Let NPR compete without using my money against me (03-27-2025--Hour1)

[00:00:04] What's going on? Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. It is heard live every day from noon to 3 on WBT Radio in Charlotte. And if you want exclusive content like invitations to events, the weekly live stream, my daily show prep with all the links, become a patron, go to thepetekalendershow.com. Make sure you hit the subscribe button, get every episode for free, write to your smartphone or tablet. And again, thank you so much for your support.

[00:00:29] A bit of breaking news here. Conservatives do not like NPR. I feel like I need to, yeah, I feel like I need to convey that because I'm not sure if like half the country realizes this or not. But this has been, there's actually been a long held belief or an opinion by many, many, many people on the right that NPR is biased.

[00:00:58] I grew up listening to NPR. I worked for the NPR affiliate. Now, I was just mailing people their coffee mugs, okay? And then I left that gig. It was, I started as an internship actually in my last year of college. And then when I graduated college. And then when I graduated college, they had a, the position was open. And so they hired me for that, for that position, which was membership assistant.

[00:01:24] So I did the daily deposits. So I like took all the money that would, people would mail in and updated their accounts and such. And then I would walk the deposit over to the bank every day and, you know, helped with the fund drive planning and booking of the volunteers that would answer the phones, went and got the food to feed the volunteers.

[00:01:49] They have an underwriting department, they call it, which is sales. And if memory serves correctly, it was the first year when I was there. So this would have been like 92, 90 or 90. No, sorry.

[00:02:04] This would have been 97, 92. That was high school. 97. And I think that was the first year. It was roughly right around that time when they had just divested out of the University of North Carolina, Charlotte. They, they, they, they, they separated from the University and they had, I think at that point become primarily funded.

[00:02:30] Like the biggest funding I thought at the time, it, it, it had either flipped or was about to flip or something to mainly underwriting. So they had been generating all of this money from sales. And like, I'm not trashing that at all. I mean, that's how like this radio station is funded by the clients that we have, uh, that advertise that's the model.

[00:02:54] And everybody that listens understands that that's the model. And so when you hear the same sorts of things going on, on a public radio station or a public, uh, television station, those are underwriters. Those are advertisers and they're paying and there are rules that they have to follow. Like, uh, I think you can't do like calls to action, like come on down or get yourself over here or whatever.

[00:03:16] I don't think you're allowed to do like price point. Uh, you can't do pricing, I think, and you can't do, I think it's like comparisons or something. So, but so there are rules that the public stations are governed by that we are not as a commercial broadcaster.

[00:03:32] Um, but the funding component has long been, uh, a sore spot with the commercial broadcasters, myself included. I'm not a fan of taxpayer money going to fund what is essentially my competition. I don't appreciate that.

[00:03:51] And, uh, there is some argument like somehow or another that, that this is, you know, a needed service and therefore it requires taxpayer funds. And I would simply point to, I don't know, a billion podcasts as proof that we do not need to fund NPR or PBS, but they do such great work.

[00:04:16] And that work will be rewarded if it is in fact great work. That's how that works. So you have the digital platform that is available to everybody. There's very little barrier to entry, especially for people with the, uh, the skills and expertise that have been, you know, working in these, uh, broadcast, uh, uh, outlets.

[00:04:39] But it has long, uh, been a bugaboo for the commercial radio people that NPR gets the taxpayer money because like that's coming from us. And then the NPR affiliates get to take our money and use it to compete with us. Um, and to have nicer facilities and more up to date equipment and pay their people more money.

[00:05:07] Like that's, that's a bit of a sore spot, uh, as you might imagine. And then you layer on the, the level of bias and, uh, which I mentioned this, uh, yesterday, I think, um, I, I listened to the NPR affiliate, which by the way, heads up, they're doing their fun drive right now. So, uh, it's just, uh, um, and I don't even hear like no local news reports.

[00:05:37] Uh, with like reporters, uh, with like reporters, they have people over there. They have reporters, but I, I, I don't hear a lot of their reports like ever on the, on the air, but whatever, it doesn't matter. Like I'm not, I'm not, I'm not here to bash their model or anything like that. And I wish them all the best. I just wish them the best without my money, you know, without my taxpayer money.

[00:05:59] So yesterday up on Capitol Hill, there was a house subcommittee on government efficiency that was conducted into NPR and PBS regarding the continued funding of those, uh, networks. The chair, Marjorie Taylor green said that the purpose was to speak directly with the leadership of the two primary outlets of public broadcasting.

