Because this is the most pressing matter to capture their collective attention, House Republicans moved swiftly to bring the issue of government funding for National Public Radio (or lack thereof, if they’d have it their way) to a vote Thursday.

But as The Christian Science Monitor points out, this isn’t the worst crisis NPR has faced in the last few decades. And as Talking Points Memo notes, conservative video vigilante James O’Keefe’s latest attempt to bring NPR down has fallen flat.

Update: The House voted along predictably partisan lines to end federal funding to NPR.

The Christian Science Monitor:

Right now federal money, which is channeled through local stations for the most part, makes up about 10 percent of the public radio economy, according to NPR data. Losing that cash could hurt—particularly at rural stations without other ready sources of funds.

But would it be the worst financial crisis in public radio’s history? Nope, far from it. That occurred not in 2011, but in 1983.

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