Private Ownership of Public Airwaves owns Public Space and Expression, Human Thought and Possibility

Koch’ed or Soros’ed Six of one half dozen of the other

NPR unconcerned about censor until Censor censored NPR

I have long dropped the privately owned “National Public Radio” from my news listening schedule. When I want to hear the views of politicians or private investors, I research the direct words of the horses.

The problem of clean and clear, accurate and well-sourced news programming does not begin or end in with hypocrisy or the labeling of this or that media source as “State-affiliated” or “State- sponsored.” The rot is infested in the all-round cycling in and out of public and private entities each paying off and kicking back, funneling or redistributing, exchanging and laundering dollars (or something else) for domain, private wealth for public policy and public space. Money plays, calls the shots: all is reduced to a price set by the highest bidder. To those who set the terms, anything is saleable or purchasable—and nothing is sacred.

The labeling (State-affiliated) that Americans and their kissing cousins have clamped onto Russian and Chinese media to effectively marginalize and censor news coverage and content that extends beyond the echo-chamber of the Washington Beltway—has attached, perhaps legitimately, to America’s National Public Radio (NPR). And NPR is squirming.

A high-tech billionaire media magnate has reportedly defined his (or somebody's) designated “State-affiliated media” as outlets where “the state exercises control over editorial content through financial resources, direct or indirect political pressures, and/or control over production and distribution.” This sounds somewhat like NPR, as far as it goes. But it doesn’t go far enough.

Far more Insidious than the State affiliation Veneer

First, the nebulous term “state” does not point specifically to people such as powerful politicians and politicians on the payroll of concentrated interests, and the names of the big shots on whose payroll are both media (again people) and public officeholders (people). No state, government, or entity is without human beings (big wigs, principals, underlings, et.al., all human beings).

Second, Washington, D.C.-headquartered NPR like much of the U.S. media (including airport noises such as CNN and the FOXes) are pretty awful and not worth listening to—except for purposes of contrast and to sort out truth from fiction, propaganda from actual facts on the ground.

Third, the cycle of concentrated ownership has corrupted and virtually destroyed the public airwaves—public space, the marketplace of ideas, even the possibility of independent thought. What is left is a state of erosion (rot) that runs from private, “nonprofit” and “nongovernmental” industries through government offices; and back again. It is a made-in-the-USA crisis, by insidious design, in corruption and error and ignorance.

Public Media, Public Office
Bought by Private Interest Koch-Soros Billionaires

A few Examples

• Koch Family member David Koch “donates upwards of $23 million to (USA) ‘public television.’”

• George Soros’ Open Society Institute “donates $1.8 million” to NPR-affiliated programming; “Soros’ foundation announces donation of “$1 million” to public broadcasting project “Media Matters.”

• 2022 Koch Industries donates “$1.5 million” to the Koch brand of congressional entities and affiliates.

• 2022 Soros donates “$128.5 million to his outside group ‘Democracy PAC’” which then funnels millions to super PACs supporting the Soros brand of candidates.

• 2022 midterm election cycle saw spending increase by nearly $2 billion compared to 2018 figures: “10 wealthy individuals poured $540 million combined into the 2022 elections (source OpenSecrets).

• 2022 An anonymous donor gives “$56 million” to Minnesota Public Radio.

 

When Public Service (Public Servants) was believed to hold Public Trust

In the 2000s, according to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) bookkeeping, the level of “Federal funding” in 2009 for USA Public Broadcasting— “of all public radio broadcasting stations” (via the CPB)—was “11.3 percent.” Three years later, Federal funding dropped to 10 percent.

In the latter half of the twentieth century (70s, early 80s), National Public Radio's majority funding came from the United States Government.

Connivance in Madness or Mad Connivance 

In their folly, the malleable and corruptible (perhaps like the delusional gambler’s impossible dream to beat the house) join with the obscenely wealthy in marshaling and maintaining a state of ignorance among the masses.

The clampdown or containment of knowledge; the restricted pursuit of knowledge is America’s downfall: its harmfulness and fearfulness, its backwardness.



Sources and notes

OpenSecrets July 25, 2022 “Supreme Court curbs EPA regulatory power after Koch-tied groups’ push,” by Jorja Siemons, https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2022/07/supreme-court-curbs-epa-regulatory-power-after-koch-tied-groups-push/
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/koch-industries/recipients?id=d000000186
https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/soros-fund-management/recipients?id=D000000306

https://www.npr.org/sections/ombudsman/2011/05/24/136216017/worthy-cause-controversial-funding-source

Star Tribune June 8, 2022, “MPR (Minnesota Public Radio) receives $56 million from anonymous donor,” by Neal Justin and Kelly Smith Star Tribune https://www.startribune.com/mpr-receives-56-million-from-anonymous-donor/600180310/

Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) November 29, 2021, “Koch Spent Nearly $150 Million in 2020 to Extend His Influence and Promote His Agenda, by David Armiak, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/11/29/koch-spent-nearly-150-million-2020/

Truthout May 22, 2013 “The Corporate Dictatorship of PBS and NPR: Thanks to the giant transnational corporations that own them, mainstream media outlets tailor their programming to appease their corporate backers” by The Daily Take Team https://truthout.org/articles/the-corporate-dictatorship-of-pbs-and-npr/

Center for Media and Democracy (CMD) November 29, 2021, “Koch Spent Nearly $150 Million in 2020 to Extend His Influence and Promote His Agenda, by David Armiak, https://www.exposedbycmd.org/2021/11/29/koch-spent-nearly-150-million-2020/

The Hill May 11, 2022 “Here are the 10 biggest donors in the midterm elections,” by Karl Evers-Hillstrom, https://thehill.com/lobbying/3720141-here-are-the-biggest-donors-in-the-midterm-elections/

PEG

RT world news April 5, 2023, “US public broadcaster gets ‘state’ tag on Twitter: NPR has reached out to have the ‘state-affiliated media’ label removed from its account,” https://www.rt.com/news/574251-npr-labeled-state-twitter-musk/

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