[00:06:28] The primary witnesses were the president and CEO of PBS, Paula Kerger, as well as the CEO of NPR, Catherine Marr. And she is right out of central casting for the modern awful affluent white female liberal right at a central casting.

[00:06:54] And as expected, her record was a primary focus, uh, of the, uh, Republican lawmakers. Now Democrats were up there like there, there's nothing wrong with all this funding. It's a vital service in Alaska. They would not even have a radio station in Alaska, but for the public funding and all that. Um, and that's what they, they always cite the extreme examples. It's, this is the Mott and Bailey kind of a tactic, right? They want to kill big bird.

[00:07:23] So you take the easily defensible, that's the Bailey, you, the easily defensible position, right? That's the, or sorry, that's the, the Mott is the easily defensible position, which is Sesame street, which I think is actually owned by HBO now, right? Didn't they get the rights to all of the Sesame street and they moved all that? It was like a decade ago. Um, everybody loves Sesame street. You can't get rid of Sesame street.

[00:07:53] And then that's the, the easily defensible position. And then they will, uh, advance the, you know, story time with the drag queen. That's the other programming that's not defensible, but is also provided. And that's the, um, that's the Bailey, that's the, uh, the less defensible position. So they advance the, the, the more, uh, radical agenda. And then when attacked, they retreat to the Mott, which is Sesame street.

[00:08:23] And that's what Democrats did yesterday. And then of course was the, we're too busy to be looking at this. This is all just a distraction. We should be focused on other things and all that. But I assure you, this has been something that Republicans and conservatives have been mad about for a very long time.

[00:08:41] And, uh, I, for one join all of the others on the right who are happy that the Congress is now looking to actually defund with taxpayer money, these enterprises, let them compete, let them compete. And if their product is superior without all of the taxpayer funding to keep them afloat, then good on them. So I got audio. Oh boy, do I have audio.

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[00:10:35] he posited that Republicans were concerned that Elmo was part of the Communist Party and that Ernie and Bert were pushing a homosexual agenda. Yeah, yeah. It was a pure indication that there would be no substantive arguments to be made on behalf of NPR and PBS. And then there was this from Stephen Lynch. He is a Democratic representative from Massachusetts.

[00:11:05] Madam Chair, for over two decades of service on this oversight committee, I've worked with members on both sides of the aisle to investigate issues of critical importance to the safety and security of the American people, including the conduct of wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, terrorist attacks against the U.S. compound classified annex in Benghazi, and several major intelligence and security breaches under Democratic and Republican administrations.

[00:11:35] So I'm sad to see that this once proud committee, the principal investigative committee in the House of Representatives, has now stooped to the lowest levels of partisanship and political theater to hold a hearing to go after the likes of Elmo and Cookie Monster and Arthur the Aardvark, all for the unforgivable sin of teaching the alphabet to low-income families' children and providing accessible local news and programming.

[00:12:04] This hearing also comes at the direction of President Trump and Elon Musk, who have repeatedly called for the defunding of all public media and claimed that media organizations such as PBS and NPR are, and I quote, a liberal disinformation machine, close quote. Yeah. Well, it has been. NPR especially. Right? And Jim Jordan outlined all of this. See, the three biggest stories NPR took decidedly pro-Democrat, anti-Republican, left-wing positions on.

[00:12:33] And again, I tune in to the NPR station here in Charlotte, and I listen to and from work to hear what they're covering. And it is always the same slant. It's always coming from the same direction, and everything is told through this left-wing prism, through this filter. And that's fine, by the way. Just don't use my taxpayer money. Don't use my money to do it. That's all.

[00:13:02] You can do whatever you want. You can have whatever bias you want to have. You just don't get my money to do it. That's the whole point. And by the way, Arthur the Aardvark thing, like, that show ended, like, in 2022. So Slayer goes on to say that Marr, Catherine Marr, deflected from responsibility for NPR's slanted content as all of these examples that they were raising,

[00:13:30] well, that predated her arrival at NPR. See, oh, that was before I got there. All of these scandals, all of these things, all of these examples of bias, that happened before I got here last year. He called it the not-on-my-watch deflection. Here is Tim Burchett. He is, or Burchett, he is from Tennessee. He's a Republican. And Marr. Ma'am, you said in your opening statement

[00:13:58] that you were going to be transformative, and I believe you failed to do that. Let me ask you, why did you call President Trump a fascist and a deranged racist sociopath in 2020? Congressman, I appreciate the opportunity to address this. I regret those tweets. I would not tweet them again today. They represented a time where I was reflecting on something that I believe that the president had said rather than who he is. I don't presume that anyone is a racist. You don't believe anyone is a racist?

