From PRI, Public Radio International and KCRW Santa Monica, this is To the Point.

Public broadcasting on the firing line once again.

Hello again, I'm Orman Alney, and this is To the Point from Public Radio International.

A daily look at the issues Americans care about most.

In the 1990s,

Big Bird, Kermit, and all their friends saved Bill Moyers' front line and the rest of public

broadcasting from Republican budget cuts, but charges of liberal bias never went away. Last year,

NPR's news analyst Juan Williams told Fox News he was nervous flying with passengers wearing

Muslim garb.

Since NPR fired him, Speaker John Boehner and other Republicans have seen evidence of a left-wing network.

Now there's a new effort to defund NPR as well as broadcasting service.

We'll hear from their critics and their supporters.

On reporter's notebook later on is the New York Stock Exchange being swallowed up.

First, here's the news.

Support for To the Point comes from subscribers of KCRW Santa Monica

and from the Public Radio International Program Fund,

whose contributors include the Ford Foundation and the John D.

and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation.

Hello again, Warren Alleney, back with To the Point. The audience for national public radio has

been growing fast, but Republicans want to defund it along with public TV. We'll hear about the

ideological issues involved and about the different consequences for urban centers and rural

areas that don't have alternatives.

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