An Ex-Listener's Open Letter to NPR

Dear NPR:

From what your board member, Sue Schardt (here), and your recently thrown-under-the-bus Senior Vice President for Development Ron Schiller (here), and your journalists (here), and even your ombudsman in 2003 (here) have had to say and have implied, I’m pretty much the listener--”predominantly white, liberal, highly educated, elite”--that you’ve “unwittingly cultivated” over the years. It would be all too easy to suggest that you’ve “witlessly cultivated” that audience, but I’m all about the new civility,” particularly as it’s being practiced by your “core audience” in Wisconsin.

I’m a teacher of English, a few credits short of a master’s degree (I’ll get around to it someday--when I have time), lauded by my state as an accomplished teacher of the humanities. I’m a classically trained singer who regularly performs with a well known symphony orchestra, a composer and arranger and a playwright. Unfortunately, I have several disfiguring marks: I’m a conservative who feels that anyone who even thinks they are “elite” is taking them self much, much too seriously. I own guns, not nearly as many as a great many folks I know, but more than enough to horrify you, and I’m a certified firearms instructor and life member of the NRA. I don’t hate anyone, and oh yes, I believe in God, though I won’t throw that in your face.

I have, over the years, like the tides, waxed and waned in my listening to your programming. The pattern is predictable: I listen until my liberal bias limit is exceeded and then I cut you off. In recent years, the cut off side of the scale has become much heaver than the listening side and has been reached more and more rapidly. To be absolutely fair, I know you’re not biased 100% of the time, but when you are, it’s always to the left, never to the right. If you really are fair and balanced, wouldn’t you, at least occasionally, be biased to the right? Just asking.

I know that your CEO Vivian Schiller (remember her? You threw her under the bus just the other day too) vigorously denied any liberal bias at NPR at the National Press Club just the day before that scamp James O’Keefe’s newest undercover video revealed Mr. Schiller representing NPR’s heart and soul in all it’s cruel, condescending, crude, anti-semitic and hateful “elite” glory. We, as the Queen of England might say, were not amused. By the way, the exquisite timing involved is an example of what we in English call “cosmic irony.” That’s the sort of thing that tends to make non-elite types like me think that when you profess to abhor liberal bias that you might be, well, lying.

Oh, but what about Fox News you ask? When you--and the rest of the media--are so overwhelmingly progressive, a network like Fox which is not blatantly hostile to conservatives and their views will appear, by comparison, to be right wing. That’s not an argument in your favor, but another indicator of your bias.

I know that you don’t sit down in editorial meetings every morning and plot how best to denigrate all those who haven’t reached your lofty pinnacle of eliteness. It just isn’t necessary when everyone in the room thinks alike. But I also know that in your board meetings and editorial meetings, and in your hearts, you look down on people like me, on half--even more--of the American public. You know you’re better than me, smarter, more humane, more caring. I know this because I’ve actually listened to your programming over the years. I know because Juan Williams (remember him? You threw him under the bus not long ago) tells us that Mr. Schiller’s thoughts and words are routinely expressed in your meetings and conversations. And I know through common sense. Who would say such things if they did not live and work in an insular world where such beliefs were not only ubiquitous, but expected and accepted?

“Oh yeah?” You demand. “Where’s your proof? Give me just one example.” In fact, Vivian Schiller bragged about demanding just that, claiming that no one could respond.

You lost me in October of 2003. Remember that? I’m referring to the Terry Gross interview of Bill O’Reilly. Surely you remember that interview, the interview that was so egregiously biased, so unprofessional that your ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin (link in the first paragraph) had to side with O’Reilly? By the way, I suspect that most Americans reading Dvorkin’s response would find it chock-full of progressive snark. Do you? I’m no sycophant of O’Reilly--I rarely watch his program--but that was my turning point.

Again, to be fair, you’ve sometimes produced worthy, unbiased programs, but because your bias is so encompassing, I’ve never donated a penny to you. And now, because your daily operating bias has been laid bare for all to see in a way that cannot be ignored, you’re on the verge of losing your taxpayer subsidy. Yet even your mea-culpas drip with bias; you just can’t help yourself. Ms. Schardt’s musings read like a “how could we be any more magnificent?” love letter to yourselves, and the NPR journalist’s letter (link in the first paragraph), while distancing them from Ron Schiller, shows no recognition of your pervasive institutional bias: “ We are determined to continue bringing you the daily journalism that you’ve come to expect and rely upon: fair, fact-based, in-depth reporting from at home and around the world.” Hmm. Not so much. By the way, how many conservatives work for you? Can they admit it?