[00:14:28] I don't start by presuming anyone is a racist, sir. Okay. Exceptra. Has NPR or PBS ever conducted an internal review to assess whether conservative or right-leaning perspectives are fairly representative news and programming? Congressman, what we look at is the distribution of people who listen to our work. And we can tell you, and I'm proud to tell you, that for our digital, our podcasts, and our website,

[00:14:55] the distribution of Americans who come to NPR does reflect the political distribution of the nation. In fact, the distribution on our websites, 33% of folks who come are conservative versus 28% who are liberal, and the rest identify as independent. So the largest group is conservatives who come to NPR's websites. So you believe that most Americans think President Trump is a fascist and deranged racist sociopath? I don't believe that at all, sir. Okay. Ma'am?

[00:15:27] This is PBS. We obviously are constantly looking at the voices that we bring forward. We take to heart our commitment to bringing forward perspectives from across the country. Our programming comes from our local stations. And I mentioned in my opening comment the series that we did out of Arkansas, Southern Storytellers. That's just one little example. 10% of our schedule is news. The rest of it is either children's programming or programming based on history

[00:15:57] to give us all a collective expression. And we're constantly looking to making sure that we're bringing forward a diversity of viewpoints and perspectives and experiences that really do make up the fabric of this country. Okay. NPR senior editor earlier, Leonard's been mentioned before, but he was quoted as saying, in an open-minded spirit, no longer exists within NPR. And now, predictably, we don't have an audience that reflects America.

[00:16:24] Yet you stated that the audience does reflect America. He was suspended without pay for five days for saying this. And, of course, he eventually resigned in April 2024. You've also stated that federal funding is essential for NPR to operate, but also claim only 1% of your funding comes from the federal government. Which is it? Mr. Berliner was suspended for the outside work policy, not for what he said, sir. In terms of federal funding,

[00:16:52] the federal funds go to support our operation of the public radio satellite system, which enables all of our local stations to be able to communicate information and broadcast, including... As stated earlier, ma'am, funding is very fungible. It flows wherever it needs to. I don't buy that argument. We do have a separate knowledge, sir. I wonder if any of the members of the committee would comment real quickly. Would you agree that Real America's Voice, Newsmax, Fox, or News Nation, if they were to see federal funds,

[00:17:21] would you all support that? Yes or no? Mr. Ullman? Yes or no? I'd have to get back to you on that. Ma'am? I actually don't have an opinion about that. No opinion. I don't have an opinion about that, sir. That would be Congress's decision. Thank you, Jerry Lydie. Yeah. No opinion whether Fox should be taxpayer-funded. I don't have any theories on any of that. No, no, not at all. Of course. Of course it shouldn't. No.

[00:17:50] These commercial broadcasters, news publications, they should not be taxpayer-supported. They should not be funded by the government. That's obvious. But they can't say, oh, I have no opinion. That's not true. They do have an opinion. Uri Berliner is the former editor who came forward with the admissions of NPR's bias. He wrote a column that appeared at the Free Press. That's what she's saying he got suspended for,

[00:18:19] for doing the, for publishing it at an outside outlet, not on NPR, which, do you think NPR would have, would have published that story? He had complained to management. He had complained to people all over the place and nobody did anything about it. He was the one that identified something like 87 Democrats and zero Republicans in the D.C. staff. That's who makes up the D.C. staff, I think it was. It's referenced in another clip. You'll hear it

[00:18:48] and we'll take a deep dive on the numbers. Is it 1% or is it critical funding? All right. If you're listening to this show, you know I try to keep up with all sorts of current events and I know you do too and you've probably heard me say, get your news from multiple sources. Why? Well, because it's how you detect media bias, which is why I've been so impressed with Ground News. It's an app and it's a website and it combines news from around the world in one place so you can compare coverage and verify information. You can check it out

[00:19:17] at check.ground.news slash Pete. I put the link in the podcast description too. I started using Ground News a few months ago and more recently chose to work with them as an affiliate because it lets me see clearly how stories get covered and by whom. The Blind Spot feature shows you which stories get ignored by the left and the right. See for yourself. Check.ground.news slash Pete. Subscribe through that link and you'll get 15% off any subscription.

[00:19:47] I use the Vantage plan to get unlimited access to every feature. Your subscription then not only helps my podcast but it also supports Ground News as they make the media landscape more transparent. The email is Pete at ThePeteCalendarShow.com and on Twitter at PeteCalendar. Here's a Pete tweet from Teresa who says It is great that NPR and public radio is being questioned by Congress. I would like to see the emails related to their answers. Do they have any proof?

