NPR Cancels Reading Declaration of Independence for 4th of July

The taxpayer-funded station broke a 30+ year tradition.

QUICK FACTS:
  • National Public Radio canceled a tradition started in 1988 by doing away with the annual July 4th reading of the Declaration of Independence.
  • The station hosted a panel of liberal thinkers during the broadcast, which some conservatives regarded as essentially an “echo chamber” on “equality.”
  • “This July 4th we break with tradition,” tweeted Morning Edition host Leila Fadel. “Instead of a reading of the Declaration of Independence @NPRinskeep examines what equality means and has meant in this document. Important segment about our past and future.”
  • The featured programming was put together to ask the question “On this July 4th, what does equality mean?”
2021 DECLARATION READING:
  • This after last year’s reading was accompanied by commentary about America’s founders “flaws and deeply ingrained hypocrisies.”
  • “Author David Treuer, who is Ojibwe from the Leech Lake Reservation, explains that this particular grievance refers to the idea that the British were, he says, ginning up discontent among Native people,” NPR said during the reading.
  • The diatribe against the founding document went on with Treuer telling Morning Edition, “a deeper look at history also shows that one of the reasons why the colonists wanted to rise up against the British — and wage the Revolutionary War — was over the question of who would try to colonize Native lands west of the colonies.”
  • “On one hand we are keenly aware of the ways in which this country has attempted to both take our homelands and to eradicate us. And yet a huge number of Native people are deeply patriotic. Native American people have fought in every war America has fought up until today.”
  • “We remain committed to forcing this country to live up to its own stated ideals.”
BACKGROUND:
  • NPR’s decision is one recent event in a long line of movements by the progressive left to erase the works and reputation of the Founding Fathers.
  • Statues of prominent historical figures have been removed, and the fickle nature of the nation’s opinion on history has been compared to St. Petersburg with its historical name changes reflecting love, hate, and indifference towards Russia and Germany.

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