Should we "defund" NPR?

[MissFitt]

Public broadcasting should have been defunded years ago.

Did Mr. Rogers double cross you at some point in your lifetime?

 

[DawnCt1]

Did Mr. Rogers double cross you at some point in your lifetime?

Mr Rogers, Big Bird, et al, could have survived quite nicely on their donations and on Sesame Street's marketing and licensed products.

 

[Geoff_M]

Look at the post -- there is no indication in the quoted material that the source is the Washington Examiner.

Then what's that link-dohicky I put in the post?

(I also missed the part when you jumped on people who similarly posted stuff from such "un-biased" sources as CommonDreams on this thread.)

 

[MissFitt]

Mr Rogers, Big Bird, et al, could have survived quite nicely on their donations and on Sesame Street's marketing and licensed products.

Don't quite think that Mr. Rogers was in on the marketing and licensing of his likeness

 

[Basil of Baker St]

Next time perhaps you shouldn't hide that you got this from the Washington Examiner.

Taken from SourceWatch.org

The Examiner's editorial page is heavily conservative; it is headed by Mark Tapscott, with American Spectator senior editor Quin Hillyer serving as its associate editor. The paper's national political coverage, which also appears in Examiner papers in Baltimore and San Francisco, was previously headed by Bill Sammon, a former Washington Times reporter who has written several books praising George W. Bush. (Sammon is now the deputy managing editor for Fox News Channel's Washington bureau.) Chris Stirewalt, who has been described as "a true conservative voice", is the Examiner's political editor. Mary Katherine Ham, former managing editor of the conservative Townhall.com, briefly served as the Examiner's online editor for a few months in 2008 before joining the Weekly Standard. Matthew Sheffield, executive editor of the Media Research Center blog NewsBusters, is in charge of the Examiner's website. Byron York, formerly of National Review, joined the paper in February 2009.

Next time, don't hide your bias.

Ignore the content, focus on the source, right?

Interesting. So let me get this straight: being conservative means that it is automatically discredited? That sounds dangerously stereotypical.

 

[DawnCt1]

Don't quite think that Mr. Rogers was in on the marketing and licensing of his likeness

But his programmed garnered a lot of private donations.

 

[NotUrsula]

Mr Rogers, Big Bird, et al, could have survived quite nicely on their donations and on Sesame Street's marketing and licensed products.

PBS does not own the rights to Sesame Street or receive royalties from the licensing of the characters. Those characters belong to Sesame Workshop (formerly the Children's Television Workshop), which is a non-profit educational charity with 501(c)(3) status. They receive no direct federal funding unless they happen to win a grant.

PBS buys the rights to broadcast Sesame Street episodes, just like any other television network buys shows.

Mr. Rogers did survive quite nicely on his royalties, as does the Fred Rogers Company, which owns the rights to the program "Mr. Rogers Neighborhood". Again, the only federal funding that nonprofit company receives is in the form of grants, most recently one from the Justice Dept. to create a series of films to be used to train police officers in how to deal more effectively with children in their communities.

 

[Holly]

Ignore the content, focus on the source, right?

Interesting. So let me get this straight: being conservative means that it is automatically discredited? That sounds dangerously stereotypical.

It's an OPINION piece on a conservative site.


What's your issue with someone pointing that out?

 

[palavra]

Actually, CNN beats Fox News by something like 10 million viewers. When you separate out non-news opinion shows, the gap gets considerably greater. It should also be noted that CNN runs two news networks. If you were to add in HLN's news watchers/listeners, the gap would grow that much larger.

BTW, MSNBC has more viewers than FOX News, also.

Here's the takeaway: Just because Fox News tells you something, doesn't mean it is true.

Guess what? Just because CNN and MSNBC says it, it doesn't mean it is true either. I am what you would call a true moderate. I listen to NPR, FOX and CNN to get a variety of viewpoints. Conservatives usually feel that CNN and company are every bit as biased and wrong as liberals think that Fox news is. Neither is wrong or bad; they just express news from two different points of views.

 

[Basil of Baker St]

It's an OPINION piece on a conservative site.


What's your issue with someone pointing that out?

What's their issue with someone quoting an OPINION piece on a conservative site? If they take issue with the statement, why not talk about the statement directly? If the only issue is the source of the statement, well then, isn't that a little hypocritical coming from a poster who doesn't like stereotypes?

 

[MissFitt]

Then what's that link-dohicky I put in the post?

(I also missed the part when you jumped on people who similarly posted stuff from such "un-biased" sources as CommonDreams on this thread.)

Because...the CommonDreams link linked to a report done by FAIR that was loaded with facts and statitics regarding guests and topics on public radio. It was not an opinion piece.

 

[Geoff_M]

What's your issue with someone pointing that out?

