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Mr. Chairman, on behalf of
Traditional Values Coalition’s 43,000 member churches, I appreciate the
opportunity to testify today. Thank you for providing a forum to publicly expose
the reprehensible and libelous actions of the taxpayer funded National Public
Radio.
Traditional Values Coalition is
the largest non-denominational, grassroots church lobby in America. Traditional
Values Coalition has sought
to empower people of faith with truth.
With over 43,000 churches,
Traditional Values Coalition has a diverse membership of Bible believing
churches and bridges racial and socio-economic barriers.
Our
diversity is seen in the Hispanic, African and Asian-American churches that we
represent.
With an emphasis on the
restoration of the Judeo-Christian values needed to maintain strong, unified
families, Traditional Values Coalition focuses on a range of moral and social
issues such as education, homosexual advocacy, parental rights, family tax
relief, pornography, the right to life and religious freedom.
While Traditional Values
Coalition is a lobbying organization, its sister organization, Traditional
Values Education & Legal Institute, is a foundation dedicated to educating
and supporting churches in their efforts to restore America’s cultural
heritage.
Traditional Values Coalition
believes America’s strength is in her churches. Pastors and their churches are
not barred by law from being involved in the making of public policy.
Traditional Values Coalition is a resource for Christians and pastors, providing
education on the representative process.
On behalf of our members,
churches, pastors and friends, Traditional Values Coalition appreciates the
invitation to appear here today as this committee seeks to expose the
anti-Christian, anti-conservative –and anti-traditional values behavior of
National Public Radio.
We have been asked to tell this
committee how National Public Radio treated Traditional Values Coalition and I
appear here today to respond to the request.
What happened to Traditional
Values Coalition was not an isolated, one-time slip by some low-level National
Public Radio (NPR) reporter. The
attack on Traditional Values Coalition has involved all levels of National
Public Radio from the so-called Ombudsman to the highest levels of NPR’s
management. All of them acted
in concert and closed ranks to defend the shoddy reporting of one of their own.
Many of you remember the Cheech
and Chong comedy routine about WDRM – Dorm radio, an amateurish college radio
station operated “live from the basement of the science building.”
NPR is an unfunny Cheech and
Chong bankrolled by unsuspecting taxpayers.
On the afternoon of January 3,
2002 I received a call from David Kestenbaum a reporter for
National Public Radio who asked me if “I had been contacted by the FBI
yet?” I said what are you talking
about. He again asked me if I had
been contacted by the FBI yet? I asked him why would I have been contacted by the FBI?
Kestenbaum said “because of what’s going on in the Congress with
anthrax. I still could not
understand what he was talking about – until he explained that Traditional
Values Coalition fit the profile of who the FBI would be investigating to
determine who would have sent anthrax to the offices of Senators Daschle and
Leahy. I exploded.
I told him of course not. How
in the world would anyone at NPR come to ask a question like that of Traditional
Values Coalition. Why would NPR
contemplate that we would or could send deadly anthrax to anyone.
Then he asked if I knew anyone
who had been contacted by the FBI. I
really got angry and told him we are a Christian organization.
We would not mail anthrax nor do we even know anyone who would do such a
thing, including any of our 43,000 member churches.
When I asked the NPR reporter
why he was calling Traditional Values Coalition he said he had seen a press
release that I had issued August 2, 2001 in which I/ Traditional Values
Coalition criticized Senators Daschle and Leahy over dropping the phrase “so
help me God” from the oath witnesses take before testifying in a Senate
committee. The NPR reporter stated
that the press release made me and Traditional Values Coalition suspects in the
anthrax mailings and the murders of innocent citizens.
Reporter Kestenbaum’s tone
was very clear --he actually believed that I, Traditional Values Coalition, our
members and other Christians and conservatives we associate with would mail
anthrax to those with whom we disagree.
Traditional Values Coalition
issued a press release the next day alerting the American public to this
malicious call. This accusatory
call was not just an attack against Traditional Values Coalition but against all
Bible believing Christians. Because
of our political and moral beliefs, because we strongly oppose removing the
words “so help me God” from the significant and important oaths in our
nation, this NPR reporter construed that our public statements of belief turned
our organization and our members into suspects in a criminal investigation.
I was alarmed that NPR would
attempt to link acts of domestic terrorism to Traditional Values Coalition, acts
which had resulted in the murder of innocent Americans.
My conversation with the NPR
reporter was quite heated. In no
uncertain terms I let him know I did not appreciate his insinuations that
Traditional Values Coalition would
attempt to murder United States Senators with whom we disagree or that
Traditional Values Coalition would associate with cold blooded murdering
criminals. I thought I had set this
reporter straight and that would be the end of this nonsense.
