“Bwaaahaha, perhaps you should have cut out the bias, bitches.”
—Citizen Free Press, on all the whining and breast-beating from public television and radio talent and execss over NPR and PBS finally losing taxpayer support.
Citizen Free Press is the successor to the Drudge Report as the go-to conservative news aggregator. It’s a bit too unprofessional for me most of the time, with links headlined “Nancy Pelosi should have shut her pie hole!” and such, but this time, its colloquialism hit the mark.
The arrogance of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been offensive for decades. It has been a hard left propaganda machine, the automatic foe of Republican Presidents and the reliable enabler of Democrats since anyone can remember. NPR’s Supreme Court commentator Nina Totenberg was a buddy of the late progressive SCOTUS Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, a clear conflict of interest, but she didn’t care and neither did NPR: after all, the idea was to bash the conservative decisions anyway. Ken Burns disgracefully turned his documentary on the Jews and the Holocaust into a Trump-bashing screed, and PBS just nodded its metaphorical head in agreement. There are too many examples of both networks spinning reality to support Woke goals and narratives to tote up.
But they didn’t care and they wouldn’t stop. They thought they had a permanent sinecure even though taking sides in the political wars was antithetical to their mission.Their apologists used the same arguments year after year—but….but…Think of “Sesame Street”! What about all those rural communities trapped in the 1960s?
PBS and NBR could have been ethical, could have played it straight, could have been scrupulously objective, fair and unbiased. They just didn’t want to, that’s all. And they were sure they could get away with it. Forever.
There could be great value to a genuine national broadcasting system in radio and TV, but the smug progressives who ended up with the levers of programing power were blinded by their own certitude, just as the have been in major universities, Hollywood, and other institutions. They had plenty of opportunities to reform, but refused. They have nobody to blame for losing their funding but themselves.
Ethics Alarms 
Just once, I would like someone to demand that arguments made for XYZ are backed up with some honest to goodness physical proof. Rural America has access to satellite technology in their farm equipment. To think they have no access to the Internet through a variety of methods is ludicrous. The notion that NPR provides them early warning when storms hit assumes that the only station that can be heard is NPR and if one can get PBS they can get a variety of other programming via television.
The same is true for the argument that minorities cannot get photo ID. All states offer free ID for those not wanting to or cannot drive. Do progressives think that those inclined to vote for their party are too stupid to get a photo ID? I am assuming that they would not have an issue with requiring photo ID if the people were inclined to vote for conservative candidates.
Yes, I want these people to be forced to deliver some of these people who would suffer immensely or be disenfranchised because they cannot find an alternative to government protection. Start using the tactic the CEO of PBS used by asking for specific examples of persons who they claim will be adversely affected.
Whether it is early warning for storms or photo ID I believe that the desired results could be achieved if we focused on eliminating the problem instead finding reasons to keep something that has significant costs in terms of dollars and integrity. We need to stop accepting their arguments without demanding proof and one or two studies from allied groups does not constitute proof. I want to see actual affected citizens before we commit real money.
Correction: CEO of NPR not PBS
The American public also looked the other way. There was never any real hue and cry for defunding NPR through the decades of my life where their transparent bias was not only undeniable but only facetiously denied. One more bit of validation to why “democracy” is not what the Founders wanted.
NPR could’ve been, and at one time actually was, an important voice and source of news. Their depth of reporting was often extraordinary and valuable to public discourse. But their decline into a megaphone for the Democrat party was neither gradual nor subtle, yet still their public funding survived.
I don’t like Trump, but what he has done here is in some ways as significant as securing the border. He has finally held NPR to account after they repeatedly thumbed their nose at successive Republican administrations with what can only be described as “Nya, nya, nya.” The Stupid Party (TM) was all to happy to let them do it, too. And make no mistake, without Trump’s leadership on this, the milquetoast “republicans” would’ve kept the money flowing to NPR’s coffers.
NPR has become what can only be described as a parasite, sucking on taxpayer money while effectively passing on disinformation under the imprimatur of fairness. Glad to send this tapeworm to the sanitaries.
Sadly, Glenn, I doubt the lack of federal funds will end npr and PBS. I bet the big lefty NGOs and foundations (aren’t they all?) will increase their donations to fill the breach and npr and PBS will continue in a slightly different form. Bill Gates or someone will come to their rescue.
That’s fine! If they have the audience to support them, I have no problem with either. I just don’t want the government paying for it.
Agreed, and I couldn’t care less. If private individuals want to fund this propaganda outfit, that is their First Amendment right.
You know what? Honestly, I do care. I think they’re corrosive and harmful. As well as personally annoying as hell. I’d rather the entire crew were banished to Cuba or Venezuela.
Or maybe Gaza!
Heh.
Well, maybe not banished. I wish they would just go there of their own volition where they would be more at home.