House attempt to defund NPR politically pointless

Shane Wade

Columnist

A bill aimed at defunding National Public Radio (NPR) was passed by House Republicans last Thursday but the chances of the bill passing the Senate or the President are small.

Representatives who endorsed the bill are aware of the unlikelihood that the legislation will pass. So, what’s the point? Ideological politics and score settling.

The bill came up just days after another NPR controversy involving a video sting by James O’Keefe that ended in the resignation of NPR’s CEO Vivian Schiller and an NPR executive, Ron Schiller (of no relation). O’Keefe’s video captured Ron Schiller making critical remarks about the Tea Party and castigating Tea Party members as “racist.” Conservatives like Mike Gonzales at Fox News labeled this as “evidence” of liberal bias in NPR reporting that “constantly offends conservatives” as Mr. Gonzales declared.
Here, we reach the heart of the matter. While House Republicans sponsoring the bill say they act in the interest of America’s fiscal health, the real issue Republicans have with NPR is not actually the small amount of federal funding; it is their perception of a liberal bias in NPR that stifles voices like conservative voices like Juan Williams.
The irony of the situation is that by attempting to defund NPR, Republicans are doing just what they accused NPR of doing. Republicans are stifling views they disagree with in a clear violation of the same coveted First Amendment rights that they cited in the aftermath of the Juan Williams firing. By attempting to defund NPR, Republicans run the risk of abridging the freedom of speech demanded by our founders.
In that same video, Schiller reveals that federal funding accounts for only 2 percent of NPR’s annual budget and believes that NPR could survive without federal funding. That fact supports Republican views and may very well be true, but even if this bill passed the Senate, it would not change anything.
Instead of directly using federal funds to pay the fee for NPR programming, local stations would redirect that money to operation expenses and use other revenue or private contributions to purchase their NPR programs. What proponents of the bill ignore, however, is the fact that 2 percent means everything to the rural stations that operate without private donors.
Part of maintaining a democracy means having a well-informed citizenry; as Thomas Jefferson said, “An informed citizenry is the only true repository of the public will.” We must recognize both the vital role that public media plays in our democratic society and the difference between commercial media outlets like MSNBC and Fox News, and public media outlets like NPR.
If conservatives were serious about balancing the budget and taking on our national deficit, they would stop wasting time on joke bills that clearly will not pass the Senate. Republicans ought to start supporting proposals that decrease expenditures, such as cutting our defense budget, and increasing revenue, which could be done by raising taxes on Americans that are not struggling to make ends meet (i.e. the rich). Defunding NPR won’t solve the budget crisis; what it will do is leave Americans in the rural parts of the country without a reliable news source to inform them about issues that affect them. The next time Republicans criticize President Obama or Congressional Democrats over unemployment, fiscal responsibility, or government waste, they can easily refer back to this ludicrous bill that has no chance of passing, barely scratches the national budget and attacks less-prosperous rural Americans.
While America fights two wars in the Middle East, confront a disastrous economy, reforms public education and finds a solution to our oil addiction, Republicans call an emergency meeting of Congress to pass this legislation. For shame. If you’re looking for a waste of taxpayer dollars, look no further than this legislation.