Do you long for the day when you can take a taxi in Washington, D.C. and not be forced to listen to NPR’s distinctive speech pattern (Who teaches them to talk this way? Why do hardworking taxi drivers love this drivel?) on the radio and say to yourself, “I am not paying for this”?
I know I do. I’m not sure I buy the brash talk from an NRP exec that the station would survive without public money. But I’d care. Unlike Rep. Doug Lamborn, who is heading the noble and estimable move to defund NPR, however, I am not shocked! shocked! by the sizzling content of James O’Keefe’s new sting video that captures an NPR executive saying some embarrassing things. (Here’s Alana Goodman of Commentary on Rep. Lamborn’s surprising surprise.)
The video is just good, clean fun, folks. In it, Ron Schiller, an NPR executive meets with two fellas calling themselves Ibrahim Kasaam and Amir Malik and hailing from a fictitious group called Muslim Education Action Center (MEAC) Trust. They are contemplating giving NPR $5 million because, “the Zionist coverage is quite substantial elsewhere.” Just the perfect added touch: the video was shot at Café Milano, the DC hotspot for in-the-know lunchers.
From the Daily Caller’s coverage:
“The current Republican Party, particularly the Tea Party, is fanatically involved in people’s personal lives and very fundamental Christian – I wouldn’t even call it Christian. It’s this weird evangelical kind of move,” declared Schiller, the head of NPR’s nonprofit foundation, who last week announced his departure for the Aspen Institute. …
On the tapes, Schiller wastes little time before attacking conservatives. The Republican Party, Schiller says, has been “hijacked by this group.” The man posing as Malik finishes the sentence by adding, “the radical, racist, Islamaphobic, Tea Party people.” Schiller agrees and intensifies the criticism, saying that the Tea Party people aren’t “just Islamaphobic, but really xenophobic, I mean basically they are, they believe in sort of white, middle-America gun-toting. I mean, it’s scary. They’re seriously racist, racist people.”
Schiller goes on to describe liberals as more intelligent and informed than conservatives. “In my personal opinion, liberals today might be more educated, fair and balanced than conservatives,” he said.
My dream taxi ride just got a little closer.