I’ll be a panelist on DaTechGuy on DaRadio The Senate is going Nuclear edition Noon EST, in the second half.
Yes, I’m wearing a fedora: In the photo it’s Pete’s fedora, but I’m wearing my own for the show.
US to fund BBC?
Government spending at its worse,
BBC World Service to sign funding deal with US state department
Low six-figure investment will aim to help combat censorship of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China
Let me get this straight, the US is broke, borrowing money from China, and will be funding the BBC to broadcast in China?
Yup:
The BBC World Service is to receive a “significant” sum of money from the US government to help combat the blocking of TV and internet services in countries including Iran and China.
In what the BBC said is the first deal of its kind, an agreement is expected to be signed later this month that will see US state department money – understood to be a low six-figure sum – given to the World Service to invest in developing anti-jamming technology and software.
The funding is also expected to be used to educate people in countries with state censorship in how to circumnavigate the blocking of internet and TV services.
Why should the US fund this? In case you’re wondering, what about the Brits?
The Brits are cutting funding to the Beeb!
The US government money comes as the World Service faces a 16% cut in its annual grant from the Foreign Office – a £46m reduction in its £236.7m budget over three years that will lead to about 650 job cuts. The money will be channelled through the World Service’s charitable arm, the World Service Trust.
Not only will your tax dollars fund NPR, now they’ll fund the BBC.
(h/t T. Lifson
25591
Defund NPR, says Juan Williams
WILLIAMS: Now it’s time to defund NPR
Rep. Israel has unintentionally endorsed every conservative complaint about NPR as a liberal mouthpiece. And to me, as a journalist, it is also a statement of why NPR’s troubled management team has turned its fundraising efforts into a weapon to be used against its essential product — top quality, balanced reporting. No journalist should have to work with one finger in the political winds, anxiously waiting to see if Democrats continue to be pleased with what they hear on NPR as a counter to what they don’t like hearing from Rush Limbaugh.
But, wait, there might be one better argument for ending federal funding of NPR.
NPR’s top fundraiser, Ron Schiller, was caught on tape recently saying explicitly that “in the long run…[NPR is] better off without federal funding.”
In fact, Rep. Israel might have added spice to his fundraising appeal directed at liberal Democrats by quoting Schiller’s praise of liberal Democrats. “In my personal opinion,” Schiller says on the tape, “liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives.”
Betsy Liley, the director of institutional giving at NPR, is also heard on the tape saying that liberal billionaire George Soros has made it his business to subsidize NPR with as little fanfare as possible — that is to say to do it secretly.
Liley’s revealing comment and Schiller’s arrogance are instructive because they provide a window in to the culture of elitism that has corroded NPR’s leadership. They’re willing to do anything in service of any liberal with money. This includes firing me and skewing the editorial content of their programming. If anyone challenges them on this point, they will claim with self-righteous indignation to have cleaner hands than the rest of the news media who accepts advertising revenue or expresses a point of view.
It’s about time NPR stopped being funded by tax dollars.
25583
Listen to Tell Me More today on NPR
Today I am a guest in Michel Martin‘s NPR show, Tell Me More.
It came about last week when I was lying on a beach towel (who was covered with more sunblock, sand, and sea water, the towel or I? We’ll never know) when my friend Josue Sierra called and told me that he had given my name to Michel’s producer. They were looking for a Hispanic conservative.
To make a long story short, yesterday afternoon The Husband and I headed to Norfolk, Virginia, to the local PBS affiliate, WHRO. We arrived early, but luckily right before a big thunderstorm rolled in.
A nice young man led me to the studio room where he’d connect to the Washington, DC studio where the show is recorded. At 2:55PM I was comfortably seated and prepared for the connection.
And then we waited for 20 minutes.
Once the connection problems were ironed out, the show started recording. Michel’s guests were Jan Donaldson of Hot Ghetto Mess.com, who was at the studio with Michel, Ana Marie Cox of Time.com (formerly Wonkette), who was calling from her office in DC, and myself.
The first item of discussion was the upcoming Democrat debate. Michel’s going to be one of the panelists asking the candidates questions.
We had been asked beforehand to provide the question we would ask, and here is mine:
For me personally, it is very important to know,
What would you offer as incentives to entrepreneurs like myself – who hold MBAs and have sponsored foreign programmers – so we can continue to attract the best and brightest workers, and keep them?
And also,
How do you propose to reduce the costs and the barriers entrepreneurs like myself face now?
I hope the question makes it to the debate.
The conversation was animated, amusing, and amicable. I had a great time, and hope to be able to do it again soon.
One side note: After living the traffic in the North East, I am amazed at how little traffic there is in the Durham, Raleigh, and Norfolk areas by comparison.
On the way back The Husband and I stopped at a nice restaurant for dinner and enjoyed a very pleasant evening by the sea.
Not a bad way to spend a vacation afternoon, not bad at all.
The show airs today. Check your local NPR station for times. Here’s the live stream for all NPR shows
Update
Here’s the audio to the segment. You can also access it from here
