Althouse: "I think it is good news for NPR if they can get someone who I think has been the keeper of a flame of liberal orthodox out of NPR."

January 6, 2011

"I think it is good news for NPR if they can get someone who I think has been the keeper of a flame of liberal orthodox out of NPR."

"I think she represented a very ingrown, incestuous culture in that institution that's not open to not only different ways of thinking but angry at the fact that I would even talk or be on FOX."

Juan Williams reacts to NPR's ousting of Ellen Weiss, the woman who fired him. I'm linking to NPR's own story, and you have to click on the video that's posted there to hear the words I'm quoting. It's worth listening to the whole interview Williams does with Meghan Kelly (on FoxNews). He lashes into NPR.

147 comments:

PaulV said...: I least PBS did not have to pay hired guns as much as CBS did when Rather uttered forged documents; 1/6/11, 6:09 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: As I mentioned a while back on my blog, two of the people who gave me grief at my old job got fired, and then I got a call asking me if I'd come back.

Well, today, they re-hired me - and my new boss is a guy I liked at the place I was working before I returned to my old job.

Weird, but cool.; 1/6/11, 6:12 PM
Jason said...: Why is the CEO still there?

She can't take a hint?

The libtards sacked Captain Honor for far less.; 1/6/11, 6:12 PM
Michael said...: Crack: Congratulations!; 1/6/11, 6:16 PM
coketown said...: Happily, the infrastructure now exists between internet radio and XM for NPR to still reach its small and scattered audience without the need for public funding. I like NPR. I think they should stick around and be as liberal as they want to be. But so long as they're subsisting on the public teat, they're going to get flak every time they do something idiotic that only a privately held, liberal organization can get away with.; 1/6/11, 6:38 PM
Opus One Media said...: I wonder why the right wing is so terrified by NPR. The fear is outright amazing.

...The phoney baloney right wing fixation with NPR......; 1/6/11, 6:42 PM
Phil 314 said...: Ouch!!

Will Ms.Weiss get a new higher paying job like Mr. Williams get? (MSNBC, I'm looking at you!)

Will they did this

Maybe they're saying "Please don't defund us, please, please, please...

And of course they'll have to hire a new black commentator.; 1/6/11, 6:42 PM
Michael said...: HD: I want to start a 24/7 classical music station in my market. NPR is already present and plays about four hours a day, max. I cannot raise the capital when NPR gets a free ride. I am not in the least afraid of them, but I am not going to compete with a publicly funded station. It would be folly. But there you have your precious NPR doling out a little classical every day to lure in the donors.; 1/6/11, 6:49 PM
Kirby Olson said...: They should sack the whole leadership and appoint Juan Williams as the new czar.; 1/6/11, 6:54 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Michael,

Thanks! It feels good to have my name redeemed by the boss himself, and my co-workers. (To say they've got a "good employee" now is an understatement.) I also got a top-of-the-line company car - a Ford Fusion - with the position, so I'm pretty happy about how it all turned out.; 1/6/11, 6:55 PM
Anonymous said...: that's not open to not only different ways of thinking but angry at the fact that I would even talk or be on FOX."

But liberals are tolerant.

Just ask them.; 1/6/11, 7:04 PM
Anonymous said...: I wonder why the right wing is so terrified by NPR

Nobody is "terrified" by NPR.

But since you aren't coherent, you're making silly assertions.; 1/6/11, 7:06 PM
Anonymous said...: Now it's time for Republicans to stop funding NPR ... funding that acts for all intents and purposes as campaign donations for the Democrat Party.

The Republicans now control all levers of power in the United States of America. While they do not have controlling majorities in the Senate and the White House is in the hands of a felon ... Republicans now decide what will be funded going forward.

Will they fund the Democrat-controlled NPR? When there are massive deficits? Will they waste millions on dubious university research when Democrats are bankrupting our children's futures spending on Democrat Party union pensions, exorbitant salaries and bonuses?

Why would Republicans continue this obscene funding of its sworn enemies?

Now is the time where we will learn whether the Republicans will continue the funding of the Democrat Party and its corrupt unions and the government institutions Democrats have controlled and have used to maintain power.

If Republicans can't manage to cut off this funding stream when it controls the entire federal budget, then we have no further need of the Republican Party and we can get on with providing new guards for our future.

Now is the time.

Now we will see.; 1/6/11, 7:07 PM
Lincolntf said...: Gotta love NPR. Diversity in all things except thought, where it actually matters. How so many Americans buy into their sanctimonious garbage is beyond me.; 1/6/11, 7:07 PM
The Drill SGT said...: Reading their (NPR) statement, Weiss appears not to have made the firing decision, but was a conduit:

Weiss was the NPR executive who informed Williams of his dismissal, which came after he said on Fox News Channel that he gets nervous when he sees people in "Muslim garb" on airplanes.

so who actually made the decision to fire Juan?; 1/6/11, 7:08 PM
Synova said...: That's terrific news, Crack.; 1/6/11, 7:10 PM
Opus One Media said...: @lincolntf....Car Talk and Fresh Air scare you to death huh?

@Michael...most DMAs support mutiple non-commercial stations and many more support a mix between the two.

I'm sure you are just trying to be cute with your "situation" but getting a license to start even a low watt FM is costly and time consuming so the competiton "point" is offset by advertising which you can sell and NPR cannot - they can only go the sponsorship and underwriting route...but you knew that and you were trying to be cute so the clods on here who are already terrified of the NPR power and cache would have one more thing to whine about.; 1/6/11, 7:27 PM
Bob_R said...: Good news, Crack!

The right gets mad about NPR because everyone pays for part of NPR. If this happened at MSNBC or CNN there would be far less buzz.; 1/6/11, 7:28 PM
David said...: Williams is still angry.

He should be.; 1/6/11, 7:30 PM
rhhardin said...: The boss you're interviewing with sees himself in your next story.

Always praise the places you've worked.