[00:20:19] Yeah, proof of what the data that she mentioned? Yeah, I don't know. They're just going to zero out the budget. Like that's what the Republicans want to do and it's completely appropriate. They will be able to continue to produce whatever they're producing. You know, granted they may not be able to employ the 14 producers for every single episode that they currently use. It's amazing. By the way, like I have said this before

[00:20:49] and I will say it again which is the number of people that they have to work on a single program is astounding. Anybody who works in radio knows this. Okay? I've got I've got Nick and I've got Bernie in this studio. This is the biggest staff I have ever had to produce a program that I have ever done. Two people besides me. Right? That's it. And you listen to these NPR programs

[00:21:18] and they start rattling off dozens of names at the end of the show of all the people that have produced the show and it's like well why do you have all these people producing the show? There's no way there's that many people required to do a program. You don't need that many people. But when you have a lot of money you can throw it all around and whatever. And some of these programs are just like recuts of past programs.

[00:21:47] This American Life I'm looking in your direction. Russ says Pete you mentioned the NPR argument that without us rural areas would have no radio stations. I think I know the answer but why do you think the left's quiver of arguments is so full of racist-y and classist assumptions? Like without us poor people can't get internet. Black people don't have access to computers or don't have the ability to get an ID to vote and so on.

[00:22:17] Yeah. No one will be able to figure out how to do radio in Alaska if we're not there. This is their argument. All right. I got some more audio clips. Let's get to them. This is Brandon Gill. This is awesome. Brandon Gill. Republican. Do you believe that America is addicted to white supremacy? I believe that I tweeted that and as I've said earlier I believe much of my thinking has evolved over the last

[00:22:47] half decade. Oh it's another evolution of thinking. By the way you notice in her last answer to Tim Burchett she said that she was reflecting Trump is a racist like oh I was I was just reflecting on you're not reflecting on anything. You're calling Trump a racist a sociopath deranged or whatever. Just own it. The tweets are still up.

[00:23:16] She hasn't even deleted them. So that's not reflecting. That's a knee-jerk reaction. She's reacting but you use the word reflecting as if there's some deeper level of thought going on. Just like just like now she's saying oh I evolved like Obama evolved on gay marriage back to his original position. where he was for it but then when he ran for president he had to come out against it and then in the second term he's for it again. He evolved

[00:23:46] and this this is allowable if you're a Democrat. You're allowed to evolve your thinking on these positions when politically convenient or necessary. It has evolved. Why did you tweet that? I don't recall the exact context sir so I wouldn't be able to say. Okay. Do you believe that America believes in black plunder and white democracy? I don't believe that sir. You tweeted that in reference to a book you were reading at the time apparently The Case for Reparations.

[00:24:16] I don't think I've ever read that book sir. Okay. Hang on a second. Hang on. So she she has a tweet that she now doesn't remember sending that she sent apparently after reading a book that she says she didn't read. You tweeted about it. You said you took a day off to fully read the case for reparations. You put that on Twitter in January of 2020. Apologies I don't recall that I did. Okay. I have no doubt that your tweet

[00:24:46] there is correct but I don't recall that. She doesn't remember taking a day off of work to read a book called The Case for Reparations which I believe was written by Ta-Nehisi Coates I think. This was 2020. This was like Christopher Ruffo. This is what he just said. He's still laughing he says about the fact that Marr tweeted that she took an entire day off to read The Case for Reparations and then admitted

[00:25:16] to Congress that she lied about it and had never even read the book. That is the perfect symbol of the awful mindset. The affluent white female liberal. AWFL. The awful mindset. Right. I'm going to go on to Twitter today and say I took the day off so I could do the work. I did the work. That's my NPR voice by the way. She did not have nearly enough vocal fry in her voice for NPR so I'm not sure

[00:25:45] if she should work on that or not but it's like seriously you claim to have taken a day off of work to read a book and then you tweet about white plunder and now you're like oh I don't remember sending that I don't think I ever read that book at all. It really is a perfect encapsulation of the problem on the left here. Do you believe that white people inherently feel superior to other races? I do not. You tweeted something to that effect.

[00:26:15] You said I grew up feeling superior how white of me. Why did you tweet that? I think I was probably reflecting on what it was to grow up in an environment where I had lots of advantages. It sounds like you're saying that white people feel superior. I don't believe that anybody feels that way sir. I was just reflecting on my own experiences. Do you think the white people should pay reparations? I have never said that sir. Yes you did. You said it in January of 2020. You tweeted yes the north,

[00:26:45] yes all of us, yes America, yes our original collective sin and unpaid debt, yes reparations, yes on this day. I don't believe that was a reference to fiscal reparations sir. What kind of reparations was it a reference to? I think it was just a reference to the idea that we all owe much to the people who came before us. That's a bizarre way to frame what you tweeted. It is. Are there other kinds of reparations? Reparations means payment.

