Who’s Colluding with Whom?

The PAC Perspective by Ted Flint

It would appear, based on recent revelations that the only two entities NOT colluding with Russia, were Donald Trump and Russia. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s recent bombshell (which those of us on the right already knew) that the Obama Administration actively interfered with the 2016 Presidential election has conservatives calling for the perpetrators to be criminally prosecuted. But according to nationally syndicated talk show host and attorney Clay Travis, based on the way federal law is written it is going to be very difficult to charge anyone and even tougher to get a conviction.

The players in this drama: former CIA Director James Brennan, Former DNI John Clapper, former FBI Director James Comey, Hillary Clinton, and of course, Barak Obama, are all culpable. The Clinton Campaign paid for the phony Steele dossier that Comey used as a pretext for spying on Trump. There was no collusion, no golden showers with prostitutes, no Vladimir Putin putting his thumb on the scales for Trump, it was all a lie. And the legacy media knew it and is duplicitous in covering up the greatest political scandal in U.S. history.

For a sitting president’s administration to actively spy on a candidate for the opposing party is something that happens in Third World countries, not in America. If there was any colluding, it was between a left-wing media blinded by its animus toward Donald Trump and the Obama Administration. Chalk up another victory for Number 47. He singlehandedly vanquished a left-wing media that fewer Americans trust to deliver unbiased news.

Big Bird May Have to Solo

It was a long time in coming but it looks as though the Corporation for Public Broadcasting has finally been cut off from the public trough. For decades, republicans and conservatives have used threats to end federal funding to public broadcasting as a talking point to curry favor with their constituencies but were never able to successfully get it done. Enter Donald Trump. Instead of paying it lip servicing, the President backed a recissions bill that passed the House and is being considered by the Senate, where the going may be a little tougher. The measure seeks to recoup $9.4 billion in federal funding which includes money for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The CPB receives about a half a billion annually from federal taxpayers, which it doles out to NPR, PBS and local public radio and TV stations.

NPR claims it receives about only 2% of its funding from Washington, while PBS gets roughly 15 % from the feds. Admittedly, my wife and I frequently listen to NPR and enjoy the programming. But I also appreciate the programming on Newsmax and Fox, but I am not forced to support them with my tax dollars. Plus, with the explosion of new media and the plethora of choices available to most Americans, why does the government have to, as Rich Lowry put it, “prop up a few select media sources.” It does not. If NPR and PBS are as vital as its supporters claim, they should have to compete for advertising dollars as private entities do.

Studies show that listeners to public radio, on average, 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.

Let us hope Donald Trump is able to shut off the public spigot to a media enterprise that caters to bi-speckled, Subaru driving leftists, who spend their days snarkily maligning Number 47. 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 is not, then they will not make it. In the free market the best survives and prospers, the less talented perish. But when government has its thumb on the scales for one side, we get “All Things Considered,” whether we want it or not.