Late yesterday, members of the House came one step closer to achieving a longstanding ideological goal: silencing NPR. 

They passed a rotten bill that would end taxpayer support for NPR and stop local public radio stations from using federal dollars to buy any radio programming. Period.

We have to — and we can — stop this bill in the Senate. Call your senators this afternoon and demand that they vote to defend – not defund – NPR.

Earlier this week, the Free Press Action Fund joined with our allies at MoveOn.org  and CREDO Action to hand-deliver to Capitol Hill more than one million letters in support of restored funding.

But your outcry doesn't matter to political ideologues in Congress. They are not just trying to kill NPR, but also to take away the local control that makes stations like yours so great.

We depend on news from Morning Edition and All Things Considered. We get our media analysis from On the Media. Our Sundays are lightened by the corny comedy on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! The loss of these and other NPR programs would leave a gaping hole in our media. 

In their vitriol, these public radio haters have ignored one thing: A vast majority of Americans support public funding for NPR. Public radio is a vital news source for tens of millions of people who can no longer find in-depth reporting anywhere else on the airwaves.

The New York Times editorial board put it best yesterday: "This is not a serious bill... It is designed simply to send a punitive message to a news organization that conservatives have long considered a liberal bastion."

But even conservatives support public broadcasting. An independent public opinion poll from earlier this month found that 69 percent of the public, including more than half the Republican faithful, oppose attempts to gut federal funding for public media.

This purely political attack should never have made it this far through Congress. We need to put an end to this witch hunt in the Senate. Tell your senators that cutting funds for public radio makes no sense. Americans across the political spectrum support funding. Congress should, too.