NYT editorial: Punishment for NPR

Here is the latest example of House Republicans pursuing a longstanding ideological goal in the false name of fiscal prudence: On Thursday, they have scheduled a vote to kill federal support for National Public Radio.

The bill, sponsored by Representative Doug Lambon, a three-term Republican from Colorado, would block all taxpayer dollars that NPR might receive, starting with any of the money given to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Local stations could not buy programming from NPR — such as “Morning Edition” or “All Things Considered” — or any other source using the $22 million or so that they get from the Treasury for that purpose. It would not actually save any federal money; it would simply make sure that none of those dollars go to NPR.

“I wish only the best for NPR,” said Mr. Lamborn, unpersuasively. He said he simply wants NPR to survive “without the crutch of government subsidies.”

This is not a serious bill. Unattached to a budget measure, it will never survive the Senate or a presidential veto. It is designed simply to send a punitive message to a news organization that conservatives have long considered a liberal bastion. The politicized criticism amped up last week when a fund-raiser for the organization was secretly recorded calling the Tea Party a racist organization and criticizing Republicans.

(More here.)