Question: Should NPR take money from George Soros?

LP Answer: Of course! Since PBS has taken funding from David H. Koch for NOVA, so should NPR accept funding from Soros. Only when the money comes with editorial strings attached or when editorial decision making is influenced by concern for the continuation of funding should it be reconsidered.

Worthy Cause, Controversial Funding Source

May 24, 2011
by ALICIA SHEPARD
NPR Ombudsperson

NPR's first show, "All Things Considered," turned 40 this month. Over the decades, NPR has added shows, exponentially increased its audience and become one of the most trusted news sources in the country.

If you think of credibility as money in the bank, NPR's account is healthy and robust – at least among its audience.

But the organization made a judgment last fall that taps into that credibility account. The decision was to take $1.8 million from the Open Society Foundations. It's funded by left-leaning billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros, who made his fortune in hedge funds and currency speculation.

The money is for a worthy purpose.

NPR is using the two-year grant as seed money to start a local-national initiative, known as the Impact on Government project. Eventually, the plan is to have two public radio reporters in every state keeping tabs on state government issues that are woefully under-reported by the media. This is to be a multi-media project for radio, the Web and social media.

(More here.)

If Earth gets too warm, what the heck? Let's just go to Mars!

NASA Chief Questions Urgency of Global Warming

NPR Morning Edition, May 31, 2007 · NASA administrator Michael Griffin defends the space agency's programs, including plans for a permanent moon base and manned missions to Mars. He also says that while NASA studies climate change, the agency has no authorization to "take actions to affect climate change in either one way or another."

Michael Griffin: I'm aware that global warming exists. I understand that the bulk of scientific evidence accumulated supports the claim that we've had about a one degree centigrade rise in temperature over the last century to within an accuracy of 20 percent. I'm also aware of recent findings that appear to have nailed down — pretty well nailed down the conclusion that much of that is manmade. Whether that is a longterm concern or not, I can't say.

NPR: Do you have any doubt that this is a problem that mankind has to wrestle with?

Griffin: I have no doubt that … a trend of global warming exists. I am not sure that it is fair to say that it is a problem we must wrestle with. To assume that it is a problem is to assume that the state of Earth's climate today is the optimal climate, the best climate that we could have or ever have had and that we need to take steps to make sure that it doesn't change. First of all, I don't think it's within the power of human beings to assure that the climate does not change, as millions of years of history have shown. And second of all, I guess I would ask which human beings — where and when — are to be accorded the privilege of deciding that this particular climate that we have right here today, right now is the best climate for all other human beings. I think that's a rather arrogant position for people to take.

NPR: Is that thinking that informs you as you put together the budget? That something is happening, that it's worth studying, but you're not sure that you want to be battling it as an army might battle an enemy?

Griffin: Nowhere in NASA's authorization, which of course governs what we do, is there anything at all telling us that we should take actions to affect climate change in either one way or another. We study global climate change, that is in our authorization, we think we do it rather well. I'm proud of that, but NASA is not an agency chartered to, quote, battle climate change.

The article is here. Not everyone at NASA agrees. For example, climate change expert Jim Hansen at the Goddard Institute for Space Studies says Griffin is "remarkably uninformed."

NASA Scientist Critiques Bush's Strategy

"Time is really running out," Hansen says. "If we don't begin to make some changes in our emissions, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, we're going to get some really large climate changes."

Hansen also takes issue with NASA administrator Michael Griffin's views on global warming during an interview with Madeleine Brand. Griffin told NPR's Morning Edition that he isn't sure global warming is a problem we must tackle, a view Hansen says is "remarkably uninformed."