OK, I’m having a hard time letting this issue go, so I’m going to devote an entire post to it.
Did anyone else watch Juan Williams host “The Factor” last night on Fox News? O’Reilly (who’s proved himself to be more than just a cantankerous old guy; bloated with opinion); handed Williams the keys to the kingdom and, in my humble opinion, Mr. Williams hit a homerun.
I just hope Juan manages to keep that fire in his belly and that his ire remains after the wound has stopped stinging. Hopefully and seemingly; if his comments last night are any indication, Mr. Williams’ eyes have been opened to the truth about the democratic left. And that the hypocrisy that governs and guides them has been laid on the table and is a lesson he won’t soon forget.
There’s a reason why we’re called, the “right.”
That said, let’s get into it.
Vivian Schiller, the President and CEO of NPR (the woman who not only was so tactless as to fire Williams over the phone-after 10 years of faithful service), but then went on to hold a press conference about it where she suggested Juan discuss his fear of Muslims with his psychiatrist (inferring that he’s mentally ill.) According to what Juan reported on Fox last night, Ms. Schiller had issued a public apology (which I still cannot find footage or even a record of), but has yet to reach out to him, privately.
If I was Juan, I wouldn’t accept her apology, anyway. It’d be hollow and forced and she’d only be saying it because she knows her job is on the line.
Putting aside, for a minute, how ineptly and unprofessionally she handled Mr. Williams’s dismissal; let’s focus on the further reaching impact of her glib words. Talk about insensitivity to those suffering from mental illness. The smirk that accompanied her thoughtless remarks seemed to convey that she either doesn’t take mental illness very seriously, or she knows nothing about it.
As angry as I am over this whole thing, I’m just as bothered by the incident that precipitated it. It was Bill O’Reilly’s comment that Muslims were responsible for 9/11 when he was a guest on The View and the theatrical exit of Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar in protest of what they considered to be a prejudiced statement against Muslims.
Obviously, the resulting fall-out was mild in comparison to how NPR handled Juan Williams’ statement, but it just illustrates how “political correctness;” fueled primarily by liberalism has transformed our country into a rigid landscape of intolerance. Those who adhere to it seem utterly incapable of accepting or even recognizing any opposing opinions, attitudes or ideas.
And in what has to be the ultimate display of hypocrisy; Whoopi released a statement lambasting NPR for firing Williams over his comment. Let’s keep in mind, this comes from a woman who felt it acceptable even necessary to walk off her set in the wake of a statement of fact from O’Reilly; yet defends Juan’s expression of opinion.
That’s where the libutards get it wrong. Both of their comments are equally protected under the first amendment. And taking into account the blatant disregard by NPR of that constitutional protection, I do believe our government needs to cut funding to them as a way of sending a strong message to the rest of the far left “mainstream” media that freedom of speech must not be impinged upon.
NPR claims that only 2% of their annual budget comes from our government, but that 2% comes to about 90 million dollars (nothing to sneeze at.) If it’s such a drop-in-the-bucket for them; they should forego it. PBS (another taxpayer supported media outlet) garnered approximately $400 million in Federal subsidies in 2009. We need to put an end to state-sponsored broadcasting, especially when the networks we’re funding reflect only a one-sided political view.
According to the NPR website:
A very small percentage -- between one percent to two percent of NPR's annual budget -- comes from competitive grants sought by NPR from federally funded organizations, such as the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts.
This is “technically” true within the narrowest of definitions, but grossly over-simplified and misleading.
Separating so-called “competitive grants" from the final tally is not an accurate accounting of NPR’s federal funding. They receive substantial money from the CPB – through its member stations. NPR Inc’s 2007 financial statement documents that $65 million of the $169 million in total reported earnings from that year came from "station programming fees" and another $2 million came from "membership dues." Meaning, member stations “affiliates” receive grants through CPB, which they then send back to Washington (NPR) to pay for dues and programming. Keep in mind, that’s at least $67 million additional dollars on top of the “2.5%” NPR is copping to.
NPR claims the member stations receive only 13 percent of their revenue (on average) from CPB, but the federal funds sloshing through the NPR system are substantial, not as insignificant a percentage of their operating budget as they’d like us to believe.
If you’re as outraged by all of this as I am, please take a moment to log onto http://www.NPR.org and let them know. It takes less than five minutes to register. Please direct your comments and emails to the Ombudsman (the one put in charge of arbitrating this whole thing.) Let them know how you feel about the handling of this whole situation and let’s hit them where they’ll really feel it. This is their annual “fund-raising” weekend. Send your donations elsewhere and ask others to do the same!!!
This issue is bigger than Juan Williams or Bill O’Reilly. It’s about preserving the freedoms granted to every American. For if they’re threatened for one of us; they’re under attack for us all.
JGG
original post at http://politicalpatrol.blogspot.com
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