November 4, 2010 11:22AM # Why Some People Think NPR Exhibits Bias By [Michael F. Cannon](https://www.cato.org/people/michael-f-cannon) --- SHARE Listening to NPR on the way into work, I twice heard a reporter [refer](http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131057508) to [Meredith McGehee](http://www.campaignlegalcenter.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=957&Itemid=64), a champion of (ahem) [campaign finance reform](https://www.cato.org/pub_display.php?pub_id=11176), as a “good-government lobbyist.” Got that? If you disagree with McGehee’s lobbying agenda — if, say, you think [campaign finance reform](http://www.catostore.org/index.asp?fa=ProductDetails&pid=1441331&method=search&t=&a=Samples&k=&aeid=8&adv=&pg=) is an unconstitutional attempt by the Left to restrict political speech that they don’t like — then you are against making government better. But did you catch the more subtle form of bias? I maintain there is no such thing as good government*.* (Call it Cannon’s First Law of Politics.) And I’m not alone. “Government, even in its best state,” wrote Thomas Paine in *Common Sense*, “is but [a necessary evil](http://www.ushistory.org/paine/commonsense/sense2.htm).” Not *good*. Less evil than the alternative, to be sure. But still, evil. Others disagree. The reporter, like many others and probably without even realizing it, took sides in that long-standing debate too. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Constitutional Law](https://www.cato.org/constitutional-law), [Robert A. Levy Center for Constitutional Studies](https://www.cato.org/robert-levy-center-constitutional-studies) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).