PBS, NPR need to "start biting back" at funding foes, Free Press head says

Craig Aaron, new managing director of the Free Press media reform organization, posted a column on Huffington Post after presenting 1.2 million signatures collected by his group, MoveOn.org and CREDO Action, on Cap Hill today (March 15). "Unfortunately," he wrote, "there are those out there, even inside public media's institutions, who tell organizations like MoveOn.org and Free Press to keep it down. They would rather we stayed below the radar. They seem to think they can appease their attackers by lying low or even offering up a few 'scalps' (to quote one insider involved in the dismissal of NPR's Vivian Schiller). They persist in this doomed strategy even though every time they back down, the attacks and the nasty rhetoric from the other side heats up."

"PBS and NPR have been kicked in the teeth for decades — now it's time for them to start biting back," he said. "This is not the end of efforts by Free Press and our allies to rally public support for our media. This is just the start. Our members are going to be standing up and standing strong, here in Washington and in local communities across the country."