The following day we released a
statement condemning the biased call from NPR.
Then NPR ratchet-up their
assault against Traditional Values Coalition and me.
The very person who is supposed
to look out for the interests of the public, the NPR Ombudsman Jeffrey Dvorkin,
joined the NPR smear bandwagon against me, Traditional Values Coalition and our
43,000 churches.
In an interview with
CNSNews.com Dvorkin said, “My sense is that, Ms. Lafferty overstated the case.
I think that Kestenbaum was just doing a normal story.
He was not accusing anyone of anything.”
The ombudsman is supposed to be
the public’s representative to NPR – not an apologist for NPR misdeeds.
But certainly, that is not the role Mr. Dvorkin played in this situation.
Maybe NPR considers smearing
Christians a normal story but Members of Congress do not, taxpayers do not and
millions of Christians do not.
Nearly three weeks later, on
January 22, 2002, without a single fact or witness or a shred of evidence or to
support the accusation against Traditional Values Coalition, NPR’s Morning
Edition hosted by Bob Edwards aired a wholly false and defamatory story which
linked Traditional Values Coalition with the anthrax mailings to the United
States Senate. By this time 2
innocent people had died and others had been hospitalized.
And the basis for this linkage?
The press release which I/Traditional Values Coalition had issued which
stated our opposition to removing “so help me God” from the oath.
The NPR story begins with an
interview of a former FBI agent who had been involved in the Unabomber case.
Keying on a comment he made about tracking correspondence from criminals
to their victims, NPR’s libelous story segues from the Unabomber to
Traditional Values Coalition to abortion clinics receiving anthrax.
The story which aired on
January 22, with the headline-“Speculation on the perpetrator of the anthrax
letters,” contains the following statement:
Two of the anthrax letters were
sent to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy, both Democrats.
One group who had a gripe with Daschle and Leahy is the Traditional
Values Coalition, which, before the attacks, had issued a press release
criticizing the senators for trying to remove the phrase 'so help me God' from
the oath. The Traditional Values Coalition, however, told me the FBI
had not contacted them and then issued a press release saying NPR was in the
pocket of the Democrats and trying to frame them.
But investigators are thinking
along these lines.”…
Eight million NPR listeners
heard Traditional Values Coalition linked to criminal activity – all because
of our beliefs which we publicly and proudly assert.
All because we believe the oath taken in this nation should continue to
include the phrase which validates the oath:
“so help me God.”
NPR’s false and defamatory
story fueled reporting by other left-wing media who were and are pre-disposed to
dislike Traditional Values Coalition. The
VillageVoice under the headline “Pick-a-Perp” simply repeated the false NPR
report but in its report we became “the anti-abortion Traditional Values
Coalition.”
The left wing OC Weekly in California jumped on the NPR
bandwagon. It complained that TVC
directed a “rash of ----“ against NPR and concluded that if the war on
terrorism is going to be taken seriously it should be investigating “groups
like TVC…”
Eight days later on January 29,
after receiving a number of responses from people who were outraged by their
story, NPR aired a statement in its “letters” segment acknowledging
“inappropriate” reporting in a story which had been aired on their
“Morning Edition” program on Jan 22.
No retraction of the false statement was included in the ‘letter’; no
apology to Traditional Values Coalition for impugning our organization
was included in the statement and nowhere in the statement does NPR explain why
the report was aired without a single supporting fact or source.
Following this pathetic
statement which was a non-apology and non-retraction Traditional Values
Coalition sent a letter to NPR President and CEO Kevin Klose informing him that
the statement NPR aired was insufficient and unacceptable.
NPR apparently believes there
is more than one standpoint. This
is outrageous. There is only one
standpoint—NPR smeared Traditional Values Coalition and its 43,000 member
churches and they have yet to say they were wrong and they have yet to publicly
say they are sorry.
NPR did remove the story from
its archived stories on its website. Current
Magazine which covers public broadcasting reported on March 11, 2002,
“Typically, when stories
require corrections, they are allowed to remain online, but NPR "felt that
the error in judgment ... was so serious that it outweighed whatever value there
might be in leaving the language there," says a network spokeswoman.
Mr. Chairman, the Congress has
reacted to this injustice and it has reacted in a bi-partisan manner.
You have scheduled today’s
hearing.
Senator Debbie Stabenow, a
Democrat from Michigan, said the FBI had never investigated Traditional Values
Coalition as a suspect in the anthrax mailing and that she would keep in mind
the false accusations when NPR ‘s funding is reviewed by the Congress.
