NPR recently fired liberal commentator Juan Williams for saying that he feels nervous when boarding an airplane with a person wearing "Muslim garb."  Mr. Williams has also been a commentator on conservative cable news channel FoxNews. Read about it here.

• NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a non-profit media organization that serves as a national syndicator to 797 public radio stations in the U.S. 
• NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967. 
• While initially providing programs on the arts, after 1983 the network focused largely on news programming.
• In the 1970s and early 1980s, the majority of NPR's funding came from the U.S. taxpayers through the Federal government. 
• Today only about 2 percent ($2 million) of NPR's total funding of $100 million per year comes from government grants and programs.

1.  a) The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 mandated that the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which established NPR three years after the bill passed, maintain a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature."  The question is asked at the end of the excerpt on NPR's liberal board members:  Should such an overwhelmingly liberal organization receive money from taxpayers who are less likely to be liberal than not? Note that a June 2010 Gallup Poll found 42% of Americans describing themselves as either very conservative or conservative, and 20% describing themselves as liberal.  What do you think?  Explain your answer.
b)  Ask a parent the same question.