An NPR exec mouths off about conservatives and the Tea Party and they have to resign?

[Cant trust em]

When are Fox News executives going to resign? This is ridiculous.

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Roger Ailes isn't even indicted yet and NPR execs have to resign?

[Southerner]

2. Um...

...I read NPR gets $450 million a year of federal dollars. Fox is a private enterprise. Huge difference.

I really have liked NPR over the years but showing a clear bias when ALL taxpayers are funding them is just not right. I hope they stay afloat and keep providing the many news angles on topics you don't hear on the other stations but I fear this video will give the repugs too much ammunition this time to cut the funding completely.

[BrklynLiberal]

6. another screw over from James O'Keefe!!!!!!!!!!! -puke-

How do these guys fall for this again!!!????

and I would bet that the majority of ACTUAL TAXPAYERS is a liberal, left-leaning population.

The repukes and their corporations merely give more donation$ to those that make the laws...that enable most rich repukes to evade taxes.

I could see the repukes being pissed if it were their political donations that were being used to fund NPR...but TAXES!?! screw them.


NOT THE SAME THING.

[rfranklin]

7. What clear bias? Please explain...

As far as this most recent "sting," this was what should have been a private conversation. And the fellow doing the commenting was not a news person or on air personality.

Many of us here, including myself, have noticed a definite rightward drift on NPR with more and more rightwing think tank people and politicians being favored in recent years.

[Buzz Clik]

9. Your source of information ($450 million in federal funding) is incorrect.

But only by $450 million. The total annual budget for NPR is one third the number you quoted, and they receive no direct federal funding.

[Romulox]

12. Right, but that's a bit of a shell game.

NPR gets its money from member stations, who get much of their money from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which in turn is funded by the federal government.

[Buzz Clik]

14. Ok. Let's look at the facts some more.

NPR gets a bit less than half of its funding from various fees it charges member (local) stations. Those stations, in turn, get about 16% of their total funding from direct federal money (6%)and grants from the Corporation for Publication Broadcasting (10%). So, if you add it all up, NPR gets about 1.6% of its funding directly from the CPB, 4% indirectly from CPB through its member stations, and 2.4% of its funding by means of the shell game of feds to member stations to NPR. That's a total of 8% of its funding from all sources that have any federal connection.

I'm sure that NPR would rather not have to go looking for that $13 million every year, but it's really not a big amount of money.

[Romulox]

16. The CPB had a budget in excess of $400,000,000 in 2010.

Even if the CPB's spending is characterized as subsidies to show producers, these subsidies ultimately redound back to the benefit of PBS and NPR, since it makes the shows affordable.

http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/leadership/board/resolutions/resolution.php?prn=898

If all that were at stake was $13 million, NPR would be much better off if it became 100% member funded. In reality, we're talking about considerably more than $13 million, though the layers of distribution somewhat obscure the exact figures. Suffice it to say that the CPB's entire $400 million plus budget is required to allow public broadcasting to continue under its present structure.

[Southerner]

24. Found the article that quoted the numbers

http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/npr-ceo-vivian-schiller-resigns-james-okeefe-orchestrated/story?id=13092007

Looks like Buzz Clik is correct about the path of the money but the reporter was lazy when writing this paragraph:

"The controversy comes at a delicate time for public broadcasting, including PBS and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which got nearly $450 million in federal funding last year. President Obama proposed raising that amount to $451 million. But with the federal government facing severe budget deficits, and in light of the scandal, Tea Party groups and some Republicans on Capitol Hill are stepping calls to cut all federal funding to NPR."

The reporter does not state how much money actually trickles down to NPR.

[EFerrari]

21. The guy is entitled to his personal opinions just like anyone else..

This is actually NPR-enabled right wing bullshit.

[Cant trust em]

33. Winner.

I love NPR, but this just kowtows to right-wing bullying.

