Poll: Republicans Want NPR Funding Cut; Democrats Say Keep It

This is a poll that was a waste of money. Did they expect any other result?

Most Republicans and a plurality of independents want the U.S. government to halt its financial contributions to embattled National Public Radio, while most Democrats support continued U.S. funding for NPR.

NPR’s controversial firing last week of news analyst Juan Williams re-ignited a long-time debate over whether U.S. government funds should be channeled to the non-profit radio service. A single-digit percentage of NPR funding comes from the U.S. government.

A nationwide Poll Position survey found that 45 percent of Americans favored continued U.S. government NPR funding, while 39 percent called for a halt to funding, with the remainder saying they had no opinion.

In partisan terms, Republicans favored ending U.S. funding 54-28 percent, while Democrats wanted the funding to continue 58-25 percent. NPR funding was favored by independents 49-38 percent.

Broken down by ages, the 18-29 group supported continued taxpayer subsidies 62-30 percent. The 30-44 group narrowly sided with halting the funding 42-39 percent, and older groups were almost evenly split on the idea.

Men backed NPR’s federal funding 50-40 percent, but women were not so decisive. They supported continued funding 40-37 percent, with another 23 percent undecided. Support hovered around 50 percent among all ethnic groups in the survey – whites, blacks, Latinos and others.