The Short, Hard Truth About “Public Broadcasting”

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the non-profit established via congressional corporate charter in 1967 signed by LBJ has announced that due to withdrawal of taxpayer funding, it will be shutting down in 2026. Leftists hardest hit.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting has been in the cross hairs of Republicans for decades. Conservative policy advocates, legislators and presidents argued persistently that the public shouldn’t be responsible for financing media they perceived as having a liberal bias. But repeated attempts to defund public broadcasters failed, until this year.

Congress voted last month to claw back more than $500 million of the organization’s annual funding in a narrow vote that played out along party lines. That forced the corporation into a cash crunch.

The Corporation for Public Broadcasting is among the first casualties of the claw back, which puts public radio and TV stations across the United States at risk of going dark.

There’s the usual claim, too, that rural areas are dependent on public broadcasting for their news and emergency alert systems.

One wonders about this concern from the portside about rural areas was when FEMA skipped homes in Florida who dared have pro-Trump lawnsigns. Or the Biden administration’s abandonment of East Palestine. But all those Bible-thumping, gun-clinging deplorables are certainly convenient ‘victims’ to parade when taxpayer funds are on the line, eh?

The handwringing and garment rending over the demise of public broadcasting is risible:

Without PBS, we would never have known Big Bird, Elmo, or Mr. Rogers, Julia Child, Helen Mirren’s Jane Tennison, David Suchet’s Poirot, or the phenomenon of Downton Abby (an experience every woman I know shared with her Mom). No searing, transformative Ken Burns documentaries 1) https://t.co/Klmeginw6M

— Lisa Glass (@LMplusG) August 2, 2025

Goodbye Nova, Frontline, PBS News Hour, Masterpiece Theater/Mystery, Sesame Street, This Old House, Austin City Limits, Antique Roadshow, Amanpour… https://t.co/lQtIT2DfmT

— mass ave curmudgeon (@mass_ave) August 2, 2025

Most of those shows being trotted out as examples are the ones created decades ago or are currently available to watch in more venues than “public broadcasting” station. Let’s recall that President Johnson’s signing of Public Broadcasting Act of 1967 was part of his Great Society power grab. While ostensibly done because “commerical” broadcasting of the time was thought of by The Swells as a vast wasteland where, if the general public was offered quality programming, that is where they would gravitate.

Maybe. The ‘vast wasteland’ speech was given in 1961 by Newton Minow, chairman of the FCC, who felt things like game shows and Westerns on tv were worse than just something fun indulged in by viewers. He felt it was a tv broadcaster’s duty and obligation to offer “quality programs” even if they were ratings losers.

Of course, that begs the question, “quality” as defined by whom?

I’m an old lady and I remember that television of almost 60 years ago was limited to three major broadcasters and a handful of local stations. And that was in the Los Angeles market where I lived. Maybe tossing some taxpayer dollars to PBS (it was UHF station 28 for me as a kid) may have made some sense as an “ad free” alternative. However, today, anyone can get 500 channels you’ll never watch via cable or, even if you cut the cord, enough offerings via streaming that you can curate your own viewer list without the dictation guidance of politicians in D.C.

And the requirement that Public Broadcasting be nonpartisan went right out the window years ago, if there was any serious effort to run it that way in the first place. In the last 10-30 years ago, they don’t even pretend anymore.

Quality programs will always find an audience. Nothing stops Netflix or Amazon or any other producer from producing Sesame Street, This Old House, or the next Kenneth Burns documentary. It is not the taxpayer’s duty or obligation to be forced to pay the bill for someone else’s taste in shows.

What was questionable in legislation in 1967 is unconscionable in 2025. One’s free speech is not a blank check on Other People’s money.

featured image, cropped, Adobe Stock standard license

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