28 October 2010

NPR NUTTINESS BUT.....

I’ve been watching the world go by for the past week, and a recurring theme has been the nuttiness at NPR that has resulted in the firing of Juan Williams for remarks deemed insensitive to Moslems. Juan Williams is hardly a right-winger, and is generally perceived to be a fair-minded commentator. I found this whole situation to be hysterical, particularly in terms of what is says about how NPR pretentiously perceives itself. So Juan Williams has a gig at Fox News, and um, NPR. How that ought to come down and did is a no-brainer, even though many affiliate stations were very unhappy about this.

Notwithstanding that I am about as friendly to NPR as anyone can be, largely because the stations are just about the only source available for classical music and programs like Music from the Hearts of Space. I even go to fundraisers for my local station, although I could certainly live without the rest of NPR. But even then I recall one time hearing an interview with Jacques Barzun discussing his epic masterpiece on Western civilization (From Dawn to Decadence: 500 Years of Western Cultural Life 1500 to the Present). I don’t know where else that kind of thing can be found. To me it is more disconcerting that intellectually stimulating material falls into such a narrow band and gets mixed up with “progressivism.” Overall, as far as content goes, NPR does cover things that no one else does, and does a reasonably good job of it. It is only the political slant that sometimes enters that diminishes it, as with the firing of Juan Williams. Lurking behind all of this may be the influence of the evil currency speculator George Soros, who recently gave a large donation to NPR.

However, leaving ideology aside, I don’t believe that taxpayers should have to fund this network. I find some value in it so I provide support. I don’t expect that everyone else should have to. It really isn’t a function of government. Meanwhile the only result of this is that Juan Williams will go on to bigger and better things.

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