Once again, I hear the leeches at the local NPR affiliate groveling for more “donations” in order to feed their insatiable appetite for other people’s money. I’ve often wondered just how much of our hard-earned dollars the federal government sets aside each year for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
According to Current, a publication which bills itself as “News for People in Public Media ”“The Corporation for Public Broadcasting will receive $535 million in FY2025, an increase from the $525 million it will get in FY24. CPB's base appropriation is funded two years in advance of the annual federal budget process. The corporation asked for $565 million in March 2022.” It should not receive one public dime. Public broadcasting is receiving multi-million-dollar donations from large corporations, many of them with left-wing agendas, such as The Robert E. Woods Johnson Foundation, Carnegie Corporation of New York, Ford Foundation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, Google News Initiative, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to name a few.
According to Wikipedia, “The Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 requires the CPB to operate with a "strict adherence to objectivity and balance in all programs or series of programs of a controversial nature." It also requires it to regularly review national programming for objectivity and balance, and to report on "its efforts to address concerns about objectivity and balance." Nonsense. The content, and how they present it, belies the CPB’s mission statement on fairness and objectivity. The leftist political slant of many of the presenters is obvious.
As a frequent listener to public radio, I’ll admit that they have some decent programming, especially on weekends. My wife, Natasha, and I are fans of Garrison Keillor and even saw him perform live.
Most of NPR’s broadcasters would not last a week in the private sector, where they would have to contend daily with competitive pressures: vying for listenership, generating advertising dollars and ratings.
I am tired of having my tax dollars, however meager that amount may be, be used to fund the government-media complex. Despite the CPB’s promise to present all sides fairly, just a quick scan of any NPR station and one will find that claim at odds with reality.
When it comes to funding the CPB, both Parties are equally to blame. It’s one of only a few areas in which bipartisanship wins the day. Congressional republicans are all too willing to have the CPB continue to feed at the public trough.
One of my social media friends expressed her frustration thus: “These stupid libs want 1.5 MILLION dollars for their fund drive which starts Tuesday. They already got $654k in their damn lock box!!!”
And there’s the rub. Studies show that listeners to public radio have more education and higher incomes than the general public. So, they have the money. How much they choose to donate is their business, but why is the public forced, through their tax dollars, to finance ANY media, but especially government media.
When Donald Trump gets re-elected(again) I hope he turns off the public spigot to these bi-speckled, Subaru driving leftists, who spend their days snarkily maligning Number 45. Let them vie for revenue the same way those in commercial radio must. If their product is worth the investment, prospective sponsors will jump at the opportunity to advertise. If it’s not, then they won’t make it. In the free market the best survive and prosper, the less talented perish. But when government has its thumb on the scales for one side, we get a different outcome.