NPR Support : Private - NOT Public Funding

Why would anyone that believes in America as 'freedoms last great hope' willingly support, with their tax dollars, an organization that repeatedly, over the past years, believes America is the problem in this world?

NPR, and others that receive federal funding, attack America values on the public airways ever day of the year. Where I live, a radio station, supported by tax dollars, makes no bones about the hate they have for our country, attacking free enterprise, freedom of speech and other basic values that support the American way of life. Was it socialism or hate for personal freedom that made us the most prosperous nation on earth?

Why should the individual that doesn't believe Marxism, a socialistic state, is best for America must still support these ideas with their tax dollars? There are many other places to use tax dollars that will benifit the country and which most people can agree on.

A liberal progressive left media is not a good allocation of public funds to improve the American way of life. If individuals want to send their own money to support these organizations, they are free to do so. That's how the system works and works well.

Why would anyone want to support an organization that wants to destroy the system that has a proven track record of success for 234 years? Where's the common sense?

Public Broadcasting Subsidy: Unnecessary and Irrational
Source: William F. Shughart II, "Public Broadcasting Subsidy: Unnecessary and Irrational," Independent Institute, December 10, 2010.

Given that the federal budget is more than $1 trillion in the red and that deficits extend into the future as far as the eye can see, federal subsidies to public broadcasting understandably are on the table, says William F. Shughart II, a senior fellow at the Independent Institute. The best estimates suggest that, historically, about 15 percent to 20 percent of public broadcasting's operating expenses are financed by federal taxpayers.

Over the last four years, private donations, both in cash and in kind, accounted for about 33 percent to 39 percent of the public media's annual revenue. State and local governments, foundations, colleges and universities, both public and private, contributed another 29 percent of the total.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) was established in 1967 at a time when three national television networks dominated the airwaves. Today, the broadcast media offer a diverse mix of content over the air, and via cable and satellite.

Indeed, the History and Discovery channels, Public Radio International, American Public Media and SIRIUS satellite radio, among others, compete effectively with National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) -- and millions of Americans willingly pay for commercially distributed content.

If NPR and public television cannot survive in such an environment without taxpayer subsidies, they should be allowed to go the way of the dodo bird, says Shughart.