Public Broadcasting’s Proxy War Against the Taxpayer
April 28, 2011 at 2:46 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | Leave a commentTags: Free Market, Legacy Amendment, minnesota public radio, MPR, NewsReal Blog, NPR, Public Broadcasting, Sales Tax, Socialism
by Walter Hudson, contributed to David Horowitz’s NewsReal Blog
In the great state of Minnesota, we have something called the Legacy Amendment which increased our state sales tax to create a slush fund for all kinds of extraneous goodies related to “outdoor heritage, clean water, parks and trails, and arts and cultural heritage.” The result has been increasingly odious lobbying efforts to claim a slice of that taxpayer pie. Legislators can’t seem to give the money away fast enough. As the state wrestles with a $5 billion budget deficit, funds raised by the Legacy Amendment go to such essential items as paying a science-fiction writer $40,000 to speak to an audience of 500 at a small town library.
Like Frodo’s quest to destroy the Ring, an effort is underway to repeal the Legacy Amendment in the same manner it was created, though a ballot initiative. In the meantime, the slush fund’s beneficiaries continue to squabble over the state’s fiscal crumbs like a hoard of orcs tearing at man-flesh.
Among them is Minnesota Public Radio. In a recent email to members, the public broadcasting organization pleaded for help in pressuring legislators to keep the gravy train flowing.
Gov. Lincoln Chafee’s Crusade Against Talk Radio Shows Contempt for Voters
January 15, 2011 at 5:00 pm | Posted in NewsRealBlog | 1 CommentTags: Boycott, First Amendment, Free Speech, Lincoln Chafee, NewsReal Blog, Public Broadcasting, talk radio, The Concession Stand
by Walter Hudson, contributed to NewsReal Blog
Rhode Island Governor Lincoln Chafee is leading a crusade against talk radio. His latest volley is a call for advertisers and consumers to join him in a boycott.
When talk radio hosts use harshly divisive language, “The advertisers should shut them down,” [Chafee] said [Thursday] morning.
Chafee said the solution to the vitriolic rhetoric – which some have linked to the shooting of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords [last] weekend – is for people to stop paying for it, including not buying books from people who use such language(…)
Chafee made national news earlier this week when he announced that he would not go on talk radio and would ban state employees from doing so.
The ban came because talk radio is essentially “ratings-driven, for-profit programming” that was not [an] appropriate use of state employees’ time, Chafee said.
Talk radio is merely a stand in for Chafee’s true bane, his constituents who listen to it.
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