GOP's Proposal to Defund NPR is Thwarted by House Democrats

House Minority Leader John Boehner speaks as House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Rep. Mike Pence listen on Capitol Hill

(Fox News) House Democrats on Thursday rejected a GOP proposal to cut federal funding to National Public Radio (NPR), which has been under fire since firing Juan Williams in October.  The proposal, which was the winning entry this week in YouCut--an anti-government spending program started by House Republicans earlier this year--failed by a vote of 239-171.  NPR praised the outcome saying, "good judgment prevailed as Congress rejected a move to assert government control over the content of news."  "The proposal to prohibit public radio stations from using CPB grants to purchase NPR programming is an unwarranted attempt to interject federal authority into local station program decision-making," NPR said, referring to its parent organization, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. 

"In an increasingly fractious media environment, public radio's value in fostering an informed society has never been more critical.  Our growing audience shows that we are meeting that need," NPR said.  "It is imperative for federal funding to continue to ensure that this essential tool of democracy remains available to all Americans and thrives well into the future."  YouCut is an online contest that allows Americans to vote for the items they want slashed from the federal budget.  The NPR proposal received 63 percent of the vote, the highest percentage for a proposal since the program begain in May.  "When NPR executives made the decision to unfairly terminate Juan Williams and to then disparage him afterward, the bias of their organization was exposed," House Minority Whip Eric Cantor and Doug Lamborn, who authored a bill this year to defund NPR's parent company, said in a joint statement Wednesday.  "Make no mistake, it's not the role of government to tell news organizations how to operate.  What is avoidable, however, is providing taxpayer funds to news organizations that promote a partisan point of view," they said.  "Eliminating taxpayer funding for NPR is precisely the kind of common sense cut that we have to begin making if we want to fundamentally alter the way business is conducted in Washington," they said. 

With Democrats still in charge of the House until the end of the year, the proposal was doomed to fail.  Lamborn's legislation to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), introduced in June, hasn't made it out of the committee.  Fox News says that when Republicans assume control of the House in January, they are expected to go after NPR's federal funding with a vengeance.  NPR claims that 1 to 3 percent of its $166 million budget is funded by taxpayer dollars.  However, a new report by the Congressional Research Service found that taxpayers fund at least 4% of NPR's budget, while an analyst at the conservative American Thinker estimated it was closer to 25%. 

NPR triggered a firestorm last month when it fired analyst Juan Williams over comments he made on the O'Reilly Factor when he claimed that he becomes nervous when he sees individuals dressed in Muslim garb on airplanes.  He pointed out he wasn't in support of bigotry against Muslims.  Williams commented his nervousness over individuals in Muslim garb was the result of the terrorist attacks on 9/11.

Naturally there wasn't much of a chance that House Democrats would support the Republican proposal of NPR during the Democrats' lame-duck session in Congress.  However, there's a great case to be made with the firing of Juan Williams.  Williams' political viewpoints are liberal.  He's no conservative.  Williams wasn't condemning Muslims in his comment he made last month.  He was just expressing anxiety.  In the midst of that NPR had the audacity to fire Williams.  That shows how left-leaning NPR is.  Congress has no business funding any type of media outlet.  The media shouldn't be a branch of the government regardless whether it's the left or right.  The media is to be independent of the government.  The media is to be a watchdog of the government--not a lapdog.  But we see networks such as MSNBC who are nothing more than lapdogs with the present administration.  If the government is going to fund a left-leaning media organization such as NPR, then they should do likewise with a conservative organization.  The Democrats claim they believe in being fair and balanced.  NPR just presents one side.  They need to fund a media outlet who presents the other side--if we're going to follow that type of logic.

NPR should be defunded.  I know Republicans such as Jim DeMint of South Carolina who are calling for the defunding of NPR.  Is DeMint willing to back that up when Republicans assume control of the House in January?  Will he fight for the bill and not just give lip service to it?  Only time will reveal.  I don't have much enthusiasm over the Republicans.  I don't believe the Republicans will be willing to stand up to fight for a bill to defund NPR.