NPR’s firing of 10-year senior news analyst Juan Williams has re-ignited interest in an idea proposed in the 1990s by then-House speaker Newt Gingrich: to zero out federal funding for public broadcasting. Gingrich wanted to slash funding for both public radio and TV, but the Juan Williams controversy is specifically about NPR. Talkers such as Mike Huckabee, Janet Mefferd and Dennis Prager picked up the idea yesterday, and soon conservative leader/fundraiser Richard Viguerie announced a “Petition of One Million Americans to End Federal Funding of National Public Radio.” The facts are that NPR gets very little money from the government. It doesn’t own any stations, and functions as a program and content provider to member stations. Those member stations may get federal funding, but it’s typically less than 10% of their budgets. Stations also get revenue from underwriting and memberships, and they choose what programming they want to buy from various vendors, including NPR. Local stations also generate their own content. Meanwhile, Juan Williams just got a sweet deal from Fox, where he’s been a commentator. Fox News Channel extended and expanded his deal so it’s worth $2 million over three years. It was on Fox’s “O'Reilly Factor” that Williams made his remarks about being “nervous” on seeing someone in Muslim garb on an airliner. That was Monday night. NPR says it has had previous issues with Williams, and this time it decided to cut him loose.