Radio Free Pittsburgh
Why an NPR Affiliate Turned Down Planned Parenthood’s Money
by Phyllis Zagano
Planned Parenthood is right up there with the Ku Klux Klan in trying to force its beliefs onto the airwaves of National Public Radio.
About seven years ago, the Missouri chapter of the Ku Klux Klan sued KWMU-FM, the radio station of the University of Missouri (St. Louis). Like the other 859 National Public Radio affiliates, KWMU affords “donors” or “underwriters” 15-second sponsorship “messages.” The station refused to accept an on-air Klan sponsorship message.
Now Planned Parenthood is whining because an NPR affiliate in Pittsburgh, WDUQ-FM, returned $5,000 of sponsorship underwriting.
Planned Parenthood is the largest abortion and birth-control provider in the country. And the license for WDUQ is owned by Duquesne University, a Catholic school.
So that should be that. No one expects a Catholic license-holder to support Planned Parenthood’s message. Except Planned Parenthood, which, like the Ku Klux Klan, insists on its right to spread its philosophy on public radio, including (and especially) on WDUQ.
Incorporated in 1970 under the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, NPR can accept donations, and sponsors can underwrite entire programs or series. NPR affiliates can also reject whatever they want.
That’s because NPR—despite its name—is not a government agency, but a private non-profit. NPR receives about 2 percent of its funding through federal grants.
In Pittsburgh, Planned Parenthood supporters argued that public radio listeners have the right to all sides, which of course they do—where news is concerned. But sponsorship messages are not news.
The logic that argues for Planned Parenthood’s values to be spread by WDUQ would also say that Duquesne’s values should be spread by Planned Parenthood. So in addition to plain vanilla abstinence education, maybe Planned Parenthood should have links to the Diocese of Pittsburgh on its website, yes?
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