TMQ is a regular listener and occasional donor to National Public Radio. Despite liking NPR, I feel it deserved to be mortified for taking a thought-police stance toward Juan Williams, and for the official responsible to resign, as happened last week. The proper way to handle Williams’ statement would have been to assign a commentary blasting him. The wrong way was to fire Williams for saying something that violated liberal orthodoxy. Freedom of speech means people will have opinions you don’t like. NPR and Fox News both need to deal with this, rather than shout others down. I can’t stand the Fox News evening commentary, but my taxes don’t support that blather. My taxes support NPR, which makes its war on opposing views a public-policy matter.

Defenders of NPR have noted the Washington main organization — local stations are the jewels of the public radio crown — receives only $2.4 million annually in federal grants. That’s a small amount as these things go, so why doesn’t NPR cover that sum with private donations and voluntarily end the taxpayer-funding contretemps?

Now it turns out the NPR president was paid $562,000 last year, and the year before that, NPR paid $2.4 million to its top two executives. So much of the federal tax money, derived by borrowing and handing the bill to our children, isn’t funding newscasts or opera — it’s going into the pockets of NPR executives. Americans whose median income is about $50,000 are being taxed so that executives can live in luxury. This was offensive when AIG was the beneficiary, and it’s offensive with NPR the beneficiary.