WashPost's Howie Kurtz: NPR Appeals to Liberals

October 2nd, 2006 11:13 AM

Taxpayer-funded NPR is liberally biased.

To you and me that may not exactly be earth-shattering news, but it is a bit surprising to hear admitted by liberal Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz. After all, this is the same guy who was "agnostic" about whether Keith Olbermann aims to forward a liberal agenda on his MSNBC program.

For my full article, click here. Here’s a taste:

Veteran Washington Post media critic Howard Kurtz admitted recently what many conservatives have long argued: taxpayer-funded National Public Radio (NPR) leans heavily to the left politically.

“With the rise of Fox News and conservative talk radio and NPR on the left and certain liberal cable programs, there is, polls have shown, that people like hearing opinions that reinforce their own,” Kurtz said on the September 30 edition of CNN’s “In the Money.”

The Post media critic was responding to a question from panelist Andy Serwer, who asked if media outlets were becoming identified a particular ideology or political party, like the news media in Britain traditionally have been.

Kurtz didn’t mention NPR’s taxpayer-funded status, and the radio network’s own Web site downplays taxpayers’ role in its funding, but unlike Fox News or Kurtz’s newspaper, it is the recipient of federal tax dollars.