It improves your character as a side effect.; 1/6/11, 7:35 PM
Bob_R said...: The worst thing about all this is the extreme cocooning. Most of us like to cocoon, but no one can weave a tighter cocoon than white, coastal, rich, urban, highly educated media executives. I've seen religious conservatives around here try: home schooling, only Veggie Tales DVDs on TV for the kids, only Christian music. But this just comes automatically to the NPR types. They have to actively go out and try to find people who don't think exactly like them - but they don't.; 1/6/11, 7:35 PM
MadisonMan said...: Now it's time for Republicans to stop funding NPR

Now is the time for Republicans to slash funding for everything in the Government. If they cut funding just for things that make their base happy, what have they done, really, that's good for the Country? Not much. They've shown that when you're in power, your "enemies" (If I can use an ill-chosen term) on the other side of the aisle suffer.; 1/6/11, 7:48 PM
Unknown said...: Williams' point is quite valid. The whole media culture in this country has become so, to use his word, incestuous, people are rejecting them in favor of the Internet and talk radio for some balance - and they still don't get it.

HDHouse said...

I wonder why the right wing is so terrified by NPR. The fear is outright amazing.

Not terrified, outraged. Tax dollars going to push one point of view, full of lies, aimed at stupid, gullible people.

You know, Leftists.

(insert Olsen Johnson is right!!); 1/6/11, 8:04 PM
KCFleming said...: Cool, Crack; congrats.

NPR is just afraid of the bloddletting to come, and figgered they'd do a symbolic purge to see iff'n it helps.; 1/6/11, 8:07 PM
traditionalguy said...: NPR is a mixture of good reporting, great entertainment and an intense hatred of all things Republican, southern or Alaskan. You have to eat the fish and spit out the bones, as they say. Listening to their befuddlement at why Obama's policies can possibly be destroying their investments and the value of their dollars is almost fun to listen to. These trust fund snobs really expect to be rich because they always have been. Guess they need to look up the word "redistribution".; 1/6/11, 8:11 PM
Kirby Olson said...: This is the lead story on the O'Reilly show tonight. He talks with Laura Ingraham and Juan Williams and they all think this is just the first of many that NPR will throw under the bus in an attempt to stave off forthcoming budget cuts from the new Republican leaning house.

But you wonder how you can remake a news organization that is at least as incestuous as Pravda. It's better to just pull the plug.

Even North Korean news casts provided more surprises.; 1/6/11, 8:18 PM
MadisonMan said...: Crack: Congratulations on getting your job back!; 1/6/11, 8:25 PM
Lincolntf said...: "If they cut funding just for things that make their base happy, what have they done, really, that's good for the Country? Not much."

Wrong. What makes "their base happy" is what will save this country from a total economic collapse. You can keep pretending that bouncing checks in your children's names will somehow "even out" some time down the road, but the rest of the country can't continue to indulge that childlike view of the world.; 1/6/11, 8:32 PM
Quaestor said...: Jay wrote: But since you aren't coherent, you're making silly assertions.

Aricept does have its limitations.; 1/6/11, 8:39 PM
Michael said...: HD House: You accuse me of being "cute" by describing a potential business deal that I cannot conclude because of the existence of NPR in the market. I am well aware of the cost of the license. You do not do yourself any favors by assuming that everyone is stupid or trying to game you, HD. I have an honest and very real belief that a part time classical station that operates for "free" interferes with my attempt to have a money making but high quality full time classical station without the constant "news." This is not cute in my world, it is anti-capitalist and crudely so. You presumably care about the arts and classical music and I would have thought you would have seen my point. But since it conflicts with your politics you find me cute. And if you lived in my market you could listen to classical music on the radio for four or five hours a day.; 1/6/11, 8:42 PM
Methadras said...: HDHouse said...

I wonder why the right wing is so terrified by NPR. The fear is outright amazing.

...The phoney baloney right wing fixation with NPR......

Why are you fixated about right wingers at all? I thought your pathetic, putrid ideology put you above us all, you sack of petrified shit.; 1/6/11, 9:02 PM
Michael said...: Put another way, HD, I don't see how it is necessary for the federal government to fund my local NPR station either directly or indirectly. Why would the govt. want to be in that business? What if instead of defunding NPR the current congress went about replacing the current NPR staff with recruits from Fox news who populated the programs? Would you be OK with that approach? Why not?; 1/6/11, 9:03 PM
MadisonMan said...: Lincolntf: Cutting funding for NPR will not make the deficit vanish.

If Republicans start by cutting funding for NPR, Democrats will be able to say that Republicans are just going after the liberal side of aisle's pet projects.

No. What needs to be done is a wholesale cutting that includes everything, all at once. I don't mind if that includes NPR -- but it has to be done in a way that doesn't look partisan.; 1/6/11, 9:13 PM
Lincolntf said...: MM, I don't care about defunding NPR. All they need to do is hire some people with integrity. I was referring to your broader generalization diminishing the importance of real budget cuts as pandering to a "base".; 1/6/11, 9:16 PM
dddave said...: As a long time student of the Kabuki of corporate bureaucracy, let me offer a potential explanation of the odd NPR announcement.

Ellen Weiss, who communicated the NPR termination to Juan Williams, possibly also made the initial recommendation to fire Williams to her seniors in the NPR organization. But in the highly structured environment like NPR, she certainly was not the final decision maker. The final decision was certainly made by some or all the members of the NPR Board based on a recommendation of Vivian Schiller.

So in spite of her incredible tone-deaf manner of dealing with the firing, CEO Schiller survives, albeit sans bonus, as long as the names of the actual Director decision-makers are never revealed and they do not have to explain their rationales and motives.

Poor Ellen Weiss wasn’t part of these discussions and didn’t have access to the magic names that protected CEO Schiller in this truly comical episode.; 1/6/11, 9:22 PM
Greg Hlatky said...: Some few years ago WGUC (wguc.org) - the classical music station in Cincinnati - sloughed off all its dreary doctrinaire SWPL All-Things-Considered-type stuff off on the Xavier University station and went to an non-political 24 hour classical format. I doubled my contribution.; 1/6/11, 9:26 PM
Phil 314 said...: Will they did this

Should read "Why did they do this?"; 1/6/11, 9:36 PM
tiger said...: "Michael said...

