Like the Media Research Center, WorldNetDaily also rooted for the defunding of public broadcasting. Bob Unruh cheered on the effort in Feb. 4 article:
Just as President Donald Trump’s cost-cutting campaign is reaching its stride, members of Congress are developing their own suggestions for saving taxpayers’ money, including from the tax-supported Public Broadcasting System and National Public Radio, which benefit by hundreds of millions of dollars.
In fact, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., the chair of the new Delivering on Government Efficiency subcommittee, has summoned NPR chief Katherine Maher and PBS chief Paula Kerger to answer questions.
Reports call the strategy a “direct challenge to what conservatives have long criticized as taxpayer-funded propaganda for the left.”
Unruh then threw in a couple of bogus examples of purported bias:
Joe Biden himself once openly bragged about threatening Ukraine with the loss of American support if they didn’t fire a prosecutor looking into a company that was paying Hunter Biden a million dollars a year to be on its board.
The publicly funded operations more recently claimed that Elon Musk, a key adviser to Trump and tasked with cutting government waste, fraud and abuse, gave a “fascist salute” at a rally.
As we documented when WND last pushed that narrative, much of the international community, including more than 100 members of the Ukrainian parliament, wanted Viktor Shokin fired, not just Biden, and he was fired in part because he was fired in part because he wasn’t investigating Burisma, the company in question,not because he was (in fact, Burisma did not want Shokin fired). And Musk was accused of giving a “fascist salute” because that’s exactly what it looked like, and Unruh did not dispute that assessment.
Robert Knight groused about public broadcasting in an April 1 column:
The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) is in the news again.
The iconic Sesame Street puppet Kermit the Frog will give the 2025 commencement address at the University of Maryland (UM).
Kermit’s appearance on May 21 will coincide with the 65thanniversary of the graduation of UM’s Jim Henson, who was awarded a degree in home economics in 1960. In a press release, “Kermit” said he will keep the address upbeat, even though, as he puts it, “It’s hard to be green.”
It’s also hard to defend half a billion dollars annually in taxpayer subsidies for a system that often serves as a megaphone for the radical left.
Knight didn’t explain what was “radical left” about a Muppet speaking at a college graduation.
Jerry Newcombe used talking points straight from the MRC to bash public broadcasting in his May 6 column:
The Media Research Center (MRC) – no fan of NPR and PBS – reports, “This media dinosaur [NPR] has recently hired a horde of new lobbyists who are now scurrying across Capitol Hill to justify its hold on $1.1 billion in taxpayer subsidies.”
Must we the taxpayers be forced to pay for speech with which we disagree? During the classic debate over federal funding of the arts around 35 years ago, I interviewed the late North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. He told me, it’s one thing to scribble naughty words on the public bathroom wall – but don’t make me have to provide you with the crayon to do it.
In an apparent attempt to distract from the fact that PBS and NPR are simply reporting facts, Newcombe went on a digression about “truth,” complete with references to Pontius Pilate and Jesus Christ, then moved onto the Founding Fathers:
The Founding Fathers believed in truth, in free speech and in robust debate. Freedom of speech and of the press are enshrined in our First Amendment. In his famous “Give me liberty or give me death” speech, founder Patrick Henry spoke of the importance of “the freedom of the debate,” noting, “It is only in this way that we can hope to arrive at truth, and fulfill the great responsibility which we hold to God and our country.”
But that didn’t mean the government had to pay for that debate – on either side.
The headline on Newcombe’s column referenced “State-funded media” — ironic, because WND is is effectively state media on behalf of Trump.