There has been much brouhaha lately concerning taxpayer funding of the public broadcasting system, National Public Radio in particular. There are those on the right who feel that NPR offers programming biased to the left. Those on the left, of course, feel that NPR is right down the middle because they find it resonant with their beliefs.
Some weeks ago, NPR ran a self-referential segment which explored whether this bias existed. The conclusion, not surprisingly, was “absolutely not!” But perhaps a more independent analysis might show otherwise.
Listening to NPR programming on Sunday, March 6, the following random items were noted:
- Representative Peter King (R-NY) is anti-Muslim. There was no debate, no alternative point of view.
- The federal deficit was caused by tax cuts for wealthy “fat cats” and two unfunded wars. There was no debate, no alternative point of view
- Gov. Scott Walker of Wisconsin is anti-union. There was no debate, no alternative point of view.
If the “P” in NPR is to stand for “Public”, then they must recognize that there exist other points of view. Is it possible that Rep. King abhors extremist jihadists but is pro-Muslim? Can it be that the federal deficit has increased enormously by social spending? Perhaps Gov. Walker is pro-taxpayer more than anti-union?
Your personal point of view may differ, but NPR cannot ignore that a range of valid opinions exist in the public marketplace of ideas. To force feed us their views without debate is not acceptable if they expect to receive public funding. Unless, perchance, the “P” stands for “Progressive”.
I'm sure that the more liberal among us would almost reflexively go for the "goose and gander" reaction to your piece... So, let's make a few minor changes to the introductory paragraph, for illustrative purposes:
ReplyDelete"There has been much brouhaha lately concerning Fox New Channel. There are those on the left who feel that Fox offers programming biased to the right. Those on the right, of course, feel that Fox is right down the middle because they find it resonant with their beliefs."
The most important change in the modified paragraph is not with what you see, but what you don't see... the part about taxpayer funding.
Fox has plenty of privately-funded progressive competitors - MSNBC, America Left (on Sirius/XM), among others. They (including Fox) are filling roles that the market is willing to pay for. The citizenry can choose to watch or not watch, support the sponsors or not, etc. as they please.
A publicly-funded organization such as NPR, however, should reflect the diversity of opinion of not only its voluntary contributors (members) but its involuntary ones (taxpayers) as well.