At the close of 2017, no less than seven prominent male hosts and editors of influential government-sponsored radio and television shows are out of work amid claims of sexual harassment.
According to their accusers, the alleged Malevolent Seven are powerful pervs and creeps who’ve been running wild at NPR and PBS for decades, sponsored and subsidized by taxpayers and corporate donors.
In August, award-winning broadcast and radio host John Hockenberry departed from his public radio program “The Takeaway” on New York City’s NPR affiliate, which garnered a peak audience of nearly 3 million weekly listeners on more than 270 stations. Female producers and interns accused him of harassment and bullying before and after he deployed his golden parachute. Hockenberry says he’s “horrified” by the allegations.
In October, NPR’s former editorial director and senior vice president of news, Michael Oreskes, was ousted from his perch after several women claimed he forcibly kissed them in the 1990s while seeking jobs at his previous employer, The New York Times.
That same month, NPR launched an investigation of veteran Minnesota Public Radio host Garrison Keillor, creator of “A Prairie Home Companion.” The liberal icon penned a column defending fellow sexual harassment suspect Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., in late November; the next day, NPR fired him for inappropriate behavior involving at least one female co-worker. Keillor says the only incident he recalls involves inadvertently slipping his hand up the bare back of a “friend.”
Also on the Thanksgiving holiday chopping block: PBS fixture and CBS morning news star Charlie Rose, who reportedly groped, grabbed, phone-harassed and exposed himself to upwards of eight female employees, interns and job applicants dating back to the 1990s.
At the end of November, NPR canned Chief News Editor David Sweeney following an internal review after four of the public radio network’s female employees lodged formal complaints involving unwanted kisses, attention and gifts.
In mid-December, Boston-based Tom Ashbrook, host of NPR’s “On Point” live morning show broadcast on 290 NPR affiliates stations for the past 16 years, was suspended after young women alleged he gave “creepy” sex talks, hugs and back rubs in the studio. Ashbrook says he was “stunned” to learn of the charges.
And last week, PBS suspended weeknight host Tavis Smiley, whose interview show airs in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Southern California and nationwide — with major corporate underwriting from Walmart. He also hosted a podcast on NPR. Smiley has waged an aggressive campaign defending himself against his employer’s witch hunt “gone too far.”
I can’t tell you who’s lying and who’s telling the truth, but I know with absolute certitude that all seven of these men are left-leaning journalists and pundits encrusted in the public broadcasting establishment.
This is a golden opportunity for President Donald Trump to drain the elitist media swamps and inject true intellectual diversity in the newsrooms of NPR and PBS. Liberal bias at these Beltway institutions is notorious — from NPR legal analyst Nina Totenberg wishing AIDS upon Sen. Jesse Helms and his grandchildren as “retributive justice,” to “Sesame Street’s” Oscar the Grouch mocking Fox News on PBS, to top NPR executives slamming the tea party movement as “scary” and “racist” to the undercover journalists of Project Veritas.
If pushover Republicans can’t bring themselves to fully defund NPR and PBS, can’t they at least step up and advocate for hosts and editors who keep their hands to themselves and refrain from insulting the people in flyover country who keep their rackets afloat?
What better time, in the wake of liberal hypocrisy and sexual harassment self-implosions, to bring real balance to government-sponsored programming?
So far, the moment is being squandered. The replacements announced for Charlie Rose on PBS are BBC correspondent Katty Kay and former CNN anchor Christiane Amanpour.
That’s right. Two liberal British female journalists.
Come on, Corporation for Public Broadcasting. Do better, D.C.
All things considered, we could use a little more “America First” and a little less globaloney and groupthink from NPR and PBS. I can think of a conservative female journalist or 12 up to the task.
Michelle Malkin is host of “Michelle Malkin Investigates” on CRTV.com. Her email address is writemalkin@gmail.com. To find out more about Michelle Malkin and read features by other Creators Syndicate writers and cartoonists, visit the Creators Syndicate webpage at www.creators.com.
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Yes, Michelle, it’s time for Trump to drain the NPR-PBS swamp and inject a dose of intellectual diversity. Great article!
I never listen to a radio show that sounds like they are laying around in the nude speaking in sultry tones to each other……. I hope you spelled name correctly… just sayin’.
And with the sheer # of other TV and radio options out there, i have NO DAMN idea why we still even NEED a NPR/PBS.. SHUT THEM DOWN now..
Michelle, Great commentary as always! You hit the nail on the head. I guess the war on women perpetrated by the liberals has come back to bite the liberals. The morally depraved left eating their own manure!
How much influence does the President or Congress have? NPR does not receive any direct federal funding, it does receive a small number of competitive grants from CPB and federal agencies like the Department of Education and the Department of Commerce. This funding amounts to approximately 2% of NPR’s overall revenues.
Now as to PBS that is something that President Trump has direct control over. The CPB is governed by a nine-member board of directors selected by the President of the United States and confirmed by the Senate; they serve six-year terms. As of May 2015, the board was composed of four Republicans and four Democrats.
While only a smigen of their budget comes from the govt, their CHARTER to operate iirc, is still OWNED by the govt…
You can bet that FCC can make things happen to their broadcast abilities.
ONLY if it, unlike the DoE, DoJ, FBI, IRS and all the other agencies, didn’t get totally corrupted by obama and co..
lol, Only on radio can some guy lay out a “real boner” and only the ladies in the studio notice!
Better yet, just stop subsidizing these leftist propaganda outlets with taxpayer dollars! If their lib-tard listeners like them so much, let them pony up their OWN MONEY to keep them on the air, and FOR ONCE, stop reaching into OTHER PEOPLE’S pockets to fund their pet projects!
One of the biggest lies in America is when NPR states that they broadcast “fair and objective” reporting. Ugh. I can’t imagine more biased reporting, day in and day out — from promoting the globalist agenda to a relentless campaign of Trump-bashing. But the especially tragic part is that millions of NPR’s Liberal/Progressive minions believe they are getting complete news coverage — and only the news that really matters.
According to a Jan.2017 Snopes article (see link below), the Corporation for Public Broadcasting receives $445 Mill/yr in Federal funding, and that 10% of NPR’s budget comes from tax dollars.
I sincerely hope that the right time comes along for Trump/Congress to pull NPR’s public funding. I’m pretty sure that this media station will persevere just fine without it, but at least it will put an end to the outrage of citizens (especially Conservatives/Republicans) paying taxes to subject the listening audience to truly biased and otherwise horrid reporting.
https://www.snopes.com/2017/01/27/is-trump-planning-on-killing-pbs-and-npr/