National Public Radio has a serious, red-hot loathing of Fox News. The latest demonstration was the February 5 episode of the very tilted weekly show On The Media, produced by WNYC-FM in New York and airing on more than 400 public radio stations across America. The episode was boldly titled “Slaying the Fox Monster.”
We like the hashtag #DefundNPR, but that means removing its taxpayer subsidies, which they always implausibly claim is some miniscule fraction like two percent. These NPR people want Fox "radically ostracized."
The host in charge of this discussion of how to slay Fox was Bob Garfield, who memorably described Donald Trump in 2016, as possessing “a nuclear recklessness, reminiscent of a raving meth head with a machete on an episode of Cops.” The first segment was frankly titled “Deplatforming Fox News.” Garfield set the table:
GARFIELD: In the past week The New York Times, Washington Post, Mother Jones, Variety and CNN have all entertained musings about Fox -- one way or another -- being shunned from polite society....
In this hour we address two questions: First, what if Fox News were to be neutralized or at least radically ostracized? And secondly, in a democratic society in which free speech is foundational, is that an outcome we really want?
Both questions are premised on the belief that whatever Fox has been since its 1996 launch -- a megaphone for wedge issues, fearmongering, lies, conspiracy theories, culture wars -- has poisonously mutated. It’s no longer just an argument with the Left. It’s explicitly a safe space for insurrectionists and all those who imagine themselves under the heel of tyranny.
This is a pretty odd pose for leftists who've just spent four years "imagining themselves under the heel" of a mentally unfit authoritarian.
But there wasn't really a debate on this show. They would never put a Fox defender speak. Instead, Garfield discussed the pros (and not so much cons) of deplatforming Fox with the usual creepy censorship groups like Media Matters and Sleeping Giants.
You could go on and on about all of the wacko talk. But let's just pick on Garfield some more. Fox is responsible for everything bad in the last year: "Now, you would think that 25 million COVID infections, 400,000 plus deaths and one insurrection would, you know, at long last tip the scales for the likes of Progressive Insurance. Do you have any indication that these holdouts are finally prepared to put their money elsewhere?"
He introduced one segment: "This is On the Media, I'm Bob Garfield. To recap, we're discussing how the marketplace might force Fox News Channel into responsible behavior or even into financial catastrophe." And he asked "How else to enforce moderation on dangerously immoderate media channels?"
Like Bob "Meth Head with a Machete" Garfield never sounds "dangerously immoderate."
NPR is sponsored by....you. Involuntarily. If you want to complain about the waste of your tax dollars, contact the NPR Public Editor, Kelly McBride, here. You could suggest some taxpayers would like to fund an hour on "How to Slay the Public Broadcasting Monster." How does that sound, Kelly?
(But let's guess they'll tell you "we're not responsible for syndicated programming from affiliated stations that a million liberals listen to on over 400 public radio stations.")