Thursday, February 28th
turned into “Expose NPR Day” in the U.S. House of Representatives.
A number of Members of Congress took to the floor to denounce NPR.
Congressmen DeLay, Blunt, Foley, Calvert and Tiahrt all spoke eloquently
on the floor about the irresponsible behavior of NPR.
Majority Whip Tom DeLay
called NPR’s conduct “outrageous” and said NPR had ignored “their
basic responsibilities as journalists.”
Chief Deputy Majority Whip Roy
Blunt stated, “NPR broke their contract with the American people by reporting
hearsay as fact,” that “this
report was completely inaccurate and irresponsible” and that “Congress
should look long and hard at the recipients of taxpayer dollars.”
Congressman Todd Tiahrt said,
“As we review National Public Radio´s budget, I must express my
outrage at their unethical report on the anthrax mailings…I am very concerned
that their previously liberal bias has transformed into an all-out attack on
conservative and Christian organizations.”
Also that same day the House
Appropriations Labor/HHS/Education subcommittee held a hearing on the funding
for Corporation for Public Broadcast, which funds NPR.
The President of CPB, Robert Coonrod was questioned by both Subcommittee
Chairman Ralph Regula and Congressman Randy Duke Cunningham.
Chairman Regula called the incident “irresponsible journalism” and
described the accusation as “libel.”
NPR claims they broadcast to an
audience of 8 million who hear from them everyday. Well we are still waiting for those 8 million listeners to
hear an apology and retraction.
In March NPR President and CEO
Kevin Klose sent inaccurate letters to the Congress stating that NPR had issued
a retraction and apologized to Traditional Values Coalition – but that is not
accurate.
NPR’s ombudsman, Mr. Dvorkin,
continued his deliberate assault against Traditional Values Coalition by
posting on NPR’s website yet another attack against Traditional Values
Coalition and a justification for the libelous report.
The basis of the NPR story was
NPR’s anti-Christian bias. NPR
took an FBI statement on how
to investigate cases similar to the anthrax case and created a supposition that
sounded good to them—that Christians who disagree with Senators would mail
anthrax to those Senators.
NPR’s Ombudsman said based on
the Traditional Values Coalition release attacking Leahy and Daschle –that
“two plus two made four.” What
does that mean in NPR speak?
Clearly NPR employees graduated
from the school of anti-Christian bigotry where their new math of 2+2=4 equates
to:
Christian organization
+ speaking out against
Senators =
MURDER. This is outrageous.
NPR continues to employ the
blame the rape victim tactic. NPR
says Traditional Values Coalition is “using NPR as a convenient scapegoat.”
Traditional Values Coalition is the victim here but they are doing
whatever they can to make it seem like we are the perpetrators not NPR.
I personally have suffered as has Traditional Values Coalition.
Can you imagine being accused
of murder. Traditional Values
Coalition is not taking this egregious act by NPR lightly. Why shouldn’t
Traditional Values Coalition be outraged. The
fact that NPR doesn’t understand our outrage, and merely mocks our concerns
shows how deep and pervasive the NPR organizational bias is against Christians
and conservatives.
Investigative reporting is not
smearing a reputable organization. Without a single fact to support NPR’s
accusation and without a single person to even speculate that the accusation was
true, NPR accused the Traditional Values Coalition of a heinous crime against
our fellow Americans and one of our nation’s most cherished institutions, the
Congress.
NPR broadcasts to millions of
listeners everyday---we are still waiting and listening for them to right their
wrong.
The most galling aspect of all
of this is the total hypocrisy of NPR.
If some banana republic
dictator was accusing leftists of a crime, NPR commentators would be foaming at
the mouth as they denounced the injustice.
But when conservative
Christians are the accused – we are guilty until proven innocent.
And even when we prove our innocence, NPR cannot seem to make a
reasonable apology or explanation of its egregious breach of journalistic ethics
and conduct.
Where was the editor whose job
it is to make sure that the facts support the story's conclusion?
Based on this experience, it
would appear that "All Things Considered" should have a footnote which
explains that there may not be consideration given to things which are
conservative or Christian. And NPR
is public radio only in the sense that it takes the public's money but is
seemingly not accountable to the public it is supposed to serve.
It
is time for Congress to say no more to NPR.
NPR has betrayed the public’s trust.
On behalf of our 43,000 member churches and the others that NPR smeared
and defamed on January 22, 2002, I urge Congress to eliminate taxpayer funding
for National Public Radio.
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