When does cut funding = freedom of speech?

When NPR loses it's government funding. A case can be made for it:

Defund public broadcasting and set it free

[...] This week's brouhaha has underlined the single biggest problem with public broadcasting from the fan's point of view: namely, that with taxpayer financing, no matter how small, inevitably comes political considerations and even outright interference.

[...]

What did Sting teach us? If you love someone, set them free. Should NPR lose its federal funding tomorrow, we would see the mother of all pledge drives, and I would be first in line to contribute. As a friend told me this week, "I would actually start giving them money if they'd stop taking it from me." NPR has one the best media brands in the country; you don't think George Soros would be willing to up his annual contribution to cover the shortfall?

De-coupling from the federal government would allow NPR to sell advertising. Its executives could talk as much trash as they want to about Republicans and Tea Partiers, and few people would care.

We no longer would be subjected to this perennial sideshow and obsequious tip-toeing around political sensibilities. And best of all, at a time when governments at every level are out of money, we wouldn't force taxpayers to fund the listening habits of people who hate them. [...]

I've had my say about this already:

Defund NPR now... and make them more honest

On NPR recently, someone complained that NPR is like a sweater; if you cut government spending, the sleeves will fall off. Well, guess what? Short sleeves are IN this year! I'm sure NPR would adapt, and learn to do more with less like everyone else. Or perhaps even raise revenue in new ways.

In the long run, I think it would work out better for everyone.
     

Defund NPR now... and make them more honest

First there was the Juan Williams debacle, thanks to Vivian Schiller.

Then there was Vivian Schiller's Grand Scheme for putting local news agencies out of business so NPR could take them over, creating a government subsidized news monopoly.

Now there's the Ron Schiller debacle. Vivian throws Ron under the bus. Then NPR's board of directors throws Vivian under the bus.

Who cares? You know they are going to be replaced with left-wing dingbats who think exactly the same way as the people they are replacing. I heard NPR on the air yesterday, trying to spin this, denying they believe any of the things that they said. I simply don't believe them. I've listened to them for YEARS; it's pretty obvious what they believe. When will they start being honest about it?

NPR can say or do whatever they like. It's a free country, and I support their right to express their opinions. However, they can do it on their own dime, like everyone else. As a taxpayer, I don't wish to pay to promote ideas I don't approve of.

I've listened to NPR for decades. Some of the programing is nonpartisan, but most of it is biased towards the Left. It often offends me. I can deal with that, but I definitely don't want my tax dollars subsidizing it.

If they don't like the loss of revenue, they can run commercials like everyone else. Maybe even broaden their market share by trying to appeal to a wider audience? There's a novel idea!

They won't disappear, they will just have to adapt. And now is the time for it.


Also see:

All Things Considered, NPR Board Decides it’s Best to ‘Oust’ CEO Vivian Schiller

NPR executives caught on tape bashing conservatives and Tea Party, touting liberals

NPR officers compare deniers of climate change to birthers and flat earth believers

NPR Cans Ronald Schiller

NPR CEO: 'We Get a Tremendous Amount of Criticism for Being Too Conservative'

NPR's Schiller Denies Liberal Bias, But Station's Content, Policies, Board Say Otherwise

Brent Bozell Calls on Congress to Pull Plug on NPR's Propaganda Machine
     

Glenn Beck is Airing the Dirt on George Soros

No wonder Soros is funding NPR's expansion in order to compete against FOX News. It's just one of many things Soros is doing, that's mentioned in the two transcripts from Becks most recent shows:


The Puppet Master: How much does George Soros control?

     


Five Step Plan: How George Soros is trying to bring down America

I've known about a lot of that stuff for years, I post about it occasionally. But Soros is buying influence everywhere: there is so much he's up too, I can hardly keep up with it all. I'm glad Glenn Beck is compiling it.

It's nice to see Soros' plans getting some main-stream exposure for a change. It's too bad Beck didn't do this years ago. I have to wonder if it isn't too little, too late now? But I'm not giving up hope. And forewarned is forearmed. The snake in the grass, waiting to bite you, loses the element of surprise when you know it's there. Now where's that pitch fork...
     

What NPR's Vivian Schiller is pushing for

Check out her agenda. She's got BIG plans:

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Key Architect of FCC Govt Takeover of the News

Last week, National Public Radio CEO Vivian Schiller took a break from her crusade for a government takeover of the media to swat a fly. With now-former NPR analyst Juan Williams suitably splattered across the evening news after politically incorrect comments he made on Fox News, Schiller can return to her real passion – the creation of a national network to ensure that in the future, you get your news from the government in general and NPR in particular.

[...]

Schiller, a former New York Times executive, is one of a few dozen power players working with the Federal Communications Commission, the Federal Trade Commission and a leftist group called Free Press to “reinvent journalism.” That’s how the FTC describes it. The FCC calls what they are doing the “Future of Journalism.” Free Press, a think tank funded by leftist billionaire George Soros, among others, calls it “the new public media.”

It’s all the same thing, a plan to take over local news coverage from for-profit television, radio and print media, which Schiller and her friends claim is in danger of extinction. These “friends” get together regularly with the heads of the FCC and FTC to brainstorm the details in government and congressional meetings. These meetings include the leaders of all the country’s public broadcasting outlets, including PBS, the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and American Public Media.

They are beefing up their staffs in local news markets with herds of public news reporters to “take over” coverage as commercial media fails. Nationwide, this will cost $40 billion to $60 billion over a decade, they believe. Their plans, according to the FCC’s Future of Media report, are to raise this money by taxing for-profit news organizations – the ones whose reporting Schiller is supposedly trying to “save.” They want to charge “spectrum fees” of five percent of broadcast station revenues for use of the public spectrum and airwaves, which the government controls. They figure that could bring in $1.8 billion a year. A one percent tax on all electronic devices like cell phones, televisions and laptops could bring in billions more. So would a monthly fee on internet subscriptions.

While conservatives were busy arguing that NPR should be defunded in the wake of the Williams debacle, Schiller was putting the finishing touches on the national infrastructure NPR has launched to deliver this new government news product to cities across the nation. A decade ago, defunding NPR would have sufficed. To stop Schiller now, Republicans would have to defund PBS and CPB as well to have any hope of torpedoing her plans to build a nationwide news delivery system in the style of the BBC, but on steroids. Schiller imagines a national public print, television and radio news leviathan that would compete with the top five news companies in the news industry.

“We can create a national network around all of public radio that provides the kind of public service that is being not provided by other media companies that are suffering,” Schiller told Cyberjournalist.net. Never mind that her planned confiscation of their revenues will cause them more suffering and possibly send them to an early death. [...]

Read the whole thing. Chilling, absolutely chilling. She's actually creating the problem she claims she is trying to solve, then pushing her own power grab as the solution. And why not? She has gotten away with it thus far. Another example of government power gone wild. Once released, it knows no limits.

Creating a government controlled news monopoly with taxpayers money is not what taxes are for. De-fund the lot of them... NOW.


Also see:

Marxist Censorship Dreams, and the FCC