Sometimes, public radio employees don’t seem to realize they rely on taxpayer support. Our former colleague Lachlan Markay of the Washington Free Beacon underlined that in a story on Congressman Chris Gibson (R-New York).
An unnamed employee of WIOX radio in the small town of Roxbury, New York (which runs NPR News programs overnight), dismissed Gibson as someone who should “find a real job like the rest of us and not live off the taxpayers [sic] money.”
Gibson’s campaign emailed local news organizations a press release regarding the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades union’s endorsement of the congressman.
A WIOX employee used the press release to express his annoyance with Gibson’s career as a member of the military.
“Cool,” a WIOX staffer wrote in response. “Someday maybe he will find a real job like the rest of us and not live off the taxpayers [sic] money as he has done his whole life.”
Gibson is a former colonel in the U.S. Army who served seven combat tours, including four in Iraq...
“Someday (hopefully never) perhaps [Gibson’s] voting record will demonstrate that he really cares about the community and not play part [sic] politics,” the WIOX employee went on.
Gibson is running for re-election against Democrat Sean Eldridge, who is “married” to Facebook moneybags Chris Hughes, who owns The New Republic magazine.
WIOX is a community station too small to make the list of stations funded by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, so maybe the employee doesn’t think he’s publicly funded. But the station has partnered with WSKG in Binghamton, which did receive more than $800,000 from Washington in 2012.