Put another way, HD, I don't see how it is necessary for the federal government to fund my local NPR station either directly or indirectly. Why would the govt. want to be in that business? What if instead of defunding NPR the current congress went about replacing the current NPR staff with recruits from Fox news who populated the programs? Would you be OK with that approach? Why not?"

What a great point.; 1/6/11, 9:46 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Who cares? Do you go out of your way to pick up on items that no one cares about? You're just afraid of posting something on Joanie Boner Lacrimosa, crying and lying all over the Congress, the salt of his tears caking on the floor. To be covered in the Weeper of the House's tears must be what it feels like to be ejaculated on. He's got the emotional stability of a sociopath.; 1/6/11, 9:49 PM
mishu said...: @Greg Hlatky as a greyhound owner I must compliment you on your profile picture.

@Crack congrats; 1/6/11, 9:58 PM
cbinflux said...: NPR,
PLEASE take Juan Williams back -- Full-Time. He's such a blathering lightweight on FOX.; 1/6/11, 10:00 PM
Milwaukee said...: It does seem that somebody has been thrown under the bus. But NPR isn't sorry Juan was fired, just the way he was fired. Sort of like the child who isn't sorry they did a bad thing, just sorry they got caught. NPR needs defunding. And yes, MadisonMan, the Republicans need to demonstrate that whole programs are cut, and not necessarily progressive ones. Except, of course, that progressives have done more to increase the deficit than conservatives have, and so progressive programs are a much more "target rich" environment. Let us not confuse pork-barrel projects with conservative projects. Won't most conservatives agree there is some role for government, we just want the smallest government large enough to do the job.

My disenchantment with NPR reached its peak in the run up to the 2008 election. A female voice was interviewing the female head of a pro-abortion group, and the question was "Can you tell us why Mr. Obama is the right choice to become president?" I thought the question should have been "Can you tell us why you think Mr. Obama is the right choice to become president?"

How many heads will roll?; 1/6/11, 10:01 PM
Opus One Media said...: @Michael -

1. you stated that he local NPR outlet programs 4 hours a day of classical music. it is also not for profit by nature. If you have a programming concept that you can demonstrate will be economically viable then you might get funding from any number of sources but it appears you don't understand the concept of a for profit commercial radio station...translating to sales and rating points and demographics...none of which you seem to list in your viability argument.

How many classic rock stations in your market? How many ACs? the fight for advertising dollars with each other.you are planning a station that has no competition for advertising dollars. you also are probably serving a niche vertical...so is that niche viable?

the reason i think your comment is dumb is probably the same reason venture capitalists turn a deaf ear to your plan - you can't figure out a way to compete for advertising dollars with a non-profit which doesn't sell advertising.; 1/6/11, 10:06 PM
AllenS said...: That incestuous culture in the institution called NPR that Juan Williams describes, probably isn't any different than the people running most of the universities of this nation. Including the U of Wisconsin. You don't have to wait to see their hatred of the military to understand this, but only be aware of the fact that most professors won't even talk about the military unless they are trying to destroy that institution. No difference.; 1/6/11, 10:09 PM
PaulV said...: I guess donations to NPR declined because they threw the black man under the bus for going off the liberal plantation; 1/6/11, 10:14 PM
KCFleming said...: Defunding NPR should be among the easiest and most painless spending reductions available.

After all, they have long said that only a minor amount of their income stems from gubmint sources, so it should affect them very little.; 1/6/11, 10:15 PM
Anonymous said...: Stong left-wing core, born of the 60's, like Juan said, on college campuses. Think granola, social justice etc. all the things Bork didn't like about the 60's.

And that's why the true lefties see them as sellouts: all that high end programming, good production values, and mainstream formatting is anathema to the true believers.

Hell, NPR could have given birth to Obama: White girl from Kansas falls in love with anthropology, goes to Hawaii, falls for a black Kenyan, it doesn't work out. Next up, an Indonesian and a PhD thesis and a life looking for a culture...Obama came up around the same time as NPR, really.

We reap what we sow.

In some ways, Ann's in the same intellectual boat: feminism and radicals gave her freedom of opportunity...

Now many feminists and probably some NPR true believers are a crusty bunch of humorless hags and narrow thinkers, and the rest of us are along for the ride.; 1/6/11, 10:16 PM
Quaestor said...: To be covered in the Weeper of the House's tears must be what it feels like to be ejaculated on. He's got the emotional stability of a sociopath.

The voice of experience speaks.; 1/6/11, 10:16 PM
KCFleming said...: "The voice of experience speaks."

Exactly. Clearly a TMI moment.; 1/6/11, 10:20 PM
Penny said...: "The right gets mad about NPR because everyone pays for part of NPR."

The same could be said about the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress...except the right, at least at Althouse, doesn't get upset about that. At least no one did in the post she put up a few weeks ago.

Why is that?

The National Film Preservation Board is pretty much run by and for the people in Hollywood who are NOTORIOUSLY liberal. One might even say that the NFPB is a liberal marketing arm for Hollywood film. Yet we don't.

Why is that?

Maybe it's because we see the arts as belonging to all of us. As something that is outside of politics.

You know...Like some of us go to the movies, and some of us listen to Mountain Stage every Sunday night on NPR.; 1/6/11, 10:35 PM
KCFleming said...: NPR ain't 'the arts'.; 1/6/11, 10:36 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: The voice of experience speaks.

Did you think that my interacting with the many sociopaths here, such as Quaestor and Pogo, has not been an experience from which to learn?

It has been quite an experience indeed.; 1/6/11, 10:38 PM
KCFleming said...: If all they did was play obscure singers, no one would give a shit.; 1/6/11, 10:38 PM
john said...: If they would just defund "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me" I would be more than satisfied.; 1/6/11, 10:39 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: There will be no spending reductions forthcoming from the Weeper and his clique. Only a fool as fraudulent as The Man in Orange is dumb enough to think otherwise.; 1/6/11, 10:40 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: There has to be some enterprise assembled around cleaning up after the Weeper's vapors and other emissions from which some money can be made. Paying the janitors the amount of money it will take to clean up after Weepy will at least stimulate the D.C. economy tremendously.

