Althouse: "Shame on NPR for reporting only the money Walker is receiving..."

January 14, 2012

"Shame on NPR for reporting only the money Walker is receiving..."

"... and not even mentioning the millions coming from labor unions from outside the state."

(I'm quoting the 5th commenter on here.)

32 comments:

Wince said...: It looks like the "Shame on NPR..." comment has already been expunged from the thread.; 1/14/12, 4:28 PM
edutcher said...: Ann, you silly girl, how can you be so blind?

Even though NPR receives tax money from all Americans, you don't honestly expect them to approach an issue like this, where Democrat campaign coffers could go unfilled, with cruel neutrality?

Do You?; 1/14/12, 4:33 PM
Ann Althouse said...: @EDH Put the comments in "oldest first" order.; 1/14/12, 4:41 PM
Milwaukee said...: Also interesting that the NPR article blames the Republicans for legal moves which will add to the costs, without describing what the Republicans forced. That is, Republicans forced a serious examination of the signatures to avoid duplicate or fake signatures. No, the article just states "Walker's lawyers already won their first court battle, forcing Wisconsin's elections agency to change the way it reviews recall signatures. The agency says the new process will require more money and take more time." without mentioning that the threshold for legitimacy of a signature was practically non-xistent before the challenge.

NPR's status as a non-profit, where donations are tax-deductible, needs to be changed. How can they justify being so one-sided? Further, corporations which advertise on NPR need to be paying sales taxes on their donations, just as they would pay sales taxes on their "donations" to commercial stations.; 1/14/12, 4:42 PM
Carnifex said...: I tried to read the comments but after 10 posts my IQ fell a few points so I quit. Lots of lib-tard garbage, to be expected I guess. After all, NPR is a big example of how communism fails.

I want someone to tell me why my tax dollars are going to support this POS? Is it strictly to keep a leftist agenda on the radio? No more Uncle Sugar for these commies. Sink or swim baby.

I notice Rush, Hannity, Glenn, Ingram, etc, have no need for government funding.; 1/14/12, 5:00 PM
Dear corrupt left, go F yourselves said...: Yeah. NPR is pro-democrat pro-Union media. Not surprising.; 1/14/12, 5:08 PM
Michael Haz said...: A total of 2,158,974 votes were cast in the 2010 Wisconsin Gubernatorial election.

Scott Walker received 1,128,941 votes, Tom Barrett received 1,004,303 votes, and other candidates received 25,730 votes.

The Wisconsin constitution requires an amount of signatures equal to 25% of the votes cast in order for a re-call to proceed to an election. That would be 539,744 votes.

Let's assume for a moment that 539,744 legitimate signatures appear on the petitions submitted by the Democrat Party and that there is a re-call election.

Those 539,744 signatures represent a herculean effort by and for the Democrats. They brought in outsiders to lead and work on the signature effort. They called in chits for labor union help. They portrayed this effort as a last stand, as a will-of-the-people effort to restore union control to the state government, yadda yadda yadda.

But look at teh maths: 539,744 signatures is equal to just 53.7% of the votes cast for Tom Barrett. That's all their signature gathering, their editorial writing, their demonstrating, their screaming, their speech interrupting could produce. Signatures of fifty percent-and-a-little-bit of the loyal people who voted for Tom Barrett.

That has to be disappointing, to say the least. For all their righteous, chest-pounding about "what democracy looks like" the Dems should have easily secured legitimate signatures at least equal to the number of people who voted for Barrett.

The Democrats are going to lose this election. Tell me, what is their grand idea that will capture the minds of the non-government employees? What is it?

Is it "Vote for [insert name of candidate here] because [gender] will return union control to state government!" Or is it "You should pay more tax so government employees pay less for their already gilded benefit package!!"

