Yesterday, the Republican-led House of Representatives voted to cut federal funding to National Public Radio, whose CEO recently resigned after an undercover video captured an NPR exec criticizing the Tea Party movement. That doesn’t mean that popular radio programs and podcasts like Fresh Air and All Songs Considered are doomed just yet. In fact, the House vote may amount to little more than a symbolic slap on the wrist since the Democratic-controlled Senate is less inclined to move on an anti-NPR bill. But that didn’t stop Rep. Anthony Weiner (D – N.Y.) from channeling his inner Jon Stewart during yesterday’s floor debate, during which he “applauded” his colleagues across the political aisle for finally tackling the root causes of our country’s current woes: Click & Clack. Take a look.
Your tax dollars at work.
i like him
Funny stuff. I bet that woke up everyone watching C-SPAN that day.
Nice of weiner to point this out. However, he forgot to mention that Scourge of the Midwest Garrison Keillor and his seditious Prairie Home Companion.
I don’t understand Republicans’ mistrust of NPR. Sure, many of their commentators have views different from them, but so what? Nobody’s actively endorsing a particular party on air. What that exec said in what he thought was private is nothing compared to what Beck and Limbaugh actually say on the air. All the Republicans are doing is censoring through funding. They’ll just end up passing the savings on to their corporate overlords anyway, and that’s who they really care about.
When Obama has done his 8 years sign this guy up!
I have come to enjoy Rep. Weiner and respect how he just tells it as it is. He’s an amazing guest on Stewart and Colbert. He doesn’t suffer the fools very much
I love Weiner’s campaign to be an internet sensation. I do believe this is at least the second – perhaps third – time a clip of him has run on EW.com. Forget channeling Stewart, he wants his job!
That was too funny (and really, really sad).
Matt Weiner is great. He’s a class act and usually uses mere facts to show the absurdity and corruption of our government. Love when he uses humor and sarcasm.
Gee Jeff, you neglected to include in your article that the NPR offical said they didn’t need public funding.
…and you neglected to mention that that video was so heavily edited that what you heard and what was actually said (and the context in which it was said) is very far apart?
He also left off the part from the unedited tape where the NPR executive said the reason they continue to ask for funding is because they would have to close down stations in underserved smaller communities.
Love Anthony Weiner. Also… the the guy at NPR got in trouble for saying the Tea Party is racist. Um, isn’t that a fact?? Those people hate that we have a black man as our president.
No, I believe the purpose of the tea party is to be opposed to increased federal spending and an increase in the federal government itself. I guess anybody who doesn’t get in line with the liberal agenda is nothing but a racist.
@Jason considering that the majority of tea partiers sat quietly by while Bush increased federal spending and the size of federal government, plus the fact that many tea par tiers have made racial slurs, that is why many believe them to be racist. Not because they don’t buy the liberal agenda.
There is still an offer of $1,000,000 to anyone that has video footage of a tea party member using racial slurs at a rally.
Again, the edit makes the difference. In the uneditted version you hear that the rep was repeating what two Republicans had told him- they were the ones making the comments about the tea party.
Weiner is great. I love it any time he is on Bill Maher.
He is my husband and my favorite guest on Bill Maher. THe guy is brilliant!
This clip is so full of win! I think someone was took some tiger blood.
This guy is probably a huge a-hole, but I can’t help but love the incredible sarcasm he showed here (even if I’m not completely sure I really care that much about NPR), and I also love his hilariously contemptuous interactions with the incredibly obnoxious Megan Kelly on Fox News. I can’t get enough of the clip where she continues to try talking over him and refusing to let him make his point, even though he’s a guest on her show, so he turns around and waits for her to shut the hell up, turns back when she finally does, and says with a hugely b*tchy expression, “Ready?” That clip is just GOLD.
The reason this is happening, people, is that senior executives from NPR went around scaring Muslim and other groups by making outrageous comments about Republican groups. Is that the platform NPR should be taking?? NPR is there to provide programming, not a political agenda.
This is happening because NPR reports the full unvarnished truth, which comes across as an agenda to those used to hearing only the right wing side of things.
No matter how balanced the report, it will always sound biased to those with a bias.
Great article. I can¡¯t wait to hear more about your research tool. If it is as good as your other products, then you will have another winner. Your article pretty much summed up what I have been seeing too. Great to see some hard data.