Keller: After chaotic hearing, DOGE may find cutting PBS and NPR funding tough
The opinions expressed below are Jon Keller's, not those of WBZ, CBS News or Paramount Global.
For most of its 54 years of existence, public broadcasting has been a target of conservatives who saw it as a political threat. The federal aid it receives is once again under fire on Capitol Hill.
And at a House committee hearing, NPR and PBS executives hoping to preserve their funding had to fend off charges of cultural indoctrination as well.
Accusations of bias and cultural indoctrination
President Donald Trump is a strong advocate for defunding public broadcasting. "The kind of money that's being wasted and it's a very biased view," he says.
But right-wing loathing for PBS was around long before Trump became president. President Richard Nixon feared it would be a platform for the left, and PBS helped bring him down with gavel-to-gavel coverage of the Watergate hearings.
Liberal bias remains a key part of the argument for pulling public funds away from PBS, fueled by moments of poor judgment like NPR CEO Katherine Maher's 2020 tweets calling Trump a "fascist" and a "deranged racist socipath."
"I regret those tweets," said Maher today. "I would not tweet them again today."
But these days, there's a new twist to the attack on public broadcasting. "It is brainwashing the American people and, more significantly, American children with un-American, anti-family, pro-crime fake news," said committee chair Rep. Marjoie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia). She cited an ill-advised cameo on a New York City kids' show by a drag queen during the pandemic.
Said South Boston Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-Massachusetts), the ranking Democrat on the committee: "Madame chair, if shame was still a thing, this hearing would be shameful."
Public broadcasting's legacy of top-shelf kids programming and journalism far ouweighs the occasional blunder, argued advocates like PBS CEO Paula Kerger:
"There's nothing more American than PBS," said Kerger.
And the GOP pitch left them open to ridicule as well. After one Republican used the word "communist" to describe PBS, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-California) held up a large photo of Elmo from Sesame Street in all his crimson glory and asked Kerger: "The American people want to know: is Elmo now, or has he ever been a member of the Communist Party of the United States, yes or no?"
"No," she replied.
"Now, are you sure Ms. Kerger, because he's obviously a red?"
"Well, he is a puppet, but no."
Will PBS and NPR funding get cut?
What are the chances the Republicans will succeed?
Things are so chaotic down in DC right now, it's hard to predict anything. The case for cutting some of their funding because the internet now reaches Americans who previously had to rely on public radio or TV could take hold; it's not without merit.
But the $535 million public broadcasting gets from the feds is a rounding error in the overall budget. And with polls showing the public approves of that funding by nearly a two-to-one margin, Elon Musk and the DOGE budget-cutters may find the going tougher than they thought.
