It's Time To Defund "National Propaganda Radio" And Let Them Sink Or Swim Like Other Leftist Outlets

The farce has gone on long enough that "In a time of media fragmentation and sound bites, NPR has succeeded by focusing on its core: in-depth, quality news."

In 1991 with Clarence Thomas's confirmation hearing almost over, NPR Correspondent Nina Totenberg aired a “leaked” 😉 Judiciary/FBI report with bizarre accusations by Anita Hill

SHUTTERSTOCK/ROB CRANDALL…

Thomas was drinking a Coke in his office, he got up from the table at which we were working, went over to his desk to get the Coke, looked at the can and asked, 'Who has put pubic hair on my Coke?' - Anita Hill

Not a single woman or man who worked with Anita Hill came forward during the hearings to support her allegations.

In fact, Clarence Thomas brought twelve female co-workers who testified to his sterling character and conduct and contradicted Anita Hills's allegations.

From an April 14, 2016 NPR interview, Nina Totenberg whining about blowback from the false story

TOTENBERG: Well, you would think it would be great. And I suppose in hindsight, it did do a fair amount for my career, but at the time, it was just awful. Clarence Thomas was pilloried. Anita Hill was pilloried, and I was pilloried because I was the messenger.

TOTENBERG: I mean, Republican senators took to the floor and just trashed me, and sympathetic reporters to them trashed me. And every little iota of my life got exposed to the public, and I wasn't, after all, running or applying for anything. And in the end, I was subpoenaed to testify by a special prosecutor named by the Senate, and I refused to testify. And there was the possibility of my going to jail until finally, in a moment of unusual wisdom, the Senate decided not to cite me for contempt.

TOTENBERG: It wasn't my telephone records. I burned my notes. The night that it was clear to me that it was going to be a legal preceding, I burned my notes.

Nina Totenberg statements that would have gotten leftist media hosts fired

Regarding a General Jerry Boykin, who sermonized in Christian churches on the “Inside Washington” show:

First, Totenberg said Boykin's remarks were "seriously bad stuff," and then she said, "I hope he's not long for this world." Host Gordon Peterson joked, "What is this, The Sopranos?" Withdrawing to damage-control mode, Totenberg said she didn't mean she hoped he would die, just that he shouldn't last long "in his job."

On the “Inside Washington” show in 1995:

If the "Good Lord" knew justice, Senator Jesse Helms will "get AIDS from a transfusion, or one of his grandchildren will get it.”

Yet 30 years later, she still has a job!

NPR describing itself

National Public Radio, (NPR),  was incorporated on Feb. 26, 1970, by 90-charter stations to provide national news programming. Quoting from their site, "NPR is a mission-driven, multimedia news organization and radio program producer. In a time of media fragmentation and sound bites, NPR has succeeded by focusing on its core: in-depth, quality news. NPR has evolved from a secondary to an essential news source, with dozens of bureaus around the world and the nation. On-air and online, NPR presents fact-based, independent journalism that examines and airs diverse perspectives."

Translation: commercial media cannot be trusted because they are funded by the likes of Exxon Mobil —a capitalist advertising structure. Only noncommercial media can be trusted to report truthfully. Yet, NPR takes millions of dollars from numerous left leaning organizations and foundations and the difference would be . . what?

Unlike other radio sources of information, like your local radio station for example, NPR receives federal funding, your tax dollars, so is not subject to consumer market demands to make a profit or go out of business. Which makes it all the more insulting, it appears to have lost it's stated mission. NPR' s "On Point" on 4-4-2016  trotted out  "Human Caused Sea Level Rise". A "scientist" actually said he played around with computer models until he threw one together that has sea level rising 6 feet by 2100. I almost choked on my coffee that he actually admitted it! The host however was ecstatic and kept exclaiming "six feet" throughout the show. She then played an audio where two scientists were witnessing, I quote her words not theirs, "the Patagonian GLACIER  falling into the sea!" You can't even make this stuff up!

When NPR prostituted itself for Obama's “Iran Deal”

Fun fact: There actually was no Iran Deal! No one on the Iranian side, as pointed out by then Congressman Pompeo, ever signed anything, which was ignored by the Senate when they ridiculously ratified it. Iran was legally free to do as it pleased!

The Iran nuclear deal in 2015 actually began four years earlier, before the real negotiations started. Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama's deputy national security adviser for strategic communications, was interviewed by New York Times Magazine. He outed the Ploughshares Fund. He boasted how the foundation amplified the White House message in 2015 on the Iran deal. Rhodes said he exploited the Ploughshares Fund to help him create the echo chamber constructed to sell the Iran deal:

“We are going to discourse the [expletive] out of this… We had test drives to know who was going to be able to carry our message effectively, and how to use outside groups like Ploughshares, the Iran Project and whomever else."

