POWIP Piece of Work In Progress

Not Particularly Reliable

Good thing NPR doesn't count on government monies:

NPR apologist Norah O'Donnell also tossed out the 1 percent to 3 percent range, and AP reporter Brett Zongker reported, "Federal grants provide less than 2 percent – or $3.3 million – of NPR's $166 million annual budget."

But almost one-quarter – 23 percent – of the money NPR gets comes from the taxpayers, meaning congressional chatter about defunding NPR over the Juan Williams firing could pose a serious threat to the organization.

Mark Browning, at The American Thinker, calculated NPR's taxpayer subsidy numbers based on figures publicly available on NPR's own website.

Look down the road and what do you see? Check out "Restoring the Republic: A Clear, Concise, and Colorful Blueprint for America’s Future"

Browning estimates that NPR's 900 member stations receive approximately 41 percent of their funding directly or indirectly from taxpayers, primarily through tax deductions, grants from government-funded universities, and direct grants by federal, state and local governments.

Just for old time's sake, here was the lowdown on NPR's top earners in 2008:

Josh Gerstein, a former reporter for ABC News and the New York Sun, blogged about how National Public Radio -- now laying off 64 employees and shutting down two programs -- has some perhaps surprising salary figures for a somewhat public media outlet:

NPR reported its five highest paid employees were:
1. Managing Editor Barbara Rehm, $383,139
2. All Things Considered host Robert Siegel [pictured], $350,288
3. Morning Edition host Renee Montagne, $332,160
4. Morning Edition host Steve Inskeep, $331,242
5. NPR afternoon programming director Richard L. Harris, $190,267.

The most eye-catching salary ever reported on an NPR tax form is probably the $505,132 paid to broadcaster Bob Edwards in FY2004, the year he was ousted as host of Morning Edition, quit, and went to XM Radio. He hosted his last NPR show in April, five months before the end of the fiscal year, so the half-million dollar salary (presumably including some kind of severance) seems to have been for just seven months work....

So, while I think that Juan Williams' $2 million for 3 years is a lot for Fox to pay, it's not exactly outrageous, considering what some of the folks at NPR take in. In case you're wondering what public relations genius V-Schill makes, keep wondering:

Chastened by its experience with Stern [previous CEO who got $1.3 million severance], NPR did not offer Schiller an employment contract -- an unusual move at large nonprofits, and even at for-profit corporations, where contracts customarily guarantee payouts if the CEO and board of directors part ways. But NPR has had to tighten its belt. Facing a projected $8.5 million deficit in FY2010, it's eliminated 102 positions and currently employs 840. Staff, including NPR's senior VPs, have agreed to five days of unpaid furlough.

For the last two weeks of the fiscal year, Schiller and NPR's top management earned no payment; Schiller even cut her own salary, which amounts to two more unpaid weeks this year. NPR calls Schiller's working for free "an important step to take" to show solidarity with its unionized workforce.

Schiller, "arguably the nation's most powerful woman in media" per More magazine, has also worked at overhauling NPR. She has added new VPs of development and strategic operations, and its revamped Web site lets nonprofits post its archival footage free of charge.

NPR did not disclose Schiller's salary, but pays its top talent less than commercial media does. Steve Inskeep and Renee Montaigne, co-hosts of NPR's Morning Edition, each earn more than $300,000 a year, according to IRS filings provided by Guidestar. By comparison, Brian Williams, anchor of NBC Nightly News, earns roughly $6 million annually, according to The Boston Globe.

So, next time NPR lectures you on America's dependency on this or that, remember. And remember, too: Katie Couric loves you.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Rand Paul Supporter Stompee Monopolizes News Cycle

Here's Liberty Chick presenting the background on this paid MoveOn disaster.

Here's the story in Memeorandum. You'd think that it was a slow news day, yesterday, right?

She was well enough to appear on Olby. Didn't exactly look like she got a Gladney-style beatdown or got her finger bit off, but she's a cause celebre.

Given the hue and cry, you'd hardly know the extent of the complaints about voting irregularities, or that James O'Keefe caught a NJ union official bragging about a rigged election, or that it blew local newscasters' minds on the East coast, or that it caused Philly anchor Jeff Cole to melt down while interviewing O'Keefe, or that it was mentioned by Chris Christie yesterday (who is a whole pile of awesome, and, despite his size, pound for pound the most kickass politician in the country). You wouldn't know about the disgusting anti-Christian ad put out by a Proggie group in Minnesota. You wouldn't know the latest lies by candidates Sink and Jerry Brown, caught red-handed, or that Tea Party efforts to prevent voter fraud are scare tactics.

There's a lot of stuff you wouldn't know. And really, that's the point of the saturation. Be vigilant, GOTV, Be the Wave, make sure your Flip is charged, call, volunteer, give an old lady a ride and . . . punish our enemies.

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Me So Horny

A Serr8d Joint

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Aqua Buddhism and the Kentucky Head Stomp

I myself am not an Aqua Buddhist, although some of my friends, including Iowahawk [correction: he is an Iowa Synod Aqua Nettist], have either dabbled in or seriously practiced Aqua Buddhism. Considering yesterday's dust-up at the Rand Paul rally, though, I think it's important that I do a little prophylactic blogging against the inevitable aspersions, especially as some lefties already have tried to associate Aqua Buddhism with misogyny.

To recap briefly, a MoveOn protester was tackled yesterday by a Rand Paul supporter at a rally when somebody decided that she appeared a little too anxious to approach the candidate. While she was on the ground, another Rand supporter stomped on her, or placed his foot on her, in an act of sheer stupidity. As Melissa Clouthier points out, some of the very same people who had nothing to say about the biting off of a Tea Party rally-goer's finger awhile back are up in arms, claiming that it demonstrates the violence of the right, etc. Odious Eric Boehlert accused Stacy McCain of being an apologist for violence and attempted to tie Breitbart to him.

It turns out that the woman who was tackled and stomped on was arrested a couple of months ago at a BP oil spill protest in Louisiana. The tackler and stomper have been identified, and the MoveOn stompee seems not to have been hurt.

I have no doubt that Breitbart and Stacy are more than capable of defending themselves from the vile slanders of Boehlert and company, who are, after all, paid to make shit up. The question is, who will speak up for the Aqua Buddhists?

It's not my intention to delve deeply into the tenets of Aqua Buddhism, regarding which I am not, at any rate, an expert. Instead, let me just present a couple of well-known episodes and principles from the Life of the Aqua Buddha.

1) While the Aqua Buddha was partial to women in tight-fitting swimsuits, he also said to his follower Rodney, "Let them wear what they want, dude. It's not worth arguing about."*

2) The Aqua Buddha married a woman five years his elder, noting, "She still rocks a bikini." A long passage in the Uxoriad concludes, "You might as well do what she tells you, right away, if you don't want your mellow harshed."

3) It is true that the Aqua Buddha and his followers considered conquering Ibiza, but after a few hits from the Sacred Bong, and listening to "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway," they decided it was "just too much work."

So, tune the h8ers out.

* From "The Book of Kevin, Mostly."

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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Dumb Dog Roadkill… that’s not a bone…

but you can choke on it anyway...

Enoch_Root

AKA. Bobby Donn Brubaker (the most popular man in Mesa, AZ), the Umbrella of Terror, Jack Ketch.

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