He doesn't need a staff - He needs a clean-up crew.

He will stop spending with the force of his tears.; 1/6/11, 10:43 PM
AlphaLiberal said...: Juan Williams is a jerk. He cashed in on NPR's name for years over at Fox.

Now he sold out and has become a professional whiner to feed the conservative backlash.

He did a shitty job in violation of his contract - editorializing where he was supposed to be an analyst. He can't take responsibility.

Juan the Wanker.; 1/6/11, 10:44 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Any spending reductions will be offset by the tremendous number of boxes of Kleenex charged to Weepy Boehner's congressional spending account.

Bills sent to Obama will be too blurry to read, the words blotted out by Boehner's tears as he cries all over the text.

The microphones will be so ruined that no one will be able to read the constitution anymore - let alone bills, as the electronic equipment will be distorted and short-circuited by Weepy's blubbering into the audio equipment.

The Cry of the Tea Party has now become: Waaaaaahhhhh!!!; 1/6/11, 10:49 PM
Quaestor said...: Sociopath am I? Well, if the shoe fits... be assured I'd ejaculate on Mr. Name Obscured by His Own Avatar with out a twinge of remorse. He'd enjoy it.

wv: redcrox - the major leagues' most cold-blooded team; 1/6/11, 10:50 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: That was about as incoherent as it was obnoxious and pathological. Par for the course when it comes to Quaestor.; 1/6/11, 10:52 PM
KCFleming said...: Geez, he's only been Speaker for a day, and the lacrimosity jokes are already a total goddamned bore.; 1/6/11, 10:54 PM
Paul said...: NPR will tell you they "only" get 10% of their funding from the Federal government. Nearly all the rest comes from the Center For Public Broadcasting. They get 400 million a year from the Federal Government.

See the difference? CPB is on the Federal teat, unlike NPR.

/lib think off; 1/6/11, 10:55 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: So are his incredibly numerous crying fits, the number of which we can only expect to increase when it comes to a guy like Boehner, who is so discombobulated that he confuses pride with grief.

He also confuses melanin with beta carotene. And budget cuts with deficit reduction. And so on and so forth.; 1/6/11, 10:58 PM
Quaestor said...: Pogo wrote: ... the lacrimosity jokes are already a total goddamned bore.

Be kind, Pogo they're doing their best.; 1/6/11, 10:58 PM
john said...: And defund "Car Talk" too. Their accents are repulsive to middle Americans and they have a preference of taking calls from Volvo owners.; 1/6/11, 11:05 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: they're doing their best.

The guy is a joke, O Pseudonym of the Ancient Roman Financial Auditor. Day One and they're already admitting that their entire campaign theme was just a bunch of rhetoric and that they have no intention of cutting anything meaningful. The sooner you own up to this the better off you'll be. And you'll have more credibility and integrity, too - not that it matters.; 1/6/11, 11:06 PM
KCFleming said...: @Questor
I'm guessing Ritmo's had just one toke over the line.; 1/6/11, 11:08 PM
Penny said...: "Williams is still angry. He should be."

Yeah, maybe so, but my opinion of Williams, in the roll of "news analyst", has gone down as a result of how he handled himself immediately thereafter, and according to the video tonight,... to this day.

It shows a complete lack of judgment... to the extreme...for an ANALYST, to continually...over and over again...shoot from their emotional hip, while someone is paying them for their supposed, steeley eyed objectivity.

Does anyone here look to ANALYSTS for their feelings?

Cut me a break.

Juan Williams will be JUST a blogger, and sooner than he thinks. Worse than that, he won't have a clue how something so demeaning could happen to him.; 1/6/11, 11:08 PM
Chef Mojo said...: @Penny:

Thanks for the reminder! I'll get right on it with my representative about axing the NFPB! And while I'm at it, I'll also bring up CPB and NEA. There's absolutely no reason my tax dollars should be funding your leisure time activities.; 1/6/11, 11:09 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Thanks, everybody!

NPR has to go - now's the time.; 1/6/11, 11:09 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Oh boy! Marijuana jokes! That's funny. Tee hee. (For a square).

Boehner's a joke but there's nothing funny about what he and his crew of frauds are up to.; 1/6/11, 11:11 PM
Chef Mojo said...: Yeah, Ritmo's been tokin' that bitter weed he found by the side of the road. Brings out the rage over getting a cosmic wedgie last November. Balls still hurting, Ritmo? I bet they still haven't dropped back down out of your throat.; 1/6/11, 11:16 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: Does projecting your animus onto me help alleviate the guilt you feel over what you're doing to the country, Chef Wedgie?

Boehner's tears may help salt your food but the sense of guilt that provokes them out of his ducts tells you what he's up to.; 1/6/11, 11:20 PM
Chef Mojo said...: C'mon, Ritmo! You can do better than this! You're just recycling old Bush Derangement Syndrome material. You're a one trick pony that's still smarting from being gelded in this past election. It really hurts, doesn't it? Losing your balls and all. That, and not being able to come up with anything more original than this season's Chimpy McHitlerburton. Pretty sad.; 1/6/11, 11:21 PM
KCFleming said...: I hope he cries whenever the NPR death panel comes up.

That would be awesome.; 1/6/11, 11:23 PM
Trooper York said...: Crack great news man. You got your corner back.

I knew the Barksdales would make a comeback. Congratulations.; 1/6/11, 11:24 PM
Chef Mojo said...: "Chef Wedgie" Oh, you're killin' me, Ritmo! Right through the heart! I'm dying here! Me. So. Hurt! Love seeing you in torment, Ritmo! Love it!; 1/6/11, 11:24 PM
Chef Mojo said...: Go ahead, Ritmo! Lash out some more! Bring it on home for the big win!; 1/6/11, 11:26 PM
Chef Mojo said...: I love it when Ritmo takes himself so seriously! Hey, can you do the lashing out wearing a big paper mache head of Boehner with great, huge tears with swastikas painted on them? Because, that would be the shit, Ritmo!; 1/6/11, 11:29 PM
gk1 said...: Boy, Juan Williams still has the red ass over NPR. Don't blame him a bit, its just interesting to hear. I think the MSM wants to ignore this story if given the chance but the republicans will be pulling NPR's bloddy carcus through the streets for the next 2 years. No way its going away. Sucks to be them.; 1/6/11, 11:30 PM
JorgXMcKie said...: I've been away for a while. Is the latest irritating *sshole a new one, or an old one with a new name?

