Glenn Garvin to donate his brain to science

I only wish the above statement were true.

Perhaps then, we'd learn why Garvin - who works for the once great Miami Herald - continues to find it necessary to to make a complete ass of himself. And seemingly enjoy it.

My friend over at South Florida Lawyers blog has done an admirable job of cataloging Glenn's brain farts. It's a job I don't want.

But I couldn't let the latest installment of "Glenn Garvin - Why I hate Everything," pass without mention.

The other day Garvin gleefully discovered that a 17 year-old screed he'd written bashing National Public Radio, had finally surfaced on the web.

Garvin's paper hides its archives behind a pay-wall. In Garvin's case, that's a good thing. (Note to Herald editors: Maybe there's a message in there somewhere...any chance you could follow suit and hold all of Garvin's copy for 17 years before publishing it.)

Anyway, the main point of Garvin's piece was that "NPR is nothing but a cultish echo chamber with a tiny audience anchored in a dying medium, funded almost entirely with money extorted from taxpayers."

Hmmm, "a tiny audience in a dying medium?" I wonder if Garvin was thinking about the Herald when he penned that line?

Well, it didn't take long for the folks at NPR to rip Garvin's thesis to shreds.

There are many aspects of [Garvin's] recent blog posting "An old-but-goodie" piece of NPR-bashing that NPR could challenge, but I’ll limit myself to one statement, written this week: by Glen Garvin: “But the thrust of the story, I think, remains valid. NPR remains a cultish echo chamber with a tiny audience anchored in a dying medium, funded almost entirely with money extorted from taxpayers. Other than that, public radio is great.”

The fact is – not one of these assertions is true – and public radio is great. We are dismayed that an organization with the Miami Herald’s reputation would fail to check the facts.
[...]
The statement that NPR is funded almost entirely with money “extorted from taxpayers” is outrageous and enormously disrespectful (emphasis mine) to the people who make up public radio’s largest source of funding: the 2.85 million households that voluntarily contribute to public radio stations annually. The fact is that roughly 10 percent of public radio station funding comes from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a private non-profit chartered by the Congress. The largest source of station funding is contributions from listeners, followed by corporate sponsorship.

As to NPR, Inc., we have received no operating support from the federal government since 1983. About 2 percent of NPR’s annual budget comes from competitive grants from federally funded organizations. NPR, Inc’s largest sources of revenue are NPR member stations, who pay program fees and dues to NPR, and corporate sponsors.

Dana Davis Rehm

Senior vice president – Marketing, Communications & External Relations
NPR

Ouch!

Now if I was as anti-intellectual and intolerant of viewpoints that differ from my own - as Garvin seems to be - I'd recommend that the Herald fire him. But I'm not that way. I say let him continue to make an ass of himself. Everyday. And print his stuff on the front page with Dave Barry's crap!!

But, maybe there's a journalistic equivalent of a blanket party that his peers on the fifth floor can administer to Glenn. Quickly.

But until that day, it looks like Garvin is intent on embarrassing himself...and his paper.