NPR Executive Vivian Schiller Resignation Wrongfully Thrills Conservatives

On the heels of a damaging undercover videotape by former pimp wanna-be and CNN punk’r James O’Keefe, NPR’s chief executive Vivian Schiller has stepped down, making conservatives orgasmic, in spite of despicable tactics used. It gives right-wingers an excuse to rail against public funding of an entity they deem liberal, in spite of how little taxpayer money they actually receive.

The sudden announcement came after officials from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and members of NPR’s board conferred last night about the fallout from the revelation on Tuesday of a surreptitiously recorded video of NPR Foundation president Ron Schiller (no relation to Vivian Schiller). The video, made by conservative activist James O’Keefe, shows Ron Schiller calling Republicans and members of the tea party movement “xenophobic” and “racist” and saying that NPR would prefer to do without subsidies provided by the federal government.

Conservatives are using this incident to beat the drum for defunding NPR, which they deem too liberal. But data shows taxpayer dollars are just a small part of the organization’s income, as previously discussed here.  As CBS has reported:

…though NPR is widely seen as publicly funded, the majority of its funding does not come (even indirectly) from taxpayers. NPR doesn’t receive direct federal funding for operations – the largest chunk of its money comes from program fees and station dues, as NPR’s finances page lays out…

If you add up the two indirect sources of federal money – grants through CPB and member station dues – taxpayer dollars still appear to add up to less than ten percent of its budget. And while that’s not negligible, it’s a lot less than many people seem to think.

One has to wonder if conservatives would be so supportive if a liberal group produced an entrapment video that resulted in conservatives having to eat crow and lose their jobs. What if someone who dedicated a career to mocking and destroying conservatives were involved, in the manner that O’Keefe has vowed to “mock and really destroy” liberals.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.