i would recommend to npr that they don't just keep buckling. you start decimating your staff in response to every little sting etc and i'll tell you this: the hornets will be swarming. you're making o'keefe almost unbelievably effective. now on the other hand there is a problem, and there is a whole culture of elite incredible arrogance that serves no one well, even itself. i was sitting with some profs the other night, and we were discussing something or other and the loudest among us said, "but republicans are just so stupid." of course everyone nodded along (well except me, but i also didn't merely blast away; it seems wrong to destroy a friendly dinner conversation with an honored outoftown guest (in this case the curator of french painting from the national gallery in dc), plus i ain't no republican). well if the topic had been tea partiers, it'd have been worse. no argument, just extreme group self-esteem-enhancement: these are the wrong sort of people. they didn't go to the right colleges. that's exactly what the npr fund-raiser said, and it's doubtful he's ever had lunch with someone who would have had any response but enthusiastic nodding and mutual backslapping. that there would be a problem. it's almost impossible to generate any actual opinions in an environment like that; it's just bobbleheads nodding in synchrony.

i actually think npr bends over backwards to be fair. but they do have to bend over backwards; it would surprise me if the basic politics wasn't close to unanimous.