Just today, the nexus of public radio and private profits gave us NPR's national political corespondent and "Fox News Sunday" pundit Mara Liasson Liarsson defending Obama's critics like Joe Wilson as no more caustic or irrational than George Bush's critics. Then Katy Clark of PRI's "The World" twice introduced guest John Shiels as a consultant for "the non-partisan" Lewin Group to discuss the threat of the health care bill covering illegal residents.

Thanks, "public" radio, for giving us the Republican party line. Here's what Katy Clark didn't tell listeners:

Shiels is vice-president for Lewin, which supplied the most damaging (and thoroughly discredited) figure used by conservatives to bash the public option. The Lewin Group early this summer released its study claiming that a public option would draw more than 100 million people from private insurance. The report was cited by the GOP and its teabagging shock troops as proof that Congress was about to kill private insurance and institute a government takeover of health care.

Mara Liarsson I just give up on. Her persistently negative analysis of Democrats and Obama makes her a perfect fit for the "Fox News Sunday" echo chamber. Liarsson's mind is as alien to fair play as her other-worldly expression.

I'm sick of the BS I've been hearing on what are supposedly the radio networks of "the people." But I guess it will come as no surprise that PRI is greatly funded by the Medtronic Foundation. That's the PR arm of  Medtronic, Inc., the world's largest medical technology company.

Need an expensive fix for an organ gone sour? Medtronic has it. Need Medicare reimbursement for that new part? Medtronic can arrange it. Need to gloss over the fact that Medtronic and Lewin both have skin in reform? Well, that's the role of public radio.

I used to rely on public broadcasting for the truth, but when I contacted WGBH in Boston, where "The World" is produced, I got the usual run-around. My follow-up email got an autoresponder reply.

Public TV is better than public radio at getting it right. I don't think I'd hear such drivel on "The News Hour" and certainly not on Moyers' show. But the corporate interests have penetrated deep into NPR and PRI. "All hail the Baucus plan!" Shit.

It's been too long since I listened to that classic rock station halfway up the dial.