Michael Barone‘s latest Washington Examiner column explains why NPR should urge Congress to end taxpayer subsidies for public broadcasting:

NPR’s response to defunding threats has been incoherent. Its spokesmen point out that NPR itself receives relatively little public money. But then they saying defunding would be disastrous because more money goes to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which funds public radio stations that buy NPR programming.


Let me offer what is intended as a helpful suggestion to NPR: Don’t fight defunding. Instead work with Congress to get NPR and CPB off the public payroll.


It may be painful in the short run. But in the long run you’ll be a better organization, and you won’t have to worry about pleasing politicians.


There’s a precedent pretty closely on point: the National Trust for Historic Preservation. Back in 1994, when Republicans unexpectedly won majorities in both houses of Congress, the National Trust was suddenly threatened with a fund cutoff.


The organization had been campaigning against a proposed theme park near the Manassas battlefield in Northern Virginia, which made some congressional Republicans angry. Congress seemed likely to cut off the one-third of National Trust funding that came from the federal government.


Rather than fight that effort, Dick Moe, then head of the National Trust and before that a longtime top aide to Walter Mondale, decided to join it. He approached Ralph Regula, the chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee with jurisdiction, and proposed a three-year drawdown of federal funding.


That would give his organization enough time to develop alternative sources of funding, he thought. And, as he correctly judged, it took the wind from the sails of those Republicans who wanted funds cut off immediately.


In retrospect, Moe has said, it was the best thing that could have happened to his organization. It prompted the National Trust to reach out to citizens and donors who shared its vision. And it allowed the organization to take politically controversial stands without fear of political retribution.