Assault on NPR

     Yesterday, National Public Radio came under increasing scrutiny, as Ron Schiller, who runs the fundraising operation, was caught on video saying that NPR would be better off if federal funding was cut off. Today, NPR CEO Vivian Schiller was forced out by the board, saying that her tumultuous tenor had compromised NPR's long term operating ability. Last year, Schiller fired commentator Juan Williams after he appeared on Fox News saying that persons in Muslim dress made him nervous.
     Ron Schiller, who had previously announced that he was leaving the network, was videotaped by Project Veritas, a conservative outfit run by James O'Keefe. O'Keefe was behind the ACORN controversy that erupted in 2009. That video caused congress to end funding for ACORN, though eventually, those videos were determined to be heavily edited, and ACORN was not found to have no wrongdoing. Equal suspicion should be aimed at Veritas' latest effort.
     While Schiller's comments are no doubt puzzling, the political effect of the video is not. NPR was already under attack by Congressional Republicans, who are looking to cut federal spending anywhere possible, and Schiller has given them the perfect excuse to do so. It's easy to depict NPR as a bastion of liberalism, but they are the last news outfit in America doing real journalism. O'Keefe, on the other hand, does not practice journalism (and neither do we). This hatchet job is no more than propaganda, just as it was so when Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker was prank called by a morning radio show pretending to be billionaire David Koch. If NPR is cut off from federal funds, it is doubtful that it would cause it's demise. Large philanthropy organisations, and millions of taxpaying Americans, will cover the loss, hopefully with a minimum number of loss stations, but it will be a blow to public discourse to lose the one news organisation that is still trusted on both sides of the isle.