Political Ruminations

Teabagger Republican House Votes to Defund NPR

The House voted today to defund NPR. James O’Keefe’s video purportedly exposing unethical behavior by NPR, was debunked, so why would they defund NPR?

In a largely symbolic move, the House today voted to block all federal funding for NPR, a week after the embattled public radio station found itself the subject of a conservative activist's sting that led to the ouster of its chief executive.

The bill passed by a 228-192 vote. No Democrats voted for it. Only 7 Republicans voted against the measure

Bob Cesca:

Once again, the Very Serious House Republicans have acted based upon a known fraud and scam artist who selectively edits his videos in order to frame otherwise innocent officials. James O'Keefe inspired this vote, and now 228 Republicans have attached their name to his latest scam. They're a major political party and they control the House of Representatives. When will the traditional press highlight how unserious these people are?

Adding….O’Keefe’s latest fake sting involves the Right’s favorite billionaire whipping boy, George Soros, and has also been debunked.

Adding also.... Just found video of Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-NY) mocking the Teabaggers (over the defunding of NPR) on the House floor today.

 

Morning Quote: Conservatives Say NPR is Fair

All quotes are from the MMFA site, and derived from interviews of the individuals by MMFA, with all emphasis being mine. Personally, in view of all that MMFA does, I am beginning to think that we need to erect some statuary or something. They are a Left Wing treasure.

In an interview with Media Matters, Tony Blankley, a former Newt Gingrich press secretary, and a syndicated conservative columnist:

I've been on NPR regularly for a very long time. From a personal perspective they have always given me plenty of access, I am clearly a right-wing commentator so I cannot complain. There's a conservative on and there's a liberal on, so that's all fair.

It is what their view is on what constitutes news. They are much more concerned with what is going on in the third world. That is a news judgment. For every story they run on conditions in some third world country, it is space not used for some story that we conservatives think is relevant to a conservative audience.

No editor or host has ever suggested, 'Could you not be quite so conservative on this show?' I have been open and free to express my opinion.

Again, in an interview with Media Matters, Michael Medved, Conservative syndicated talk radio host:

I think NPR tries harder to be fair than just about any other media source. It doesn't mean they succeed. They do give evidence of trying. I listen almost every day to Morning Edition and All Things Considered. I think that they do as good a job as anybody in media in reporting the news.

Glenn Reynolds, Conservative blogger, in an interview with Media Matters:

My own interaction with them has been fine. I have found them to be fair. I think their coverage is often quite good. I think NPR does a good job.

Dallas, Texas Tea Party official, Katrina Pierson, to Media Matters:

I think NPR was very cordial to our group. They actually came to TX and spent a few days with us visiting our homes, and our work places. They attended meetings and asked questions. I enjoyed having them here. I think the reporting that they ended up using for All Things Considered, it was fair

Another Right Wing Hack

James O’Keefe, of ACORN fame, and other sundry scams.

MMFA shreds O’Keefe’s cred, which was already shredded, but said shredding clearly bears repetition:

Conservative activist James O'Keefe has released a video purporting to show an NPR executive making inflammatory comments to two people posing as members of a "Muslim Brotherhood front group." As has been the case in the past, conservative media outlets and blogs are hyping O'Keefe's video.

It's not clear why anyone would believe anything that O'Keefe says about what is seen in the video.

• O'Keefe pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor criminal charge for entering Sen. Mary Landrieu's office in New Orleans under false pretenses.

• O'Keefe falsely claimed that his ACORN tapes were a "nationwide ACORN child prostitution investigation" that implicated many ACORN employees. In at least six of the eight heavily edited videos, either the activists did not clearly tell the ACORN employees that they were planning to engage in child prostitution; or the ACORN employees refused to help them or apparently deliberately misled them; or ACORN employees contacted the police following their visit.

• Three separate investigations cleared ACORN workers of criminal wrongdoing, and a 2009 report by the Congressional Research Service stated that O'Keefe's surreptitious videotaping may have broken laws in California and Maryland.

• O'Keefe and Andrew Breitbart withheld an exculpatory ACORN video from Los Angeles for two months in late 2009, during the height of the ACORN frenzy.

• A September 18, 2009, New York Times article reported that Liz Farkas, a college friend of O'Keefe's while at Rutgers University, said she "grew disillusioned" after O'Keefe asked Farkas to help deceptively "edit the script" of a video involving a nurse at the University of California at Los Angeles.

• In a 10-minute video posted on BigGovernment.com in June 2010, O'Keefe stated that he had been hired as a Census worker and attended two days of training. He said, "What I found were Census supervisors systematically encouraging employees to falsify information on their time sheets." The video includes clips of census leaders, who according to O'Keefe, "didn't seem to have a problem with the discrepancy" of the hours recorded on his time sheet versus the hours he claimed to have worked. O'Keefe omitted a clip that was later aired by ABC, which shows a census leader emphasizing the importance of accurately reporting on miles driven by census enumerators.

• O'Keefe reportedly planned to "seduce" and publically humiliate CNN investigative reporter Abbie Bourdeau. In an article posted at CNN.com, Bourdeau reported that when she arrived for an interview with O'Keefe, she was informed by O'Keefe's colleague Izzy Santa that O'Keefe planned to lure her aboard a boat where he would secretly record his attempts to "hit on her" using "strawberries and champagne." Boudreau reported that a document she obtained suggested O'Keefe would also use props including a "condom jar," Viagra, pornography, a ceiling mirror, and "fuzzy handcuffs." The document explained the motivation: "The joke is that the tables have turned on CNN. Using hot blondes to seduce interviewees to get screwed on television, you are faux seducing her in order to screw her on television." O'Keefe later claimed that he had been "repulsed" by the scenario laid out in the document when it was presented to him, and that it did not represent his actual plan for the interview.

Roger Ailes Bashes NPR: They’re Nazis

Roger Ailes, bashing on NPR during an interview with Howard Kurtz, published by The Daily Beast:

They are, of course, Nazis. They have a kind of Nazi attitude. They are the left wing of Nazism. These guys don't want any other point of view.

They don't even feel guilty using tax dollars to spout their propaganda. They are basically Air America with government funding to keep them alive.

Sigh…. Why does the old, morbidly obese Ailes hate America?

It is of note that NPR stations receive less than 6% of their funding from the government. The network gets less than 2% of its funding from the government.