National Public Radio Chief Executive Vivian Schiller resigned early last week, after fundraising director Ron Schiller (no relation to Vivian Schiller) was caught on a hidden camera bashing both the Republican and Tea Party. He was also bantering about cutting all federal funding toward NPR.
Conservative activist James O’Keefe released the footage. Two conservative activists posed as representatives from a fake Muslim charity, the Muslim Education Action Center, and recorded their meeting with Ron Schiller.
He was recorded calling Tea Party members “gun-toting” and Republicans “racist” and “xenophobic,” which is the fear of foreigners. My favorite line was “liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives.”
Not only are his comments stereotyping, but they’re not based on credible information.
Let me make it clear: Only 49 percent of the Tea Party identifies as Republican and 43 percent call themselves Independents. Ronald, get your facts straight; you have a title to uphold. I’m sure next time you’ll keep your “NPR hat” on.
Schiller also had the intention of doing business with the men, who claimed to be part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Yes America, his actions are horrific. And no, I’m not “Islamophobic” or “racist” because I’ve mentioned a radical Islamist extremist group. Schiller said NPR is the most reliable source of news, because newspapers are run by Jews.
What are you talking about, hypocrite? You act like an elitist, when in fact you’re being a bigot and an anti-intellectual at best.
On March 9, Schiller told reporters, “I made statements during the course of the meeting that are counter to NPR’s values and also not reflective of my own beliefs.” I’m sorry, but what are your 22 million followers going to think of that?
NPR has long been deemed by Republicans as liberal-biased. They are a recipient of government funding, and they must remain non-partisan and unbiased, if they are going to keep listeners. Ron Schiller calling all Republicans “xenophobic” uses the actions of a few to generalize about an entire group — exactly what he’s speaking against. His actions illustrate the moronic double standard held by many liberals like him.
This is perfect timing for Ron Schiller to also blurt out that NPR “would be better off in the long run without federal funding.” Last year, President Barack Obama’s bipartisan deficit budget commission recommended eliminating funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which totaled $432 million in fiscal year 2011. While only 10 percent of the funding is from taxpayers, Republicans argue they would be fine without it and apparently Ron Schiller agrees.
In the words of Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C.., “forcing taxpayers to give public broadcasting hundreds of millions of dollars makes little sense when we’re facing a $14 trillion debt and there are already thousands of educational and entertainment choices in the media.”
However, many rural areas of the country might lose their stations if funding were to be cut.
While freedom of speech is the predominant issue being faced, a national news source such as NPR cannot show such extreme bias. It forms hatred, dismounts their credibility and serves as a window to see how they really think.
