I liken the choice of early-warning system vs. NPR (or any similar gov't funded organization) to the following:

A person lives in a high crime area. He has some $xx.xx in his budget to spend. He knows he should get some kind of home security (alarm system, buy a gun, get a watchdog, etc.), but he'd rather spend it on expanded cable instead of his cheaper basic cable in order to get more channels, movies, etc.

A rational person would make the obvious choice of home security.

Back to the gov't's choice -- rational and politics in the same sentence is a stretch of the imagination.

Barbara