For me, it's because it adds nothing to the conversation by reflexively trying to impeach an OPINION merely because of its source instead of addressing the substance of the opinion... and on top of that, accusing me of trying to "hide" the source (though I realize that the hyperlink is a fairly new Web Wide Web feature that some here may not be familiar with).

Updated: MissFitt, thanks for pointing out the typo!

 

[MissFitt]

For me, it's because it adds nothing to the conversion by reflexively trying to impeach an OPINION merely because of its source instead of addressing the substance of the opinion... and on top of that, accusing me of trying to "hide" the source (though I realize that the hyperlink is a fairly new Web Wide Web feature that some here may not be familiar with).

No one is trying to convert you here!

 

[hambirg]

Not only should he have been fired (and no, funding should not be impacted by this decision) Fox News should be sanctioned for their role in this mess.

It is NOT acceptable for someone who has a role in the public trust to violate that trust in a public forum. If he's afraid of women in dark clothes and headscarves then he should simply keep his opinion to himself.

Holy cow!

So I guess you are A-Ok with censorship.

I, for one, am not.

People need to get over this mentality that when somebody says something they do not like that we then want them fired. We cannot have friendly disagreements anymore, everything is personal or people actually think they have a right to not hear people they disagree with. It bothers me for some reason. The entire PC movement is really about stifling unpopular opinion instead of challenging it intellectually.

NPR should lose public funding, they should have as soon as they took money from Soros, but that is a different topic all together. And, the CEO should be fired for making public comments about her former employee's mental health status. If I did that sort of thing I would be fired for sure. If this is really about improper behavior as an employee then lets be consistent. It is inappropriate for a manager/leader/employer to joke about a fired employee's reason for their opinions and it is certainly inappropriate to comment about their need for mental health counseling.

Let's be perfectly honest. . .he was most definitely NOT fired because of some contractual agreement. He was fired because they did not like what he said.

However, there are a lot of people on NPR that should have been fired for making worse comments about conservatives or republicans. One of their "objective" reporters mentioned that Dick Army should contract AIDS or perhaps one of his grandchildren should contract AIDS. Other NPR reporters have mentioned equally vile things about Dubya. It's a pretty big double standard IMO.

 

[Geoff_M]

Because...the CommonDreams link linked to a report done by FAIR that was loaded with facts and statitics regarding guests and topics on public radio. It was not an opinion piece.

Thanks for showing me that "SourceWatch" thing. From SourceWatch.org:

Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting (FAIR) is a group that criticizes the fairness and accuracy of the news media from a left-leaning standpoint. It produces press releases and reports that document and criticize conservative media bias and censorship.

Your bias is showing!

 

[MissFitt]

Thanks for showing me that "SourceWatch" thing. From SourceWatch.org:Your bias is showing!

First of all, I did not post the report, I was just saying that it wasn't a pure opinion piece. Did you look at the report? It was laden with statistics of who was represented on public radio broadcasts. I know...like Stephen Colbert famously stated, facts have a liberal bias.

 

[Geoff_M]

First of all, I did not post the report, I was just saying that it wasn't a pure opinion piece. Did you look at the report? It was laden with statistics of who was represented on public radio broadcasts. I know...like Stephen Colbert famously stated, facts have a liberal bias.

No need to.... I don't think NPR should be de-funded and I listen to it more than any other radio source. (SURPRISE!!!) But I do a lot of eye-rolling in my car at their bias and I totally disagree with them firing Juan Williams, who I consider to be one of the more principled liberal voices in the media and even though I disagree with a lot of what he says, I respect him. (I also prefer not to get my news and analysis from places like "The Comedy Channel".)

 

[No.17CherryTreeLane]

First of all, I did not post the report, I was just saying that it wasn't a pure opinion piece. Did you look at the report? It was laden with statistics of who was represented on public radio broadcasts. I know...like Stephen Colbert famously stated, facts have a liberal bias.

Well if a comedian said it, it must be true.

I just read that Juan Williams was the only African-American Commentator at NPR.
The other NPR commentators (the non-Africa-Americans) have made outrageous comments, yet they still have their jobs.
Juan Williams was fired AND had his mental health questioned publicly.
I hope he sues.

 

[MissFitt]

Well if a comedian said it, it must be true.

I just read that Juan Williams was the only African-American at NPR.
The other NPR commentators (the non-Africa-Americans) have made equally vile comments, yet they still have their jobs.
Juan Williams was fired AND had his mental health questioned publicly.
I hope he sues.

Sue for what?

 

[Geoff_M]

Sue for what?

I'm guessing Wrongful Termination, but I hope he doesn't do it. NPR's got tons of egg on its face over this and the CEO immediately shoots herself in the foot with her Shrink comment. They're taking withering fire from both the Left (some) and Right. And in the middle of "pledge-week" to boot! Can you imagine what the need affiliate's meeting in going to be like?!?!?