In the wake of James O’Keefe’s devastating NPR sting, the mainstream media has apparently reached the “throw it up against the wall and see if it sticks” point. Its arguments in favor of continued funding are getting more desperate and less rational.
Cokie Roberts tried a novel approach on This Week last week:
Roberts: Well, there are not 14,000 radio stations in rural areas, which is where most of the federal funding goes. Most of those stations are the ones that NPR gets hardly any money from the federal government, and the big stations get hardly any money. But the little, tiny, rural stations that, where there’s nothing else on the air, get a lot of money and they would go dark.
MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell took that line of reasoning a step or two further when she interviewed Majority Leader Eric Cantor last Wednesday:
Mitchell: I just want to point out that NPR and the radio stations are saying that the elimination of federal funding for public broadcasting would be extraordinarily damaging to the services that they provide in rural America, on Indian reservations. Not in the big cities, perhaps, as much where other kinds of fundraising is possible, private fundraising, but in a lot of poor communities, it’s their only news service.
Based on this argument, one can only assume that rednecks listen to “All Things Considered” as they drive their pickups around looking for black and gay men to lynch. And Native Americans listen to “Car Talk” while hand-grinding what we call corn, but they call maize.
In other words, NPR doesn’t appeal merely to liberal, big city elites. Heaven forbid. No, according to this line of reasoning, the very people liberal elites disdain the most are NPR’s most ardent fans.
Unfortunately, the network’s own website offers audience stats that put the lie to this inane argument.
So NPR’s audience is older, far richer and far more educated than the average American. Yet Roberts and Mitchell would have you believe that it’s poor, uneducated rural Americans who value NPR the most.
As NPR’s supposed redneck audience would say, “Bullshit.” As it’s supposed Native American audience would say, “Heap big bullshit.” And as it’s actual audience would say, “Please pass the Grey Poupon, Th0urston.”
Source: NPR, LexisNexis
This post was last modified on January 26, 2021
View Comments (23)
Git that thar Grey Poupon ready, Thurston, and hand me muh 12 gauge. I'm-a gonna go out and shoot us some pheasant under glass. Y'all check the oil in the foh by foh this mornin'?
I am offended by these two fools. I am a redneck and I could care less about NPR or the clowns that work there so quit wasting my tax money on them.
If NPR/PBS are so damn good, they should'nt need taxpayer funding. Also, in the case of NPR, if their claim that 170million people rely on them for news & information, they should have ZERO problems in attracting sponsers. I'm with you, cut them off.
Poor ol' Cokie -- I don't think that an appeal to the Brokeback Mountain demographic really is the way to increased funding.
If gays want their own broadcasting, there is the following...
On TV- Bravo
On radio-Out Q on Sirius/XM
...plus, like everything else, there are many things online for them as well.
According to lefties, all minorities are fellow libtards. It just can't be any other way. It interferes with their understanding of the universe to have people like Allen West and the liberal-yet-realist-making-sense Juan Williams and others existing. It upsets their space-time continuum.
Exactly. If you are black or whatever YOU MUST be a liberal and agree with liberal ideals. I don't know where they get that, but it is wrong.
I only listen to NPR if I want to save the grooves on my old classical music LP's, since I upgraded to CD's a while back I haven't needed to listen to NPR, not for about a two decades now. Roberts and Mitchell are idiot shills in clown paint with lipstick!
Who cares what that horse head looking woman thinks?
How can such a vividly disturbing description such as horse head woman always make me thing of strong libbies like babs streisand, joy (gag) behar and sarah jessica parker among others? Is it that they each have somehow retained enough human features while growing with the look - that LOOK - that snarling liberal hate mongresses seem to wear so proudly. Looks like a horse head. Sorry if any of you like any of those people. Really, I am.
DeanH, your seeing the same thing I am. I wouldn't introduce LOOKS into the equation unless they did it first. Liberals love personal attacks so I love to give it back at them, and the men seem to be generally ugly, angry ,gay or at least effeminate, and the women have that same horse faced angry screechy look to them.
"Horses ass" is the term that most often makes me think of libs.
Hence the 'don't look a gift horse in the ass' saying. Wait... that sound's incorrect.
Cokie and Andrea have not got the slightest clue as to what "we rednecks and Indians" listen to.
These two clowns wearing dresses need to have a sit down with Uncle Ted Nugent. He would make them cry with in minutes.
As for NPR funding, let them stand on their own. Shot, may be they can get red man tobacco to support them.
I'd love to see them go hunting with Uncle Ted and one of my other heroes Dick Cheney.
I love Ted... He's a little wacky and out there, but, to me, he embodies America at its greatest. He marches to his own groove offering, no apologies and taking care of my fellow vets.
Exactly my point. Kill it and Grill it :)
So, if NPR needs the money, why does the FEDERAL GOVT need to fund it? I am sure all those billionaire leftists and Hollywood types who support higher taxes will step right in and close any funding gap. Defund the CPB entirely!
Again...If it is illegal for Voice Of America to broadcast directly to the American people, why can NPR/PBS?
Hell, around here we don't listen to the friggin' commie radio, just Toby Keith CD's - all day long. Lookout, we'll put a boot in your ass...
Error in the headline. States NRP instead of NPR. Just lookin' out.
Oops.
oh heck, while were pointing peevishly at things that peeve, who is this 'Th0urston' person and why is his poupon grey? why do my uppercase not?