Internet Killed The Radio Star: Let NPR “Go Dark”

National Public Radio is facing the threat of losing its federal funding and having member stations lose their programming. But would this really be a bad thing?

Today, Republicans in the US House of Representatives are going to vote on the elimination of federal funding of National Public Radio as well as prohibit local public radio stations from using federal funds to pay NPR dues.

If you’re reading this article and you don’t know what NPR is, essentially it is the radio equivalent of PBS, the network of public television stations that carry popular public TV programs such as NOVA, Frontline, American Experience, Masterpiece Theater, Antiques Roadshow and Sesame Street.

In addition to its newscasts, NPR is probably best known for All Things Considered, a two-hour weekday program that covers a variety of news and cultural subjects that has been on the air since 1971.

 Both of these systems were formed in the late 1960s and the early 1970s by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) which is a not for profit organization that is directly funded by the United States government.

CPB provides some funding to PBS and to NPR, but a substantial amount of funding to PBS and NPR also come from private sources via fundraising efforts and endowments by charitable organizations.

The Republicans in the House are livid and are on a de-funding warpath because of a release of a video last week where prominent fundraiser for NPR, Ron Schiller, was secretly taped making reportedly anti-conservative, anti-Republican, anti-Tea Party comments by political activist James O’Keefe during a private meeting with a fake front group for the Muslim Brotherhood, organized by O’Keefe.

[EDIT:Per reader requests, I am posting the unedited, uncut version of the O'Keefe video below so readers can make up their own minds about the context of Ron Schiller's comments.] (more…)

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