It shouldn’t even take a scandal to kill taxpayer-funded broadcasting, better known as propaganda. State control of broadcasting and other media is a hallmark of totalitarian regimes. From Charles Lipson at realclearwire.com:
“I don’t want any yes-men around me,” said Sam Goldwyn, the Hollywood producer famed for his movies and malapropisms. “I want everybody to tell me the truth even if it costs them their job.” The brass at National Public Radio must have heard Sam, but they add a slight amendment. We want only “yes-men” (they/them) and will boot anyone who dares to dissent.
Lest there be any doubt, NPR just proved it by suspending, without pay, the staffer who exposed the pervasive problems there. He dared to write publicly that that National Public Radio was uniformly ideological, deeply committed to its strident left-wing views, and determined to exclude any alternatives. For saying that out loud, they cut off Uri Berliner’s paycheck for five days. It’s their way of saying, “Thank you for your feedback.” Q.E.D.
Berliner, disgusted by NPR’s response, resigned Wednesday with a fiery statement: “I cannot work in a newsroom where I am disparaged.” Who could?
There are really two problems here, not one, and they go well beyond one journalist’s resignation. The first is political bias, which is a problem at all “elite” networks and newspapers, where “hard news” is heavily slanted. The second is that some of these outlets, notably NPR, PBS (the Public Broadcasting System) and their local affiliates, receive taxpayer funding.
Let’s take political bias first. It was once a cardinal rule of journalism that partisan or ideological viewpoints should be confined to editorials and opinion columns. The goal was to keep editorial views out of hard-news reporting, as much as possible. To do it, the editorial staff constantly fought with the business team, who wanted coverage to favor their advertisers.
Loves some radio in das Auto after a good round of das Musik and I couldn’t tell ya any Not Particularly Real channels or stations.
No one wants to listen even the NPC dullards?
Maybe that’s why they have to have the Leviathan foot the bill.
O/T-Reading about a warning from Medvedev that the amount of victims will be exacerbated by the aid package.
RF has been preparing for WAR with NATOstan for awhile as the 404 buys them some time.
A crushed demoralized people will never regime change?
Or is there anyone left?
The local Pure Bolshevik Soviet just had the feel good story of the day, NO Ken Burns isn’t moving to North Korea, a woman killed in Rafah just had her newborn make into this realm and it showed the doctor giving her a light slap to get going.
Welcome aboard and may it become a better place.