“Re: Now NPR Can Beg a Little Less, Perhaps”

> Come on Bill -- this is an organization that smeared the Traditional Values > Coalition suggesting that they were the sort of group who may have been > responsible for the anthrax attack and then took more than a year to > actually retract and apologize for the story on-air.

If that's how far you have to reach then I'd hardly cast that as a 'left wing' bias. Some of TVC folk do well come across as nutcases. Calling them such hardly casts anyone as being 'left wing'.

You may forget, I *live* in the DC area, as do the head office NPR personnel. We've had a somewhat heightened sense of concern about anthrax in the postal system as it's OUR mail, here in OUR town that's been affected. And appears to be again. That people make mistakes in such situations is hardly a reason to cast larger bias arguments against them.

> But it's bias doesn't stop me listening to it anymore than Fox's bias keeps > me from watching it. In fact much of the time both Fox and NPR are far > superior to traditional broadcast news precisely because of their biases.

Fox is tripe. I've tried watching it. My sensibilities won't tolerate the abuse of being lied to that much.

> I just don't think either one should ever receive government subsidies.

Well, there are plenty of things that should or shouldn't get subsidies. I just don't find the paltry sums involved in funding public radio to be significant enough to justify cutting it off. The larger good it's done and will likely continue doing far outweighs the risks and expense.

But to come back 'round to Seth's point, yes, it's great to see their recent donation. I'd imagine it'd be better put into a long-term trust than to look at it as operating revenue. Trusts and endowments are often a lot more useful than just cash.

-Bill Kearney