"The only result would be the loss of thousands of jobs in this industry, the closing or severe restriction of hundreds of local stations serving small-town and rural America which depend on federal funds for 30- to 100-percent of their annual budgets, including program acquisition, and the loss of vital information for millions of Americans." Public Media Association President Patrick Butler relating what's at stake in the Republican effort to de-fund NPR
And a follow-up quote from Chez:
NPR doesn't simply contribute to our being a more informed and therefore stronger country and society; the irrational Republican war on it, which is undertaken mostly to appease the absolute lowest-common-denominator within the party's base, is part of an ongoing and systematic effort to make us dumber. It's another example of the Idiocratization of America -- the triumph, whether through intent or negligence, of willful ignorance over intellect and analysis. It's another example of the fucking rat-shit stupidest within our borders trying to mock and inevitably kill anything they don't understand, all while they wrap themselves in the flag of true, blind, unfathomably pig-headed patriotism.
Exactly. There are numerous reasons for the Republican (failed) attempt to de-fund NPR, but the problem with this effort begins and ends with "why." Yes, the Republicans have issues with reality-based reporting -- they call it "liberal" only because reality is so often in conflict with modern conservatism. But let's not forget the thing that motivated last week's vote: a fraudulent and unethical video created by a known flim-flam artist. Why did the Republicans hold that vote? Because they chose to latch their names to James O'Keefe: a fraud whose NPR video was debunked by a conservative website.