putting rwingnuts into seats on the CPB and NPR.
They do not have to rely on RW individuals...it has become a haven for "corporate" "partners".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Public_Radio
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NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. This act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson, and established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which also created the Public Broadcasting Service in addition to NPR. A CPB organizing committee under John Witherspoon first created a Board of Directors chaired by Bernard Mayes. This Board then hired Donald Quayle to be the first President of NPR with studios in Washington D.C., 30 employees and 90 public radio stations as charter members.
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Allegations of conservative bias
In a December 2005 column run by NPR ombudsman and former Vice President Jeffrey Dvorkin, allegations that NPR relies heavily on conservative think-tanks<24> were denied. In his column, Dvorkin listed the number of times NPR had cited experts from conservative and liberal think tanks in the previous year as evidence. However, according to MediaMatters, a progressive media group, the numbers he reported indicate an overwhelmingly conservative bias. His own tally showed that 63% of NPR experts from think tanks came from right-leaning organizations while only 37% came from left-leaning organizations.<25> duh..They have Juan Williams as a talking head!!
In 2003, some critics accused NPR of being supportive of the invasion of Iraq.<26><27>
Allegations of liberal bias
A study conducted by researchers at UCLA and the University of Missouri found that while NPR is "often cited by conservatives as an egregious example of a liberal news outlet", "y our estimate, NPR hardly differs from the average mainstream news outlet. Its score is approximately equal to those of Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report and its score is slightly more conservative than The Washington Post's."<28> It did find NPR to be more liberal than the average U.S. voter of the time of the study and more conservative than the average U.S. Democrat of the time. Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, a progressive media watchdog group,<29> also disputes the claim of a liberal bias.
Allegations of bias against Israel
NPR has been criticised for perceived bias in its coverage of Israel.
The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), a pro-Israel American media monitoring organization based in Boston, has been particularly critical of NPR. CAMERA director Andrea Levin has stated, "We consider NPR to be the most seriously biased mainstream media outlet," a statement that The Boston Globe describes as having "clearly gotten under her target's skin."<34> NPR's then-Ombudsman, Jeffrey A. Dvorkin, said in a 2002 interview that CAMERA used selective citations and subjective definitions of what it considers pro-Palestinian bias in formulating its findings, and that he felt CAMERA's campaign was "a kind of McCarthyism, frankly, that bashes us and causes people to question our commitment to doing this story fairly. And it exacerbates the legitimate anxieties of many in the Jewish community about the survival of Israel."<35>
Other criticisms
A 2004 FAIR study concluded that "NPR’s guestlist shows the radio service relies on the same elite and influential sources that dominate mainstream commercial news, and falls short of reflecting the diversity of the American public."
Noam Chomsky has criticized NPR as being biased toward ideological power and the status quo. He alleges that the parameters of debate on a given topic are very consciously curtailed. He says that since the network maintains studios in ideological centers of opinion such as Washington, the network feels the necessity to carefully consider what kinds of dissenting opinion are acceptable. Thus, political pragmatism, perhaps induced by fear of offending public officials who control some of the NPR's funding (via CPB), often determines what views are suitable for broadcast, meaning that opinions critical of the structures of national-interest-based foreign policy, capitalism, and government bureaucracies (entailed by so-called "radical" or "activist" politics) usually do not make it to air.<37>
In 2009 NPR edited Nathan Lee's review of Outrage, a documentary on closeted gay politicians who actively work against lesbian, gay, transgender and queer rights<38>. NPR removed the names of the politicians from the review, claiming that it needed to protect the privacy of public figures.<39><40> "NPR has a long-held policy of trying to respect the privacy of public figures and of not airing or publishing rumors, allegations and reports about their private lives unless there is a compelling reason to do so," said Dick Meyer, NPR’s executive director of Digital.<41> However, NPR did not perform such alteration in an editorial by Linda Holmes criticizing media outlets for not acknowledging the sexuality of American Idol frontrunner Adam Lambert, whom she believed to be homosexual. NPR also did not perform such alteration in November 2008, and after the coming out of comedian Wanda Sykes, NPR speculated on-air whether Queen Latifah would also, even though the celebrity has issued no public statements about her sexuality.<40>
NPR has also been accused of an anti-Christian bias:<42> anti-Catholic<43> and anti-Mormon.<44>
http://www.current.org/rad613mo.html
'Don't worry. I hug everyone.'
NPR principles will remain intact, Del Lewis vows, as board approves broad framework for revenue-generating enterprises
Originally published in Current, July 22, 1996
By Jacqueline Conciatore
In a speech last week, NPR President Delano Lewis sought to allay fears that the network will lose sight of its public service mission as it moves into new moneymaking initiatives--even in possible joint ventures with media conglomerates.
After his speech at the NPR Board's July 18-19 meeting in Washington, D.C., the board passed a resolution that directs NPR to develop new revenue-building opportunities. The unanimous resolution said the board would "guide and monitor'' NPR's initiative, and has "full confidence in NPR's internal business structure and staff acumen, as well as management's commitment to move forward with new enterprises in the spirit of public service and without adversely affecting NPR's fundamental mission.''
Lewis delivered a similar message, calling "broad and unsubstantiated accusations'' the recent conjectures that NPR was about to make a deal with a conglomerate like Liberty Media and would jeopardize its soul in the process. "We have said over and over and over again. . . that we are committed to our public-service mission and that we use it to guide everything we do--including business deals with corporate partners,'' Lewis said. NPR will not enter into any deal that "calls its principles into question,'' he said.
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I never thought I would hear spiels on NPR for some of the most disgusting corporations in the world...