The world of broadcasting has fundamentally, irrevocably changed, and you’re still asking “what’s the matter with Kansas?” The kind of reporting and analysis that once stood apart from the rest of the legacy media is now common on the Internet. Virtually everything you do can be had elsewhere and without the smug, “elite” condescension, progressive bias, and disdain toward hundreds of millions of Americans, Americans you regularly beg for money. If I didn’t know so well who you are and what you believe, individually and corporately, I’d probably listen from time to time and occasionally, donate. But that would be my choice; my tax dollars aren’t. You don't deserve them and we can't afford them.

For that day when the taxpayer no longer finances your cruelty and smug, self-imagined superiority over all of us who live in fly-over country, I have a bit of free advice: Don’t continue to emulate Newsweek. They proudly announced that they were becoming more than a mere news source; they were to be a journal of elite, liberal opinion. That elite liberal opinion, you may recall, turned out to be worth precisely one dollar--for the entire enterprise.

But I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt one last time. I’ll give you one more shot. But first, I’d better let you know just who you’re trying to serve and what they believe. I’ll speak for myself, but I suspect many will share my sentiments. Consider them a sort of top ten guide to the mysterious denizens of fly-over country.

(1) I do honor and serve God, because I recognize that there is One greater than me, greater than all of us. And no, I don’t mean Barack Obama (patron saint of the teleprompter), or Nancy Pelosi (patron saint of ridiculously lengthy and utterly incomprehensible legislation we have to pass to understand what’s in it) or Harry Reid (patron saint of cowboy poetry).

(2) I like guns. They’re fun, useful, develop responsibility, and the ability to concentrate. Thomas Jefferson also believed that--look it up. Above all, I appreciate them because I don’t expect anyone, or the government, to care for me or those I love. I believe in individual responsibility, and firearm ownership is only a small part of the expression of that belief.

(3) I have no hatred for those who aren’t like me. When I see Maria and Alejandro entering my classroom, I don’t see Hispanics, Latinos or members of a favored victim group, I see Maria and Alejandro, and I love them because they’re great kids, they’re my students and I’m their teacher. Tommy, on the other hand, is a bit of a wiener.

(4) I don’t care much for those who think themselves superior. As I’ve aged, I’ve learned how very much I don’t know, and I’ve also learned that there is always someone smarter, faster, stronger, better in every way, especially in fly-over country. In the real world, the practical world of daily accomplishment, “elites” aren’t worth a bucket of warm spit--just like the vice-presidency.

(5) I judge people on their abilities and the content of their character.

(6) I believe that no law should be passed to “make a statement.” I believe that the law should be enforced fairly and uniformly, and if it’s bad law, it should be repealed or changed.

(7) I believe in the Constitution--all of it. I believe that even though it was written hundreds of years ago, that I can understand its plain words and their plain meaning, be I ever so handicapped by my non-elite status.

(8) I believe in democracy and understand that when I’m in the minority, fleeing the state to bring democracy to a halt, trashing the state house, making death threats against my opponents and their families, and congratulating myself for protecting the very democracy I despise makes me look like a liar, thug and Marxist. When I behave so badly, I expect others to wonder if I was raised by wolves.

(9) I believe that Socialism and Communism are brutal, cruel and evil and absolutely incompatible with democracy and liberty. Tens of thousands of Americans have given their last, full measure of devotion to defeat these barbaric philosophies, and untold millions of others around the globe have been slaughtered in their name. I will, if necessary, give my last, full measure of devotion to put them, once and for all, on the ash heap of history.

(10) Three times in my life, I have taken an oath to uphold the Constitution and to oppose all enemies, foreign and domestic (yes, I’m a veteran too). I know who all the enemies of America are and I will name them and fight them.

So. With any luck, you’ll soon be cut off from the great taxpayer borrowed money pipeline and left adrift in the free market. You’ll stay afloat or sink on the strength of your product, a product you’ll have to drastically alter to appeal to those you have, for so many years, egregiously insulted. I’ll still listen to Car Talk because there may be found good humor, wit and no bias. And I’ll probably drop by from time to time to see if you’ve changed--at all. As a beginning, you might start every editorial meeting from now on by intoning, over and over, “there’s nothing the matter with Kansas, but we’re a different story.” Good luck.

A Former Listener