Bob McDonnell Cuts Like A Knife Through The State Budget

The things that warm the cold, cold cockles of my heart.

Gov. Robert F. McDonnell has used a powerful executive tool to further his goal of phasing out state funding for public broadcasting.

After two efforts to get legislators to cut more funding than they would agree to, the governor moved closer to his objective Tuesday when he signed the amended 2012 budget and included one line-item veto that will result in 25 percent fewer dollars for educational programing for public radio and TV stations.

Given that the cuts make up a very small percentage of the balanced budget legislators had already approved, the governor’s veto is more symbolic of his ideology than of his budget concerns.

“In today’s free market, with hundreds of radio and television programs, government should not be subsidizing one particular group of stations,” Mr. McDonnell said.

Cutting funding for public broadcasting is one of those issues that liberals seem to carry two very different and opposing ideas in their little head at the same time. On one hand, public funding is a small percentage for NPR and PBS so it doesn't make much of a difference. But yet cutting that same funding is akin to burning the first amendment and the death knell for free speech.

Besides, it's only the state budget. Public broadcasting will still go on with help from federal funding and "Viewers like you". They can handle a few extra days of fund-raising to make up the difference.

Again, this is about funding. Which political party will the editors and producers favor in their story? The party who would budget them more money or the party threatening to cut the purse strings?

NPR Is Really Unbiased And I Run The New York Times

Some may consider the James O'Keefe NPR sting Only A Game but it helps reveals an issue that many have known for some time about taxpayer funded media. That by the very fact they are on the public dole, they can't be unbiased.

For a while, the Talk of The Nation was John Ensign.

From The Top, NPR has been on the John Ensign affair issue for some time. Why not? He's a Republican.

But Tell Me More about Democrat Alcee Hasting's sexual harassing a subordinate?

Crickets.

So in the case of two consensual adults having relations that is more than just Car Talk, it's news. In the case of a disgraced and impeached federal judge turned congressman making unwanted sexual advances toward an employee, it's not.

On Point, it all depends on what their political party is.

All Things Considered, would NPR run story about the political party that favors them?

Wait, Wait. Don't tell me. It's the party that fell over backwards in order to get a photo opportunity with a gopher or whatever the hell kind of animal Arthur is in order to scare monger kids into thinking Republicans are going to take PBS off the air.

(Seriously? He's an aardvark? Where's the long snout?)

If The Undercover NPR Video Was Such A "Non-Story", Then Why Is Everyone Suddenly Resigning? UPDATE: Did Vivian Schiller Break A Few Laws?

Morning Joe at MSNBC deemed it a "Half minute news story", if only to spend the half minute demeaning the story as to why it's not a story.

If so, then why did Vivian Schiller follow in Ron Schillers (the target of the video, no relation) footsteps and leave NPR?

NPR President and CEO Vivian Schiller has resigned, NPR just announced.

This follows yesterday's news that then-NPR fundraiser Ron Schiller (no relation) was videotapped slamming conservatives and questioning whether NPR needs federal funding during a lunch with men posing as members of a Muslim organization (they were working with political activist James O'Keefe on a "sting.")

Vivian Schiller quickly condemned Ron Schiller's comments, and he moved up an already-announced decision to leave NPR and resigned effectively immediately. But Ron Schiller's gaffe followed last fall's dismissal of NPR political analyst Juan Williams, for which Vivian Schiller came under harsh criticism.

They say one thing in public and another in private.

Update Via Insty: Is the sting video the real reason or did Vivian Schiller break a few laws in order to scare monger children into thinking Sesame Street will be going off the air keep her juicy federal funding?

NPR and PBS stations nationwide are rallying their audiences to contact Congress to fight against Republicans’ proposed spending cuts, but some affiliates’ pleas may violate laws preventing nonprofits or government-funded groups from lobbying.
[. . .]
The ad campaigns are a direct response to House Republicans’ push to eliminate all Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds for the rest of the fiscal year. Democrats have fought the cuts and President Obama asked for $451 million for CPB in his 2012 budget request — a $6 million increase.

But lawmakers and conservative critics argue the stations are breaking two laws, one that prohibits using taxpayer-funded grants to petition Congress for more taxpayer money and the other that bans nonprofits from doing much lobbying of any kind. [Emphasis mine]

Video: Stunning Undercover Footage Of National Public Radio Executive Talking About How NPR Is Liberal

Video via The Daley Gator.



Of course NPR is walking back from this, saying it's "edited" (Of course it's edited. The lunch was two hours long. Do you want to hear four people chew their food? Because if you do, the video in it's entirety is found at James O'Keefe site) and saying that they knew the fake organization was just that. A fake.

To which Larry O'Connor asks this:

As this story continues to unravel on NPR they are going to need to explain how the could definitively state to the public that they repeatedly refused the large, anonymous donation from MEAC yet at the same time, were “vetting” them. Why would you vet an organization from which you were repeatedly refusing a donation?

More accurately, NPR was trying to track down it's sizable donation and when they realized they had been 'Punked', went into spin mode to cover their collective buts.

Anyway, the best part of this is that Shiller-- reading between the lines with all of his talk about "Intellectuals" obviously considers himself to be one-- has been punked.