If you like NPR programming, as I like some of it, write them a check! Just don't demand that they receive taxpayer support. At least not now. We are in fiscal crisis, and budgetary cuts must be made. If such inessentials as NPR, PBS, NEH and NEA cannot be defunded, where will the cuts be made? Think about it. If these small allocations cannot be zeroed out or placed on moratorium, how are we going to tackle entitlement reform?
So one good reason to defund NPR is that we cannot afford it.
Some think that a refusal of sponsorship amounts to censorship. But that is stupidity pure and simple and duly refuted here.
But even if we could afford it, NPR in its present configuration should not receive Federal support. And this for the simple reason that it is plainly a propaganda arm of the Left. Now that should be obvious to anyone who has been following current events, including the firing of Juan Williams, the exposure and sacking of the two Schillers, etc. If you deny the Leftward tilt of NPR in its present incarnation, then you are delusional and not worth talking to. So let's assume that you are sane and admit the bias. The next question is whether you think it is morally right that tax dollars be used to push points of view that most of us in this conservative land find objectionable. I say that it it is not morally right that you take my money by force and then use it for a purpose that is not only inessential and unconnected to the necessary functions of government, but also violates my beliefs.
Perhaps, if NPR were balanced like C-SPAN, it could be tolerated in times of plenty. But we are not in times of plenty and it is not balanced.
So that is my second reason for defunding NPR.
Note that a reasonable liberal could accept my two reasons. I am not arguing that government must not engage in any projects other than those that are strictly essential such as those connected to the protection of life, liberty, and property (the Lockean triad). I leave that question open for the space of this post. I am arguing that present facts dictate that defunding NPR is something we ought to do.
I love Garrison Keillor and his "Prarie Home Companion" and tune in whenever I can. "Guy Noir" is one of my favorite bits. So I hope NPR stays on the air -- on its own fiscal steam. Hell, if they wean themselves from the mammaries of massive Mama Obama Government I may even send them a check myself! And the same goes for PBS.
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