After all, Pelosi, after about 50 Botox injections, couldn't cry if she saw her grandchildren eaten by polar bears.

This has to be the lamest attack on the 'Right' as I've seen in many years.; 1/6/11, 11:33 PM
Chef Mojo said...: And, Ritmo, if you do it on stilts? That would be beyond cool. That would just hit my trifecta of dumbass liberal stereotypes, going strong since Florida 2000, baby!; 1/6/11, 11:33 PM
Chef Mojo said...: @ JorgXMcKie:

Old guy with his latest handle. Montana Urban Legend ->Ritmo Brasilero -> something trickling down his leg -> Conservatives 4 Better Dental Hygene.

Wow. It's like a Dead set!

But, I just call him Ritmo for short. He's our International Man 'O' Mystery! Loves the name change thing. Goes well with the paper mache heads.; 1/6/11, 11:39 PM
Trooper York said...: MadisonMan said
No. What needs to be done is a wholesale cutting that includes everything, all at once. I don't mind if that includes NPR -- but it has to be done in a way that doesn't look partisan.

I think that is exactly right. There are thousands of programs and expenditures that can be cut.
They need to go in and slash a lot of shit. Including the military and Medicare and all the sacred cows. Share the pain evenly and they might have a chance.

But that makes to much sense.; 1/6/11, 11:39 PM
Trooper York said...: I mean there are a lot of ways we can cut miltary spending. For example lets come home from Germany and Europe. Let those fuckers fend for themselves.

And lets close Gitmo finally. We don't need all these terrorists to be in prison. We can do it for the price of a bullet for each one of them. We could save a lot of cheddar that way.; 1/6/11, 11:41 PM
Trooper York said...: And lets cut social security for the really rich guys like Warren Buffert and hdhouse. They are gonna die soon anyway and have enough dough as it is.; 1/6/11, 11:43 PM
Trooper York said...: But enough of this political shit.

Let's all congratulate our good buddy the Crack Emcee getting his job back.

I salute you!; 1/6/11, 11:50 PM
Penny said...: Talk is cheep.

Getting rid of the chicken shit?

Now that's a farmer's job...; 1/7/11, 12:10 AM
Opus One Media said...: It never occured to your silliness that if you defund NPR, which even I admit is a drop in the proverbial bucket, NPR won't go away..it will just become private and then you will have a mess of stations that will have issues for a while but because so many people support them anyway, they will turn on the rabid right with a completely uncontrolled fury.

Soros can make up NPR's shortfall in an afternon...and he or others who realize that Car Talk and Fresh Air etc. are no threat except to the psychos who are deathly afraid of NPR.; 1/7/11, 2:52 AM
Quaestor said...: It never occured to your silliness that if you defund NPR, which even I admit is a drop in the proverbial bucket, NPR won't go away..

HDHouse inadvertently reveals the crucial difference between the Right and the Left (he does that so often, doesn't he?) When confronted by a dissenting voice the Left seeks to silence it -- case in point the 22 year effort to destroy Rush Limbaugh.

In stark contrast is the Right's argument with NPR. None of us here want to silence that network, we just want it to pay its own way. and stop suckling at the national teat. NPR is past 40, it's high time it was weened -- it's a radio network, ferchrisake, not the Emperor of China!; 1/7/11, 4:42 AM
egoist said...: I presume NPR hopes to head of defunding; I hope they miscalculated.; 1/7/11, 5:06 AM
Michael said...: Hd. That is my point dumb ass. I can't raise capital to compete with a station that has no cost of capital. The fact that it took you this long to figure this out and to be nonchalant about the govt forcing out competition says everything about modern liberalism. You are clueless about economics and content with govt expansion into private space. In this case classical music listeners lose; 1/7/11, 5:39 AM
Michael said...: HD: You are right about NPR as a private operation turning against the right wing. They will join Air America as a great success of the airwaves. They will fold like a napkin if the govt. does not fund them.; 1/7/11, 6:13 AM
KCFleming said...: @Michael, HD lacks the most basic understanding of economics.

One of those folks that believes gubmint healthcare is in fair competition with private care, even though the State cannot go out of business no matter how much they overspend.

It's a delusion shared by too many.; 1/7/11, 6:54 AM
Cedarford said...: Look, Ellen Weiss is hooked into the "The Network" of Progressive Jewish and Liberal activists and their thousands of NGOs and Front Groups.
Her husband is the uber-connected Rabbi David Saperstein.

Within a few blinks of your eyes she will be resettled in to a VP, executive director spot elsewhere in the Network. At one of Soro's Fronts, the Crown Family Foundation, with the Pritzkers, at Ford Foundation, as programming VP at PBS or Pacifica.

The Network takes good care of their own.

No real difference between them and other organized systems in other countries. Japanese deputy minister has to resign next thing you know they are over at a new ministry as deputy minister, even boss.
Soviet and Chicom luminaries who are in good graces with the Party were and are routinely purged. The biggest anxiety many had at time of Purge was if they still had the creds and endorsement of mentors - and thus were likely to be promoted instead of killed or disgraced in the prison camps.; 1/7/11, 7:08 AM
Fernandinande said...: A very much improved NPR news: PR Gnus

http://www.archive.org/details/PR_Gnus_Of_The_World_News_1500_to_1599a; 1/7/11, 7:29 AM
Hagar said...: This is not a new thing at PBS. Note that years ago they got a new vice-president, or something, who promptly sacked Ken Bode from "Washington Week" for having panelists of slightly diverging and sometimes interesting views. They did not even have a plan for what to do next, and had to haul Paul Duke out of retirement to pinch hit until they could figure something out. They finally got Gwen Iliff to moderate with the understanding that it would now be all warm and cozy and no more "interesting" diversity.

