The Media Research Center’s Tim Graham followed up his whining about NPR suing to stop the Trump administration from defunding it by whining about PBS doing the same thing in a May 30 post:
On Friday, PBS followed NPR’s lead and sued President Trump over his executive order telling the Corporation for Public Broadcasting to stop funding PBS and NPR. PBS filed suit along side Lakeland PBS, which operates PBS stations in Bemidji and Brainerd, Minnesota.
In a statement, PBS proclaimed its “independence,” when it’s obvious they are dependent on federal funding. “After careful deliberation, PBS reached the conclusion that it was necessary to take legal action to safeguard public television’s editorial independence, and to protect the autonomy of PBS member stations.”
“Autonomy” and “editorial independence” are code words for “as liberal as we wanna be.”
The lawsuit argues: “The EO makes no attempt to hide the fact that it is cutting off the flow of funds to PBS because of the content of PBS programming and out of a desire to alter the content of speech. That is blatant viewpoint discrimination and an infringement of PBS and PBS Member Stations’ private editorial discretion.“
Here we go again – they want “private editorial expression” with public money.
Of course, “media research” is Graham and he MRC’s code words for “as right-wing as we wanna be.” He continued to whine:
PBS naturally tilts to the Democrats. Objecting to that is somehow an affront to their “independence.” They should be truly independent and go on without involuntary taxpayer support.
Graham would have no problem with funding public broadcasting if had a Fox News-esque tilt.
Graham cheered on Trump’s defunding efforts with a bunch of cherry-picked quote in a June 3 post:
Since the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 became law, PBS and NPR have ignored the law’s language about maintaining “strict adherence to objectivity and fairness” in programming. Instead, these networks have long been taxpayer-funded narrative factories for the Left.
Now that Congress is set to consider President Trump’s request to rescind funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, let’s make a little list of the worst hot takes coming from supposedly civil PBS and NPR since Donald Trump became a powerful force in politics in 2016.
These are selected quotes taken from many thousands of hours of NPR and PBS content over nine years, which cannot possibly be representative of the entirety of programming over that time. It just shows how desperate Graham and the MRC are to smear and silence any media voice that’s not reliably right-wing.
Later that day, Graham gushed that Trump was moving closer to achieving the MRC’s goal:
The Trump administration sent its rescission package to Capitol Hill today, asking Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in approved spending, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. A rescission occurs when a president proposes to cancel previously appropriated funds, but only with the approval of Congress. Essentially, it’s a way to undo a spending decision already made through the appropriations process.
Russ Vought, head of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, told Will Cain on Fox this afternoon that “We have chosen what we think are the easiest [cuts]…some of the worst examples you can come up with.” In an official statement, Vought said “These funds would be used to subsidize a public media system that is politically biased and an unnecessary expense to the taxpayer.” House Republicans are promising to take it up next week.
While the evidence of “public” broadcasting tilt is overwhelming, the liberal broadcasters will rely on the vaguely positive sound of their mission to win over enough moderate Republicans to keep their money (as usual).
[…]MRC vice president for external affairs Dan Schneider proclaimed “Congress must end the welfare payments for PBS and NPR. These propagandists have gotten away with the worst kind of bias and cultural corruption.”
Schneider has apparently never watched Fox News before if he thinks PBS and NPR are the only possible example of “propagandists” who “have gotten away with the worst kind of bias and cultural corruption.”
Graham rehashed his enthusiasm for destroying public broadcasting — and hints at concerns that Republicans might not be able to pull it off — in his June 4 podcast:
On Tuesday, The Trump administration sent its rescission package to Capitol Hill, asking Congress to claw back $9.4 billion in approved spending, including $1.1 billion for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. In their infinite pandering, Congress funded the CPB two years in advance of every other government agency, with the notion that “public” broadcasting needs to preserve its “independence” from government interference.
[…]In letters and emails to their financial backers, PBS and NPR stations are offering one-sided arguments on how they need taxpayer money. Melissa Bell, the CEO of WBEZ in Chicago, attacked Republicans hearings and FCC probes of NPR practices and broadcasts: “These are not symbolic gestures; they are strategic moves to undercut independent journalism and weaken important public-interest institutions across the country.”
They are always “essential” and “trusted” with their “independent” reporting….that reliably lines up with Democrat Party [sic] talking points. They aren’t “independent” in their politics and they’re not “independent” in their financing, since they are quite dependent on government money.
Again, Graham suggests that he would not be trying so hard to defund public broadcasting if it was a Fox News clone.