Stand up for NPR!

http://consortiumnews.com/2011/031111a.html

In Defense of NPR

By Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

March 11, 2011

Editor’s Note: National Public Radio – and public broadcasting in general – are under renewed attack by Republicans determined to zero out their funding. The latest slam on NPR came from a right-wing scam, baiting an NPR fundraiser into criticizing the Tea Party.

But the larger question is whether the increasingly tepid journalism of NPR and PBS are worth fighting for. In this guest essay, Bill Moyers and Michael Winship say it is:

Come on now: Let’s take a breath and put this NPR fracas into perspective.

Just as public radio struggles against yet another assault from the its long-time nemesis -- the right-wing machine that would thrill if our sole sources of information were Fox News, Rush Limbaugh, and ads paid for by the Koch Brothers -- it walks into a trap perpetrated by one of the sleaziest operatives ever to climb out of a sewer.

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We agree with Joel Meares who, writing for the Columbia Journalism Review, expressed the wish that NPR had stood up for themselves and released a statement close to the following:

"Ron Schiller was a fundraiser who no longer works for us. He had nothing to do with our editorial decision making process. And frankly, our editorial integrity speaks for itself.

“We’ve got reporters stationed all over the world, we’ve won all sorts of prizes, we’ve got an ombudsman who is committed to examining our editorial operations.

“If you think our reporting is tainted, or unreliable, that’s your opinion, and you’re free to express it. And to look for the evidence. But we will not be intimidated by the elaborate undercover hackwork of vindictive political point-scorers who are determined to see NPR fail."

That’s our cue. Come on, people: Speak up!