broadcasting Board of Governors), which transmits Spanish radio broadcasts to Cuba. Its broadcasts can also be heard in the United States.
Radio Martí was established in 1983 by President Ronald Reagan, at the urging of Jorge Mas Canosa, with the mission of fighting communism. Today, it broadcasts a 24-hour radio program on short and medium wave.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Radio_y_Televisión_Mart%C3%AD

rich of CA 1:43PM November 21, 2010

When the Right wingers were hounding Ward Churchill from his job at University of Colorado, we heard no complaints about "free speech" and the "right of dissent" - then all we heard was a chorus of condemnation as the Fox "news" hounds were busy dogging this man for his personal opinions.
Now, fast forward to 2010 and suddenly we see the very same forces of Intolerance crying "nazi" over the "free speech" rights of a Fox "news" hound.
Quelle Ironie!

Rich of CA 1:36PM November 21, 2010

The turtleneck/cardigan/ascot-wearing, S-don't-stink, foie-gras-eating, better-than-the-rest-of-us, pseudo-cognoscenti, widely-travelled crowd can still have their NPR. The NPR lovers will just have to pay for it all by themselves, starting sometime after next year.
Best yet, those who want their NPR/NPR member station/PBS/CPB taxpayer money-laundering news and entertainment cabal can still have it -- minus the $430,000,000 in taxpayer subsidy, and consequently, the taxpayer money-laundering. They can pay for it all by themselves, starting sometime after next year.
How's this for twisted speak wrt the recent and temporary failure to defund the taxpayer portion of NPR:
"... good judgment prevailed as Congress rejected a move to assert government control over the content of news."
http://blog.metaprinter.com/2010/11/good-judgment-prevailed-as-congress-rejected-a-move-to-assert-government-control-over-the-content-of-news/
Yanking taxpayer teat number 314,157 of 123,234,345 out of the mouth of 40-year-old NPR is, according to outstanding news source NPR, the same as asserting government control over the content of news.
And how's this for a simple fact: Tens, hundreds, even thousands of national/international news sources are only a click away via google news. Anyone touting any single source of news or news format (print, audio, video) -- be it NPR or FOX -- is a real leg-dragging Neanderthal. Yeah, I remember pre-internet news/entertainment days. But I don't want to go back to such.
When you get right down to it, leftists are deeply chagrined that their favored media have a hard time supporting themselves commercially. Burns their behinds raw. That plus they know after we cut taxpayer funding we'll next get rid of tax-deductibility for private contributions to public TV/radio. Oh yeah, that's coming too.
Too bad. Dig deep, NPR lovers, each of you will have to ante up an extra fiver starting sometime after next year. Then after that you'll have to ante up an extra tenspot per year. It's that elections have consequences thing.
Can't wait for next year. Chop, chop; snip, snip. A relentless stream of saving a few hundred million here, a billion there.

dom youngross of OH 1:00PM November 21, 2010

Can't right wing media support themselves without government money ?
Fox ask not for Federal funding. But then, Fox cable shows out do other cable media in viewers. Liberals are mere 20 % and falling. After recent election, may have to check a recent poll. Might be in the 10's...

Bill Hedges of MO 1:19PM November 19, 2010

If the Government is in the business of funding news it is through the Broadcasting Board of Governors with its international channels of radio and TV. In the USA, federal funds are made available on a matching basis to local community radio and TV stations for a very wide variety of programs and community services, the least of which may be news. The authors of this and like items have narrow visions of life and think the world revolves around politics and ideologies. As a person who has traveled to all the states and about 20 countries, I know from people who actually live in small and even larger cities in this country that politics is only of concern when government's minions deny them a local or personal service they require, e.g., a driver's license. And even then they could care less whether the person or agency is a party member or not.

Dwight Bobson of DC 1:03PM November 19, 2010

I had asked G.Soros to help me start a web site which incidentally, would have worked a lot like the "you cut" web site mentioned in the article. He declined, and I know now that he must have feared any possible interference into his agenda from the public.
If NPR loses it's government funding, Mr. Soros will probably have to take up the slack and it will be because of the very enfranchisement that he so feared. Please see thelobbyist.blogspot.com

Angel Jimenez of NJ 11:40AM November 19, 2010

Ending federal funding for npr is dumb but unsurprising. But you actually want npr off the air so that we can have more what exactly? Britney spears music? It's sad that you let partisanship rule your life so much that you would gleefully champion the dumbing down of America.

Cristy of UT 11:29AM November 19, 2010

To say that NPR produces the best news programs available on radio ignores a simple fact: unless you count the blurbs given at the top of the hour on commercial radio, there are virtually no news programs on radio. The simple fact behind this is that the marketplace does a lousy job in producing any kind of meaningful (intelligent, informative, interesting, innovative) programming. You could argue that "if this is what most people want, then the market has ruled," but that means supporting the idea that we should devote the public airwaves to the dumbest, most palatable programming because it's more likely to attract a larger number of people than anything more challenging than a jukebox. The issue of providing public subsidies to support anything that's non-essential is thorny, I agree. But more troublesome is to squander the potential of a publicly-owned resource - in this case, the limited spectrum available on the airwaves - in favor of commercially dumbed-down applications.
But just to show you how far out there Peter Roff is, consider his last paragraph. First of all, NPR is already available on Sirius/XM. Secondly, the public radio portion of the dial is crowded with relatively low power stations, and could only accommodate one, maybe two, commercial stations (none if you consider the Channel 6 television audio interference issue, which still applies in some markets). Most outrageous of all, is getting "the U.S. government out of a business the private sector has shown it knows quite well how to operate." If that were true, we wouldn't need NPR, because the private sector only knows how to build profits on entities equivalent to McDonald's, and today's commercial radio stations are proof of that.

Geoff of PA 11:28AM November 19, 2010

We can't afford this, social programs for illegals, Pork, Feds throwing cost off on States. I would be for no subsidies on food commodities as well as oil. Illegals not working our jobs nor sitting in class rooms (any grade).
Open up all areas , including government lands, for energy sources. Create home jobs and stop importing all that oil. Cut environmental unnecessary delays for oil and nuclear plants.
There are a lot of ways to save money and better ways to spend. NPR can sink or swim. They had their swimming lessons....

Bill Hedges of MO 11:04AM November 19, 2010

National Public Radio is supposed to report unbias news, yet, they welcome a 1.8 million "donation" from extreme leftist, George Soros:
http://newsbusters.org/blogs/lachlan-markay/2010/10/28/soros-donates-18-million-npr-juan-williams-fired-days-later
The other troubling factor with NPR, the left of center broadcasting media, that they were not fond of right of center, Juan Williams ...so they fired him:
"Williams told host Bill O'Reilly his remarks were misconstrued but that his ouster by NPR was about something else altogether."
"I don't fit in their box," Williams told O'Reilly. "I'm not predictable, black, liberal. And let me tell you something else, you were exactly right when you said you know what this comes down to, they were looking for a reason to get rid of me because I'm appearing on Fox News. They don't want me talking to you."
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130746229
Who needs a public radio broadcasting station who are prejudiced??
We need to "fire" NPR!

Haberdashery of ID 11:03AM November 19, 2010