NPR’s government geography ‘expert’ thinks New Jersey is the same size as Texas
Your tax dollars at play: National Public Radio asked Jane Ferrigno (yes, that’s her real name) of the U.S. Geological Survey about alleged “Antarctic ice loss”:
Ms. FERRIGNO: I think I’ll go back 20 years, and in the last 20 years, I would say at least 20,000 square kilometers of ice has been lost, and that’s comparable to an area somewhere between the state of Texas and the state of Alaska.
Except, er… Well, see the map, above.
Oh well: when you’re a lefty, Texas and Alaska are just giant interchangeable blobs of America that don’t vote the right way. “What’s the matter with Kansas?” and all that.
And I guess the whole “kilometers” thing mixed them both these ladies, too. As that ignorant tea partier Rush Limbaugh fellow media liberal, CNN’s Rick Sanchez would say, “What’s nine meters in English?”
I checked, but for some bizarre reason, those “media watchdogs” and fearless truth-tellers and myth busters at Media Matters had nothing to say about this (tax payer funded) exchange.
Just think, America: when the government pays for your health care, like it does public radio and the U.S. Geological Survey, your “expert” doctor might just get your appendix mixed up with your brain! Thrilled yet?
PS: let’s give the last word to the kind of person NPR and its listeners like to make fun of. You know, the type of shallow, middle American airhead who just doesn’t appreciate the nuanced subtleties of geography and foreign cultural stuff like metric and that:
You have got to be kidding me, right? This young lady went through our educational system….and she probably votes.
You say the government pays for public radio, but NPR's budget comes from its member stations (which are listener-supported) and from underwriters. Only a tiny amount of their money comes from government sources. Spreading this sort of myth seriously undermines your credibility. Check your facts!
Let's get some real numbers here please, A "tiny amount" versus "NPR's budget come from " tells little to nothing. If you want to dispute with statistics, please give them and not your take of them.
In the face of such an obvious exaggeration, the only retort you can come up with is a rebuttal (void of facts) regarding a funding percentage? Aryeh (pun intended) smart enough not to use red herring?
i would hardly call 400 to 500 million a small amount from government. fund raisers don't cover the cost of a couple of salaries.
Just over half of NPR's funding comes from the fees it charges member stations. Most of that money comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, of which the overwhelming majority of money comes from……wait for it………the government. Anyone that says NPR is NOT mainly paid for with tax money is either grossly misinformed or LYING.
My main beef with NPR commentators and correspondents is their butchering of English, mispronunciation, smarmy "upspeaking", and blurring and slurring together of words and phrases.
My favorite NPR "word-blur" is their "Weekend Edition", which when spoken quickly sounds like "Weakened Edition", a pretty accurate characterization considering its content is so diluted with slant.
Jim, they have to "butcher English,mispronounce,use smarmy upspeak,blur and slur words and phrases, and speak quickly. If they produced a program with coherent speech and content, then the rubes that watch them would fully understand precisely what was being presented. And, they can't have that. Can they?Where exactly was this government employee educated in geology? Another government liar and the lies they tell.
Wow! Who knew "pretty" and "stupid" could come in the same package!
This can only be "news" to people who haven't spent tons of $$$ on private educational institutions for their kids. I have six aged 22 to 34. They probably "manage" yours.
From NPR
Correction: During this interview, it was stated that in the last 20 years, at least 20,000 square kilometers of ice have been lost, an area, it was stated, somewhere between the size of Texas and Alaska. That is incorrect. 20,000 square kilometers is roughly the size of New Jersey. The United States Geological Survey says that it is the Antarctic Peninsula, the source of the ice loss, that is larger than the state of Texas but smaller than Alaska.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?stor...
If it's such a small amount, it wouldn't matter much if we take it away then?