Good Bye, NPR and PBS, or at least their public funding

 Don’t worry, woke leftists; Soros, Gates, Bloomberg et al will continue private funding for your beloved National Public Radio (NPR) and Public Broadcasting System (PBS). Don’t take those cyanide tablets quite yet.

*&*&*&*&

NPR and PBS have been tools of the Left for years.  Previous  Republican majorities have been too frightened of pushback to stop government funding of these operations.  Never should government fund any programming that aims to move people along the political spectrum. Actually it should fund no broadcasting at all.  There is a plethora of private networks available across the political spectrum.  Claims that revoking funding of NPR and PBS is an infringement of freedom of speech. Is contrary to the truth.  Government funding of opinions with which I do not agree restricts my freedom of speech by taxing me to pay for these opinions, i.e. paying for opinions with which I do not agree but have no avenue to rebut.  Attempting to silence privately funded networks: CNN, FOX etc IS infringement on the First Amendment.  These horrid leftists who shriek that ceasing funding of “public” radio is an infringement of the First Amendment are not ignorant; they are malicious. They know better and thus resort to fear-mongering as they have no viable constitutional argument. The woke/marxists speak freely and they have many venues.  They just can no longer count on the government paying for political programming..

The vile director of NPR testified to Congress that there is no slant in their programming and when shown evidence there is she repeated, several times, that there is no slant.  I heard recently through a source I cannot verify that for every one conservative guest there were six leftist guests.  I resent my tax dollars funding opinion with which I disagree and which I believe, if implemented, would harm me.  That previous Republicans lacked the backbone to stop this heinous expenditure of tax dollars is one reason I am now Libertarian though there are occasional Republicans for whom I will vote.  I did vote for Trump in 2016; did not vote for him in 2020 but did in 2024 when I came to understand that a Kamala Harris regime signaled the end of our Republic.

I do not understand the Democrats grasping at this straw. I am glad they did but literally do not understand it. I think the Democratic party is now self-destructive and were it in power, would destroy our Republic; but if I were a Democrat strategist, I would have said to Chuck Schumer (Senator, New York State) that - in their politically left best interests - to retain public funding of these operations, significant changes had to be made to programming and financial accountability. IF Schumer really believes that those poor  despicable rednecks(?) in rural areas (whom he despises) were no longer going to get the likes of tornado alerts, he would have been much wiser to propose the establishment of a perfectly unbiased(?) “board” to oversee the content and finances of these operations.  Now, fortunately he has nothing.  He and the democrats shot themselves in the foot. The Lemming followed Schumer to the end of NPR. Again, I really don’t understand that.  Pragmatism would have dictated he put his fear-mongering to the side and suggest/agree to serious changes in the content and funding of these two operations. Because he does not care about those redneck/fascists/right-wing-extremists in rural America, he lost nothing but the tool to move voters to the left. Because I believe he saw the best purpose of NPR and PBS as tools for the left, he would not have been interested in the assurance of unbiased news; thus he probably thinks he lost little in the end. IF those stations could not be a political tool they had little use.

But, let us say I were a democratic strategist, or a Republican friend of a democratic strategist, I would have advised Schumer, et al, to establish a board that had carte blanche authority to review the content of all broadcasts and to publicly account for all expenditures these operations made.   The board would have censor authority and would receive, log investigate and reply to complaints from citizens about lack of content neutrality. Again, such censorship and policing is NOT a violation of the First Amendment, CNN, MSNBC, FOX and OANN are free to opine nearly without limit.; Publicly funded programming will not be allowed that freedom. Your right to freedom of speech places no obligation on me to pay for it.

Were my suggestions to be implemented, every opinion, on either side would be allowed rebuttal, by a credible opponent, same time of day, no editing, no further rebuttal.  News would be just that, news; no inflammatory or suggestive wording.  A network I think is outstanding is Straight Arrow News (SAN) available on the Internet.  The lovers of NPR could have learned objectivity from SAN and put it into practice.  “NEWS” is a tornado warning.  “Opinion” is “Climate change deniers can be thanked for the tornado that is approaching.”

If Schumer and his fellow liberty haters did not want to use NPR as a political tool but as a major source of news, they lost that opportunity.  I believe a few Republicans MIGHT have voted differently had the Democrats elected to move NPR strictly to news and balanced opinion.

Again, NPR and  PBS will continue; the "elitist" and “rich” will fund those operations.  Happily, I won’t have to. I did not listen to those broadcasts anyway and live on Long Island (New York) so if a tornado is on it’s way, between CBS, NBC, FOX the NWS and phone alerts I will not go without warning and imagine those poor skinheads in rural America, whom Schumer loathes, will get the word as well.

As an aside, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), parent of The National Weather Service (NWS), should “enjoy” a product review. I caught an opinion article on the (NWS) website and complained about it.  I did not check later to see if it was removed.  Given the loathing and disrespect the Biden administration displayed toward dissidents; I trust NWS was not asked to remove the article. Trump probably would but I do not know how to draw it to his attention.

Bye, bye, NPR, you will take your place in history as a tool of the American left and no more. You democrats who voted against this rescission package either failed to resist “leadership” pressure or have no understanding of the First Amendment or of the core functions of government.  

I smile at your loss.