Alan Chartock, president of WAMC, Northeast Public Radio, takes on House Republicans in a strongly worded piece in today’s (Feb. 16) Huffington Post. Why now? “As almost anyone in the system knows, I am probably the most frequent critic of NPR and its leadership,” Chartock writes. “But there are times when you really have to speak up and this is one of them.”
His main target is Colorado Rep. Doug Lamborn, who wrote a January op-ed in The Hill calling NPR “a good place to start cutting federal spending.” Chartock criticizes Lamborn’s insistence that “no one can justify paying for services that are widely available in the private market.”
“Frankly, I am surprised that the man’s nose isn’t growing, a la Pinocchio,” Chartock says. “He knows full well that NPR is among the most important and trusted news gathering services in the world. He has to know that there is nothing akin to it in the world of contemporary journalism. He has to know that the right wing has gobbled up many, if not most, of the AM talk stations and turned them into propaganda outlets for the likes of Sean Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’ Reilly, Mike Savage (nee Weiner) and Glenn Beck. So it certainly stands to reason that these people and their Congressional mouthpieces would try to rid society of a network that at least tries to adhere to presenting all sides, something the aforementioned disciples of hatred would know nothing about.”