Quick Takes
Op-ed writers see “fake populism” in campaign to defund NPR
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In a Nov. 23 online op-ed and analysis for the Guardian, media blogger and j-school professor Dan Kennedy describes the political campaign to defund NPR as part of a “culture war being waged by the right.”Kennedy examines the arguments of Republican lawmakers who are calling for an end to federal funding, including the assertion that NPR programming is “liberal,” and finds that they don’t hold water. Much of NPR’s programming, he writes, ” exudes a liberal sensibility reflected in cultural references and, to an extent, story selection. But the reporting itself is balanced and, if anything, errs on the side of caution.” He finds some exceptions to this in shows that air outside of drive time, such as the “frankly liberal orientation” of On the Media, but adds: “in the main .