NPR Chief Changes Her Tune… Now Says Defunding NPR Would Be Devastating
Posted by Jim Hoft on Monday, November 8, 2010, 6:21 PM
Rodney Ho at the Atlanta-Journal Constitution was the first reporter to interview NPR CEO Vivian Schiller after analyst Juan Williams was fired in October.
She claimed government contributions to NPR were “negligent.”
Q: Could NPR live without federal funding?
A: Let’s go on a sidebar. There’s a misperception about federal funding and public radio. There’s the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. They receive $90 million a year and a vast majority goes to member public radio stations. Those stations pull in more than $1 billion collectively a year. It’s significant and important but not even close to the lion’s share of revenues for public radio. NPR gets no allocation from CPB. Zero. We are a private 501(c)3. We’ve had journalists call up and ask what department of the government we report to. That’s laughable. Have you listened to our shows? We do apply for competitive grants from the likes of the Ford Foundation and the Knight Foundation. As a result, some money from CPB does come to us when we win grants. Depending on the year, it represents just one to three percent of our total budget.
Q: What is your annual budget?
A: $160 million a year from station fees and dues, corporate underwriting, philanthropic contributions from individuals and corporation and earned income and earnings from our endowment.
But, that was before Republicans took control of the House of Representatives.
This weekend Viv Schiller told reporters that defunding NPR would be devastating.
The Daily Caller reported:
Speaking at St. John’s Episcopal Church in Washington Sunday on the “Future of Journalism,” National Public Radio President and CEO Vivian Schiller said she takes calls for defunding NPR “very seriously,” while stressing how important government funding is for public broadcasting, especially for NPR’s member stations. She also recognized there’s a possibility that, with the new GOP majority in the House, those calls for defunding might be renewed.
“If defunding to public broadcasting were to occur, it would be devastating to public broadcasting. That’s a fact,” Schiller said.
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Granny commented:
Not only is it time to defund “public” radio, it is time to withdraw their 501(C) status and let them compete in the public marketplace like all other radio stations. If they are going to be partisan, then let them pay for it themselves.
/I think she said their funding from the nation coffers was “negligible”.
Militant Conservative commented:
you do not need the funding from america. Your self sufficent. Stand on your own. If you can. powder is dry.
Daniel commented:
So, what’s the downside here?
tarpon commented:
Oh my from doesn’t matter to devastating. Maybe should have thought of that first.
There is absolutely no use that NPR serves that cannot be better met by the market,
De-fund the whole pile of PBS leftists.
LL commented:
The next Congress needs to de-fund both the National Endowment for the Arts and National Public Radio. Both have been turned into political footballs and neither deserves funding from the public pocketbook.
I suggest that billionaire bomb thrower, George Soros, fund NPR personally to meet their complete needs. He can do the same for NEA if he loves them as much as he claims to.
avery commented:
Defund,Defund and Defund,
AuntieMadder commented:
Cool. Let’s devastate public broadcasting.
Lance commented:
There’s no justification for public radio or television anymore. They don’t produce anything that can’t be found on the other 500 channels today. But they do push an elitist liberal agenda while making us pay for it. Everything is wrong with that. Locally we have one public channel in spanish and late night is nothing but America hating socialist propaganda.
How about taxing liberals to fund Tea Party TV? Just to see how they like it.
jojo commented:
haha, they are singing a different tune, I say DEFUND THEM NOW
Here is NPR’s reply to my email :
Response to Message #xxxxxx:
Dear xxxxx ,
Late Wednesday evening we gave Juan Williams notice that we’ve terminated his contract as a Senior News Analyst for NPR News. We didn’t make this decision lightly or without regret. Juan has been a valuable contributor to NPR and public radio for many years.
However, his remarks on The O’Reilly Factor this past Monday violated our ethics guidelines. Unfortunately, this has occurred several times in other media. Our decision to end our contractual relationship with Juan has come after repeated conversations and warnings about some of his public comments. This was a difficult, but principled decision.
We’ve been contacted by listeners who have passionately agreed with our decision, as well as those who have disagreed with it, with equal conviction. We hear you both and respect your perspectives. At the same time, we believe that the public is better served by NPR holding firm to the values and standards that have guided us for many years.
