By Bill Fancher
February 28, 2002

(AgapePress) - Members of the U.S. House today lashed out at National Public Radio's recent report that implied a Christian organization was linked to the anthrax letters.

In mid-January, National Public Radio reporter David Kestenbaum said in a report the FBI was investigating the possibility that the Traditional Values Coalition sent two anthrax letters to Senators Tom Daschle and Patrick Leahy. TVC founder and chairman Rev. Lou Sheldon said at the time that the insinuation was very dangerous -- and that he was pressing for an investigation into NPR, as well as an apology from the federally-funded broadcast agency.

And Andrea Lafferty, executive director of TVC, says today that NPR's attack on her organization confirms the suspicions of many in the nation's capital that NPR is "both biased and malicious."

House members spoke today on the floor about the NPR report. At the same time, members of the Appropriations Committee questioned public broadcast officials appearing before the committee about NPR standards and practices in news reporting. California conservative Ken Calvert was one of the first critics of what he called NPR's "liberal bias."

"When the National Public Radio made a thinly veiled accusation that the Traditional Values Coalition could be responsible for the anthrax attacks on Capitol Hill, they crossed the line from simple bias to outright libel," Calvert said.

Kansas Republican Todd Tiahrt followed with his own criticism. "I must express my outrage at their unethical report on the anthrax mailings," he said. "There are no facts and no sources to support this charge of the NPR broadcast. Though they have since issued a correction of the story, there was no apology."

Florida's Mark Foley also joined in the attack on NPR. "It's a disgrace to journalists to make such a reckless accusation against a fine organization operating in this country," Foley said, "and I insist before I continue to support [NPR's] organizations that they, in fact, do apologize more forcefully."

Hearings are being held on Capitol Hill today looking into this incident and others as Congress wrestles with setting up the public broadcasting budget.

© 2002 AgapePress all rights reserved.

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