Why the Republicans Hate NPR

Last week Robert Creamer had a column in Huffington claiming to explain why Republicans hate NPR. He begins by telling how great NPR is and how many people listen to it (around 11% of the population). Then he lists the reasons that he believes that Republicans hate NPR:

First, they hate any successful public sector -- non-corporate venture. It flies in the face of radical conservative belief that the "private sector" always does things better.

{...} Second, the Republicans hate the idea that NPR is drawing listeners from stations owned by corporations like Clear Channel. They are all about "competition" until private corporations have to compete with public sector ventures that can provide superior services for less money and don't have to pay millions in profits to satisfy their corporate task masters.

{...} Third, Republicans want to kill NPR because it presents high quality, unbiased, factually accurate news. These qualities do not sit well with people who want the Rupert Murdoch's and Fox News's of the world to control what the public has the right to hear. They think unbiased news coverage is subversive.

{...} Fourth, the Republicans in the House wanted to attack NPR to throw some red meat to the Tea Party portion of its base.

I disagree with Creamer on most of these points. Note that he is not writing a dispassionate column, not when he tosses around terms loaded terms like "corporate task masters". The fact that he thinks that any news organization is unbiased let alone NPR shows his own biases. That is why the undercover video of NPR executives saying biased things is important.

This is the real reason that Republicans hate NPR. They hate seeing tax money being used to subsidize liberal viewpoints. This, in turn, is why Creamer loves NPR. He sees the world in terms of right and wrong (where Right = wrong). According to his bio, he is also an extreme progressive. His even borrows the term "corporate task masters" from the Marxists. So, from his point of view, is it the government's duty to fund radio stations that tell the "truth". He hates the existence of other points of view and is revolted by the prospect of having to compete with them.

There are better uses of taxpayer's money than subsidizing one set of viewpoints and the existence of these grant gives NPR a veneer of respectability that is unwarranted.

I will agree that this is throwing red meat to the Tea Party