Sen. Tillis needs to pull the plug on public broadcasting

There was a time when public broadcasting served a unique role in American media. That time has long passed. Today, there is virtually nothing distinctive about NPR or PBS except one thing: they siphon off roughly half-a-billion each year in taxpayer subsidies to fund a messaging machine that leans unmistakably, and unapologetically, to the left.

US Sen. Thom Tillis may be the deciding vote on a bill that would end this taxpayer abuse. HR 4 would claw back $1.1 billion in funding over the next two years for PBS and NPR. This is funding that was provided at Joe Biden’s request, when he was still president. President Trump wants Congress to rescind that funding, and Tillis should be thrilled to join President Donald Trump in this effort.

Tillis has a long record of fighting for limited government, fiscal restraint, and transparent and responsible disaster relief, all of which directly conflict with NPR/PBS’s left-wing bias.

Let’s begin with the obvious: NPR and PBS do not meet their statutory requirement to provide “strict adherence to objectivity and balance” in their programming. The Media Research Center (MRC) has tracked the numbers: from January through June of this year alone, PBS reporters used the term “far right” 42 times more often than “far left,” an astonishing imbalance that even MSNBC couldn’t top.

PBS and NPR have become mouthpieces for the left, framing conservative efforts like those of Tillis as either fringe or dangerous. When Tillis calls for fiscal restraint, NPR calls it an attack on government services. When he champions judicial appointments rooted in constitutional originalism, PBS casts it as a “threat to democracy.” And when he advocates for disaster relief that cuts red tape and respects state leadership, these outlets respond by pushing centralized climate change agendas and big-government “solutions.”

Tillis, who has announced he will not seek reelection, can retire on a high note by supporting this historic measure to defund what amounts to a left-wing political action committee with a broadcast license. 

Defenders of this corporate welfare have resorted to a laundry list of false claims which collapse under the slightest scrutiny, including this one: Farmers need NPR for weather updates. This one is so outdated it’s insulting. The idea that American farmers, some of the most technologically savvy business people in the world, need taxpayer-funded radio to check the weather is laughable. They have cell phones, real-time radar, and weather apps, and they listen to talk radio, not NPR’s droning lectures on “environmental equity.”

Public broadcasters like to claim they operate the nation’s emergency alert system.
They don’t. That’s FEMA’s domain, and HR 4 doesn’t touch that system. Nor do public broadcasters have a monopoly on alerts. All broadcasters and wireless carriers are required to relay the same emergency messages. Every American with a phone, 98% of us, gets the alert, regardless of whether they’ve ever tuned into NPR or PBS.

Tillis may believe, as many in Congress do, the lie that NPR provides valuable local programming for his constituents. The truth is, on average, only 5.4% of NPR affiliate content is produced locally; the rest comes from liberal hubs like New York, Boston, and San Francisco. Local voices are nearly extinct. Meanwhile, Americans have more access to news than ever before: 96% regularly use the internet, and, for pennies on the dollar, Starlink can provide news to even the most remote communities. 

Finally, the idea that PBS is indispensable for children’s education is equally misleading. YouTube, streaming platforms, and parent-driven educational resources offer exponentially more, often better, options for kids than anything PBS provides. And parents can rest assured they won’t be surprised by content like PBS’s infamous “Drag Queen Story Hour.” Additionally, PBS doesn’t even hold the rights to Sesame Street anymore; it is on Netflix! 

So what are North Carolina taxpayers getting for their money? Mostly left-wing propaganda. 

A recent MRC study found PBS gave 88% positive coverage to the Democratic National Convention and 72% negative coverage of the Republican National Convention. NPR banned reporting on the Hunter Biden laptop story, calling it a “distraction.” They repeatedly cite Hamas propaganda, demonize Israel, and ban dissenting views on climate change.

Public broadcasting has made it clear: they are partisans, not journalists. And their agenda is clearly hostile to Republicans like Tillis, whose tax-reform plans, judicial standards, and efficient disaster-response strategies represent exactly the kind of views NPR and PBS seek to undermine.

It’s time for lawmakers to stop subsidizing this charade. Let NPR and PBS compete in the free market like everyone else. If their content is so indispensable, they’ll survive on donations and subscriptions. The hard-working taxpayers of North Carolina should no longer be forced to pay for their own vilification.

Congress should zero out taxpayer funding for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting — and finally end the charade that these networks are “public” in anything but name.

“Sen. Tillis needs to pull the plug on public broadcasting” was originally published on www.carolinajournal.com.