As his role in the recent NPR controversy continues to develop, conservative filmmaker and self-proclaimed muckraker journalist James O'Keefe is seeking nonprofit status for his Project Veritas organization. However, O'Keefe's past may play a detrimental role in his attempt for tax-exemption.posted by ericb at 1:26 PM on March 17, 2011 [3 favorites]
Currently, the Project Veritas website features a section where viewers can donate, however it states that donations are not tax-deductible due to its pending nonprofit status.
Marc Owens, a Washington tax lawyer who has monitored tax-exempt groups with the IRS, told the Chronicle of Philanthropy that its application for 501(c)3 status may not be accepted due to O'Keefe's criminal record and his public statement that he'd "do it again." | more ...
"And though NPR is widely seen as publicly funded, the majority of its funding does not come (even indirectly) from taxpayers. NPR doesn't receive direct federal funding for operations - the largest chunk of its money comes from program fees and station dues, as NPR's finances page lays out.posted by ericb at 1:33 PM on March 17, 2011 [5 favorites]
NPR does end up with some federal funding in an indirect sense, though it only makes up between one and three percent of the group's budget on a yearly basis, according to NPR CEO Vivian Schiller, who discussed the matter in an interview with the Atlanta Journal-Constitution today.
Here's how Schiller breaks it down: The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which covers both radio and television, gets $90 million per year in federal funding that goes to member public radio stations, not NPR itself. (This would be your local NPR affiliate.) She said any money NPR gets from the CPB comes via grants it has to apply for, and those grants only make up a tiny percentage of the overall NPR budget, which Schiller puts at $160 million per year.
(Looking at CPB's financials - page 17 specifically -- it appears the group got a $422 million total allocation from the federal government in FY2010, of which roughly $93 million went to radio.)
'NPR gets no allocation from CPB,' Schiller said. 'Zero. We are a private 501(c)3. We've had journalists call up and ask what department of the government we report to. That's laughable.'"
Some Republicans Chide Obama for ESPN Hoops Pickposted by ericb at 2:06 PM on March 17, 2011 [2 favorites]President Obama’s interview with ESPN on his NCAA basketball tournament picks is getting slammed from some Republicans. They say it’s bad form given the deadly disaster in Japan, worsening violence in Libya and stalemate over the U.S. budget at home.
“How can Barack Obama say he is leading when he puts his NCAA bracket over the budget and other pressing issues?” Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman, tweeted Wednesday.
Fred Thompson, the TV actor, former Tennessee senator and onetime presidential candidate also chimed in on the blog of the conservative website of National Review.
The “difference between President Obama and the rest of us is that we aren’t calling a meeting of the White House communications staff to rehearse our bracket unveils for a national TV audience while ducking national-security issues, budget negotiations, Social Security reform meetings … you get the idea,” Thompson wrote.
A liberal commentator at the website Talking Points Memo fired back that it’s ridiculous to criticize the president for being a sports fan. “Maybe Obama would have been better off not talking about sports — that way, conservatives could stick to attacking him as an out-of-touch elitist,” he mocked.
In his ESPN interview, the president opened his remarks by asking for donations to Japan.
“One thing I wanted to make sure that viewers who are filling out their brackets — this is a great tradition, we have fun every year doing it — but while you’re doing it, if you’re on your laptop, et cetera, go to usaid.gov and that’s going to list a whole range of charities where you can potentially contribute to help the people who have been devastated in Japan, “Obama said. “I think that would be a great gesture as you’re filling out your brackets.”
A public radio network, National Public Radio (NPR), was created in 1970, following the passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 which established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [CPB]. This network (generally exclusive of Pacifica Radio, described below) is colloquially though inaccurately referred to as Public Radio. Independent local public radio stations buy their programming from distributors such as NPR; Public Radio International (PRI); American Public Media (APM); The Public Radio Exchange (PRX); and Pacifica, most often distributed through the Public Radio Satellite System (PRSS). Around these distributed programs, stations fill varying amounts of local programming.posted by ericb at 3:34 PM on March 17, 2011
Public radio stations in the U.S. tend to broadcast a mixture of news and talk radio programming along with some music. Some of the larger operations split off these formats into separate stations or networks. Public music stations are probably best known for playing classical music, although other formats have been used, including the time-honored "eclectic" music format that is rather freeform in nature common among college radio stations; jazz is another public radio programming staple, dominating the airwaves in the major markets L.A. and New Jersey, KKJZ 88.1 FM and WBGO 88.3 FM. Also, XM Satellite Radio provides a station of public radio programs licensed from all three content providers.
Local stations derive most of the funding for their operations through regular pledge drives and corporate underwriting. Some stations also derive a portion of their funding from federal, state and local governments and government-funded colleges and universities (in addition to receiving free use of the public radio spectrum). The local stations then contract with program distributors and also provide some programming themselves. NPR produces some of its own programming such as Morning Edition, Weekend Edition, and All Things Considered. PBS, by contrast, does not create its own content. NPR also receives some direct funding from private donors, foundations, and from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
Some other public networks, such as Pacifica Radio, are almost entirely member-funded and do not receive significant sponsorship from corporations or governmental sources; Pacifica Radio is known for a general body of programming of (what is considered) a mainly leftist social and political viewpoint, with many programs, especially news and public affairs shows, critical and/or challenging of trends and issues in mainstream government, society and corporations.
Looking at CPB's financials - page 17 specifically -- it appears the group got a $422 million total allocation from the federal government in FY2010, of which roughly $93 million went to radio.
The Administration continues to invest in the Nation’s military servicemembers and their families and provides them with the training, equipment, and infrastructure needed to maintain military readiness. The President's 2012 Budget for the Department of Defense (DOD) reflects that commitment, proposing $553 billion - an increase of $22 billion above the 2010 appropriation.President Dwight D. Eisenhower:
Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.posted by kirkaracha at 8:19 PM on March 17, 2011 [9 favorites]
This world in arms is not spending money alone. It is spending the sweat of its laborers, the genius of its scientists, the hopes of its children. The cost of one modern heavy bomber is this: a modern brick school in more than 30 cities. It is two electric power plants, each serving a town of 60,000 population. It is two fine, fully equipped hospitals. It is some fifty miles of concrete pavement. We pay for a single fighter with a half-million bushels of wheat. We pay for a single destroyer with new homes that could have housed more than 8,000 people. . . . This is not a way of life at all, in any true sense. Under the cloud of threatening war, it is humanity hanging from a cross of iron.
"Still dealing with the legal fallout from their undercover ACORN sting from 2009, Talking Points Memo reports that lawyers for James O'Keefe and Hannah Giles are busy responding to a California lawsuit that claims the two conservative activists broke state law by secretly tape recording ACORN workers and then releasing the recordings without permission, according to a report from Talking Points Memo.posted by ericb at 7:26 AM on March 18, 2011
What's interesting is that O'Keefe and Giles, who performed as an undercover team in the ACORN tapes, have different sets of lawyers and apparently very different sets of defenses." | more ...
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