The Democrats are going to lose this election. They have no agenda thaqt appeals to anyone who is not a government employee. And government employees are a distinct minority of Wisconsin voters.; 1/14/12, 5:35 PM
bgates said...: forcing Wisconsin's elections agency to change the way it reviews recall signatures

The change was from "not doing it" to "doing it", yes?; 1/14/12, 5:54 PM
SGT Ted said...: Wow, NPR found some non-military related government spending they disapprove of. Is the moon blue above WI?; 1/14/12, 6:07 PM
n.n said...: NPR as a publicly funded and privileged business needs to be held to a higher standard. They, at minimum, should be capable of critical if not objective reporting. Unfortunately, their business model contains an inherent conflict of interest with American taxpayers.

NPR is not just another business that reports with a biased filter. Within this context, it is especially critical to thoroughly examine their product.

The old adage: optimal truth from multiple independent sources, remains in effect.; 1/14/12, 6:08 PM
Chip S. said...: Next thing y'know, there'll be indications that NPR's liberal bias is pervasive.; 1/14/12, 6:18 PM
KCFleming said...: That's why playwright David Mamet called it "National Palestinian Radio."; 1/14/12, 6:37 PM
Petunia said...: NPR's a joke and needs to lose its tax funding. As for the comments...those by Edward Burke alone contain enough stupidity for the entire thread.; 1/14/12, 6:50 PM
DADvocate said...: Wasted words. The liberals at NPR have no shame.; 1/14/12, 7:31 PM
I'm Full of Soup said...: Edward Burke sounds like Garage.; 1/14/12, 7:34 PM
David said...: Shame! Shame! Come back, Shame!; 1/14/12, 7:35 PM
Bob Loblaw said...: The funny thing is people on the left scoff at Fox New's contention of being "fair and balanced", but that's exactly what they consider NPR, though listening just an hour or two should disabuse anyone of that notion.

Terry Gross is particularly bad. She seems to take it as given Republicans are hell-bent on theocracy, complete with blue laws, the end of birth control, and jail (or worse) for homosexual behavior. And why is it we should even know what the interviewer thinks?; 1/14/12, 7:52 PM
ic said...: Are Wisconsians smart enough to know who wasted their millions?; 1/14/12, 7:57 PM
Petunia said...: Well, ic, the people who signed the recall papers either aren't smart enough to know, or they know, and don't care.; 1/14/12, 8:09 PM
SunnyJ said...: I say you have their names and contact information if they signed the petition for recall. Send them the bill, divide the total by each of the signatures and send them each a bill for their share. Now, that's what I call democracy!; 1/14/12, 8:24 PM
mRed said...: NPR has openly lied for years. They celebrate, in mortuary voices, their lies with open mic shows bragging about their lies to re-enforce them. Little reason to question their dishonesty. They come by it honestly. The government teat.; 1/14/12, 8:46 PM
Bobby Bobaloo said...: Thank you Michael Haz for the math lesson! I was listening to Dem Joe Wineke on Mitch Henck's Madison local radio show on Friday and he almost sounded like Snidely Whiplash saying, "ho ho! we will have our 800,000 signatures". 800,000 is 80% of the Barrett total, which certainly is impressive, but my knowledge of the grading scale is that it is a B-/C+, unless you are grading on a bell curve, which the unionistas just love or couldn't ever pass their math or economics classes! What happened to those extra 200,000 voters for Barrett??? Too lazy to sign the recall - you couldn't have missed them. I know the official figures aren't out yet, but if 800,000 is true, I'm still trying to figure out how they found another Madison since last Month???
BTW, I was one of the 25,730 who voted for other but will be voting for Walker this time!
Wineke also said they are having some party at Monona Terrace on Tuesday night - wonder who is going to pay for this shindig?? And just like the NPR story, who is going to call them out on it - crickets..chirp...chirp..chirp
I am in the minority - I am a state employee who supports Gov Walker. I moved here quite a few years ago and was just looking for a job, not familiar with unions and never wanted to belong to one. I always found it odd every year when I got my pension statement saying "Employee contribution", but none of my money was ever contributed. Anyway, here is my summary of benefits as a state worker before and after Walker:
Before:
1. 22 days of vacation each year, and you get to carry over into the subsequent year
2. 4 1/2 days of personal holiday (1 added during the Doyle administration)
3. Sick leave accrual - 1 day earned each month. You can accumulate until you retire, and convert the unused amount to pay for health insurance premiums
4. Health insurance - something like $200/mo for the family plan. No co-insurance. $2 million maximum you could spend over your lifetime for your family. Mental health treatment included.
5. Pension - state and employee contribution, which amounts to $3000/year for little plebian me.
After:
1-3 remain the same
4. We pay somewhat more, but not as much in private sector. Now have to do co-insurance up to $500/year.
5. Have to contribute our half of the pension, so everyone out in private land is still helping me with my retirement to the tune of $1500/year - Multiply that by all the other state workers...
Remember, that the great Doyle had implemented furloughs, so was already docking us 3.8% pay anyway. Now, some of our docked pay is going to pay our pensions anyway!! We will see that money again someday - well,unless the state declares bankruptcy one day.
So, the only thing I see that people can be really upset about is collective bargaining! But our benefits have really not disappeared - they are still there, just a litte more money out the door.
I really pray that the majority of the people in Wisconsin aren't stupid enough to fall for the union bag of tricks that we state employees are suffering because fo the changes brought about by Act 10! We really aren't - we didn't lose our jobs, we just have a little less money in our pockets so we have to cut out Cable TV and nights out to eat like the rest of Americans have been doing since the onset of the Great Recession.
Sorry for the diatribe - I have a lot on my mind, especially as the recall signature effort winds down. One final thought - Act 10 can't be overturned until Assembly control is overturned which could be 2014 at the earliest...; 1/14/12, 9:43 PM
MadisonMan said...: Sick leave accrual - 1 day earned each month. You can accumulate until you retire, and convert the unused amount to pay for health insurance premiums

