Video: NPR President who Fired Juan Williams says No Bias at NPR

Remember Vivian Schiller? After National Public Radio fired Juan Williams for being honest about his feelings when boarding a plane with Muslims, it became apparent that NPR had bowed to the pressure applied by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) when national spokesman Dennis Hooper demanded action be taken. The best line from Schiller here is that the notion that NPR is biased toward the left is a matter of perception, not reality.

Via Gateway Pundit:

Another Reason to De-Fund PBS: Che Guevara

Yet another reason to defund all public broadcasting can be found in the efforts of Agustin Blazquez. He is a Cuban exile who has been trying to get the truth out about men like Che Guevara. Guevara's image is everywhere. He's held up as a revolutionary hero. Lies about who he really was are repeated over and over again. In truth, Guevara was a racist and a cold-blooded killer of innocent people. Blazquez made a documentary about Guevara on a shoe-string budget and did most of the work himself. However, he did so only after trying to get the help of PBS.

Via Pajamas Media:

He learned that grants and prizes for documentaries in his series “Covering Cuba” would not be forthcoming. The latest, and seventh, titled Che: The Other Side of an Icon, was produced on a budget of $14,000. Only about $4,000 of that was from a non-profit that he had started himself. He had submitted a more typical budget of $494,000 to CPB-PBS (Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Public Broadcasting System). Blazquez had no success with the publicly supported organization, nor did he with the taxpayer-supported American Film Institute in his other projects. In fact, he could not even get an airing on POV (Point of View), the program created by PBS specifically for the purpose of airing “controversial” films.

Still, Blazquez, by changing his approach and scaling back, and doing his own editing on his own equipment, has managed to produce a compelling film that demolishes the radical heartthrob’s reputation as a brave guerrilla fighting on behalf of the oppressed.

When one contrasts that reality with the success of another film that glorified Guevara, it becomes painfully obvious that propaganda and a denial of truth is in more demand.

Nevertheless, the narrative put out in a press release by the AFI for the 2008 film by Steven Soderbergh simply titled Che, describes Che “galvanizing poor peasants into a military force that can take on trained professionals.” The same AFI turned down Blazquez’s third film on Elian Gonzalez, the young Cuban refugee who was forcibly sent back to Cuba under President Clinton after his mother had drowned during their escape.

Contrary to AFI’s depiction, Che’s delight was in shooting 240 defenseless victims, some as young as 15. Political prisoners say the real number is much higher. Che also delighted in having people and their children rounded up off the street and forced to watch executions.

Meanwhile, Democrats are bemoaning Republican attempts to defund Public Broadcasting and they're using puppets as props in doing so. If the Republicans were smart, they'd point to things like this. One man tries to use public dollars to tell the truth about a racist, cold-blooded killer and is repeatedly denied. Yet, another film that portrays Guevara as a man of the people who fought against oppression is successful.

Read it all.

Democrats Use Life-Sized Puppets to Attack Republicans

After Juan Williams was fired by NPR, Republicans attempted to defund the liberal outfit. Now that they have the majority, they're going after the entire Public Broadcasting establishment. The Democrats' strategy appears to be the use of puppets. After all, Sesame Street is a PBS staple that simply cannot disappear. It's an integral part of any child's development. So what did the Democrats do? They held a press conference outside the Capitol with a poster of Bert and Ernie getting a GOP Pink Slip along with someone in an Arthur the Aardvark suit.

Shameless doesn't even begin to describe this stunt. It's typical leftwing tactics on display with Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA) leading the charge.

Via POLITICO:

Rep. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) rarely holds press conferences with animated aardvarks, but he went for it Wednesday, coaxing shy Arthur the Aardvark up to the podium.

“Come over here Arthur,” Markey beckoned to the human-sized title character in the PBS series, “Arthur: The World’s Most Famous Aardvark,” motioning for him to come up to the podium, as a small crowd of curious tourists began forming. Nearby, Rep. Betty McCollum clutched an Elmo doll and a stuffed Big Bird sat on the podium — both ready to fight in defense of funding for public broadcasting.

The House GOP leaders have announced intentions to slice funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in the continuing resolution, resulting in the elimination of programming for the over 170 million people that use public media each month.

But Markey, along with Democratic Reps. Earl Blumenauer, Nita Lowey, Sam Farr, Paul Tonko, and Bill Owens plan to unveil an amendment to a spending measure that will refund educational programs like “Sesame Street” and “Arthur,” as well as funding for National Public Radio and local broadcast networks.

In particular, I thought this quote from Lowey summed up the pathetic attempt on the part of the Dems:

“The GOP should be less preoccupied with silencing cookie monster and more focused on reviving the economy.”