As some listeners have also asked for more details about our funding, you can find a detailed overview of our funding on our website in our “About” section: http://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr/ Of note, and as is explained in that site, NPR, Inc. has received no direct operating support from the federal government since 1983.
I recognize that this decision has sparked a strong debate in the blogosphere and elsewhere, and that you have a firm position on the matter. While we stand by our policy, we also regret that we were compelled to take the actions that we did.
Sincerely
Dana Davis Rehm
Senior Vice President, Marketing, Communications, and External Relations
mark commented:
Why is it that only liberals and liberal ideas need “public funding?”
NPR=can’t survive without stealing $
California=can’t survive without stealing $
New York=can’t survive…
Obama=can’t survive…
Democrats=can’t survive…
ACORN=can’t survive…
Liberals can’t survive on their own.
aprilnovember811 commented:
This must be defunded. I don’t give a darn what this ugly marxist thinks. It’s time to end programs that are not Constitutional. They serve no purpose at all in America. DEFUND THEM! Let the NAZI sympathizer pay for them!
Freddy commented:
IF she cared about government funding, then she would NOT have allowed NPR to become a political arm of the Democratic Political Party.
Considering the billions Democrats just spent on advertising in this last election, there is no reason for the taxpayers to fund any public broadcasting.
SM-Illinois commented:
Defund public tv/radio!!!! Cut back on our forced funding of gov unions. Cut their wages & benefits to be on parity with the rest of us!
dunce commented:
“Negligent” was likely a freudian slip,congress has been negligent with this funding.Negligble is the word she would have probably selected if her brain was working properly.Her repeated blunders calls into question the quality of her intellect.
SoldiersMom commented:
Who funds conservative radio? Free market advertising, that’s who.
Mark is right!
“Why is it that only liberals and liberal ideas need ‘public funding?’
NPR=can’t survive without stealing $
California=can’t survive without stealing $
New York=can’t survive…
Obama=can’t survive…
Democrats=can’t survive…
ACORN=can’t survive…
Liberals can’t survive on their own.”
Rose commented:
They have no audience – who would miss it?
Defund it, PBS, NEA, the Dept of Ed and Health, and lobbyists, Planned Parenthood, ACLU, sex Ed programs, ACORN, SEIU…
Cut those taxes, tomorrow.
unknown jane commented:
Defunding NPR would be a sacrifice…a sacrifice I’m willing to make.
bitterclinger commented:
I hope funding for NPR and PBS are some of the first things the Repubs cut when they blow into town in January.
jimg commented:
While I agree with defunding NPR – and public broadcasting in general – the Republicans need to be careful how they do it.
The liberals and the press (I know, I know) won’t hesitate for a second to scream:
Republicans cancel Sesame Street!!!.
Very few regular people even know who Juan Williams is. But Big Bird? Oscar?
It’s going to be tricky politically.
Conservative Ken commented:
Aint it funny how fast Acorn of the Airwaves cries foul when somebody kicks em in the wallet.
NPR was a tool of JOURNOLIST. Journolist was a left wing cabal of media professionals who consorted to swing the presidential election in Obama’s favor, by burying bad Obama press and exaggerating bad press of his opponents.
Objective? Not hardly
defund them now!
theBuckWheat commented:
With the present level of deficit spending, 37 cents out of every dollar we give to NPR is borrowed, some from China. There is no way, no how, that this is justified.
Indy Voter commented:
We are broke, we must defund a lot more than NPR, they can reach out to George Soros and pals at the Tides Foundation, I’m sure they will step in to pull NPR further left
befuddled commented:
no more funding jobs for displaced democrats so they can live on the government dole, while hardworking people are out of jobs in this country. let the tide foundation and the rest pay for it all, since these NPR types are so used to bending backwards for that liberal viewpoint and all to happy to be a propoganda arm for Soros and his ilk.
Mark in flyover country commented:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting received a government allocation of $420 million last year. Of that $90 million goes to public radio. The bulk goes to public television.
http://www.cpb.org/aboutcpb/financials/budget/
I see no benefit in the government providing almost half a billion dollars to radio and television stations.
