Since National Public Radio fired Juan Williams last week for controversial remarks about Muslims, Fox News pundits have waged war on public broadcasting. They’ve called for defunding it completely, something conservatives have wanted for decades.
Led by Sarah Palin, a chorus of commentators including Bill O’Reilly, Glenn Beck, Newt Gingrich, and Karl Rove are trying to paint public broadcasting as the *”mouth of socialism”* in a ploy to simultaneously attack NPR and fire up their base a week before Americans head to the polls.
In a corporate media landscape where *”news”* is about little more than partisanship and infotainment, it is desperately needed a reliable public broadcasting system to provide the essential information for a functioning democracy. Fox News has already poisoned much of public discourse; the same is doing Sarah Palin, trying to kill public broadcasting.
**The North American Congress needs to stand up for NPR and public broadcasting**.
Palin and others like her are using the controversy over Juan Williams to push for a longstanding goal: the *”immediate suspension of every taxpayer dollar”* going to public media, as stated explicitly by Bill O’Reilly on his Fox News show.
Heeding O’Reilly’s call, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is reportedly introducing a bill that would zero out funding for ALL public broadcasting, including NPR, PBS, Pacifica and more.
Defunding could not only destroy NPR as we know it, but also deal a significant blow to the entire public interest media sector. Sarah Palin and the right wing Congress are trying to sell out such an important part of media landscape.
Tell Congress to stand up for public media in the face of right-wing attacks. The campaign can be found at [http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_congress_dont_cave_to_sarah_palin_stand_up_for_npr](http://www.change.org/petitions/view/tell_congress_dont_cave_to_sarah_palin_stand_up_for_npr)