[00:27:15] That's what the whole debate about reparations for slavery is about. That's what she was talking about. That's why she said yes the north. Like yes because that's one of the criticisms like do the northern states have to pay reparations? They fought to free the slaves, right? I know, I know. But like that's like just say slavery. That's the civil war fought over slavery. It's a Simpsons line. It's a reference to the Simpsons when Apu is taking a citizenship test and he starts explaining all of the reasons for

[00:27:44] the civil war and the examiners just like just say slavery. slavery. So that's why she sent the tweet saying what she said. It was about yes fiscal reparations. She's just lying about it now. To Congress. The perfect encapsulation of the awful mindset. All right so spring is here. A time of renewal and celebrations. You got graduations, weddings, anniversaries, and the special days for mom and dad. Your family's making memories that are going to last a lifetime.

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[00:29:12] have been paying for NPR PBS National Education Board and funding Planned Parenthood. I will make an exception for the cookie monster. I can relate to that character as a Bernie Sanders type personality. There's Seth who says, there is a simple fix for the bias in these news outlets using the Democrat leftist playbook. DEI hires. 50% of your employees need to be conservative Republicans. Republicans. I bet they'd close their

[00:29:41] doors if they had to hire right-wingers. Let me get back to this audio. This is Brandon Gill, just with this epic takedown of Catherine Marr, the CEO of National Public Radio, reading her own words back to her, and she seems to not remember or to have now evolved. And Russ says, yes, whenever these lefties

[00:30:11] talk about their thinking has evolved, it just means that that position doesn't help me right now. That earlier statement is not helpful to me right now, so I have evolved away from it. But I do reserve the right to evolve back to it immediately after we're done with this hearing. Okay, how much reparations have you personally paid? Sir, I don't believe that I've ever paid reparations. Okay, just for everybody else. I'm not asking anyone to pay reparations. Seems to be what you're suggesting.

[00:30:41] Do you believe that looting... No, that was actually what she suggested. She said, yes, reparations now, but I'm not going to pay them. She's not paying the reparations. And she just got through saying that she didn't mean fiscal reparations, but then when asked, have you paid any reparations, she says, no, I haven't. So she's done literally nothing, even though she's calling for non-fiscal reparations that she didn't even do herself.

[00:31:10] There would be no cost to you. Why wouldn't you engage in whatever a non-fiscal reparation is? I don't even know what that would be, but why wouldn't you do it? It doesn't cost you anything. But she didn't even do that. She hasn't paid anything. She hasn't done anything. Classic awful behavior. Now on looting. Looting is morally wrong. I believe that looting is illegal and I refer to it as counterproductive. I think it should be prosecuted. Do you believe it's morally wrong though? Of course. Of course. Then why did you refer to it as counterproductive?

[00:31:40] It's a very different way to describe it. It is both morally wrong and counterproductive as well as being illegal. You tweeted, it's hard to be mad about protests in reference to the BLM protests not prioritizing the private property of a system of oppression. It's hard to be mad at the violence. It's hard to be mad about it. That's what she said. That's not something you say if you believe it's morally wrong. But now she does think it's morally wrong. She just didn't when

[00:32:10] she was, you know, banging the drum for BLM. You didn't condemn the looting. You said that it was counterproductive. NPR also promoted a book called In Defense of Looting. Do you think that's an appropriate use of taxpayer dollars? I'm unfamiliar with that book, sir, and I don't believe that was at my time. You tweeted that you read that book. I don't believe that I did read that book, sir. Do you think that there's another one? So she's got two books that she tweets about reading,

[00:32:39] one of which she said she had to take a whole day off of work to read the book. And now she has no recollection of reading these books. I don't know these books. I've never seen these books. I do not recall reading these books. But I tweeted that I read them and I adopted the narrative that was required of me as a leftist. This is the perfect encapsulation of everything wrong with NPR. She is the perfect hire. All right, that'll do it

[00:33:09] for this episode. Thank you so much for listening. I could not do the show without your support and the support of the businesses that advertise on the podcast. So if you'd like, please support them too and tell them you heard it here. You can also become a patron at my Patreon page or go to thepetecalendershow.com. Again, thank you so much for listening and don't break anything while I'm gone.