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Nov 18, 2010

Attention, RSSers, don't miss these . . .

Now playing on Current's home page:

"Knives sharpened for renewed assault on CPB." Bills to defund public broadcasting, or at least any radio network that fired Juan Williams, are beginning to seem like a real threat since the Nov. 2 midterm election gave Republicans a 60-plus majority in theHouse and a mandate to take huge bites out of federal spending.

"Leaders of Obama’s deficit panel advise: Drop CPB by 2015." Among the 58 possible federal budget savings recommended by the vice chairs of the president’s National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform are the entire appropriations to CPB, the Public Telecommunications Facilities Program and the Agriculture Department’s facilities grants to public stations.

"Soon off to war for APTS: new president, Pat Butler." Patrick Butler, public TV’s new chief lobbyist, wrote speeches for President Gerald Ford, was a founder of the Pew Research Center, and helped provide Ken Burns with funding for his acclaimed Civil War documentary series.

"Under-explained firing makes NPR an issue just in time for election." Top NPR officials may have thought their Oct. 20 decision to dismiss veteran journalist Juan Williams was about journalistic objectivity, but to many outsiders it sounded more like a story of arrogant lefty political correctness.

"Controversial analyst fired for one too many opinionated comments." NPR Correspondent Juan Williams’ simultaneous roles as a Fox commentator and an NPR news analyst had troubled NPR news leaders for much of the decade he was associated with public radio.

"NPR Board hires counsel to probe what went wrong." Reacting to NPR’s abrupt image makeover — from ascendant news organization to partisan punching bag — the network’s board hired an outside firm to investigate the decisions that invited the comedown, the dismissal of news analyst Juan Williams.

And here's that viral video everyone is talking about, "Good Radiation," a rap tribute to NPR.

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