Tom of the Missouri commented:
What the heck are we waiting for? Yank their funding now! Turn em into the streets and watch em learn how to give people what they want before they get paid like the rest of us or go hungry like the rest of us. What a bunch of ungrateful despicable hypocrites. Yank their funding now.
If they cannot stand on their own two feet let billionaire libs Buffet and Gates bail em out and fund them from now on or else turn out the lights.
This following post from Gateway pundit is all the reason we need to get rid of them now. What idiots: http://gatewaypundit.firstthings.com/2010/11/your-tax-dollars-at-work-pbs’s-mark-shields-palin-quitting-as-governor-like-kennedy’s-chappaquiddick/
Barbara commented:
Stop already with the Big Bird – Nickelodeon won’t pick it up? Please! They’re probaably already licking their chops at the idea.
Wbm commented:
NPR, kiss your A$$ goodbye……
Hedgehog commented:
Good luck Commies. The days of funding your agenda with taxpayer money are coming to an end. Good luck selling your trash.
myohmy commented:
Neh-neh-neh! Defunding is coming.
TennDon commented:
Let the devastating begin!
Simon commented:
Defund it TWICE, now!
Militant Conservative commented:
I called no take backs first. Suck it up and get out on your own. powder is dry.
KC commented:
Paybacks are a Behar!
RebeccaH commented:
If NPR and PBS were truly impartial, I’d have no problem with public funding. As it stands, however, they refuse to present any but one biased political and social view, so I say take the tax dollars away from them and see how long they last pushing that view.
jim2 commented:
Remove all public funding and change the name to National Progressive Radio.
Mark commented:
Pull the funding on these buffoons and ridicule them for the parasites they are.
M L Johnson commented:
RebeccaH, don’t even go there. “Impartiality” has been the cover used by the media for too long. Better to recognize the difficulty we humans have in being truly neutral and accept bias as the nature of news. Then we can all allow for it and make up our own minds. If we set up the golden mean of impartiality, who won’t claim it. We all see our own position as the reasonable middle and everyone to each side as somewhat less so. Or much less so; “Extreme!”
Milwaukee commented:
This is good news indeed. I was afraid they might still be around after their funding was cut. Cut cut cut. Small drops in the national deficit, but let them go. Many of the successful programs will spin out into commercial products and find niche homes. As already mentioned, Big Bird goes to Nickelodeon. I’m sure the boys at Car Talk could sell their show. The rest can be starving artists.
Good thing Nancy Pelosi trumpeted the health care reform with, ‘now the artist doesn’t have to worry about making money, they still will have health insurance.’
M L Johnson commented:
And I agree we should stop all public funding of NPR and PBS.
burt commented:
These folks always claim they do NOT need money, but try to cut government funds and watch them cry. I am sure they could survive, but that would require belt tightening and they really want power, and power is forcing people to pay for what they don’t want! It is all about power. If they needed money, I am sure George Soros would give it to them, Ted Turner has CNN, Bill Gates has MSNBC. We don’t need PBS.
Barry D commented:
Defunding would devastate public broadcasting?
Good to know. It’s time to DEFUND.
DTR commented:
Schiller says, “NPR gets no allocation from CPB. Zero.”
Liar.
According to page 8 of their own 2008 annual report, CPB gives them at least $500k, probably more.
http://www.npr.org/about/aboutnpr/annualreports/NPRSponsorsDonors08.pdf
Phd commented:
About Sesame Street; Public TV has been featuring SS and other kids’ shows for generations. Anybody who pays a whit of attention to what these shows really preach can see that it’s all about “sharing” and “fairness”, incessantly! Laying the groundwork for a socialistic base for life.
Phd commented:
Meant to add
never anything about “risk/reward”, “hard work =reward”,etc. Nothing about the basics of capitalist economics.
Duke commented:
The majority of NPR’s budget is back-door from the CPB. It may be technically correct that NPR gets zero from CPB, but NPR gets most of its funding from the individual member radio stations, and those member stations get the majority of CPB’s 90 million $ budget.
