" Ich bin ein Berliner "

 " Ich bin ein Berliner " 

On June 26, 1963 President John F. Kennedy was in West Berlin and he spoke those words in a speech. That speech is widely (even in my political circles) regarded as one of the best speeches ever made by JFK. Those words translate as "I am a Berliner." Kennedy's purpose was to show that we all had a stake in what was happening in Berlin.

"I am a Berliner." April 2024

Same words, different meaning. I am not writing about the city of Berlin. I am writing about Uri Berliner, a senior editor and 25-year veteran of National Public Radio. Last week, Uri wrote an opinion piece about how NPR has lost their way in America. He cited the staff in his office in Washington as being proof that NPR has become a distribution point for leftist swill. In that office, according to voter registration records, there are 87 Democrats and not a single Republican. One would need to go to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to match those numbers.

The other day NPR announced that they had suspended Berliner for five days without pay. NPR claims that they suspended Berliner for speaking out without getting approval first. You could bet that if he had published a complimentary piece, he would not have been suspended. So, today we are all Berliners, like Uri. We all want to see our tax money spent wisely and fairly. This is simply not the situation at NPR. 

NPR is like every other government agency. It is filled with liberals who seek power through government regulations. Turn on the news. Everything coming out of Washington is about new rules from the government. We used to pass laws in this country. Now, our lives are regulated by a bunch of unelected power-hungry bureaucrats. You need look no further than the headlines to see that we have become the Soviet Union that we once opposed.

 The person who needs to be removed immediately is their new CEO who suspended Berliner. In a news report today, she stated that she wished that she had been able to talk with Berliner about his thoughts and ideas. So, this leftist bimbo suspended a 25-year veteran editor without ever talking to him. You just can't make up stuff that is this stupid! If this is her best move to begin her new position, it's not a good signal for the future.

One would think that a taxpayer funded operation would at least pretend to try to cover both sides. The arrogant liberal bastards at NPR don't even bother with the appearance of fake balanced viewpoints. It is bad enough that we pay the salary of Karine Jean-Pierre, the chick with the Jiffy Pop hair, we shouldn't be on the hook for this crap from NPR.

Right now, those pompous punks are in a coffee shop somewhere in Washington asking each other, "Why don't we get more support from people?" If they would just put down their latte and look at their content, they might grasp the obvious. Those schmucks are insulting half of the taxpayers who pay their way.

Sen. Marsha Blackburn is reported to be working on legislation to end taxpayer support of NPR. Not wanting to be the last to join the crowd, I fired off an e-mail to Sen. Ted Budd just before writing this piece asking him to support this legislation.

This should also serve as a warning notice to PBS about their content. They are the official television network of the Democratic National Committee. I think that both PBS and NPR need to remove the "Public" from their brand names and the government needs to remove our tax dollars from their budgets. If there is an actual need for their programming, a for-profit network will pick up that slack.

I am a Berliner.

Postscript: Last night after completing this post, I learned that Uri Berliner had resigned from NPR. I am still a Berliner.