Media Analyst Wants Rich NPR Off the Taxpayer Dole
by By Jenni Parker and Chad Groening
June 29, 2004
(AgapePress) - A media watchdog organization believes it is time for the U.S. Congress to re-evaluate the necessity of allocating 86 million taxpayer dollars to National Public Radio (NPR) in light of the tremendous private funding it receives.Recently, National Public Radio announced that it plans a $15 million expansion of its news operation. NPR is funding the expansion with just a fraction of the 200 million-dollar bequest the network received last fall from the late widow of McDonald's magnate Ray Krok.
Seeing how the public radio network appears to be living high on the hog, Tim Graham of the Media Research Center says he cannot understand why NPR continues to feed of the public trough. "I would think that Joan Krok giving 200-million dollars to NPR would be something that you could easily go to the House Appropriations Committee [with] and say, 'They can make a go of it on their own. They don't need government funding,'" he says.
However, the media analyst says the political will to stop the government funding simply does not exist, and even Republicans in Congress seem to lack the desire to tackle the issue. The last time conservative lawmakers targeted federally subsidized public broadcasting for budget cuts, they had to deal with accusations that they were trying to "kill Big Bird," an icon of public broadcasting and children's television, with a huge, multigenerational following.
"I think they're nervous about taking on the media," Graham says, "and perhaps more importantly, they don't want to be seen as bashing 'Big Bird.' So they go easy on this subject, and clearly that's something that they could afford to be a bit harder on."
But at the same time, the Media Research Center spokesman notes, public sentiment also tends to favor continued support of NPR. He contends that many listeners have too much interest in the music, entertainment, and educational programs that public radio offers to concern themselves about its liberally biased news and topical commentary.
"Obviously, more politically sophisticated people would say that the journalism on these outlets is liberally biased," Graham says, "but they offer more than that. They offer opera, and children's programming, and so on and so forth."
Because of all this ear candy, the media analyst says, "everybody then will focus in on that hour or two of public radio or television that they like and suggest the Republicans are basically against opera, against Big Bird, against all of the wonderful things that are on television and radio. That's obviously not the case."
NPR has announced plans to hire 45 new reporters and producers over the next three years. Graham and other critics believe the expansion will only serve to amplify the well-endowed public radio network's already expansive liberal agenda.