"Washington Week" is now a worthless program, but it is still not as downright nasty "glibberal" as the alphabet soup network shows.; 1/7/11, 8:15 AM
Opus One Media said...: @Michael...you have no point.

Are you so deluded as to think that public radio stations have no fixed operating costs that must be met and that they turn to the public (get it? public) in fund drives to make up for the shortfall and that the deferal government's contribution in total is about 4 hours of pentagon spending?

the question is what is it about your business plan that suggests to an investor that you can make money or simply sustain when your only competition is a not for profit station that half (judging from this blog) seem to hate and loath and fear and is no competition for the advertising dollar that you will need to sustain you.

That is, sonny, in a nutshell the case you need to make and don't make.; 1/7/11, 8:39 AM
lemondog said...: The Drill SGT said...
Reading their (NPR) statement, Weiss appears not to have made the firing decision, but was a conduit:

Weiss was the NPR executive who informed Williams of his dismissal, which came after he said on Fox News Channel that he gets nervous when he sees people in "Muslim garb" on airplanes.

so who actually made the decision to fire Juan?

Am I nitpicking? Rather than an independent board, link states it was an independent review - a committee reporting to the NPR board and working with outside legal counsel...

Just curious what make the review independent.

Why is there public funding for NPR? Why doesn't it subsist as does commercial talk radio? What prevents it from surviving independent of government funding?; 1/7/11, 8:56 AM
Lincolntf said...: "What prevents it from surviving independent of government funding?"

The bitterly ideological hosts and the duplicitous nature of the "news" reports.
Car Talk and maybe a few other shows would survive in the real world marketplace, but Diane Reem? Not for a second.; 1/7/11, 8:59 AM
Bob_R said...: ""The right gets mad about NPR because everyone pays for part of NPR."

The same could be said about the National Film Preservation Board of the Library of Congress...except the right, at least at Althouse, doesn't get upset about that. At least no one did in the post she put up a few weeks ago.

Why is that?

The National Film Preservation Board is pretty much run by and for the people in Hollywood who are NOTORIOUSLY liberal. One might even say that the NFPB is a liberal marketing arm for Hollywood film. Yet we don't.

Why is that?

Maybe it's because we see the arts as belonging to all of us. As something that is outside of politics.

You know...Like some of us go to the movies, and some of us listen to Mountain Stage every Sunday night on NPR."

People get upset by publicly funded art all the time - Mapplethorp, Serrano, etc. But as with news, far fewer people (approximately zero) get upset about privately funded art.

I'm against public (at least Federal) funding of the creation of art, but I'm squishy on public funding for preservation of art that was created privately.; 1/7/11, 9:03 AM
Michael said...: HD: I can't you stupid motherfucker because the NPR stations have NO COST OF CAPITAL. They have operating costs, as do all businesses, but they have NO COST OF CAPITAL. The "owners" have no expectation of a profit because they are a NON PROFIT organization. They do not expect a RETURN ON INVESTMENT because they don't need one. If they have shortfalls someone else pays them. How have you made it to your dotage being so utterly dense?; 1/7/11, 9:05 AM
test said...: Let's summarize HD's points on this topic:

1. Conservatives "fear" NPR.

2. Criticizing a business plan he's never seen.

3. The government should fund NPR because if they don't NPR will still exist.

The first is freshman level psychobabble. The second is factually meaningless but revealing of his hubris. The last is simply nonsensical. Is there a commenter less credible? You'd think eventually some comment would be meaningful: how long will we have to wait?; 1/7/11, 9:07 AM
bagoh20 said...: Excellent, Crack. Congrats, but not surprising. A strong cat always lands on his feet.; 1/7/11, 9:09 AM
Fred4Pres said...: Crack, congratulations on that. Good news.; 1/7/11, 9:11 AM
Fred4Pres said...: As for NPR, while it is always going to lean lib (because that is where most of its donors are from) what happened with Juan Williams was BS. I am glad they got rid of part of the problem.; 1/7/11, 9:13 AM
Bob_R said...: Also @Penny -

I agree that NPR has plenty of good programing. Most of it will do fine in the private market. Much of it will do well BECAUSE it has a liberal slant pleases a liberal audience. Terry Gross is a talented interviewer, but if she suddenly got some sense and became a conservative she'd have to find a whole new audience. Mountain Stage: I'm not sure that anything in WVa would survive the shock of being removed from the government teat. But that's just a neighbor being snotty.; 1/7/11, 9:13 AM
bagoh20 said...: Congress being what it always is, it will more likely fund FOX too rather than unfund NPR. Then liberals will be torn between their two mothers government spending and media bias. What would they choose? I'd bet both - the more teats the better.; 1/7/11, 9:15 AM
Michael said...: Pogo: I understand that you are a physician. I have my head about to explode in trying to "communicate" with HD on what I thought was a fundamentally simple topic. He may be pretending to be stupid to torture me but I am nonetheless on the edge of a deep depression. I could go to a local physician or psychiatrist but they would never believe me, they would think I was making up HD as a person so unbelievable that I would not get the drugs I desperately need to stabilize myself. Please prescribe something. Please.; 1/7/11, 9:22 AM
J said...: WilliamsSpeak!

quick, put on some of the NPR new-agey jass, or at least one of the entertaining dykes with the gravelly voice. KEEP NPR LEZ!; 1/7/11, 9:24 AM
Jason said...: HD,

You're wallowing in some weapons-grade stupid, there.

He's not competing for advertising. Yet. He's competing for capital.

As long as there is an NPR station running classical programming in his market with free money from the government, the first question a potential investor asks is "Why?"

You have to compete for listeners before you can compete for advertising dollars, anyway. Right now, NPR has 100 percent of the classical market while taking 0 percent of the risk.

In addition to the structural costs and licensing, there must be a huge up-front investment in advertising and public awareness to get a shot making a dent in the NPR audience.

