GOP Calls Emergency Session to Defund NPR

House Republicans may have taken note of Juan Williams' op-ed on NPR yesterday, because they've called an emergency meeting—to try to block NPR's funding. The Rules Committee session today will take up legislation to permanently ban federal funding for NPR and its affiliate stations in the wake of conservative activist James O'Keefe's sting video, reports Talking Points Memo.

The House has already passed legislation to defund the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which supports both NPR and PBS, but the bill was shot down in the Senate. The new bill only targets NPR. A spokesman for the Rules Committee Democrats called the bill "a reactionary response to the O'Keefe video" and said it was being "rushed to the floor." NPR CEO Vivian Schiller resigned after the release of the video, in which an NPR fundraiser was taped calling the Tea Party movement "seriously racist." (More NPR stories.)