Duffy breaks rank on public radio vote

The House of Representatives Thursday to ban federal money for public radio.

The mostly-partisan vote had one Wisconsin Republican break party ranks.

Congressman Sean Duffy of Ashland was one of seven Republicans who voted with Democrats against ending federal funding for public broadcasting.

“My conservative base will not be happy with this vote,” Duffy said. “I’ve already heard from them. There are others who are happy with my vote. But I can’t make everyone happy all the time. I want to do what’s right for the district and the vote I made was the right vote.”

The vote to not use federal dollars to fund NPR was 228 to 192. Duffy says the recently released sting video with an NPR executive criticizing the Tea Party didn’t help its cause.

“There’s a reputation that NPR has of being pretty far to the left, and then the video was confirmation of what many people assumed.”

He says even though he was on the losing side, he made the right move. Duffy says his mostly rural district depends on public radio to get their information.

Tags: news, government, media, updates