Did you read this today? Joan Kroc bequested $200 million to NPR. Check out the article here.

That's terrific! I couldn't live without my daily am/pm doses of NPR.

I know!~ I'm always for NPR. They needed it.

Good! That's exactly as it should be! Now Congress can finally cut its public funding in toto, the taxpayers will no longer be forced to support its smug leftist agenda, and this arm of the state that so far's gotten a free pass on content-based discrimination can say whatever it damn well pleases!

I'm guessing ... you are a Republican, right??

I'm not going to get into a discussion about paying taxes for the arts and what not w/ you.

This is a discussion about this wonderful donation for NPR and, in my opinion, deserves it.

Hey Mr. Moderator, you may want to put this into the Politics area. Thanks!

GMG has a point: If NPR has so much private-sector money, why must it mooch off taxpayers? Why is NPR so special that it must be exempt from any sort of competition? Unlike most Republicans, I support some gov't funding of arts, but I hardly see how NPR is art.

Because it doesn't have to raise funds from selling advertising and it doesn't have to worry about listenership going south if they don't play the most up to date things, it can play anything it wants.

Here in Montana it is the only radio station in the state that will play ANY kind of Jazz, folk, clasical, ethnic(South American, Japanese, african), or even technio occationally.

You people in Big cities take for grated having the ability to have a wide diversity of radio stations to listen to. Other than NPR in my town all we have is 2 country stations, an 80 hair rock station, and one station that claims to be top 40 but is in fact classics from the early 90's and 80's that I never like back then. Oh ya, and 2-3 church stations that drive me nuts with their hellfire and brimstone crap. So being able to listen to some Jazz on my way home is much appreciated.

Sounds like a communistic, leftist, Trotskyite agenda to me! "South American, african"...jazz? Oops, that's one of the few truly AMERICAN musical forms/genres!

I also love that Kroc bequeathed millions to Notre Dame. How's that for balancing things out. Too bad she didn't mistake me for her long-lost, Catholic liberal son!

What are you people smoking? The books are open. NPR gets around 1% of its operating budget from public funds. Which is why they hit us up on fund drives so often. If this $200 mil could be used to severe the ties to gov't money, I'd be all for it...if for no other reason than to shut up the people who have no interest in genuine news. Go back into your hole and delete all channels from the dial except Fox.

[ November 06, 2003, 10:03 PM: Message edited by: AU Tiger in LA ]

Why do you hate Halliburton?

You sound like a perfect candidate for Sirius or XM.

When you start calling for the Voice of America to be de-funded, then I'll take you seriously.

Since, as usual, with a right-winger, it's all about the tax money, I bitterly resent that one penny of my taxes goes to fund that great right-wing version of Affirmative Action, the military. And its parasite cousin, the military-industrial complex. And I resent my tax money being spent on farm subsidies and corporate welfare, among other things. So, GMG, let's start a movement to get a form sent with our IRS forms wherein we can check off boxes that indicate where our taxes get distrubuted, sort of like the forms I get every year from Working Assets Long Distance, asking me to divy up the money they contribute. On WALD, it all goes to gay orgs, my taxes would go 100% to arts organizations. You with me?

The right doesn't like funding of the arts for one simple reason: most artists are on the left. The level of government spending on the arts in this country compared to other Western nations is pathetic, but still they whine. If right wingers are so worried about the arts being "too left", maybe they should actually produce art that people want to experience, not just whine about "the leftist agenda inherent in federally funded art".

EDITED: to take out needlessly snarky remark re: GMG.

[ November 07, 2003, 01:27 PM: Message edited by: Jim Allen ]

It isn't. Name one market where NPR is the only station. If there are other stations, it competes with them for listeners, and regardless of who pays the station's bills, people only listen if they want to.

You can get practically anything online these days. And CD players are wonderful in cars.

Good one, Twin.

And your point is? :confused:

Good point gmg, why spend that money here when we could ship it over to Iraq, just add it on to that $87 billion that our "im against nation building" pResident requested. Maybe it could help out with their new postal system.

Hey William, how about you buy me a whole bunch of CD's of music and mail them to me. I'll listen to them and decide which one's I like, and then I'll mail the rest back to you. Or I'll just sent them all back and you can keep sending me more and more CD's, and I'll keep sending them back after I listen. I like a wide variety, and since CD's are the way to listen to music in my car, You'll be my supplier since I don't want to have to buy thousands of dollars worth of CD's just so I can listen to a wide range. LMAO! Everything is so black and white with you generally, how comical.

As for XM radio, yes I could hook up to XM radio, and PAY a monthly fee for music I guess. But why if I have NPR? To tell you the truth, I don't really like to listen to Satilite radio a whole lot generally because there isn't any commercials. Listening to the radio keeps people informed and gives a sense of connection with the rest of the world.

It happens. Not often. Mark your calendar.

Thanks. Now back to the feud.

Only if it's shortwave. By the way, have I mentioned lately that....

