{"id":62440,"date":"2017-03-16T11:00:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-16T16:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62440"},"modified":"2017-03-16T09:56:42","modified_gmt":"2017-03-16T14:56:42","slug":"flipping-big-bird","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/?p=62440","title":{"rendered":"Flipping Big Bird"},"content":{"rendered":"

SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is walking through the streets of Lowertown when he encounters MyLyssa SILBERMAN,\u00a0who covers the “Fake News” and “Diversity” beats for National Public Radio’s Twin Cities bureau. \u00a0SILBERMAN\u00a0steps out of a Taoist nail salon in Lowertown, and runs into BERG. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: Merg.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Hey, MyLyssa. \u00a0What’s new?<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0On assignment, looking for the people spreading fake good news<\/a> about the Trump Administration.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Exposer’s gotta expose, huh?<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0Yep. \u00a0It’s why we have public broadcasting – doing the tough, unbiased jobs nobody else would do.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0 Just reporting the facts.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0Correct.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Like the fact that gun violence is down sharply over the past two decades, and gun control has had nothing to do with it.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0Heavens, no. \u00a0That would be biased. \u00a0Hey – we just finished out pledge drive week. \u00a0Did you donate?<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Nah. \u00a0I mean, I listen to the news, and I sometimes tune into mock, taunt and fisk “On The Media<\/a>“, and I do happen to like what Chris Thile has done with Prairie Home Companion. \u00a0But I don’t listen much, and I figure I pay for it with my taxes.<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0 Oh, good heavens, no. \u00a0Taxes are just a tiny portion of what Public Broadcasting runs on. \u00a0Insignificant, really. \u00a0Almost nothing. \u00a0Pennies on the dollar, if that. \u00a0If you think we’re “government radio”, you’re spreading alternate facts. \u00a0Nothing “socialist” about us. \u00a0Taxes are pretty much insignificant. \u00a0Totally.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Whew. \u00a0I was worried that I’d hear all sorts of “sky is falling” panic because Trump is proposing cutting federal subsidies to Public Broadca<\/a>…<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0(Eyes go wide with rage and fear) NO! \u00a0CUTTING THE FEDERAL SUBSIDY WOULD DESTROY PUBLIC MEDIA! \u00a0YOU’LL BE BOILING BIG BIRD! \u00a0YOU’LL BE GANG-RAPING ALL THAT IS GOOD ABOUT OUR SOCIETY! \u00a0 EVERY SINGLE PENNY OF FUNDING GOES STRAIGHT INTO THE MOJTHS OF THE NEPHEWS AND NIECES OF PUBLIC BROADCASTING EMPLOYEES! \u00a0 YOU’LL DESTROY THE ONLY RELIABLE SOURCE OF VALID NEWS ABOUT THE CAMPAIGN NOT TO NORMALIZE TRUMP THAT THERE IS IN THE AMERICAN MEDIA! \u00a0 \u00a0NOT ONLY MUST NOT A PENNY BE DIVERTED, BUT WE NEED MORE! \u00a0MORE! \u00a0MORE!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0So – hands off public radio budgets…<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0NOT ONE PENNY OR WE’LL ALL STARVE!<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0So it’s really government radio after all…<\/p>\n

SILBERMAN: \u00a0(resuming nasal NPR-casting voice, complete with faint sound of Ghanaian drum choirs in the background) No. \u00a0Absolutely not.<\/p>\n

BERG: \u00a0Glad we could clarify this.<\/p>\n

And SCENE. \u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

SCENE: \u00a0Mitch BERG is walking through the streets of Lowertown when he encounters MyLyssa SILBERMAN,\u00a0who covers the “Fake News” and “Diversity” beats for National Public Radio’s Twin Cities bureau. \u00a0SILBERMAN\u00a0steps out of a Taoist nail salon in Lowertown, and runs into BERG. \u00a0 SILBERMAN: Merg. BERG: \u00a0Hey, MyLyssa. \u00a0What’s new? SILBERMAN: \u00a0On assignment, looking for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62440","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62440","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=62440"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62440\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":62441,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62440\/revisions\/62441"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=62440"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=62440"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shotinthedark.info\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=62440"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}