NPR would like the taxpayers to think that they're nonpartisan news for all people. But in reality, they're the favorite channel for hard-core lefties. They're like Fox News for the Pelosi set. Look no further than Friday's Morning Edition, where co-host Michel Martin interviewed House Minority Whip Katharine Clark of Massachusetts.
Martin asked Clark for her sense of the negotiations, and it was simple. Republicans are evil:
CLARK: At this point, we are being held captive by extremists in the GOP. And what do I mean by that? I mean that the fever they have to extract pain from the American people in exchange for their vote to raise the debt ceiling has not broken. And we are there at the negotiating table saying, let's be bipartisan. Let's put the American people first. I can tell you, Michel, we are fighting like hell for them because we are so afraid of what will happen to kids in this country, to veterans, to teachers, to first responders if the extremists in the GOP take us over the default cliff.
You have to laugh at this routine. "We're at the table saying let's be bipartisan while the feverish extremists want to hurt the kids!" But Michel Martin didn't take exception to the hot rhetoric. She just plowed ahead.
MARTIN: Well, they do have the votes, though. So they have the votes to do this. As you know better than anybody, the margins in the House are so narrow that they do have significant power. So how do you plan to overcome that?
CLARK: What we have done as Democrats is say we are united because we know whose side we're fighting on. And it's that of families at home. I don't know how our colleagues are going to look veterans in the eye this weekend as we commemorate Memorial Day. They are holding our veterans hostage.
This is how Democrats negotiate in public: trying to win through insults and intimidation. FactCheck.org noted Republicans were calling this false a month ago. Martin at least noted in response that "reports" are Republicans will limit discretionary spending "except for spending on the military and veterans, as well as a $10 billion budget cut at the IRS." She asked Clark "is that accurate?" She received more wild partisan talk:
CLARK: Well, I think if they were not still fighting for extreme cuts, we would have a compromise. So I can tell you that they are committed to hurting American families. I mean, their proposal is to cut Medicaid for 2 million people. They are about kids without teachers and parents without jobs.
Martin didn't even blink at "committed to hurting American families." She did ask if Democrats were satisfied with President Biden's performance, suggesting Biden was slow to enter negotiations. Clark went back to Hack Town on Republicans don't believe in clean air and water:
CLARK: Listen. We have a lot of anxiety and frustration on our side because we are dealing with members of the GOP who no longer believe the government should work for people. They don't believe in paving our roads, clean air, and water.
That's the Pelosi playbook, to be sure! You know the NPR audience was lapping this up like left-wing dittoheads. But it's paid for in part by the American taxpayer. No tax dollars ever subsidized conservative talk radio.