Oh, never mind.

Who do you think I am, Columbia House?

Can we get back on track here??

I really do hope that NPR invests the money wisely. I highly enjoy their shows they have. They did an hour long show about the Doors. Highly fascinating!!

Oliver Stone did a three hour long film about the Doors. Highly...something!! (This actually bolsters the case that maybe NPR can do some things better than the free market.)

So a wealthy old woman who liked to listen to NPR in the morning with her Extremely Hot Cup of Coffee™ bequeaths $200M of her estate to help pay for its continued broadcast. While still kicking, she also backed-up the truck on many other occasions to help fund some of her favorite organizations (the Sally Ann, the DNC, a homeless shelter, an animal shelter, a palliative-care center, and [horrors!] "Peacenik" institutes founded by her at the U's of SD and Notre-Dame), as did her late husband Ray (former owner of the SD Padres), who started a foundation for medical research in his own name. Good for him, and good for her! Geez, I wish I had tons of money to give to all the causes I think are worthy – both those that affect me personally and those that I perceive to be for the common good of all. (Which reminds me: Review my will.)

So how did this thread get hijacked into one about the wisdom of Republicans cutting funding for the arts? (Btw, thanks for the original link, Allen, which was exactly where it belonged in the first place. There's nothing inherently "Politics & Religion" about this story, except to those few who made it so. But, here it be, and since they asked... ) Yeah, I guess you're right, guys, one of her pet causes (National Pinko Radio™) is now just ripe for picking. Imagine the nerve of that rich chic! Feeling the need to redistribute all that wealth to those less-fortunate than herself because her government claims to have not enough money to go around and always has other more pressing priorities – say, greasing the palms of already-wealthy CEO's, dining on Food for Thought™ with special interest groups who only order from the Right side of the menu, and groveling to America to take on the interest payments on a further $84B to fund an illegal international takeover of sandy real estate and black gold, all pre-plotted and allotted to The Men In Red Ties™.

That crazy old Mrs. Kroc! What could she have possibly been thinking? That her acts of charity and quest for peace and truth should outlive her? Koo-koo for Mrs. Kroc!

I rant, therefore I ramble. Frankly, I think she must have been quite a lady, one whose heart has yet to grow cold. I would have loved splitting an order of McD fries with her. Or would that have been "too socialist" of us?

I love when I get a chance to drive down to the USA and tune the dial to NPR. There seems to be an abundance of thought-provoking programming going on there. It would be a real shame to ever lose it due to fiscal shortcomings or, worse, some Random Act of Patriotism™.

Some of these rejoinders oblige me to repost(e) my quote from Somerset Maugham's "Ashenden": "An artist who campaigns for recognition is not an artist, but a politician and deserves to be treated as one."

The beauty of a free society like ours is that ladies like Mrs. Kroc, RIP, can give their money away as they please. They can because our military protects us and allows our society to engage in such largesse as its members determine for themselves. Whatever form this takes - my active support for and patronizing of veteran's organizations, Outsports, the opera and symphony; others' contributing passively and indirectly by using businesses like WALD - it's the individual's choice. No one forces us to make these contributions; we choose to.

That's not the case with NPR. Vocal lobbyists managed to convince Congress years ago to establish NPR and its parent organization, the National Endowment for the Arts, both of which receive public funding. Many of us believe that true art transcends not just time, but public funding as well. In other words, if it's good, it's going to get noticed and thrive, regardless of public subsidies. It's not too much to expect great artists to develop and prove their worth, is it? Conversely, I think it IS a bit much to expect people to involuntarily support charlatans and hacks, too many of whom funnel funds from these two organizations into their own pockets.

There's also the inherent conflict of interest in having government sponsorship of the arts and broadcasting. Either the government suffers its creatures to criticize it at will, or it restrains them, in whatever degree from doing so. Either way, there are conflicts of interest between the government and the recipients of its largesse, or worse, with the Constitution's free speech rights and responsibilities. (Yes, there are two sides to that coin, too!) Thus my belief that we would be better off without publicly funded arts.

Finally, I thought it went without saying so, but apparently I need to say it: I listen to NPR, yes - even All Things Considered! - and enjoy a lot of it. I do so because I like to know a variety of viewpoints. But the role of education that public broadcasting was originally meant to fulfill has since been largely supplanted by my old buddy from the service, Private Sector, as a glance over to the Discovery, History, or any of the other several private educational channels confirms. Especially now, with its receipt of Mrs. Kroc's generous gift, the time for ending public support of NPR and eliminating the NEA has come. If these two organizations have merit, surely they'll draw the active patronage and support they purport to deserve - even if WALD's wires become a little crossed in the process.

I wasn't too keen on the idea at first, but the more I hear about Clear Channel, the more I like low-power FM.

I guess people without cable TV, or who can only afford limited basic service which may not include all of these channels, just have to do without.

Oh! The horror of THAT!