I think this -- the conversion at retirement -- is on the way out the door. It's why most of the people I know who have retired recently have retired.

Unless Legislators can do it too, in which case it'll never go away.; 1/14/12, 10:30 PM
CarterFliptMe said...: Walker gets elected, and proceeds to carry out the conservative fiscal plans that he campaigned on. Meanwhile Progressives had recall plans already in the works the day Walker was inaugurated. Somehow this vile act (of getting himself elected and carrying out his promises) is dividing the state, according to breathless Lefty. They never cease to amaze me how self-deluded they've become. They're not only ridiculous, but they've become dangerous, in my opinion. Dangerous to the Constitutional process, law and order, and civility in general.; 1/14/12, 11:00 PM
purplepenquin said...: Progressives had recall plans already in the works the day Walker was inaugurated.

Lots of folks in various comment threads all over the 'net have been saying that same thing, but I haven't seen any actual reports/news stories...do you happen to have a link or something?; 1/15/12, 1:43 AM
Sal said...: Bobby, why did you not vote for Walker, the first time? I'm curious. Also, in the 10+ years you've been with the state, assuming no promotions, what is your raise history, in those 10 years? And finally, you sound a little guilty, taking from the taxpayers, why are you still there?; 1/15/12, 8:35 AM
garage mahal said...: Progressives had recall plans already in the works the day Walker was inaugurated.

Walker got a "Pants on Fire" for this claim. 70% of the statements they vetted from Walker were "false" "mostly false" or "pants on fire".; 1/15/12, 9:13 AM
Brian Brown said...: The agency says the new process will require more money and take more time."

Ok, let's cancel the recall then!

It is hysterical this "reporting" about costs doesn't mention the Democrats are the cost driver here.; 1/15/12, 9:44 AM
Phil 314 said...: As a regular listener to NPR (and yes I heard this story) I know that NPR is much like Dr. Strangelove, trying to speak calmly and rationally while fighting back the urge to salute Mien Fuhrer

(Yeah, I Godwyned it.); 1/15/12, 9:53 AM
garage mahal said...: Ok, let's cancel the recall then!

Think of it as a form of Lemon Law.; 1/15/12, 9:59 AM
Ryan Costa said...: Shameful, but by no means shocking.; 1/15/12, 1:37 PM
Michael The Magnificent said...: And how many news outlets reported only our combat casualties in Iraq and Afghanistan?; 1/16/12, 11:32 AM