NPR: National Public Radio Or National Propaganda Radio
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized as npr) is an American privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization based in Washington, D.C. NPR differs from other non-profit membership media organizations, such as AP, in that it was established by an act of Congress and most of its member stations are owned by government entities (often public universities).
According to information available from the NPR website, local radio station money comes from the following sources:
32.1% Individual contributions
21.1% Business contributions
13.6% University funds
10.1% Corporation for Public Broadcasting funds
9.6% Foundation money
5.6% Federal, state, and local government funds
7.6% Other
At first glance, this distribution of funds seems to confirm that public radio's support does not come in large amounts from the direct allocation of tax moneys. After all, 5.6% is not a gigantic portion of the budget, is it? But let's look more closely. That 10.1% that comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting is 99% provided by -- you guessed it -- the federal government. Those university funds, whenever they are provided by a public university, represent taxpayer-provided dollars. We can safely assert that three out of four university-supported stations are publicly funded, which means that more than 10% (three-quarters of that 13.6%) is taken from the taxpayer's pockets.
So far, we find that NPR member stations count on direct or indirect taxpayer money for some 25% of their funds -- and that's before we consider some of the largest portions of their budgets.
Obviously the support by individuals, businesses, and foundations does not constitute taxpayer funding, right? Not so fast. These donations are tax-deductible; thus, they are subsidized by the government. Granted, not every gift is actually reflected on an individual or business tax return, and not all of those that are itemized wind up offsetting high marginal tax rates. Still, it is reasonable to believe that on average, these gifts result in deductions at the 25% tax bracket. Since these three categories add up to roughly 64% of station funds, we can reasonably argue that 16% of that money (64% x 0.25) is subsidized by the tax code.
In the end, then, local NPR affiliates derive something like 41% of their funding from taxes, either directly or indirectly.
What about the entity that generated all the buzz for firing Juan Williams? Interestingly, despite their conflicting 2% and 3% claims, the NPR website says, "We receive no direct federal funding for operations." Of course, that sort of statement leaves open the possibility of receiving direct federal funding for other purposes. What are those? They don't volunteer that information easily. What they do point out prominently is that the biggest source of money is from member stations. Local stations pay dues and fees for the programs they rebroadcast. This money, recorded as Station Programming Fees (40%), Membership Dues (1%), and Distribution Services (8%), accounts for nearly half of NPR's funds.
Why is this significant? You do recall that some 41% of local station money came from taxpayers, right? If 50% of funding comes from money that is 40% derived from taxes, then another 20% of NPR's budget comes, indirectly, from taxpayers. Twenty percent! That's a long way from the 2%-3% figures, isn't it?
The next huge chunk of NPR income comes from "Sponsorships." These are the things that, in any other media outlet, would be called advertisements. We could argue that sponsorship money is tax-deductible and therefore partly taxpayer-funded, but, lest we look like double-standard-wielding lefties, we would have to make the same argument for the ads that car companies run on ABC and CBS. Let's face it: virtually every large corporation in America enjoys some form of government largesse. That's what happens when government tentacles reach into all portions of our lives.
On the other hand, there is much more clarity when we look to the 10% "Grants and Contributions" category that represents direct taxpayer gifting (most prominently by way of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting) and indirect taxpayer support by way of tax deductions. Is it reasonable to say that half of that 10% comes in one way or another from taxes? I think so, but I'll settle for saying that this category adds just 3% to the total. This brings our total of taxpayer support for the entire NPR budget to around 23%.
Given that only 89% of the NPR income pie comes from external sources (the rest coming from investment returns), it is not unreasonable to assert that more than 25% of NPR funds from outside sources actually comes from taxpayers. That's not an overwhelming portion of the budget, but it's a long way from two to three percent.
As annoying as I find the bias at MSNBC or the New York Times, I will respect to the end their right to be as biased as they'd like. What they do with their money and whatever funds they can convince advertisers to kick in is their own business. The same does not apply to the likes of NPR. That's your money and my money going into their coffers and funding that unbalanced message. We need to demand that NPR either be pushed away from the public trough or be required to present a modicum of evenhandedness.
The Washington Post is not alone when it comes to kind remembrances of the ISIS terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who died igniting a suicide vest in a tunnel in northwest Syria on Saturday as U.S. troops closed in.
During special coverage of President Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday of the successful mission, National Public Radio (NPR) praised the man who was responsible for beheading three Americans and enslaving and killing an American woman.
Host Lulu Garcia-Navarro led a roundtable discussion with NPR reporters Greg Myre, Tamara Keith and Daniel Estrin about Baghdadi’s death and asked them to tell listeners about the terrorist.
“He led a movement that we’ve never seen before,” Myre said. “ISIS had tens of thousands of members, fighters, coming in from all over the world.”
“They controlled massive amounts of territory — in Eastern Syria and Western and Northern Iraq,” Myre said, adding ISIS had ”millions of people under their control.”
“They administered cities, they collected taxes,” Myre said.
“They had this incredible online recruit presence in terms of spreading propaganda; recruiting followers,” Myre said. “This is a guy that sort of emerged on the scene.”
“And led this group that had done something we’d never seen before,” Myre said.
“This isn’t the end of ISIS, but he was a real leader,” Myre said. “It’s not somebody that they can just appoint somebody else; take over, and the movement continues.”
“His leadership was critical,” said Myre, who finally admitted that the terrorist’s death was “definitely a major blow to the Islamic State.”
Estrin called the successful mission a “symbolic victory.”
Meanwhile, Keith, who is a White House correspondent for NPR, claimed that Trump makes up U.S. foreign policy “on the fly” and the president’s announcement took the “focus away from the muddle and confusion” of his administration.
Source: https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2019/10/28/npr-praises-terrorist-baghdadi-he-was-a-real-leader-a-movement-weve-never-seen-before/
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