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Why
the Right hates NPR
by Joe Conason
Is it plausible that the right-wing
uproar over NPR's firing of Juan Williams is motivated by concern
for "free speech" – and not by longstanding conservative animus against
public broadcasting? To anyone
who has been paying attention to the behavior of politicians, pundits,
and media agitators on the right for
the past few decades, the latest upwelling of volcanic rhetoric is
drearily familiar.
These same voices have reliably exploited every chance to damage public
broadcasting, not because of
any supposed liberal bias, but because they disdain the
straightforward, probing journalism that the public
network provides every day. What the NPR haters want to see and hear on
America’s airwaves is the
“fair and balanced mentality” of Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and Michael
Savage and nothing else.
After all, they hate CNN, CBS, NBC, and ABC with almost equal passion,
no matter how much
those networks or NPR bend over to accommodate conservative viewpoints.
Now reasonable people can certainly dispute NPR's decision to dismiss
Williams over his remarks on
Fox News about fearing Muslims. Reasonable people can question the way
in which NPR management
handled that decision. And reasonable people can wonder whether NPR
news standards place too much
emphasis on objectivity. Perhaps that
obsession would fade if Republicans finally succeeded in
withdrawing federal funds from
the network.
But like any other news organization, NPR must be free to determine its
own standards and practices,
which Williams had clearly violated on more than one occasion. If the
network’s management believes
that his expressions of befuddled opinion have compromised his stature
as a "news analyst," that should
be their prerogative – without partisan interference from
Congress.
Didn't anybody wonder why the right-wing nutjobs went berzerk over the
firing of "liberal" Juan Williams?
Juan Williams is an Uncle Tom whose
job it is to say, "I'm a liberal
Democrat and I say Obama is a
crazy Kenyan and I only wish he had the brains and morals of our best
president, George W Bush."
That's why FOX gave him a raise to $2M after NPR fired his racist ass.
FOX proved that racism is rewarded on their whites-only network.
Also, it's my understanding that
the federal government pays 2 percent
of NPR's budget.
If I was NPR, I'd say "Keep your damn
money and get out of my face."
I wonder why they don't?