The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), which includes PBS and NPR, is looking at receiving federal funds in the tune of $535 million and another $60 million for “public media stations’ interconnection system” in Fiscal 2025.
With the DOGE commission looking at cutting waste, Elon Musk is targeting public broadcasting and views it as wasteful federal spending.
The Media Research Center (MRC) is leading the charge. It has now launched the “Defund PBS & NPR” campaign.
Tim Graham, Executive Editor for MRC NewsBusters, calls PBS & NPR “Yellow Journalism”. Graham says MRC has 20,000 pages of documented bias from PBS/NPR over the last 15 years.
“Taxpayers should never be forced to subsidize media companies in America. The arguments made 60 years ago to justify the creation of federally funded news outlets have become obsolete, just as NPR and PBS have revealed themselves to be nothing more than mouthpieces for a radical agenda,” said Graham.
Proponents of public broadcasting say this is nothing more than a revenge tour by republicans. But Graham says half a century ago, consumers had very few options on TV and radio, but now there are thousands of options today.
The partisan bias reflected in NPR and PBS “news” coverage is likewise completely indefensible. Their time is over. The time to protect taxpayers is now,” said MRC.
Graham lists a few reasons why it’s time to defund public broadcasting.
It’s a duplicative waste of taxpayer money.
It’s unnecessary in a sea of media choices.
Graham says the original rationale for “public broadcasting” was a scarcity of programming when most people only received three networks on their TV sets. This rationale had already evaporated 30 years ago, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich proposed zeroing out CPB. Even today, PBS and NPR still claim they have a mission to help “unserved and underserved communities and audiences.” Who is still “unserved”?
Audiences today have seemingly endless outlets for information – from broadcast to cable to streaming on the internet – with the list lengthening as technology continues to evolve. There are numerous places you can find a serious one-hour documentary beyond the legacy outlets – Acorn TV, Amazon Prime, Apple TV, Britbox, Disney Plus, Discovery Plus, Fubo TV, Google Play, HBO Max, Hulu, Netflix, Paramount Plus, Peacock, Philo, Pluto TV, Rumble, Shudder, Sling TV, Tubi, Vudu, and YouTube.
Where does “public” broadcasting end and “private” begin?” asked Graham.
“Congress should move aggressively to strip CPB funding and should no longer be qualified as noncommercial education stations (NCE stations), since they are neither non-commercial or educational,” said Graham.
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