The Blatant Hypocrisy of NPR

In the wake of a media frenzy NPR Ombudsman Alicia Shepard is trying to justify their firing of Juan Williams:

“I can only imagine how Williams, who has chronicled and championed the Civil Rights movement, would have reacted if another prominent journalist had said: ‘But when I get on a plane, I got to tell you, if I see an African American male in Dashiki with a big Afro, I get worried. I get nervous,” Shepard wrote, echoing Williams’ syntax in his comment about Muslim airline passengers.

What an utterly ridiculous comparison. As Mr. Williams pointed out, African American males never flew planes into skyscrapers, even at the height of the civil rights movement. She continues digging deeper:

Instead, this latest incident with Williams centers around a collision of values: NPR’s values emphasizing fact-based, objective journalism versus the tendency in some parts of the news media, notably Fox News, to promote only one side of the ideological spectrum.

Fact-based, objective journalism??? Steven Hayes at the Weekly Standard points out:

If that’s true, NPR legal affairs correspondent Nina Totenberg might want to start looking for a new job. Over the past month, in her regular appearances on “Inside Washington,” she has: criticized a ruling of the Roberts Court as scandalous; claimed that Michelle Obama gives people “warm and fuzzy” feelings; called Bill Clinton “the most gifted politician I’ve ever seen;” and lamented that the Democratic Party is diverse enough to include moderates that want to extend all Bush tax cuts.

On last weekend’s “Inside Washington,” which aired October 17, she told us that Michelle Obama is “an incredibly graceful surrogate” for her husband who gives people “warm and fuzzy” feelings.
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Her most partisan comment came when Charles Krauthammer pointed out that 31 Democrats in the House had written to Nancy Pelosi to call for extending the Bush tax cuts, Totenberg wished them out of the party. “When a party actually has a huge majority, it has a huge diversity. And that is part of the problem that Democrats have. But would I like it to be otherwise? Of course.”

Totenberg’s a reporter. Williams was an analyst for NPR. Obviously if anyone should be held to a standard of “fact-based, objective journalism” it should be a reporter.

With a Republican House coming in January it’s time that Congress cut the purse strings to NPR and its parent the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPR). Republicans are standing up for one of the most liberal commentators on television in what is clearly an attempt to silence his right to free speech. They should dare Democrats to oppose them on defunding the CPR.