The return on that investment must be greater than the return available elsewhere. A classical station is a long shot even without NPR in the market. With NPR distorting the market, it's a nonstarter.

Bad money drives out good, and government money drives out private investment. This is a textbook case of that very phenomenon at work.

Why does Diane Rehm still have a show? Is she the best, the VERY BEST they could do?; 1/7/11, 9:32 AM
Lincolntf said...: "Why does Diane Rehm still have a show? Is she the best, the VERY BEST they could do?"

Ugh, that voice! The first time I heard her show I called her the "Bride of the Crypt Keeper". It stuck in our house. I can't hear her say a single word without flashing back to late night horror movies.; 1/7/11, 9:41 AM
exhelodrvr1 said...: Thanks, HD.

Your comments here are providing a great window.; 1/7/11, 9:46 AM
Trooper York said...: hdhouse said
it will just become private and then you will have a mess of stations that will have issues for a while but because so many people support them anyway, they will turn on the rabid right with a completely uncontrolled fury.

Hee,hee...uncontrolled fury...hee,hee....good one hd.; 1/7/11, 9:54 AM
lemondog said...: Right now, NPR has 100 percent of the classical market while taking 0 percent of the risk.

I don't know the evolution or timeline but at one time FM radio had multiple stations broadcasting classical music and news. Was it public funding that whittled down stations to exclusively NPR?

If so, seems an object lesson on destruction of free markets and competition.; 1/7/11, 9:55 AM
Michael said...: lemondog: You are mostly right, but a couple of other factors are involved. One, Pandora. Two, internet radio. Both are free and both will stream classical of your choosing or from a market that appeals to you (London, Berlin, etc.) At the local level the presence of classical music on NPR clearly has driven people out of that space. Even if their offerings are so-so or even crummy it is unlikely that a station can compete. Without them I think there is an excellent chance that a privately owned station could make a profit after three or four years. The unintended consequences of governmental intrusion in the markets are always both surprising and expected.; 1/7/11, 10:09 AM
X said...: don't do it repubs! NPR will strike down Rush with great vengeance and uncontrollable fury! unless you catch them in a transitional period.; 1/7/11, 10:12 AM
Trooper York said...: The Thing of the idols, the green, sticky spawn of the stars, had awaked to claim his own. The stars were right again, and what an age-old cult had failed to do by design, a band of innocent sailors had done by accident. After vigintillions of years the great NPR was loose again, and ravening for delight.
(The Call of NPR, 1926 HP Lovecraft); 1/7/11, 10:37 AM
Jason said...: And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, slouches towards Minneanapolis to be born?; 1/7/11, 10:53 AM
kent said...: Well, today, they re-hired me - and my new boss is a guy I liked at the place I was working before I returned to my old job.

Belated congrats, Crack!; 1/7/11, 11:04 AM
cubanbob said...: HD without intending to do so make an excellent case for eliminating the tax exempt non profit and charitable deduction status of any entity that engages in activities that can be done by a for profit enterprise.

Considering that sector of the economy is somewhere north of one trillion dollars taxing them would go a long way towards reducing the federal budget deficit in addition to state and local deficits.; 1/7/11, 11:32 AM
Col Mustard said...: Don't defund NPR - SELL IT!!!

Sell it ALL - the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Televison, Public Radio, affiliate stations, real estate, equipment, contracts, talent, licenses, etc.

Only one condition - buyer/s not allowed to refer to any part of the entity as 'public'.; 1/7/11, 11:46 AM
Opus One Media said...: @Jason..

Please don't post on things that seem to go biff-zoom right over your head.

Public stations to which Michael refers are NOT FOR PROFIT. That means they don't take in advertising dollars. The law permits underwriting and donations not advertising.

Mikey wants to start a classical format radio station. I assume he wants to do it "for profit" and if he doesn't then I hope he has deep pockets which he doesn't because he is looking for capital to launch this venture.

People just don't give away money (unless of course you are Citi and BOA etc.) without an expectation of return on investment. That means Jason, that Mikey has to have revenue which comes from advertising (it is called advertising on commercial stations....got it?).

My point was and stands now is that in trying to find capital little Mikey needs to show how much revenue he can generate in order for the investor (the capital person who puts up the money) to see how he will get something back.

it is a completely self defeating observation that Mikey puts forward and you pass along that he can't get money for a commercial venture because of a not for profit radio station that plays only a limited amount of classical music (his words not mine). the premise is ludicrous to the extreme and for you to defend it for the reasons (I'll call them reasons but mostly they are not right) you do is just silly.

I'd go through them item by item but it would just embarrass you.; 1/7/11, 12:03 PM
Michael said...: HD: Are you, like, an investment banker? I mean that is one swift observation there about my having to figure out the potential gross. That hadn't occurred to me and I am in the investment banking business. Thanks for the head's up. Great tip.

You are hopelessly, tragically, stupid and your going on and on is really appalling. You make my point over and over and think that we disagree that a private business cannot compete with a business that is funded by the public. You are a self parody.; 1/7/11, 1:03 PM
Roger J. said...: yet another great thread illuminated by assholic comments

Crack: congrats man

HDHouse give us the patent numbers of your nine patents--you can omit the order of Lenin--otherwise we might just think you are not too good at the truth; 1/7/11, 1:04 PM
Hagar said...: In Albuquerque the PBS station plays classical music all the time, the University station classical and jazz, and the Public School station Mexican music and some classical.

There are no commercial FM stations that even try to play classical or jazz, since there is not sufficient market left.; 1/7/11, 1:41 PM
Opus One Media said...: @michael

emptying wastebaskets at the local S&L does not an investment banker make.

if you are one, which i seriously doubt, your inside access to capital would be profound. all you have described is a 'woe is me'. i can't compete against something that you aren't in competition with is just ludicrous. moreover, it means pure and simple you have no idea of the subject matter or the business and therefore haven't set down a business plan or you would argue differently.

don't blame NPR for your shortcomings..

oh $Roger....i told you about 10 times to go look them up...start in 1966. putz.; 1/7/11, 1:55 PM
Roger J. said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 1/7/11, 2:04 PM
traditionalguy said...: Crack...Have I told you that I love you lately? You are the best communicator I know.; 1/7/11, 2:28 PM
Michael said...: HD: The Savings and Loan industry ceased to exist around twenty years ago about the time your drinking went out of control.; 1/7/11, 2:31 PM
Anonymous said...: oh $Roger....i told you about 10 times to go look them up...start in 1966. putz.