He bragged how Americans, the Congress and the press were lied to about the real details concerning the Iran nuclear deal, which basically constitutes treason for everyone involved, including Obama, because of nuclear and financial advantages given to a sworn enemy of the U.S. and a major financier of terrorism in the world:

“groups and individuals were decisive in the battle for public opinion and as independent validators… they lacked a common platform – a network to exchange l.p.information and coordinate efforts. Ploughshares Fund provided that network… we built a network of over 85 organizations and 200 individuals… We credit this model of philanthropy – facilitating collective action through high-impact grant-making – with creating the conditions necessary for supporters of the Iran agreement to beat the political odds.

The details of the relationship between NPR and Ploughshares

The Ploughshares grant to NPR supported “national security reporting that emphasizes the themes of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and budgets, Iran’s nuclear program, international nuclear security topics and U.S. policy toward nuclear security,” according to Ploughshares’ 2015 annual report. Ploughshares' money comes in part from other large left-wing funders of NPR. The annual report lists more than $100,000 in donations from George Soros' Open Society Policy Foundations, and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

"Ploughshares has funded NPR’s coverage of national security since 2005", the radio network said. Ploughshares reports at least $700,000 over that time. All grant descriptions since 2010 specifically mention Iran. ”It’s a valued partnership, without any conditions from Ploughshares on our specific reporting, beyond the broad issues of national and nuclear security, nuclear policy, and nonproliferation,” NPR said. “As with all support received, we have a rigorous editorial firewall process in place to ensure our coverage is independent and is not influenced by funders or special interests.”

Now for the hypocrisy! NPR backtracked its claims that it never cancelled interviews  with anti-Iran deal Congressman Mike Pompeo after staffers for the Kansas congressman, at the request of the Washington Free Beacon, produced emails negotiating an interview time proving that it had happened. Pompeo asked NPR to appear as a counterweight to pro-Iran deal congressman Adam Schiff, who frequently appeared on the network, but was denied. NPR originally disputed that claim, saying “it had no record of Pompeo’s requests.” 

NPR later cancelled the interview: “The show managers have decided that there are already too many interviews in the works this week and that we don’t have the resources to take this one on. Perhaps there will be another opportunity,” a producer wrote.

There was no other opportunity. “Morning Edition is a bit full on Iran at the moment. I’m glad to be in touch and hope you’ll check back with us for future conversations,” a producer told Pompeo a month later.

After the Free Beacon asked for comment, NPR admitted their initial denial was in error. “Rep. Pompeo was booked to discuss the Iran deal in August 2015, but the interview did not take place,” a spokesman said. NPR did not respond to the Free Beacon’s questions about why they initially said they couldn’t find evidence they had spoken with Pompeo’s office in the first place.

NPR has succeeded “focusing on its core: in-depth, quality news” regarding Donald Trump

A senior business editor at NPR for 25 years, Uri Berliner got suspended for voicing his criticism:

From a letter by Uri Berliner on THE FREE PRESS

Uri Berliner, a senior business editor at NPR, says he started sounding the alarm internally when he noticed a bias creep into the network’s coverage. (Pete Kiehart for The Free Press)

Uri Berliner, a veteran at the public radio institution, says the network lost its way when it started telling listeners how to think

Persistent rumors that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia over the election became the catnip that drove reporting. At NPR, we hitched our wagon to Trump’s most visible antagonist, Representative Adam Schiff.

Schiff, who was the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, became NPR’s guiding hand, its ever-present muse. By my count, NPR hosts interviewed Schiff 25 times about Trump and Russia. During many of those conversations, Schiff alluded to purported evidence of collusion. The Schiff talking points became the drumbeat of NPR news reports.

But when the Mueller report found no credible evidence of collusion, NPR’s coverage was notably sparse. Russiagate quietly faded from our programming.

As a taxpayer, I found it an abomination when NPR decided not to carry President Trump's daily coronavirus news conference, under the laughable premise that they cannot fact check him live. I could fill a library with the partial and flat-out falsehoods I have heard broadcast on NPR over the years. I have heard interviews with members of the administration or Conservatives savaged by the interviewer, always with an NPR commentator to critique the response, while interviews with Elizabeth Warren for example, sounded like they were trading favorite recipes!

I could write a whole other essay about NPR’s complacency and participation in the 2020 election steal. The Deep State Jan. 6 inside job more commonly known to leftists like NPR as “the Insurrection”, worse than Pearl Harbor and 9/11 combined, the law fare against Donald Trump and others leading up to the 2024 election, carrying the water for oatmeal brain Joe and clearly deranged Kamala Harris.

A closing thought from NPR CEO Katherine Maher while CEO of Wikipedia

Our reverence for the truth might be a distraction that is getting in the way of finding common ground and getting things done.

This farce of "National PUBLIC Radio" has gone on long enough! It needs to be cut loose to sink or swim broadcasting its propaganda in the free market like other politically biased organizations.