[BrklynLiberal]

3. Let's all say it together now: "IOKIYAR" !!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Buzz Clik]

4. Fox News does not care about their image. NPR does care.

NPR kills itself to be unbiased (much to the dismay of many DUers). They don't need those efforts undermined by a loose cannon with no discretion and no self control.

Fox wants to be known as rightwing insane. It's who they are.

[Johonny]

19. if they cared about their image they'd fight back

giving up doesn't help their image it makes them sound guilty. It's not biased to point out your accuser is a biased themselves with an agenda.

[Buzz Clik]

23. Uh, yeah it is. NPR recognized that these people made offensive comments.

They took responsibility for the situation, and heads rolled.

That's life with the grown ups. Ask Juan Williams.

[Johonny]

30. only if you trust the source

no respectable news source trust the source. As the Breitbart case showed selective editing can make you sound like you are saying the opposite they are saying. The source of the material is not trust worthy. They look stupid for giving someone with a proven track record of selective editing and criminal activity and promoting them as credible. Why should a news organization do that? Life is for grown ups, and the source of this story isn't a grown up. Sorry swing and a miss.

[Buzz Clik]

34. One of them was fired, one resigned. Both admitted that the reporting was accurate.

Time for a new umpire.

[monmouth]

5. Says a lot about the rightist mind-set of NPR. If it were run by leftists

this wouldn't even be a story...

[Buzz Clik]

8. Well, that's logical.

Only the conservatives care about objectivity, whereas the left don't give a damn. :silly:

[leftynyc]

10. You get tax dollars

and more is expected. The CEO was becomming a distraction in the funding debate and had to go.

[Buzz Clik]

11. Why do you listen to the rightwing bullshit on this subject?

Exactly how much government funding do you think NPR gets?

[leftynyc]

17. I don't do right wing

I don't care if it's $5 or $5 million. If they can do without it, they should and then they can put on whatever they want.

[EFerrari]

22. Baloney.

No amount of tax funding pays you to relinquish your 1st Amendment rights.

[ljm2002]

13. Exactly right...

...when the right wingers make much more outrageous statements about "liberals", not even in private, they are congratulated and it helps their careers.

Not that I want "us" to be more like "them", just that there is a ridiculous double standard at play, where we are all supposed to get the vapors when someone privately expresses the opinion that racism is part and parcel of the Tea Party dynamic. Like, duh.

Disclaimer: I have not listened to the tapes nor read the transcripts, so maybe what they said was beyond the pale. Still, things are said that are beyond the pale every day of every week on Fox News and CNN and CNBC, not to mention talk radio's disgusting assortment of mean-spirited right wing drivelers, and for them it seems to always be a career boost.

[OHdem10]

15. The Double Standard is mindboggling.

Speaking ugly truths gets you fired.

Speaking ugly lies enhances your standing, it seems.

[Taverner]

18. Perfectly fine civil servants should not collapse to someone the likes of O'Keefe

Instead, they should boot that stupid fuck in the ass and send him to prison

[girl gone mad]

20. NPR is not on our side.

[Buzz Clik]

27. Nor should they be. They should be objective. That's what good journalism is.

Calling a group of people xenophobes and racists was bad form.

[Freddie Stubbs]

25. Perhaps Congress should cut off funding to both NPR and Fox News

[Kingofalldems]

31. Oh I get it. So clever.

[lpbk2713]

26. The T-baggers will do whatever they can to dismantle NPR.

And the same goes for any RWingnuts. They will do whatever
they can to silence all but the RW Media Hatemongers.

[Buzz Clik]

28. That is a fact.

[kenny blankenship]

29. It wasn't even an exec. The mouther-offer was just a NPR fundraiser

who had no input into editorial content or news nor anything that goes over the air at NPR. The CEO, who resigned, has the same last name by coincidence, and had no part in the remarks about the racist character of the Tea Party, remarks that were quite accurate if general and offhand.

[Kingofalldems]

32. Filthy freepers will defend Fox news all day--they find nothing wrong

with the way Fox and O'Keefe operate.