NPR apology unacceptable to Christian-values group

0 Comments | Insight on the News, August 12, 2002 | by John Elvin

Kevin Klose, president and chief executive officer of National Public Radio (NPR), has issued a public apology for a story suggesting that the Traditional Values Coalition (TVC), a conservative group with 43,000 member churches, was linked to anthrax-laced letters sent to Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota and Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy of Vermont, both Democrats. NPR zeroed in on TVC solely because the Christian group had criticized Daschle and Leahy for removing the phrase "so help me God" from the oath administered to Senate witnesses.

Klose's apology didn't satisfy TVC Executive Director Andrea Lafferty, who charged in testimony before a House subcommittee that "If some banana-public dictator was accusing leftists of a crime, NPR commentators would be foaming at the mouth as they denounced the injustice. But when conservative Christians are the accused, we are guilty until proven innocent."

Lafferty later told Fox News that TVC lawyers will continue to press for a retraction of the report, which said the organization "fit the profile" of groups that might have been behind the assassination attempts. TVC is active on a range of moral and social issues such as education, homosexual advocacy, parental rights, family tax relief, pornography, the right to life and religious freedom.

Klose's apology came during his testimony before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet. A review of Klose's statement to the subcommittee reveals that he devoted much of his presentation to bragging about awards received by NPR and its growing audience in an era of declining radio listening. "NPR's listeners now outnumber the combined circulation of the top 35 U.S. daily newspapers," he reported.