Tag: public broadcasting

Colorado Democratic Rep. Diana DeGette railed Thursday against the effort led by Colorado Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn to strip federal funding from National Public Radio. “The bill threatens almost 9,000 jobs in the broadcasting community and, frankly, is an unwarranted attack on the content of public radio," she said, adding that it was another bill the GOP-controlled House had introduced this session to make partisan points but that failed to address stubbornly high unemployment levels and the struggling economy.

Colorado Springs Republican Rep. Doug Lamborn said that, in leading the charge to strip National Public Radio of taxpayer support, he is aiming simply to "let loose" the station to thrive in the free market. In a round of interviews Thursday held just before and after the House voted along party lines to pass his "defund NPR" bill, he said he was not acting out of partisan motives.

On the floor of the U.S. House today, New York Congressman Anthony Weiner mock-congratulated Republican leadership for fast-tracking Colorado Rep. Doug Lamborn's proposal to strip National Public Radio of federal funding for programming. "I'm so relieved we held this emergency session, that we waived the rules of the House... so we can finally get [the Car Talk] guys off my radio." Weiner said the NPR Car Talk auto-maintenance comedy show was clearly "kinky" and "communist" and chided Republicans for doing the will of voters in placing the war on NPR at the top of their list of how to best serve the country.