There you go! Another brilliant statement demonstrating HenHouse's far above average IQ!

Although we'll certainly acknowledge that IQ is nothing but a social construct.

But, if it wasn't, HenHouse would be famous his IQ!

Even though he uttered the single dumbest statement in the history of the internet:

Muslims are the new Jews!

Did you know that HenHouse listens to classical music? He's got a really high IQ. Did you know that?; 1/7/11, 2:39 PM
Phil 314 said...: HD;
In contrast with commercial radio, NPR does not carry traditional commercials, but has advertising in the form of brief statements from major donors, such as Allstate, Merck, and Archer Daniels Midland. These statements are called underwriting spots, not commercials, and, unlike commercials, are governed by FCC restrictions; they cannot advocate a product or contain any "call to action". In 2009, corporate sponsorship made up 26% of the NPR budget

A rose by any other name...; 1/7/11, 4:05 PM
Opus One Media said...: It seems a waste of time to explain not for profit status and donation revenue to break even with a capitalist for profit business.

If you don't get the difference between the two then you are like Michael...up the creek without a canoe.; 1/7/11, 4:25 PM
Opus One Media said...: oh and Roger...just a thought...while we are waiting for you to do your work, would you please list your "accompishments" (hint: wiping after doesn't count)

you are sooooo easy.; 1/7/11, 4:26 PM
Jason said...: House,

That WHOOSH sound you just heard was my last comment going way, way over your head.

I've seen some ignorant posters on here. I've never seen one so determined to be piggishly ignorant, and then try to lord his ignorance over others, as you are here.

You really have no idea how clueless you are, do you?

That's what happens when you listen to too much NPR.

No go on home and do some studying, little boy. Or shut up and listen to your betters on the forum. You might learn something.; 1/7/11, 4:41 PM
Opus One Media said...: Jason said...
"He's not competing for advertising. Yet. He's competing for capital."

I finally found your comment. NO Jason. He is looking for capital as an investment. He isn't competing with NPR or a campus station for capital. What part of "investment v. donation" don't you understand.

Problem with blogs is there doesn't seem to be a lower age threshold or some sort of IQ requirement.

End it Jason. You are in the deep end and you can't swim.; 1/7/11, 4:49 PM
Jason said...: HD, you ignorant slut,

I never said he was competing for capital against NPR, you drooling half-wit.

And that's the part that went over your undereducated little head.; 1/7/11, 5:03 PM
Jason said...: I finally found something HD said that's even more stupid than "Muslims are the new Jews."

According to HDHouse, People looking to raise capital are not competing for capital.

Gotcha.

Apparently, there's no such thing as a capital market of alternative investments or a cost of capital hurdle.

Right.

Your stupid is on Warp Factor 10.; 1/7/11, 5:17 PM
The Crack Emcee said...: Thanks, guys. I'm at work now and it's great - everyone's telling me I did the right thing to quit - and the boss reinstated my insurance like I never left.

As I'm writing this, I'm waiting for a client who told them he wouldn't do business unless he was dealing with me - major ego boost, that one.

TG, I love you, too. I can't say anymore than that right now, but I do.

Big hug to all of you. And thanks again.; 1/7/11, 5:25 PM
Opus One Media said...: @jason...

if you read carefully it was that public radio does NOT compete for venture capital.

I can clearly see why you haven't found investors. do you know anything about radio? do you know anything about public broadcast? anything at all?

Since you bill yourself as an "investment banker" don't you look at the management qualifications before you invest?

what DMA are you in?
When do the Nielsen books come out?
What is the lag?
What is an AQH? What is theirs? What is your breakeven rate card structure? How much inventory will you have to set aside for under delivery and what is the book for your DMA? How much spillage is there?
What is the most efficient demgraphic of the public radio station?

I thought not.; 1/7/11, 5:32 PM
Michael said...: HD: I beg you to stop. Drinking that is. Your musings on radio and capital formation are amusing in the extreme. I and any other commenter who has tried to engage you in a simple conversation has been met with your repeated and stupid misunderstanding of anything we are talking about. I mean you have missed the point entirely. Oh, and radios no longer use bulbs. You seriously need help gramps.; 1/7/11, 5:52 PM
Opus One Media said...: oh dare i write this...then Mikey, what is the point?; 1/7/11, 6:10 PM
Anonymous said...: There you go, so I'll never understand Althouse's conditional response to Crack's Bloggingheads offer.

I mean, if "I" (and many others) can spot serious talent from a mile away, why not Lady Ann?

It's as if the only black allowed in Wisconsin is Juan Williams - and he on a temporary visa.; 1/7/11, 6:24 PM
Jason said...: if you read carefully it was that public radio does NOT compete for venture capital.

WHOOSSSHHHHHHHH!!!!!

There goes my point, flying over HD's head again.

He doesn't look up. His mother told him not to look up, ever, because she knew he was so stupid he'd drown himself gawking at the rain.; 1/7/11, 9:28 PM
Ritmo Re-Animated said...: I see Chef Wedgie has a thing for testicles.

Also, what's with all the references to crying? Methinks he's confusing me for Joanie Weepie Boner Lacrimosa, his leader.; 1/7/11, 9:48 PM
Gene said...: HDHouse: "I wonder why the right wing is so terrified by NPR. The fear is outright amazing."

I wonder why the left wing is so terrified by Sarah Palin. The fear is outright amazing.; 1/8/11, 2:01 AM
Opus One Media said...: so Jason, you have a point or what? Your last comment didn't seem to contain any.

Never send a kid to the store...tsk tsk.; 1/8/11, 10:35 AM