The power struggle between National Public Radio and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting continues. The CPB, which oversees NPR, claims the publicly-funded radio network needs a better balance of programming; NPR’s defenders accuse CPB of political censorship. Now, NPR is facing a Congressional proposal to cut $100 million from its budget. An internal NPR memo obtained by CNN blames the cut squarely on the CPB’s bias allegations.
In a related development, two ombudsmen hired by the CPB to oversee NPR last April are still unable to claim full membership in the Organization of News Ombudsmen. According to the NY Times, Ken Bode and William Schulz’s membership is being blocked by Jeffrey Dvorkin, NPR’s own ombudsman. Dvorkin, who once admitted that Mideast coverage is affected by “compassion fatigue” now has to worry if American taxpayers are fatigued by the $300 million NPR is supposed to receive from Congress.
For more info, see CAMERA, which deserves a lot of credit for holding NPR’s notoriously biased Mideast coverage accountable over the years. And because the issue relates to public funding, it wouldn’t hurt to share your thoughts with your elected congressmen in the House of Representatives and Senate.
