The Patriot Post® · See Ya' Around, 'Big Bird'

Back in 1970, under President Lyndon Johnson’s regime, National Public Radio, known better today as NPR, was found with public and private funds to produce and distribute news and cultural programming to about 800 stations across the country. As we all know, the government should have never gotten into the broadcasting business.

Now, over 40 years later, a NPR board member named Sue Schardt has just admitted the organization had “unwittingly cultivated a core audience that is predominately white, liberal, highly educated and elite.” As a result, Public Broadcasting, which once was so good it brought us “Mr. Rogers” and Sesame Street’s “Big Bird,” is now in for a bigger facelift than the Japanese coastline.

A pending Congressional tsunami, this on the heels of one suddenly “ex” NPR executive yelling “racists” in a “news sting,” the haughty CEO abruptly retiring, and others acting exactly like they are “white, liberal and highly educated,” will have a very deserved effect on both NPR and PBS.

The way it will work is that the new Republican-braced budget has no line item for public broadcasting. Opponents, promising to deliver a frantic 400,000 signatures of support to Washington this week, are livid and, according to insiders, are also “fresh out of luck.”

The best quote from all the dust raised from the ruckus comes out of Georgia. Listen to what Tommy Graves said in a letter. “I never listen to NPR. As I travel across Georgia, I tune in to hear Glenn Beck or Rush, Hannity or catch the news or just relax to good ole country music. NPR is too snooty for my taste.

"The politically correct drivel that passes for entertainment on NPR doesn’t appeal to me. Plus I’m probably like you … I believe that NPR is rightfully under fire from conservatives for firing Juan Williams (and) for having the audacity to be conservative and appear on NPR’s most hated rival, Fox News.

"Whether NPR is on the air or not wouldn’t matter to me except for this cold hard truth: They’re funded with your tax dollars and mine,” Tommy continued.

“The NPR types like to project the image of being all lovey-dovey, but when it comes to negative campaigning, they’re cruel, relentless, personal and fueled by a self-righteous disdain for anything and anybody conservative.”

Guess what? “Tommy” is really Congressman John Thomas Graves, who represents Georgia’s 9th District. He’s a Republican, he’s mad, and he’s got a vote. Oh, he’s “white, highly-educated and elite,” too, but liberal he is most decidedly not.

Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Senator, was being interviewed the other day by a reporter for WABE, an NPR affiliate in Washington, and at one point he said, “If you look at NPR versus particularly the overall public broadcasting issue, NPR doesn’t generate income like the public broadcasting side does.

"You know, an awful lot of conservatives listen to NPR. It provides a very valuable service. Should we maybe think about a reduction in that? Again, I think the sacrifice is going to have to be shared by NPR as well as others. But I think total elimination of funding is probably not the wisest thing to do.”

Bernie Sanders, a Senator from Vermont who claims he’s an Independent but consistently sides with the liberal Democratic Caucus, wants to keep NPR funding – of course – but he brings up a very important counter-point.

Acknowledging NPR is a shade liberal, Sen. Sanders pointed out, “To be honest with you, I worry about a concentration of ownership in media, where you have a handful of media conglomerates largely controlling what we see, hear and read.”

Sen. Sanders claims NPR runs counter to the ownership issue, i.e. freedom of the press, but he fails to point out the liberal manifesto is what the conservatives want to quell, not the public’s 10- to-15-percent subsidy that gives each radio station that broadcasts NPR about $120,000 yearly in public funding. NPR officials say a lack of “government funds” will run those radio stations out of business while opponents gleefully retort, “Good riddance.”

Multiple $125K by nearly 900 radio stations today and – presto – we are talking about a lot of tax money in one corner of the room or a big budget savings in another. That’s why NPR for Public Broadcasting isn’t on the budget. Why? We don’t have the money for “snooty” stuff right now!

And that’s why “Big Bird,” all 8 feet, 2 inches tall of his bright yellow self, ain’t gonna’ come around much anymore like he and his pal Kermit the Frog once enraptured our hearts before being replaced by … well, you get the picture.

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