The rumors of this have been flying fast and furious over the past few days throughout the gunblogosphere, but it really does appear as though NPR was desperately trying to stack the deck during their recent broadcast on McCarthy’s idiotic magazine ban, and now we even have the emails to prove it. I confess to being more than a little intrigued that an apparently official representative of an NPR show/station would be reaching out to potential interview candidates by way of his GMail account, but that is really the sideshow for this particular act – the important take-away is that NPR made absolutely no bones about intentionally crafting a completely biased debate and presenting it as something balanced and impartial.
I do not know about you, but I wholly object to my tax dollars (and, yes, National Public Radio is supported by money money, against my will) being expended on an organization of such low moral character, and I let my duly-elected representatives know of my objection:
Senator / Congressman,
It has recently come to my attention that the following email was sent out from a representative of the National Public Radio to various firearm-related bloggers:
[QUOTE]
From: Matthew Baskin
To: XXXX
Sent: Fri, January 14, 2011 1:32:22 PM
Subject: NPR show On Point needing progressive gun guestHi Mr. Blogger,
My name is Matthew Baskin and I work for the NPR program On Point with Tom Ashbrook. I’m writing to ask if you’d be able to speak as a guest on Monday, January 17. We’re looking for a gun owner and 2nd Amendment supporter who is not opposed to the forthcoming McCarthy bill re: limiting magazine capacity. I’d be very grateful if you could put me in touch with any gun owner who is not opposed to regulation. Let me know if anyone comes to mind. Thanks very much.
Best,
Matthew Baskin
[ENDQUOTE]Apparently the NPR, “On Point”, and Mr. Baskin were more interested with stacking the deck and ensuring that their particular authoritarian agenda was broadcast unquestioned, rather than allowing anything approximating a balanced debate.
In light of this blatant lack of respect for the Constitution and intentional subterfuge (with malice aforethought, no less), I humbly request, as your constituent, that you work towards immediately defunding the National Public Radio – my tax dollars should be used for a better purpose than misleading the American public by dredging up sycophants for a blatantly biased, anti-rights message.
Thank you for your time.
[NAME]
And then I turned around and forwarded that communication to Matthew Baskin (mdbaskin@gmail.com), the On Point radio show (onpoint@wbur.org), WBUR (the station that airs OnPoint, info@wbur.org), and the NPR Ombudsman – I have not heard nary a response yet, but I will certainly let you know if/when I do. On the other hand, if you want a significantly better letter to send to your public servants, Epsilon Given has you covered.
I have absolutely no problem if the NPR, or any other radio station or organization, wants to embark on whatever blatantly intolerant, anti-rights, bigoted, rigged debate they want – after all, despite some evidence to the contrary, we do have a First Amendment here in America – but there is precisely zero reason why my tax money should be used to subsidize that activity.
If you want to piss on the Constitution I spent four years supporting and defending, do it on your own damned dime.
Letter sent x3
I think lots of people are complaining. One suggestion that I hope gun bloggers will pay attention to: If you actually want NPR and its ombudsmen to listen, it’s much better to talk about the violation in their journalistic standards and ethics. Don’t make an argument about the content of the show, but about fairness.
If you want the letter to not be discarded as a nut, don’t speak about Constitutional rights, authoritarianism, or the merits of the ban. Likewise, feel free to mention tax money to your congressman, but your local NPR managers will add those arguments to the “conservative nut” pile.
@ GuardDuck: Hopefully Epsilon’s… I like his better
.
@ ZK: Honestly, I could care less whether or not NPR bothered to listen – they are not going to anywise, as was evinced by their programming note – in short, “Screw you guys, we did it the way we wanted to, and you had bloody well like it.”
Welp, screw them – I will go over their heads and directly to the folks who control their money… but I will be so kind as to let them know I did it
.
@ Linoge:
I hadn’t seen that new note. Thanks. Looks like they received the letters and decided to say screw you.
Yeah, I used Epsilon’s. No offence
@ ZK: Yeah, after reading that, my attitude towards them… changed, dramatically.
@ GuardDuck: None taken – I would have too, if I had not already sent mine!
[...] thing I sent to his office… at any rate, below is the email I received in response to the note about NPR’s funding I sent him last week: Dear [...]