Outrage of the Day: Taxpayer-Funded NPR Spends Your Money* to Hire Lobbying Firm to Help Them Get More of Your Money
[Guest post by Aaron Worthing; if you have tips, please send them here. Or by Twitter @AaronWorthing.]
Tell me if this doesn’t fill you with warm and fuzzy feelings:
National Public Radio (NPR) is paying the lobbying firm Bracy, Tucker, Brown & Valanzano to defend its taxpayer funding stream in Congress, according to lobbying disclosure forms filed with the Secretary of the Senate. The taxpayer-funded radio network hired the firm in the second quarter of 2011 to work on issues regarding “funding for NPR and affiliate stations.”
Oh, and we do get to hear from the lobbyist himself:
Michael Bracy, who will be the lobbyist representing NPR, told TheDC his pitch on Capitol Hill isn’t going to focus on NPR’s news and opinion content, only its music. “I think it’s safe to say some policymakers aren’t always up to date on how the music industry is working in the marketplace,” Bracy said. “We’re just making sure that musicians, independent record labels and others who [provide music content to NPR] have their policymakers and delegation end up knowing how they work with NPR and public radio stations.”
Right, because there isn’t enough music on the radio. Seriously, wasn’t this the president who said, “We believe, in the words of our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln, that through government, we should do together what we cannot do as well for ourselves.”
Well, then why can’t we do NPR for ourselves? Why can’t they just be cut off and let them survive on private charity or even, gasp, commercials?
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* And if someone objects that this is not necessarily our money, I will give the same answer every prosecutor gives in a money laundering case: money is fungible.
[Posted and authored by Aaron Worthing.]
Fungible is a word everyone should keep in mind in all budget discussions and earmarks which goes back to the old saw that figures do not lie but liars can figure. Most political arguements make heavy use of half truthes. To confuse the issues further they tell slightly different stories at various times and places.
dunce (b89258) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:13 pmLet’s borrow more money from the ChiComs so NPR can continue spreading socialist propaganda at our expense.
Vladimir Lenin once said, “The Capitalists will sell us the rope with which we will hang them.” He would have enjoyed listening to NPR, and he would have been embarrassed he wasn’t first to think of hiring a Lobbying firm. That insight would have been truly prescient.
ropelight (a82fa2) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:26 pmBut according to the left Vladimir Lenin opposed fascism and was a secret small government guy.
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:27 pmAccording to the left, Joe Biden is the best VP ever, and Barack Obama sat in Reverend Wright’s church for 20 years and never heard a discouragin’ word.
ropelight (a82fa2) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:39 pmI have disliked NPR forever. The reporters all seem to project a tone of superiority. I don’t even like people to tell me about a story they heard on NPR.
Arizona Bob (7d2a2c) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:43 pmI have disliked NPR forever. The reporters all seem to project a tone of superiority. I don’t even like people to tell me about a story they heard on NPR.
Comment by Arizona Bob — 5/6/2011 @ 2:43 pm
Did someone say “NPR?” (a slow start but oh is it worth it – *warning*: possibly NSFW and definitely savage mocking of the recently deceased Ted Kennedy)
President Barack H. Obama, Healer of Wounds (325a59) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:53 pmOops.
OK so I missed changin' my nick; I'll never do it again I swear (325a59) — 5/6/2011 @ 2:58 pmIdiots.
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/6/2011 @ 3:00 pmCut ’em a little slack, Doh, it’s tricky. If you refresh before you submit, the default inserts your original nick. It ain’t all that easy.
ropelight (a82fa2) — 5/6/2011 @ 3:51 pmNo i was talking about NPR.
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/6/2011 @ 3:54 pmAccording to the “Right”, it would be an unthinkable outrage to hold the people hostage by allowing a partial shutdown of the government, so we just have to keep on funding this crap.
Anon Y. Mous (cb1134) — 5/6/2011 @ 4:08 pmIsn’t that illegal? I’m asking seriously; I was under the impression that it was illegal to use taxpayer money to lobby Congress for more money.
Milhouse (ea66e3) — 5/6/2011 @ 4:18 pmMilhouse, it’s like Planned Parenthood–the money they get from the government may not go directly back into lobbying, but it frees up other money that can be used to fund lobbying efforts.
Aaron, I don’t think you should be picking specifically on NPR. More precisely, I don’t think you should be pointing only to NPR for doing this. It probably applies to almost any organization (including regular businesses) that receives government funding and retains lobbyists. They pay for lobbyists, too, after all, and if they get government funds….
kishnevi (d785be) — 5/6/2011 @ 5:52 pmGreetings:
I live in the San Francisco Bay area, a couple of soviets south of Nancy’s town. One of our local Progressive (neé Public) Broadcasting System stations, KCSM, has been running spots urging its viewers to contact their Congress people to protect KCSM’s share of the commonwealth.
As Eric Hoffer is alleged to have written, “What starts off as a cause becomes a business and ends up as a racket.” I believe we have reached that final stage.
11B40 (dc507b) — 5/6/2011 @ 6:07 pmWould someone tell me how this is illegal? And what ways it might be undone?
I ask because there is something similar happening on the county level and I have no idea how to legally take action.
Tommy Tree (93484e) — 5/6/2011 @ 7:13 pmWould someone tell me how this is illegal? And what ways it might be attacked legally?
I ask because there is something similar happening in my county.
Tommy Tree (93484e) — 5/6/2011 @ 7:15 pmTommy, i don’t know.
Aaron Worthing (73a7ea) — 5/6/2011 @ 7:47 pmthis is corruption simple as that
we don’t need to pay taxes for to employ dirty propaganda whores what splay their legs for Daddy Soros on a dime whenever our president doesn’t feel like putting out
happyfeet (61e8dc) — 5/6/2011 @ 8:21 pmand sometimes even when he does
happyfeet (61e8dc) — 5/6/2011 @ 8:21 pmOk, I laughed, out loud. Good Allah, heal me. Mend my evil ways.
JD (318f81) — 5/6/2011 @ 8:29 pmEwwwwwwww man.
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/6/2011 @ 8:31 pm.
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Governments Just Don’t GET IT.
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IgotBupkis,President, United Anarchist Society (c9dcd8) — 5/8/2011 @ 5:34 amThe left have no problem ripping people off.
DohBiden (15aa57) — 5/8/2011 @ 7:13 pmI’d be shocked if the CPB allows its money to be used for lobbying. This they probably do with other sources of funding.
jbrauer (84ca1e) — 5/9/2011 @ 12:37 pmWhy would it shock you?
JD (d56362) — 5/9/2011 @ 12:50 pmI wouldn’t be too surprised if CPB plays a dishonest game of money moving here and there in a way where they can claim this was paid for via donations or something like that.
That’s how they get away with pretending NPR is not largely taxpayer supported. They sell their programs to dummies that buy them with tax dollars, is all.
Dustin (c16eca) — 5/9/2011 @ 12:53 pm