Regardless of NPR specifically, why does any radio station or news outlet get any taxpayer money? Maybe we should extend that whole wall of separation thing to also be between media and state.
gmama commented:
Don’t the Democrats advocate enacting large taxes on cigarettes for stop smoking programs and oil companies to develop “green energy”? Why not tax Hollywood to pay for NPR? After all doesn’t tv make kids fat? Don’t violent movies promote violence? Using Democrat logic, Hollywood is producing an unhealthy product, so it should be taxed heavily.
bg commented:
++
i’ve previously posted about the CAIR/ISLAMIST connections to NPR, here’s another installment (of which will probably also be ignored until it cannot be.. newsflash MSM et al, kind of like passing ObamaCare on the pitiful notion it will be repealed.. how’s that working out for the deniers?? gah!!)..
NPR, Juan Williams, and Sharia Law
[Islamists around the world are seeking to impose Sharia’s muzzling of free speech on free societies. The Organization of the Islamic Conference, composed of 56 Islamic states, has won passage of a United Nations resolution calling on countries to criminalize speech that “defames” religion — clearly referring to Islam. After all, does anyone really expect countries like Saudi Arabia to criminalize speech that “defames” Judaism?
Criminalizing speech that is deemed “defamation” of Islam is tantamount to a backdoor enactment of Sharia law. The law may have a different name or description, such as prohibiting “hate speech,” but the effect on speech is the same as if Sharia law were in place.]
just a sample of much more the MSM is not reporting:
American Muslim organization applauds Oklahoma
[CAIR's lawsuit proves that they are part of an Islamist establishment in America that do not and will not believe in the separation of mosque and state and that they promote the ideology of political Islam. This ideology is based in a belief in the supremacy of Islamic legal systems and is often a conveyer belt toward radicalization. CAIR shows once again that they are part of the problem not the solution.]
and so much more we should be informed about here, that
too is also just a drop in the Islamists in the USA bucket..
==
Willys commented:
[Schiller] “…also recognized there’s a possibility that, with the new GOP majority in the House, those calls for defunding might be renewed.”
I would say more like finally heard.
Steven M. commented:
Publicly-Funded Leftist Dogma Radio; PFLDR, should be changed to LDR.
9ohw3tg9hw3 commented:
Let’s have a nationwide plebicite: Defund npr or give fox news network matching grants!
Aunty Dhimmi commented:
Sure it would be devastating………..instead of duping the American taxpayer into funding this liberal cesspool, poor Soros would have to contribute 100% of the operational cost in addition to writing the script.
Sardondi commented:
As a libertarian-leaning conservative, I am incensed at being forced to give money to NPR and other public radio shows which are often grotesquely slanted in favor of liberals and the Left. “A Prairie Home Companion” is especially crazy-making to me, since I am forced to give my tax money to the bitterest passive-aggressive liberal in the West (outside of Jimmy Carter), just so he can entertain his Upper West Side co-politicalists by making mock of principles, beliefs and personalities in a way I find far more offensive than funny.
You can be the the straight Oscar Wilde of liberal politics, and have the best old time on your leftward-bent radio show entertaining your “progressive” buds by skewering every Conservative sacred cow you can think of, plus the many you create out of whole cloth. Or you can run a non-political, bittersweet, nostalgic radio show which is financed in large degree by public monies ( read, “taxes”). You just can’t do both at the same time. Garrison Keillor has been ignoring this rule for 15 years ago, and NPR and America’s public radio stations are happy to let him do it.
It’s time to stop paying to be mocked and cursed. Defund the bastards and let them survive in the marketplace of ideas.
penny commented:
“Republicans cancel Sesame Street!!!.”
Don’t worry about the cruel perception of Republicans killing off Sesame Street, it will be picked up in a second by Disney or another private entity. PBS’s decent programing would be carved out and cannibalized by private channels on cable. The lefty news slop they can keep as long as not one penny of my taxws supports it.
Let the PBS moonbats sink or swim in the private sector.
Veryconcerned commented:
Her arrogance and how she doubled down after she fired the liberal mouthpiece Juan Williams, maybe she is the one who should talk about this with her shrink instead of whining. Now that funding might dry up and go to better use and it’s a big UH OH.
NPR isn’t needed! State funded basis that leans far left towards liberals isn’t needed now nor needed when it first started! NPR was left leaning during Reagan, Bush Sr, earned their money during Clinton, left leaning during Bush Jr and very liberal in the current regime.
DEFUND NPR! STOP THE STATE FUNDED LIBERAL BASIS!