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On January 22, National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition aired a story on the Capitol Hill anthrax investigation, naming the conservative Traditional Values Coalition (TVC) as a suspect, according to a story on CNSNews.com. On NPR’s Morning Edition program January 22, reporter David Kestenbaum, according to an NPR transcript, said: “Two of the anthrax letters were sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both Democrats. One group who had a gripe with Daschle and Leahy is the Traditional Values Coalition, which, before the attacks, had issued a press release criticizing the senators for trying to remove the phrase ‘so help me God’ from the oath.” According to CNSNews.com, Kestenbaum also reported, “The Traditional Values Coalition, however, told me the FBI had not contacted them and then issued a press release saying NPR was in the pocket of the Democrats and trying to frame them. But investigators are thinking along these lines. FBI agents won’t discuss the case, but the people they have spoken with will.” “NPR is doing everything it can to make us look like the Taliban,” TVC executive director Andrea Lafferty told CNSNews.com. “They can’t site a single fact other than our press releases, and then they try to make this lame connection to the anthrax mailings. Church people may be perceived as extremists in the NPR newsroom but not in America. And NPR disconnected with America long ago.” After the taxpayer-supported radio network was deluged with complaints about the unjustified connection, NPR spokesman Jess Sarmiento read a statement on the air acknowledging that their naming of TVC was “inappropriate.” (Source: CNSNews.com article.) Now, Brent Bozell III, president of the Media Research Center (which is affiliated with CNSNews.com), is joining TVC in demanding a complete apology from the network. The Culture and Family Institute seconds Bozell’s demand. We hope those readers who are outraged by this so-called journalism will take a moment and sign on to TVC’s petition drive to end taxpayer subsidies to NPR, which has long been criticized for having a liberal bias. If you would like to add your voice to the issue and call for a full apology from NPR, contact NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin. — Martha Kleder Culture and Family Institute http://cultureandfamily.org/report/2002-02-07/n_npr-tvc.shtml |