If it's all about silencing cookie monster, how does she explain the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) getting more than $400 million annual taxpayer dollars?

There would be more cookies for cookie monster if he went to the free market anyway.

h/t Gateway Pundit

NPR CHIEF EXECUTIVE NOW SAYS JUAN WILLIAMS UNETHICAL

Not sure if this was an attempt to walk back her suggestion that newly fired news analyst Juan Williams seek the help of his 'psychiatrist' or to just pile on. Either way, NPR Chief Executive Vivian Schiller probably would have been better off if she'd have put the shovel down. Instead, after hitting rock bottom, she continues to dig. What further proof does one need to conclude that the left uses matters of race to further an agenda, not promote equality?

Vivian Schiller apparently felt compelled to clarify her 'psychiatrist' remark by granting the New York Times an interview. Here is what Schiller said:

The reason that we terminated his contract is because of our news ethics guidelines.

The guidelines are based on the same news ethics guidelines of the Society of Professional Journalists, and are very similar to that of The New York Times and many other news organizations.

He had several times in the past violated our news code of ethics with things that he had said on other people’s air. I’m not aware of any problem with any things he has said on our air. In each of those instances, we called him on it; we had a discussion; we asked him not to do it again. It happened several times. What happened a few days ago was the latest in a series of incidents.

I can’t characterize that this was better or worse or less egregious or more egregious than any other time. The point is, this was the latest in a series of incidents.

You give people second chances — we’re big believers in that and we do it all the time — but it happened again and again. And so we made the decision at this point that we had to draw the line somewhere.

A reasonable person could say, “Well why didn’t you make the decision last time this time or the time before?” Or, “Why didn’t you wait until the next time?” Fair enough.

We made the decision here because, at a certain point, if someone keeps not following your guidance, you have to make a break. And that’s what we did. And that is the sole reason.

No, Ms. Schiller; you made the decision this time because you were intimidated by the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), an Islamic group with ties to nefarious terror organizations.

The CAIR issue was addressed in the New York Times article as well:

Some critics of the firing have questioned whether NPR caved in to pressure from the Council on American-Islamic Relations, or CAIR for short. The group, which advocates for Muslims, released a statement on Wednesday calling on NPR to address Mr. Williams’s comments on Fox, and a few hours later the termination decision was announced.

“I have actually not seen the statement from CAIR,” Ms. Schiller said Friday evening. “We don’t make decisions like this based on influence. We don’t make decisions based either on political pressure or financial pressure. That’s not the way we make decisions like this. They’re based on own ethics and our own news values at NPR.”

Gee, I wonder if lying is acceptable under NPR's ethics. They were shown to have done so in their dealings with Steve Emerson in 1998 over a very similar issue involving another Muslim group, the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) Vice president Ali Abunimah.

h/t Gateway Pundit

MOST CONSERVATIVE SENATOR FIGHTS FOR LIBERAL

Don't be confused by the headline. This is great news. South Carolina Senator - and the man who should be the Republican nominee in 2012 - Jim DeMint says he will introduce a bill that will call for the cessation of all public funds from going to National Public Radio (NPR) in response to the taxpayer-funded propaganda outfit's decision to fire liberal Juan Williams for comments he made about being 'worried' when on a plane with passengers in 'Muslim garb.'

Via Gawker:

Republican Senator Jim DeMint has confirmed that he will introduce legislation to cut federal funding from NPR after they fired analyst Juan Williams for making insensitive comments about Muslims on Fox. The Right's war on NPR has begun in earnest!

Tonight on The O'Reilly Factor, Bill O'Reilly followed his Fox colleague Mike Huckabee in calling for "an immediate suspension of all public money going to NPR" because of Williams' firing. He also added, "We understand [South Carolina] Senator Jim Demint will introduce legislation to defund that enterprise. No taxpayer money should be going to an outfit that abuses free speech." (CNN has confirmed DeMint's intention.)

So the most conservative senator in Congress is choosing to come to the defense of a liberal. Yeah, the skeptical left will say DeMint is using Williams to further an agenda but how can they deny that Williams was unfairly terminated?

Gawker even makes a rather lame point by arguing that if taxpayer dollars are pulled from NPR, then their fundraising drives will become more obnoxious. Who cares?! If the fundraising drives become too obnoxious, they'll eventually turn people off. Besides, I have a problem with my tax dollars funding an outfit that spits on the first amendment, regardless of whether the end result is increased donations to that outfit. At least they'll have to actually WORK to make up for that shortfall.

h/t Weasel Zippers